Produced by Betsie Bush, ronnie sahlberg and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was made using scans of public domain material from the Children's Books Online - Rosetta Project) [Illustration: The balloons floated and filled the sky] ROOTABAGA STORIES BY CARL SANDBURG Author of "Slabs of the Sunburnt West," "Smoke and Steel," "Chicago Poems," "Cornhuskers" ILLUSTRATIONS AND DECORATIONS BY MAUD AND MISKA PETERSHAM [Illustration] NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY ---------------------------------------------------------------------- COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC. PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY RAHWAY, N J ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TO SPINK AND SKABOOTCH ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS 1. Three Stories About the Finding of the Zigzag Railroad, the Pigs with Bibs On, the Circus Clown Ovens, the Village of Liver-and-Onions, the Village of Cream Puffs. How They Broke Away to Go to the Rootabaga Country 3 How They Bring Back the Village of Cream Puffs When the Wind Blows It Away 19 How the Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village 29 2. Five Stories About the Potato Face Blind Man The Potato Face Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on His Gold Accordion 41 How the Potato Face Blind Man Enjoyed Himself on a Fine Spring Morning 45 Poker Face the Baboon and Hot Dog the Tiger 53 The Toboggan-to-the-Moon Dream of the Potato Face Blind Man 59 How Gimme the Ax Found Out About the Zigzag Railroad and Who Made It Zigzag 65 3. Three Stories About the Gold Buckskin Whincher The Story of Blixie Bimber and the Power of the Gold Buckskin Whincher 73 The Story of Jason Squiff and Why He Had a Popcorn Hat, Popcorn Mittens and Popcorn Shoes 79