“I always wanted a white beautiful hat like this white popcorn hat,” he said to himself. 87 “And I always wanted white beautiful mittens and white beautiful shoes like these white popcorn mittens and shoes.” 

87

When the boys yelled, “Snow man! yah-de-dah-de-dah, Snow man!” he just waved his hand to them with an upward gesture of his arm to show he was proud of how he looked. 

“They all watch for me,” he said to himself, “I am distinquished—am I not?” he asked himself. 

And he put his right hand into his left hand and shook hands with himself and said, “You certainly look fixed up.” 

One day he decided to throw away his vest. In the vest pocket was the gold buckskin whincher, with the power working, the power saying, “You have a letter Q in your name and because you have the pleasure and happiness of having a Q in your name you must have a popcorn hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes.” 88

88

Yes, he threw away the vest. He forgot all about the gold buckskin whincher being in the vest. 

He just handed the vest to a rag man. And the rag man put the vest with the gold buckskin whincher in a bag on his back and walked away. 

After that Jason Squiff was like other people. His hats would never change to popcorn nor his mittens to popcorn nor his shoes to popcorn. 

And when anybody looked at him down in a cistern cleaning the cistern or when anybody saw him walking along the street they knew him by his greenish yellowish hair which was always full of bright lights. 

And so—if you have a Q in your name, be careful if you ever come across a gold buckskin whincher. Remember different whinchers have different powers. 

89

  

The Story of Rags Habakuk, the TwoBlue Rats, and the Circus Man WhoCame with Spot Cash Money

Rags Habakuk was going home. His day’s work was done. The sun was down. Street lamps began shining. Burglars were starting on their night’s work. It was no time for an honest ragman to be knocking on people’s back doors, saying, “Any rags?” or else saying, “Any rags? any bottles? any bones?” or else saying “Any rags? any bottles? any 

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