Ch4-Potato Head Blues

CHAPTER FOUR Potato Head Blues. "Wat now?" Jack said. "We have to follow him," said Annie. "We can't let him out of our sight." Jack and Annie walked quickly after the mule cart. The hot brick road burned their feet. "Ow, ow, ow," they both whispered.

"So let's figure out—ow—what we're going to say to him," said Jack. "Simple," said Annie. "We'll tell him we'd like to work with him. And then while we're working, we'll start talking to him about music. And put him on the right path to becoming the King of Jazz." "Hmm," said Jack. It wasn't much of a plan, but he couldn't think of anything better. Up ahead, Dipper's mule cart stopped near the back of a candy shop. "Hey, Dipper!" yelled Annie. Dipper looked over his shoulder. He smiled. "What's going on? Y'all are sticking to me like glue," he said.

"Well, actually, we were wondering—" started Jack. "If we could work with you?" finished Annie. "Work with me?" said Dipper. "I'm just delivering coal." "Yeah, we know. We think it might be fun," said Annie. Dipper laughed. "Y'all are crazy," he said. "No, we're not. We just like to work," said Annie. "Yeah, yeah, we really do," said Jack. Dipper laughed again. "Okay. I reckon there's enough work to go around today," he said. "There's extra shovels and buckets in the cart."

"Cool. Just tell us what to do, Dipper," said Annie. "Fill your buckets with coal and toss each bucket load into the bin," said Dipper. He pointed to a large wooden box at the back of the small candy shop. "Twelve bucket loads should do it." "Got it," said Annie. Annie carefully set the magic trumpet on the ground near Dipper's cart. Jack left his cloth bag beside it. Dipper handed each of them a heavy shovel and a tin bucket from the back of the cart. Then all three of them started shoveling coal. Dipper whistled and worked quickly. But Jack and Annie had a hard time handling their heavy shovels. Whenever the shovels tipped to the side,

all the coal fell off. Finally they both just grabbed pieces of coal with their hands and tossed them into their buckets. The afternoon sun beat down on Jack's back as he worked. He was sweaty and short of breath. His hands were black from picking up the coal, and his clothes were covered with coal dust. This is a terrible job, he thought. He wondered how Dipper could be so cheerful.

"So, Dipper," said Annie, "do you like music?" Dipper's answer was drowned out as he dumped a load of coal into the bin. "What'd you say?" Jack called to Dipper.