t
other people straight in the face they used to say, "Meeny Miney looks
so sad-like I wonder if he'll get by."

Miney Mo was different. He wasn't sad-like and suspicious like Meeny
Miney. Nor was he full of wishes inside and freckles outside like Eeta
Peeca Pie. He was all mixed up inside with wishes and suspicions. So
he had a few freckles and a few suspicions on his face. When he looked
other people straight in the face they used to say, "I don't know
whether to laugh or cry."

So here we have 'em, three boys growing up with wishes, suspicions and
mixed-up wishes and suspicions. They all looked different from each
other. Each one, however, had a secret ambition. And all three had the
same secret ambition.

An ambition is a little creeper that creeps and creeps in your heart
night and day, singing a little song, "Come and find me, come and find
me."

The secret ambition in the heart of Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeney Miney, and
Miney Mo was an ambition to go railroading, to ride on railroad cars
night and day, year after year. The whistles and the wheels of
railroad trains were music to them.

Whenever the secret ambition crept in their hearts and made them too
sad, so sad it was hard to live and stand for it, they would all three
put their hands on each other's shoulder and sing the song of Joe. The
chorus was like this:

Joe, Joe, broke his toe,
On the way to Mexico.
Came back, broke his back,
Sliding on the railroad track.

One fine summer morning all three mothers of all three boys gave each
one a jug and said, "Go to the grocery and get a jug of molasses." All
three got to the grocery at the same time. And all three went out of
the door of the grocery together, each with a jug of molasses together
and each with his secret ambition creeping around in his heart, all
three together.

Two blocks from the grocery they stopped under a slippery elm tree.
Eeta Peeca Pie was stretching his neck looking straight up into the
slippery elm tree. He said it was always good for his freckles and it
helped his wishes to stand under a slippery elm and look up.

While he was looking up his left hand let go the jug handle of the jug
of molasses. And the jug went ka-flump, ka-flumpety-flump down on the
stone sidewalk, cracked to pieces and let the molasses go running out
over the sidewalk.

If you have never seen it, let me tell you molasses running out