idle among the hills and along the rivers of the west
Rootabaga Country.

She rode one horse white as snow, another horse white as new washed
sheep wool, and another white as silver. And she could not tell
because she did not know which of these three white horses she liked
best.

"Snow is beautiful enough for me any time," she said, "new washed
sheep wool, or silver out of a ribbon of the new moon, any or either
is white enough for me. I like the white manes, the white flanks, the
white noses, the white feet of all my ponies. I like the forelocks
hanging down between the white ears of all three--my ponies."

And living neighbor to the White Horse Girl in the same prairie
country, with the same black crows flying over their places, was the
Blue Wind Boy. All the years he grew up as a boy he liked to walk with
his feet in the dirt and the grass listening to the winds. Best of all
things for him was to put on strong shoes and go hiking among the
hills and along the rivers of the west Rootabaga Country, listening to
the winds.

There was a blue wind of day time, starting sometimes six o'clock on a
summer morning or eight o'clock on a winter morning. And there was a
night wind with blue of summer stars in summer and blue of winter
stars in winter. And there was yet another, a blue wind of the times
between night and day, a blue dawn and evening wind. All three of
these winds he liked so well he could not say which he liked best.

"The early morning wind is strong as the prairie and whatever I tell
it I know it believes and remembers," he said, "and the night wind
with the big dark curves of the night sky in it, the night wind gets
inside of me and understands all my secrets. And the blue wind of the
times between, in the dusk when it is neither night nor day, this is
the wind that asks me questions and tells me to wait and it will bring
me whatever I want."

Of course, it happened as it had to happen, the White Horse Girl and
the Blue Wind Boy met. She, straddling one of her white horses, and
he, wearing his strong hiking shoes in the dirt and the grass, it had
to happen they should meet among the hills and along the rivers of the
west Rootabaga Country where they lived neighbors.

And of course, she told him all about the snow white horse and the
horse white as new washed sheep wool and the horse white as a silver
ribbon of the new moon. And he told her all about the blue winds he
liked listening to, the early mor