gold buckskin whincher in the pocket. "Put it on--it's a glad rag," he
said, looking at the vest. "It's a lucky vest." So he put his right
arm in the right armhole and his left arm in the left armhole. And
there he was with his arms in the armholes of the old vest all fixed
out classified new.

Next morning Rags Habakuk kissed his wife g'by and his eighteen year
old girl g'by and his nineteen year old girl g'by. He kissed them just
like he always kissed them--in a hurry--and as he kissed each one he
said, "I will be back soon if not sooner and when I come back I will
return."

Yes, up the street went Rags Habakuk. And soon as he left home
something happened. Standing on his right shoulder was a blue rat and
standing on his left shoulder was a blue rat. The only way he knew
they were there was by looking at them.

There they were, close to his ears. He could feel the far edge of
their whiskers against his ears.

"This never happened to me before all the time I been picking rags,"
he said. "Two blue rats stand by my ears and never say anything even
if they know I am listening to anything they tell me."

So Rags Habakuk walked on two blocks, three blocks, four blocks,
squinting with his right eye slanting at the blue rat on his right
shoulder and squinting with his left eye slanting at the blue rat on
his left shoulder.

"If I stood on somebody's shoulder with my whiskers right up in
somebody's ear I would say something for somebody to listen to," he
muttered.

Of course, he did not understand it was the gold buckskin whincher and
the power working. Down in the pocket of the vest he had on, the gold
buckskin whincher power was saying, "Because you have two K's in your
name you must have two blue rats on your shoulders, one blue rat for
your right ear, one blue rat for your left ear."

It was good business. Never before did Rags Habakuk get so much old
rags.

"Come again--you and your lucky blue rats," people said to him. They
dug into their cellars and garrets and brought him bottles and bones
and copper and brass and old shoes and old clothes, coats, pants,
vests.

Every morning when he went up the street with the two blue rats on his
shoulders, blinking their eyes straight ahead and chewing their
whiskers so they sometimes tickled the ears of old Rags Habakuk,
sometimes women came running out on the front porch to look at him and
say, "Well, if he isn't a queer old mysterious ragman and if those
ain't quee