Reminiscent of Carl Sandburg's beloved children's poetry, these stories were ad-libbed by the author for his children and then written in a notebook for later refinement, which never came to pass; so that they retain the atmosphere of spontaneity and lame humor often encountered in the last half hour before bedtime, as in this example: I would say the highlight of the whole evening came during the Amateur Hour when three of the most common backyard vegetables from our own neighborhood sang a lovely trio of their own devising, which means they wrote the words and music, taught the song to the accompanist birds, and practiced the dance part to perfection. They had made beautiful matching costumes out of each other, as will be evident when you see the lyric to the song they sang: Lettuce, Turnip and Pea... Lettuce, Turnip and Pea...