corn mittens and popcorn shoes."

The next morning he put on another hat, another pair of mittens and
another pair of shoes. And the minute he put them on they changed to
popcorn.

So he tried on all his hats, mittens and shoes. Always they changed to
popcorn the minute he had them on.

[Illustration: His hat was popcorn, his mittens popcorn and his
shoes popcorn]

He went downtown to the stores. He bought a new hat, mittens and
shoes. And the minute he had them on they changed to popcorn.

So he decided he would go to work and clean cisterns with his popcorn
hat, popcorn mittens and popcorn shoes on.

The people of the Village of Cream Puffs enjoyed watching him walk up
the street, going to clean cisterns. People five and six blocks away
could see him coming and going with his popcorn hat, popcorn mittens
and popcorn shoes.

When he was down in a cistern the children enjoyed looking down into
the cistern to see him work. When none of the slush and mud fell on
his hat and mittens he was easy to find. The light of the shining
popcorn lit up the whole inside of the cistern.

Sometimes, of course, the white popcorn got full of black slush and
black mud. And then when Jason Squiff came up and walked home he was
not quite so dazzling to look at.

It was a funny winter for Jason Squiff.

"It's a crime, a dirty crime," he said to himself. "Now I can never be
alone with my thoughts. Everybody looks at me when I go up the
street."

"If I meet a funeral even the pall bearers begin to laugh at my
popcorn hat. If I meet people going to a wedding they throw all the
rice at me as if I am a bride and a groom all together.

"The horses try to eat my hat wherever I go. Three hats I have fed to
horses this winter.

"And if I accidentally drop one of my mittens the chickens eat it."

Then Jason Squiff began to change. He became proud.

"I always wanted a white beautiful hat like this white popcorn hat,"
he said to himself. "And I always wanted white beautiful mittens and
white beautiful shoes like these white popcorn mittens and shoes."

When the boys yelled, "Snow man! yah-de-dah-de-dah, Snow man!" he just
waved his hand to them with an upward gesture of his arm to show he
was proud of how he looked.

"They all watch for me," he said to himself, "I am distinquished--am I
not?" he asked himself.

And he put his right hand into his left hand and shook hands with
himself and said, "You certainly look fixed up."

On