looking up at the six balloons,
she spoke the shortest answer of all, saying:

"Balloons are to make us look up. They help our necks."

The fifth little girl stood first on one foot, then another, bent her
head down to her knees and looked at her toes, then swinging straight
up and looking at the flying spotted yellow and red and green
balloons, she said:

"Balloons come from orchards. Look for trees where half is oranges and
half is orange balloons. Look for apple trees where half is red
pippins and half is red pippin balloons. Look for watermelons too. A
long green balloon with white and yellow belly stripes is a ghost. It
came from a watermelon said good-by."

The sixth girl, the last one, kicked the heel of her left foot with
the toe of her right foot, put her thumbs under her ears and wiggled
all her fingers, then stopped all her kicking and wiggling, and stood
looking up at her balloons all quiet because the wind had gone
down--and she murmured like she was thinking to herself:

"Balloons come from fire chasers. Every balloon has a fire chaser
chasing it. All the fire chasers are made terrible quick and when they
come they burn quick, so the balloon is made light so it can run away
terrible quick. Balloons slip away from fire. If they don't they can't
be balloons. Running away from fire keeps them light."

All the time he listened to the six girls the face of the Gray Man
kept getting more hopeful. His eyes lit up. Twice he smiled. And after
he said good-by and rode up the street, he lifted his head and face to
the sky and let loose a long ripple of laughs.

He kept looking back when he left the Village and the last thing he
saw was the six girls each with six balloons fastened to the six
braids of yellow hair hanging down their backs.

The sixth little girl kicked the heel of her left foot with the toe of
her right foot and said, "He is a nice man. I think he must be our
uncle. If he comes again we shall all ask him to tell us where he
thinks balloons come from."

And the other five girls all answered, "Yes," or "Yes, yes," or "Yes,
yes, yes," real fast like a balloon with a fire chaser after it.

[Illustration]

How Henry Hagglyhoagly Played the
Guitar with His Mittens On

Sometimes in January the sky comes down close if we walk on a country
road, and turn our faces up to look at the sky.

Sometimes on that kind of a January