mped onto the rails with
their zigzag legs and spit and twisted till they spit and twisted all
the rails and the ties and the spikes back into a zigzag like the
letter Z and the letter Z at the end of the alphabet.

"After that the zizzies went to breakfast. And they said to themselves
and to each other, the same as the shovelmen, the smooth engineers and
the steam hoist and operating engineers, 'This is it--we done it.'"

"So that is the how of the which--it was the zizzies," said Gimme the
Ax.

"Yes, it was the zizzies," said the Potato Face Blind Man. "That is
the story told to me."

"Who told it to you?"

"_Two little zizzies._ They came to me one cold winter night and slept
in my accordion where the music keeps it warm in winter. In the
morning I said, 'Good morning, zizzies, did you have a good sleep last
night and pleasant dreams?' And after they had breakfast they told me
the story. Both told it zigzag but it was the same kind of zigzag each
had together."

[Illustration]

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3. Three Stories About the
Gold Buckskin Whincher

_People_: Blixie Bimber
Peter Potato Blossom Wishes
Jimmie the Flea
Silas Baxby
Fritz Axenbax
James Sixbixdix
Jason Squiff, the Cistern Cleaner
Rags Habakuk, the Rag Man
Two Daughters of the Rag Man
Two Blue Rats
A Circus Man With Spot Cash
A Moving Picture Actor
A Taxicab Driver

[Illustration]

The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power
of the Gold Buckskin Whincher

Blixie Bimber grew up looking for luck. If she found a horseshoe she
took it home and put it on the wall of her room with a ribbon tied to
it. She would look at the moon through her fingers, under her arms,
over her right shoulder but never--never over her _left_ shoulder. She
listened and picked up everything anybody said about the ground hog
and whether the ground hog saw his shadow when he came out the second
of February.

If she dreamed of onions she knew the next day she would find a silver
spoon. If she dreamed of fishes she knew the next day she would meet a
strange man who would call her by her first name. She g