ick him out down
in the dark where he was cleaning the cistern.

One day Jason Squiff came to the Bimber house and knocked on the door.

"Did I understand," he said, speaking to Mrs. Bimber, Blixie Bimber's
mother, "do I understand you sent for me to clean the cistern in your
back yard?"

"You understand exactly such," said Mrs. Bimber, "and you are welcome
as the flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la-la."

"Then I will go to work and clean the cistern, tra-la-la," he
answered, speaking to Mrs. Bimber. "I'm the guy, tra-la-la," he said
further, running his excellent fingers through his greenish yellowish
hair which was shining brightly.

He began cleaning the cistern. Blixie Bimber came out in the back
yard. She looked down in the cistern. It was all dark. It looked like
nothing but all dark down there. By and by she saw something greenish
yellowish. She watched it. Soon she saw it was Jason Squiff's head and
hair. And then she knew the cistern was being cleaned and Jason Squiff
was on the job. So she sang tra-la-la and went back into the house and
told her mother Jason Squiff was on the job.

The last bucketful of slush and mud came at last for Jason Squiff. He
squinted at the bottom. Something was shining. He reached his fingers
down through the slush and mud and took out what was shining.

It was the gold buckskin whincher Blixie Bimber lost from the gold
chain around her neck the week before when she was looking down into
the cistern to see what she could see. It was exactly the same gold
buckskin whincher shining and glittering like a sign of happiness.

"It's luck," said Jason Squiff, wiping his fingers on his greenish
yellowish hair. Then he put the gold buckskin whincher in his vest
pocket and spoke to himself again, "It's luck."

A little after six o'clock that night Jason Squiff stepped into his
house and home and said hello to his wife and daughters. They all
began to laugh. Their laughter was a ticklish laughter.

"Something funny is happening," he said.

"And you are it," they all laughed at him again with ticklish
laughter.

Then they showed him. His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his
shoes popcorn. He didn't know the gold buckskin whincher had a power
and was working all the time. He didn't know the whincher in his vest
pocket was 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, pop