o the backyard garden and looked at the different necktie
poppies growing early in the summer. Then he picked one of the necktie
poppies to wear for a necktie scarf going downtown to the postoffice
and around looking around.

"It is a good speculation to look nice around looking around in a
necktie scarf," said Gimme the Ax. "It is a necktie with a picture
like whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in the moonshine."

So he went downtown. For the first time he saw the Potato Face Blind
Man playing an accordion on the corner next nearest the postoffice. He
asked the Potato Face to tell him why the railroad tracks run zigzag
in the Rootabaga Country.

"Long ago," said the Potato Face Blind Man, "long before the necktie
poppies began growing in the backyard, long before there was a necktie
scarf like yours with whiteface pony spots on a green frog swimming in
the moonshine, back in the old days when they laid the rails for the
railroad they laid the rails straight."

"Then the zizzies came. The zizzy is a bug. He runs zigzag on zigzag
legs, eats zigzag with zigzag teeth, and spits zigzag with a zigzag
tongue.

"Millions of zizzies came hizzing with little hizzers on their heads
and under their legs. They jumped on the rails with their zigzag legs,
and spit and twisted with their zigzag teeth and tongues till they
twisted the whole railroad and all the rails and tracks into a zigzag
railroad with zigzag rails for the trains, the passenger trains and
the freight trains, all to run zigzag on.

"Then the zizzies crept away into the fields where they sleep and
cover themselves with zigzag blankets on special zigzag beds.

"Next day came shovelmen with their shovels, smooth engineers with
smooth blue prints, and water boys with water pails and water dippers
for the shovelmen to drink after shoveling the railroad straight. And
I nearly forgot to say the steam and hoist operating engineers came
and began their steam hoist and operating to make the railroad
straight.

"They worked hard. They made the railroad straight again. They looked
at the job and said to themselves and to each other, 'This is it--we
done it.'

"Next morning the zizzies opened their zigzag eyes and looked over to
the railroad and the rails. When they saw the railroad all straight
again, and the rails and the ties and the spikes all straight again,
the zizzies didn't even eat breakfast that morning.

"They jumped out of their zigzag beds, ju