g to eat or a
place to sleep, they put their hands on each other's shoulders and
sang the Mexico Joe song. In the Potato Bug Country they all said the
Mexico Joe song was wonderful.

One morning while they were waiting to take an express train on the
Early Ohio & Southwestern they sat near the roots of a big potato
plant under the big green leaves. And far above them they saw a dim
black cloud and they heard a shaking and a rustling and a spattering.
They did not know it was a man of the Village of Liver-and-Onions.
They did not know it was Mr. Sniggers putting paris green on the
potato plants.

A big drop of paris green spattered down and fell onto the heads and
shoulders of all three, Eeta Peeca Pie, Meeny Miney and Miney Mo.

Then what happened just happened. They got bigger and bigger--one,
two, three. And when they jumped up and ran out of the potato rows,
Mr. Sniggers thought they were boys playing tricks.

When they got home to their mothers and told all about the jug of
molasses breaking on the stone sidewalk under the slippery elm tree,
their mothers said it was careless. The boys said it was lucky because
it helped them get their secret ambitions.

And a secret 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."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

How Bimbo the Snip's Thumb Stuck to
His Nose When the Wind Changed

Once there was a boy in the Village of Liver-and-Onions whose name was
Bimbo the Snip. He forgot nearly everything his father and mother told
him to do and told him not to do.

One day his father, Bevo the Hike, came home and found Bimbo the Snip
sitting on the front steps with his thumb fastened to his nose and the
fingers wiggling.

"I can't take my thumb away," said Bimbo the Snip, "because when I put
my thumb to my nose and wiggled my fingers at the iceman the wind
changed. And just like mother always said, if the wind changed the
thumb would stay fastened to my nose and not come off."

Bevo the Hike took hold of the thumb and pulled. He tied a clothes
line rope around it and pulled. He pushed with his foot and heel
against it. And all the time the thumb stuck fast and the fingers
wiggled from the end of the nose of Bimbo the Snip.

Bevo the Hike sent for the ward alderman. The ward alderman sent for
the barn boss of the stree