“So people said, ‘Isn’t it queer how buttons fly loose when Bozo fills his lungs with wind to go on speaking?’ After a while everybody called him Bozo the Button Buster.
“Now, you must understand, Bozo was different from other people. He had a string tied to him. It was a long string hanging down with a knot in the end. He used to say, ‘Sometimes I forget where I am; then I feel for the string tied to me, and I follow the string to where it is tied to me; then I know where I am again.’
“Sometimes when Bozo was speaking and a button busted loose, he would ask, ‘Was that a mouse? Was that a mouse?’ And sometimes he said to people, ‘I’ll talk with you—if you haven’t got a mouse in your pocket.’
“The last day Bozo ever came to the Village of Cream Puffs, he stood on the public square, and he was all covered with buttons, more buttons than ever before, and all the buttons fitting tight, and five, six buttons busting loose and flying into the air whenever he took his lungs full of wind to go on speaking.
“‘When the sky began to fall, who was it ran out and held up the sky?’ he sang out. ‘It was me, it was me ran out and held up the sky when the sky began to fall.
“‘When the blue came off the sky, where did they get the blue to put on the sky to make it blue again? It was me, it was me picked the bluebirds and the blue pigeons to get the blue to fix the sky.
“‘When it rains now, it rains umbrellas first, so everybody has an umbrella for the rain afterward. Who fixed that? I did—Bozo the Button Buster.
“‘Who took the rainbow off the sky and put it back again in a hurry? That was me.
“‘Who turned all the barns upside down and then put them right side up again? I did that.
“‘Who took the salt out of the sea and put it back again? Who took the fishes out of the sea and put them back again? That was me.
“‘Who started the catfish fighting the cats? Who made the slippery elms slippery? Who made the King of the Broken Bottles a wanderer, wandering over the world mumbling, “Easy, easy”? Who opened the windows of the stars and threw fishes, cats, and rabbits all over the frames of the sky? I did, I did, I did.’
“All the time Bozo kept on speaking, the buttons kept on busting because he had to stop so often to fill his lungs with new wind to go on speaking. The public square was filled with piles of buttons that kept busting off from Bozo the Button Buster that day.
“And at last a mouse came, a sneaking, slippery, quick little mouse. He ran with a flash to the string tied to Bozo, the long string hanging down with a knot in the end. He bit the knot and cut it loose. He slit the string with his teeth as Bozo cried, ‘Ai! Ai! Ai!’
“The last of all the buttons busted loose off Bozo. The clothes fell off. The people came up to see what was happening to Bozo. There was nothing in the clothes. The man inside the clothes was gone. All that was left was buttons and a few clothes.
“Since then whenever it rains umbrellas first so everybody has an umbrella for the rain afterward, or if the sky looks like it is falling, or if a barn turns upside down, or if the King of the Broken Bottles comes along mumbling, ‘Easy, easy,’ or if firetails, fishes, cats, and rabbits come on the sky in the night, or if a button busts loose and flies into somebody’s face, people remember Bozo the Button Buster.”
When the three girls started home, each one said to Hatrack the Horse, “It looks dark and lonesome on the prairie, but you put a yellow rose in my hair for luck—and I won’t be scared after I get home.”
Two Stories About Four Boys Who Had Different Dreams
PEOPLE:
Googler
Gaggler
Twins
The family doctor
The father of the twins
The mother of the twins
Pen wipers and pencil sharpeners
Smokestacks and monkey wrenches
Monkey faces on the monkey wrenches
Left-handed monkey wrenches
Potato Face Blind Man
Ax Me No Questions
Johnny the Wham
Joe the Wimp
Grasshoppers
Thousand dollar bills
Brass doors
Lizzie Lazarus
HOW GOOGLER AND GAGGLER, THE TWO CHRISTMAS BABIES, CAME HOME WITH MONKEY WRENCHES
1
TWO BABIES CAME one night in snowstorm weather, came to a tarpaper shack on a cinder patch next the railroad yards on the edge of the Village of Liver-and-Onions.
The family doctor came that night, came with a bird of a spizz car throwing a big spotlight of a headlight through the snow of the snowstorm on the prairie.
“Twins,” said the doctor. “Twins,” said the father and mother. And the wind as it shook the tar-paper shack and shook the doors and the padlocks on the doors of the tar-paper shack, the wind seemed to be howling softly, “Twins, twins.”
Six days and Christmas Eve came. The mother of the twins lit two candles, two little two-for-a-nickel candles in each little window. And the mother handed the father the twins and said, “Here are your Christmas presents.” The father took the two baby boys and laughed. “Twice times twice is twice.”
The two little two-for-a-nickel candles sputtered in each little window that Christmas Eve and at last sputtered and went out, leaving the prairies dark and lonesome. The father and the mother of the twins sat by the window, each one holding a baby.
Every once in a while they changed babies so as to hold a different twin. And every time they changed they laughed at each other. “Twice times twice is twice.”
One baby was called Googler, the other Gaggler. The two boys grew up, and hair came on their bald red heads. Their ears, wet behind, got dry. They learned how to pull on their stockings and shoes and tie their shoestrings. They learned at last how to take a handkerchief and hold it open and blow their noses.
Their father looked at them growing up and said, “I think you’ll make a couple of peanut-wagon men pouring hot butter into popcorn sacks.”
The family doctor saw the rashes and the itches and the measles and the whooping cough come along one year and another. He saw the husky Googler and the husky Gaggler throw off the rashes and the itches and the measles and the whooping cough. And the family doctor said, “They will go far and see much, and they will never be any good for sitting with the sitters and knitting with the knitters.” Googler and Gaggler grew up and turned handsprings going to school in short pants, whistling with school books under their arms. They went barefooted and got stickers in their hair and teased cats and killed snakes and climbed apple trees and threw clubs up walnut trees and chewed slippery ellum. They stubbed their toes and cut their feet on broken bottles and went swimming in brickyard ponds and came home with their backs sunburnt so the skin peeled off. And before they went to bed every night, they stood on their heads and turned flip-flops.
One morning early in spring the young frogs were shooting silver spears of little new songs up into the sky. Strips of fresh young grass were beginning to flick the hills and spot the prairie with flicks and spots of new green. On that morning, Googler and Gaggler went to school with fun and danger and dreams in their eyes.
They came home that day and told their mother, “There is a war between the pen wipers and the pencil sharpeners. Millions of pen wipers and millions of pencil sharpeners are marching against each other, marching and singing, ‘Hayfoot, strawfoot, bellyful o’ bean soup.’ The pen wipers and the pencil sharpeners, millions and millions, are marching with drums, drumming, ‘Ta rum, ta rum, ta rum turn turn.’ The pen wipers say, ‘No matter how many million ink spots it costs and no matter how many million pencil sharpeners we kill, we are going to kill and kill till the last of the pencil sharpeners is killed.’ The pencil sharpeners say, ‘No matter how many million shavings it costs, no matter how many million pen wipers we kill, we are going to kill and kill till the last of the pen wipers is killed.’”
The mother of Googler and Gaggler listened, her hands folded, her thumbs under
her chin, her eyes watching the fun and the danger and the dreams in the eyes of the two boys. And she said, “Me, oh, my—but those pen wipers and pencil sharpeners hate each other.” And she turned her eyes toward the flicks and spots of new green grass coming on the hills and the prairie, and she let her ears listen to the young frogs shooting silver spears of little songs up into the sky that day.
And she told her two boys, “Pick up your feet now and run. Go to the grass, go to the new green grass. Go to the young frogs and ask them why they are shooting songs up into the sky this early spring day. Pick up your feet now and run.”
2
At last Googler and Gaggler were big boys, big enough to pick the stickers out of each other’s hair, big enough to pick up their feet and run away from anybody who chased them.
One night they turned flip-flops and handsprings and climbed up on top of a peanut wagon where a man was pouring hot butter into popcorn sacks. They went to sleep on top of the wagon. Googler dreamed of teasing cats, killing snakes, climbing apple trees, and stealing apples. Gaggler dreamed of swimming in brickyard ponds and coming home with his back sunburnt so the skin peeled off.
They woke up with heavy gunnysacks in their arms. They climbed off the wagon and started home to their father and mother lugging the heavy gunnysacks on their backs. And they told their father and mother:
“We ran away to the Thimble Country where the people wear thimble hats, where the women wash dishes in thimble dishpans, where the men go to work with thimble shovels.
“We saw a war, the left-handed people against the right-handed. And the smokestacks did all the fighting. They all had monkey wrenches, and they tried to wrench each other to pieces. And they had monkey faces on the monkey wrenches—to scare each other.
“All the time they were fighting, the Thimble people sat looking on, the thimble women with thimble dishpans, the thimble men with thimble shovels. They waved handkerchiefs to each other, some left-hand handkerchiefs and some right-hand handkerchiefs. They sat looking till the smokestacks with their monkey wrenches wrenched each other all to pieces.”
Then Googler and Gaggler opened the heavy gunnysacks. “Here,” they said, “here is a left-handed monkey wrench; here is a right-handed monkey wrench. And here is a monkey wrench with a monkey face on the handle—to scare with.”
Now the father and mother of Googler and Gaggler wonder how they will end up. The family doctor keeps on saying, “They will go far and see much, but they will never sit with the sitters and knit with the knitters.” And sometimes when their father looks at them, he says what he said the Christmas Eve when the two-for-a-nickel candles stood two by two in the windows, “Twice times twice is twice.”
HOW JOHNNY THE WHAM SLEEPS IN MONEY ALL THE TIME AND JOE THE WIMP SHINES AND SEES THINGS
ONCE THE POTATO Face Blind Man began talking about arithmetic and geography, where numbers come from and why we add and subtract before we multiply, when the first fractions and decimal points were invented, who gave the rivers their names and why some rivers have short names slipping off the tongue easy as whistling and why other rivers have long names wearing the stub ends off lead pencils.
The girl, Ax Me No Questions, asked the old man if boys always stay in the home towns where they are born and grow up, or whether boys pack their packsacks and go away somewhere else after they grow up. This question started the old man telling about Johnny the Wham and Joe the Wimp and things he remembered about them.
“Johnny the Wham and Joe the Wimp are two boys who used to live here in the Village of Liver-and-Onions before they went away. They grew up here, carving their initials, J.W., on wishbones and peanuts and wheelbarrows. And if anybody found a wishbone or a peanut or a wheelbarrow with the initials J.W. carved on it, he didn’t know whether it was Johnny the Wham or Joe the Wimp.
“They met on summer days, put their hands in their pockets, and traded each other grasshoppers learning to say yes and no. One kick and a spit meant yes. Two kicks and a spit meant no. One two three, four five six of a kick and a spit meant the grasshopper was counting and learning numbers.
“They promised what they were going to do after they went away from the village. Johnny the Wham said, ‘I am going to sleep in money up to my knees with thousand dollar bills all over me for a blanket.’ Joe the Wimp said, ‘I am going to see things and shine, and I am going to shine and see things.’
“They went away. They did what they said. They went up into the grasshopper country near the Village of Eggs Over where the grasshoppers were eating the corn in the fields without counting how much. They stayed in those fields till those grasshoppers learned to say yes and no and learned to count. One kick and a spit meant yes. Two kicks and a spit meant no. One two three, four five six meant the grasshoppers were counting and learning numbers. The grasshoppers, after that, eating ears of corn in the fields were counting how many and how much.
“Today Johnny the Wham sleeps in a room full of money in the big bank in the Village of Eggs Over. The room where he sleeps is the room where they keep the thousand dollar bills. He walks in thousand dollar bills up to his knees at night before he goes to bed on the floor. A bundle of thousand dollar bills is his pillow. He covers himself, like a man in a haystack or a strawstack, with thousand dollar bills. The paper money is piled around him in armfuls and sticks up and stands out around him the same as hay or straw.
“And Lizzie Lazarus, who talked with him in the Village of Eggs Over last week, she says Johnny the Wham told her, ‘There is music in thousand dollar bills. Before I go to sleep at night and when I wake up in the morning, I listen to their music. They whisper and cry, they sing little oh-me, oh-my songs as they wriggle and rustle next to each other. A few with dirty faces, with torn ears, with patches and finger and thumb prints on their faces, they cry and whisper so it hurts to hear them. And often they shake all over, laughing.
“‘I heard one dirty thousand dollar bill say to another, spotted with patches and thumb prints, “They kiss us welcome when we come; they kiss us sweet good-by when we go.”
“‘They cry and whisper and laugh about things and special thingsand extra extra special things—pigeons, ponies, pigs, special pigeons, ponies, pigs, extra extra special pigeons, ponies, pigs—cats, pups, monkeys, big bags of cats, pups, monkeys, extra extra big bags of special cats, pups, monkeys—jewelry, ice cream, bananas, pie, hats, shoes, shirts, dustpans, rattraps, coffee cups, handkerchiefs, safety pins—diamonds, bottles, and big front doors with bells on. They cry and whisper and laugh about these things—and it never hurts unless the dirty thousand dollar bills with torn ears and patches on their faces say to each other, “They kiss us welcome when we come; they kiss us sweet good-by when we go.”’”
The old Potato Face sat saying nothing. He fooled a little with the accordion keys as if trying to make up a tune for the words, “They kiss us welcome when we come; they kiss us sweet good-by when we go.”
Ax Me No Questions looked at him with a soft look and said softly, “Now maybe you’ll tell about Joe the Wimp.” And he told her:
“Joe the Wimp shines the doors in front of the bank. The doors are brass, and Joe the Wimp stands with rags and ashes and chamois skin keeping the brass shining.
“‘The brass shines slick and shows everything on the street like a looking glass,’ he told Lizzie Lazarus last week. ‘If pigeons, ponies, pigs come past, or cats, pups, monkeys, or jewelry, ice cream, bananas, pie, hats, shoes, shirts, dustpans, rattraps, coffee cups, handkerchiefs, safety pins, or diamonds, bottles, and big front doors with bells on, Joe the Wimp sees them in the brass.
“‘I rub on the brass doors, and things begin to jump into my hands out of the shine of the brass. Faces, chimneys, elephants, yellow humming birds, and blue cornflowers, where I have seen grasshoppers sleeping two by two and two by two, they all come to the shine of the brass on the doors when I ask them to. If you shine brass hard, and wish as hard as the brass wishes, and keep on shining and wishing, then always th
ings come jumping into your hands out of the shine of the brass.’”
“So you see,” said the Potato Face Blind Man to Ax Me No Questions, “sometimes the promises boys make when they go away come true afterward.”
“They got what they asked for—now will they keep it or leave it?” said Ax Me.
“Only the grasshoppers can answer that,” was the old man’s reply.
“The grasshoppers are older. They know more about jumps. And especially grasshoppers that say yes and no and count one two three, four five six.”
And he sat saying nothing, fooling with the accordion keys as if trying to make up a tune for the words, “They kiss us welcome when we come; they kiss us sweet good-by when we go.”
Two Stories Told by the Potato Face Blind Man About Two Girls with Red Hearts
PEOPLE:
Blixie Bimber
The Potato Face Blind Man
Shoulder Straps
High High Over
Six Bits
Deep Red Roses
A clock
The Sandburg Treasury Page 12