rew up looking
for luck.

She was sixteen years old and quite a girl, with her skirts down to
her shoe tops, when something happened. She was going to the
postoffice to see if there was a letter for her from Peter Potato
Blossom Wishes, her best chum, or a letter from Jimmy the Flea, her
best friend she kept steady company with.

Jimmy the Flea was a climber. He climbed skyscrapers and flagpoles and
smokestacks and was a famous steeplejack. Blixie Bimber liked him
because he was a steeplejack, a little, but more because he was a
whistler.

Every time Blixie said to Jimmy, "I got the blues--whistle the blues
out of me," Jimmy would just naturally whistle till the blues just
naturally went away from Blixie.

On the way to the postoffice, Blixie found a gold buckskin _whincher_.
There it lay in the middle of the sidewalk. How and why it came to be
there she never knew and nobody ever told her. "It's luck," she said
to herself as she picked it up quick.

And so--she took it home and fixed it on a little chain and wore it
around her neck.

She did not know and nobody ever told her a gold buckskin whincher is
different from just a plain common whincher. It has a _power_. And if
a thing has a power over you then you just naturally can't help
yourself.

So--around her neck fixed on a little chain Blixie Bimber wore the
gold buckskin whincher and never knew it had a power and all the time
the power was working.

"The first man you meet with an X in his name you must fall head over
heels in love with him," said the silent power in the gold buckskin
whincher.

And that was why Blixie Bimber stopped at the postoffice and went back
again asking the clerk at the postoffice window if he was sure there
wasn't a letter for her. The name of the clerk was Silas Baxby. For
six weeks he kept steady company with Blixie Bimber. They went to
dances, hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together.

All the time the power in the gold buckskin whincher was working. It
was hanging by a little chain around her neck and always working. It
was saying, "The next man you meet with two X's in his name you must
leave all and fall head over heels in love with him."

She met the high school principal. His name was Fritz Axenbax. Blixie
dropped her eyes before him and threw smiles at him. And for six weeks
he kept steady company with Blixie Bimber. They went to dances,
hayrack rides, picnics and high jinks together.

"Why do you go with hi