Set in what is obviously the early twentieth-century Midwest, complete with hayrides, band concerts, and steeplejacks. But magic is still potent, and passion a kind of inexplicable spell. ' "The first man you meet with an X in his name you must fall head over heels in love with him," said the silent power in the gold buckskin whincher', and Blixie Blimber does, the traditional three times over.

Originally published in Rootabaga Stories. Appears in The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales.