Page:Rootabaga Pigeons by Carl Sandburg.pdf/148

 stay longer next time. Then I came buzzing home because I was lonesome. And I am so, so glad to be home again.

The Potato Face looked up again and said, "It is a misty moisty evening in the moonshine. Now tell us about that blue-violet honeybee, Spanish Onions."

And Dippy the Wisp tied a slipknot in the pearl-color handkerchief around the yellow neck of Spanish Onions and said, "Spanish Onions came buzzing back home with her face dirty and scared and she told us, 'I flew and flew and I buzzed and buzzed till I came where I met the Queen of the Empty Hats. She took me by the foot and took me across the City of the Empty Hats, saying under her breath, "There is a screw loose somewhere, there is a leak in the tank." Fat rats, fat bats, fat cats, came along under empty hats and the Queen always said under her breath, "There is a screw loose somewhere, there is a leak in the tank." In the houses, on the street, riding