Rootabaga Pigeons. Carl Sandburg Sandburg

Egg

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      Many, Many Weddings in One Corner House

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      There was a corner house with corners every way it looked. And up in the corners were bugs with little bug houses, bug doors to open, bug windows to look out of.

      In the summer time if the evening was cool or in the winter time if the evening was warm, they played games—bugs-up, bugs-down, run-bugs-run, beans-bugs-beans.

      This corner house was the place the Rag ​Doll and the Broom Handle came to after their wedding. This was the same time those old people, Hammer and Nails, moved into the corner house with all the little Hammers and all the little Nails.

      So there they were, the young couple, the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle, and that old family, Hammer and Nails, and up in the corners among the eave troughs and the roof shingles, the bugs with little bug houses, bug doors to open, bug windows to look out of, and bug games—bugs-up, bugs-down, run-bugs-run, or beans-bugs-beans.

      Around the corner of the house every Saturday morning came the Hot Cookie Pan with a pan of hot cookies for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the rest of the week.

      The Ice Tongs came with ice, the Coal Bucket came with coal, the Potato Sack came with potatoes. And the Bushel Basket was always going or coming and saying under his breath, "

       Bushels, bushels, bushels

      ."

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      ​One day the bugs in the little bug houses opened the bug doors and looked out of the bug windows and said to each other, "They are washing their shirts and sewing on buttons—there is going to be a wedding."

      And the next day the bugs said, "They are going to have a wedding and a wedding breakfast for Jack Knife and Kindling Wood. They are asking everybody in the kitchen, the cellar, and the back yard, to come."

      The wedding day came. The people came. From all over the kitchen, the cellar, the back yard, they came. The Rag Doll and the Broom Handle were there. Hammer and Nails and all the little Hammers and all the little Nails were there. The Ice Tongs, the Coal Bucket, the Potato Sack, were all there—and the Bushel Basket going and coming and saying under his breath, "Bushels, bushels, bushels." And, of course, the Hot Cookie Pan was there hopping up and down with hot cookies.

      ​So Jack Knife and Kindling Wood began living in the corner house. A child came. They named her Splinters. And the Hot Cookie Pan and Splinters met and kissed each other and sat together in cozy corners close to each other.

      And the bugs high up in the corners in the little bug houses, they opened the bug doors, looked out of the bug windows and said, "They are washing their shirts and sewing on buttons, there is a wedding again—the Hot Cookie Pan and Splinters."

      And now they have many, many children, the Hot Cookie Pan and Splinters. Their children have gone all over the world and everybody knows them.

      "Whenever you find a splinter or a sliver or a shiny little shaving of wood in a hot cookie," the bugs in the little bug houses say, "whenever you find a splinter or a sliver or a shiny little shaving of wood in a hot cookie, it is the child of the Hot Cookie Pan and the girl ​named Splinters, the daughter of Jack Knife and Kindling Wood, who grew up and married the Hot Cookie Pan."

      And sometimes if a little bug asks a big bug a queer, quivvical, quizzical question hard to answer, the big bug opens a bug door, looks out of a bug window and says to the little bug, "If you don't believe what we tell you, go and ask Hammer and Nails or any of the little Hammers and Nails. Then run and listen to the Bushel Basket going and coming and saying under his breath, 'Bushels, bushels, bushels.'"

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      Shush Shush, the Big Buff Banty Hen Who Laid an Egg in the Postmaster's Hat

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      Shush Shush was a big buff banty hen. She lived in a coop. Sometimes she marched out of the coop and went away and laid eggs. But always she came back to the coop.

      And whenever she went to the front door and laid an egg in the door-bell, she rang the bell once for one egg, twice for ​two eggs, and a dozen rings for a dozen eggs.

      Once Shush Shush went into the house of the Sniggers family and laid an egg in the piano. Another time she climbed up in the clock and laid an egg in the clock. But always she came back to the coop.

      One summer morning Shush Shush marched out through the front gate, up to the next corner and the next, till she came to the postoffice. There she walked into the office of the postmaster and laid an egg in the postmaster's hat.

      The postmaster put on his hat, went to the hardware store and bought a keg of nails. He took off his hat and the egg dropped into the keg of nails.

      The hardware man picked up the egg, put it in his hat, and went out to speak to a policeman. He took off his hat, speaking to the policeman, and the egg dropped on the sidewalk.

      The policeman picked up the egg and put ​it in his police hat. The postmaster came past; the policeman took off his police hat and the egg dropped down on the sidewalk.

      The postmaster said, "I lost that egg, it is my egg," picked it up, put it in his postmaster's hat, and forgot all about having an egg in his hat.

      Then the postmaster, a long tall man, came to the door of the postoffice, a short small door. And the postmaster didn't stoop low, didn't bend under, so he bumped his hat and his head on the top of the doorway. And the egg broke and ran down over his face and neck.

      And long before that happened, Shush Shush was home in her coop, standing in the door saying, "It is a big day for me because I laid one of my big buff banty eggs in the postmaster's hat."

      There Shush Shush stays, living in a coop. Sometimes she marches out of the coop and goes away and lays eggs in pianos, clocks, ​hats. But she always comes back to the coop.

      And whenever she goes to the front door and lays an egg in the door-bell, she rings the bell once for one egg, twice for two eggs, and a dozen rings for a dozen eggs.

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      3.Five Stories About Hatrack the

      Horse, Six Pigeons, Three Wild

      Babylonian Baboons, Six Umbrellas,

      Bozo the Button Buster.

      People:Hatrack the Horse Peter Potato Blossom Wishes Rag Bag Mammy Gimmes Wiffle the Chick Chickamauga Chattanooga Chattahoochee Blue Mist Bubbles Wednesday Evening in the Twilight and the Gloaming Telegrams The Three Wild Babylonian Baboons Three Umbrellas The Night Policeman Six Umbrellas The Big Umbrella Straw Hats Dippy the Wisp Bozo the Button Buster A Mouse Deep Red Roses The Beans Are Burning Sweeter Than the Bees Humming

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      How Rag Bag Mammy Kept Her Secret While the Wind Blew Away the Village of Hat Pins

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      There was a horse-face man in the Village of Cream Puffs. People called him Hatrack the Horse.

      The skin stretched tight over his bones. Once a little girl said, "His eyes look like lightning bugs lighting up the summer night coming out of two little doors."

      When