r practice, away back early in the world before any real
animals came on their legs to eat and live and be here like the rest
of us.

"That man--see him now staggering along with the club over his
shoulder--see how his long arms come to his knees and sometimes his
hands drag below his feet. See how heavy the club on his shoulders
loads him down and drags him on. He is one of the oldest shadow men.
He was a mistake and they threw him away. He was made just for
practice.

"And that woman. See her now at the end of that procession across the
booming rollers on the east sky. See her the last of all, the end of
the procession. On the back of her neck a bundle. Sometimes the bundle
gets bigger. The woman staggers. Her legs get bigger and stronger. She
picks herself up and goes along shaking her head. She is the same as
the others. She is a shadow and she was made as a mistake. Early,
early in the beginnings of the world she was made, for practice.

"Listen, Flim the Goose. What I am telling you is a secret of the
fire-born. I do not know whether you understand. We have slept
together a night on the sand flats next to the booming rollers, under
the stub pines with the stars high over--and so I tell what the
fathers of the fire-born tell their sons."

And that day Fire the Goat and Flim the Goose moved along the sand
flat shore of the Big Lake of the Booming Rollers. It was a blue day,
with a fire-blue of the sun mixing itself in the air and the water.
Off to the north the booming rollers were blue sea-green. To the east
they were sometimes streak purple, sometimes changing bluebell
stripes. And to the south they were silver blue, sheet blue.

Where the shadow hippodrome marched on the east sky that morning was a
long line of blue-bird spots.

"Only the fire-born understand blue," said Fire the Goat to Flim the
Goose. And that night as the night before they slept on a sand flat.
And again Fire the Goat took off his horns and laid them under his
head while he slept and Flim the Goose took off his wings and laid
them under his head while he slept.

And twice in the night, Fire the Goat whispered in his sleep,
whispered to the stars, "Only the fire-born understand blue."

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8. Two Stories About Corn Fairies,
Blue Foxes, Flongboos and Happenings
That Happened in the
United States and Canada

_People_: Spink