"Lawsy!" exclaimed Gogo as he ran up to the shoe house one afternoon. "Dat old hen what has been settin' on de eggs up at de big house on de lane done has twinses. Yo' all can't tell one from de othah."

"That's fine," said the Cook, looking up from the frog ham he was slicing for dinner. "But don't you fellows invite any of them to come around here. Young chickens are all right in their place, but if they ever get to running around here we won't have any peace."

"That's right," put in the Cowboy. "We don't want them in our garden."

A number of the Teenie Weenies soon made friends with the chickens. They often visited the pen where the chickens lived and the Dunce did considerable chicken-back riding, but the little folks never invited the chickens to the Teenie Weenie village. However, one of the chickens discovered the tiny trail leading to the village and the little folks were soon aware of its visit.

It came very early in the morning while a few of the little people were still in bed. The Cook had put a pot of sassafras tea on the stove for breakfast, the Policeman was in the act of washing his face and Gogo was returning from the creek with an acorn of fresh water. The Chinaman was mixing a batch of rice cakes for his breakfast and the Turk had just split an armful of burned matches for the kitchen stove when a tremendous racket came from the direction of the quart fruit jar which is the Teenie Weenie greenhouse.

The Teenie Weenies came running from all directions to discover a young chicken stuck fast in the greenhouse door. It had popped its head through the tiny doorway in trying to gobble up the young plants that were growing in the jar and which were almost ready to transplant in the Teenie Weenie garden.

The chicken was trying frantically to get out, but its wings were through the door and they held it tightly. The chicken had kicked the steps off and the door hung by one hinge.

Finally it jerked the whole doorway out of the jar.

Then the Teenie Weenie men untangled it from the wreckage. The chicken was badly scared and made off for home in a hurry.

Someone had left the door open during the night and it turned out, as usual, to be the work of the careless Dunce. It took the men half a day to repair the damage, and they took pains to make the door chicken-proof. However, it is hoped that no more young chickens will visit the village until they are old enough to respect property rights.

The Teenie Weenies hadn't seen Ginky since the Doctor had set the broken bones in his tail. He had received the injury during his capture after trying to steal a frog ham from the little folks. He was locked up in the fruit jar which the Teenie Weenies use for a jail and when he had served his sentence the little people had their usual battle to get the mouse out.

It always takes a terrible struggle to get Ginky out of jail, for he says it is so homelike and he's quite sentimental about it. The Teenie Weenies were mighty glad he had kept away from the village, for it gave them a little peace. But one day he showed up with a determination to get back in jail.

Several of the Teenie Weenie men were watching the Old Soldier, who was making a water container for the Chinaman out of a pecan shell. They were gathered outside the coffee can which the Teenie Weenies use for a workshop when Ginky arrived and began trying to argue himself back into jail.

"I'm entitled to damages," Ginky said as he pointed to his injured tail. "You folks broke this tail and it has given me a lot of trouble. I claim damages."

"It was your own fault," said the General. "If you hadn't been trying to steal a ham you wouldn't have had a broken tail."

"I wasn't stealin' your ham!" shouted Ginky. "I was just going to take one."

"What's the difference between stealing and taking?" asked the General.

"Taking means that you only take what you need," answered Ginky, "but stealing - that means that you take more than you need."

"Suppose you happen to need more than the other chap has?" argued the General.

"You take it," answered Ginky. "That's his fault for not having more than he needs."

"What," asked the General, "do you consider proper damages for the injury to your tail?"

"One year in jail, three meals a day and doughnuts and clover seed on Sunday," announced Ginky.

When the General refused Ginky's demands the mouse flew into a rage and he said a lot of nasty things.

"Get out of here," yelled the Dunce from the workshop window, "or I'll tell everyone in the neighborhood what a stinker you are!"

"That won't do you any good; everybody already knows it," said Ginky, and he went off muttering threats over his shoulder.

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There is a lot of work to be done around the Teenie Weenie village in the Springtime. Besides Spring house cleaning, the Teenie Weenie garden has to be planted and old, dead leaves and twigs that fall from the trees during the Winter have to be dragged off and burned.

All this work puts the Dunce in a bad temper, for in the Spring fishing is good and the Dunce would almost rather fish than eat. The Dunce grumbled a great deal over the work, but he did his fair share and so the General gave him an afternoon off to go fishing.

Taking his hook and line the Dunce set off for the creek right after lunchtime. He caught a couple of mosquitoes for bait, cut a pole from a bush and soon began dropping his hook into the water.

He fished for a long time and tried many places along the creek, but he didn't get a single nibble. Finally he climbed onto a rock and suddenly hooked a minnow. It was a big one, too, for it jerked hard on the line.

"I'll have to play it out before I can land it," thought the Dunce. He played the fish for some time and just as he began bringing it to the top of the water a kingfisher flew down and perched on a tree limb that extended out over the creek from the opposite shore.

Kingfishers are great fishermen, as the Dunce very well knew.

The moment the minnow appeared at the top of the water the bird would grab it and so the Dunce was forced to keep the fish down in deep water.

"Get out of here, you old thief!" screamed the Dunce. "This is my fish. Go get your own fish."

The Dunce yelled at the top of his voice for help, but he was too far from the Teenie Weenie village to be heard, and after a while it began to get dark.

It is most unusual for the Dunce to miss a meal and when he did not appear for supper several of the Teenie Weenie men went in search of him. They found him hanging onto his fishing pole and the kingfisher still sat patiently waiting for the minnow to appear.

"You'll have to hang onto that fish until this bird goes away," panted the Policeman, who was one of the searchers. "And it won't go off until it gets dark."

It was almost night before the bird flew off and then the little men pulled the minnow out of the creek. It was a huge one and next day the Teenie Weenies had a fine fish dinner.

One thing after another has kept the Teenie Weenies so busy the little people have hardly had time to eat or sleep lately. Right after house cleaning the Teenie Weenies' garden had to be put in shape for planting. A couple of mice pulled the tiny plow, but a good deal of spading and raking had to be done by hand, and that kept the little men hard at work. Right on top of all that the village ran out of candles.

The Teenie Weenies do not have electric lights. They do have a few cherry seed oil-burning lamps, but oil is hard to get and so the village depends mostly on candles for its light. Their tiny candles are made from old pieces of large candles the big folks have thrown away.

These stubs are cut up into small pieces, melted in a big pot which was formerly the metal top of a catsup bottle, and then poured into Teenie Weenie molds. The molds are made out of hollow reeds which the Old Soldier with a wooden leg has cleverly set into a handy frame. A bit of thin string, or wick, is fixed through the center of each reed, melted candle is then poured into each reed and when the hot wax has cooled Teenie Weenie candles come out of the molds.

The little folks had several stubs of big candles on hand and some of the men began making Teenie Weenie candles. They dragged the big stub to a spot back of the Teenie Weenie kitchen, built a fire under the candle pot and melted the pieces the Cowboy cut off with a Teenie Weenie ax. The Old Soldier watched the pot while the Sailor filled the molds. Gogo held the stub steady while the Cowboy hacked off pieces which the Dunce gathered up and put into the pot for melting.

All the little men enjoyed the work but the Dunce, who had his foolish mind set on going fishing. There may have been another reason, too. That was an attack of Spring fever, which at this season seems to affect a good many people, including Teenie Weenies.

"All right," said the General. "If you won't help you'll have to go to bed in the dark. No work, no candles for you."

That set the Dunce to work, for, big as he is, he for some strange reason dislikes to go to bed in the dark.

The little men filled the mold six times and that made 84 Teenie Weenie candles. That will supply the Teenie Weenies with light for some time and the Dunce won't have to go to bed in the dark.

It is so small that one would think
It could be cleaned in just a wink!
But there’s a lot of work to do
When cleaning house within a shoe.
From the book of Whimsey Whims

The dreadful day was drawing near. The Teenie Weenie men watched the Lady of Fashion for signs of the annual Teenie Weenie house cleaning. They all hated the confusion that followed in the wake of soap suds and Teenie Weenie women.

They knew the worst when the women collected a thimbleful of soap and cut many pieces from a man's old handkerchief into cleaning cloths about the size of postage stamps. The old shoe in which the little people live was kept spotlessly clean at all times and the Teenie Weenie men couldn't understand the necessity of an annual Spring cleaning.

"It's just one of those funny things about women," the Turk remarked.

"We will be eating our meals on the back porch for two days," complained the Policeman, who is mighty fond of his regular meals. "There's absolutely no need of all this extra cleaning."

"Yes, the house is always clean and I suppose it really doesn't need the extra cleaning," answered the General, "but it gives the women a lot of pleasure, and so I suppose we must put up with it."

"I don't get any pleasure out of beatin' rugs," growled the Dunce, who took out his dislike of the task by generally giving the rugs a beating that easily earned him the title of Teenie Weenie rug-beating champion.

When the women really started cleaning house they kept the men so busy they hadn't even time to growl. Every last Teenie Weenie man was put to work. Even the Policeman had to help and the General took down pictures and helped carry out the heavy pieces of Teenie Weenie furniture. Curtains came down, rugs were hung out for beating, and every mattress and pillow was put out to lie in the sunshine. Skippy, the chipmunk, was hitched to the Teenie Weenie cart and nearly a teacup of water had to be hauled from the creek, for it takes a lot of water to clean a shoehouse. All the walls, the ceiling and floors were thoroughly scrubbed and considerable washing was done outside, too.

"Now," said the Lady of Fashion, as she sank into a Teenie Weenie chair after everything had been cleaned and put back in place, "isn't it lovely to be nice and clean?"

"Yes," answered the Policeman solemnly. "It will be lovely until it has to be done all over again next year."

The Teenie Weenies use mighty little machine oil. A quarter of a thimbleful will last the little people nearly the whole year. The Old Soldier with a wooden leg is very particular about having all Teenie Weenie tools coated with oil when they are not in use so they will not rust, and a drop now and then is used for Teenie Weenie drills and for sharpening fine edged Teenie Weenie tools.

The Teenie Weenie cart has to be oiled quite often and that takes considerable oil, for the lead pencil, which is the cart axle, needs greasing to keep the wooden wheels from squeaking. The cart is hard to pull when the axle needs oil and the mice who are used to pull the cart complain bitterly when that happens. The cart began to squeak lately and the mice positively refused to pull it until it was oiled, but the Teenie Weenies hadn't a drop of oil in the village.

Some of the men went to the lane that passes near the village hoping to find a few drops of oil that had dropped from some parked auto, but the lane is not paved and what little oil had dripped from the cars had soaked into the ground.

One morning the Turk announced that he was going over to Uncle Jimmy's shop and search for some oil there. Uncle Jimmy's shop stands on the lane not far from the Teenie Weenie village and, as it was a nice day, most of the little folks agreed to go along for the walk. When they arrived at the shop they found that Uncle Jimmy had gone away and they quickly crawled through the crack under the door.

The only oil they found was in a big oil can which was much too heavy for the little folks to handle.

"If we had a ladder we could get oil out of the can with a broom straw," suggested the Turk. "From the top of the ladder we could push the straw down into the oil and then pull it out and scrape off the oil that stuck to it into the bucket."

The Cowboy and the Turk ran back to the village for the longest Teenie Weenie ladder while several other Teenie Weenies pulled a long straw from Uncle Jimmy's broom. The Sailor tied a bit of thread around the bottom of the straw so the oil would not all drip off when it was pulled out of the can. When the ladder arrived the Cook climbed up and soon began drawing the oil out of the can. He had to push the straw down into the can a great many times in order to get enough oil to fill the cherry seed bucket they had brought along.

It was a lot of work for so little oil, but all the Teenie Weenies had a pleasant time.

The Teenie Weenies were terribly disappointed and the Lady of Fashion was on the verge of tears. It was plain to all the little people that there would be no Easter party this year. Hens' eggs were very high priced and the hens were so independent they were positively nasty. They cackled right in the General's face when he offered 70 grains of corn, 8 grasshoppers (the grasshoppers to be paid in season) and 18 grains of wheat for one egg. That was all the Teenie Weenies could afford to pay, and since no hen in the neighborhood of the Teenie Weenie village would lay an egg for that price, the little folk had to give up the idea of an Easter party. The yearly Teenie Weenie Easter party was one of the big events of the whole neighborhood near the village. The little people always bought a hen's egg, boiled it whole and invited all their small animal and bird friends to help eat it. The Teenie Weenie Cook announced that he had a little dried egg left, but Easter wouldn't be Easter without a fresh egg for the feast.

The Chinaman decided he might be able to do something about getting an egg. The little chap speaks a number of fowl languages and he pleaded with the hens to sell the Teenie Weenies an egg at a reasonable price, but the haughty creatures merely shrugged their wings and walked away. The Chinaman even asked a duck who had always been friendly, but the duck was in the midst of a bilious attack and couldn't think of laying an egg. Finally, the Chinaman decided to ask the birds for an egg.

"Half a loaf is better than none," he argued to himself. "We can't have a party but a bird's egg will be enough for the Teenie Weenies."

The Chinaman speaks robinese perfectly, and he argued a robin into laying an egg for two fine fat worms. All the little folk were overjoyed with the bargain and they brought out their tiny picks and shovels and went to work digging for worms. They chose a spot back of the Teenie Weenie workshop and after considerable digging they exposed a worm. The robin caught the worm in its beak and slowly and skillfully pulled it out of the ground, thereby saving the Teenie Weenies considerable digging. It didn't take long to unearth another worm and then the robin promptly retired behind the town hall and laid an egg.

The Cook carried if to the Teenie Weenie kitchen and on Easter it was cooked and served to the little people, who all say that robin eggs are almost as good as chicken eggs.

There had been considerable discussion about mouseback riding among several of the Teenie Weenies. The Dunce was mainly responsible for most of the talk, for he had unexpectedly found a piece of cheese and cheese can easily be converted into mouseback rides. The Dunce had been spending his cheese on mouseback riding and he now considered himself a champion mouseback rider. He boasted a great deal and that brought on long and heated arguments among various Teenie Weenies. The Teenie Weenie Cowboy is a fine mouseman, but he never entered into the arguments, although the Dunce said some rather slighting things about his riding. The Dunce boasted so much the Cowboy finally agreed to a mouseback race. Two very fast mice, who lived in the cellar of one of the big houses near the Teenie Weenie village, were chosen for mounts by the two little mousemen and arrangements were made for the race.

The race was to be held in the cellar where the mice lived. One morning the Dunce and the Cowboy, carrying their tiny mouse saddles and followed by a number of the Teenie Weenies, went to the cellar to hold the race. On his stout little shoulders, the Turk carried a huge piece of cheese nearly as big as an acorn. This was to be given as the prize to the mouse that won the race.

A course was laid out around the cellar and over an old scrubbing brush that lay on the floor near some bottles. The mice seemed satisfied after sniffing the cheese and they allowed the Dunce and the Cowboy to put on the saddles and bridles. The riders were to race three times around the course and the first mouse to jump the scrubbing brush for the third time was to be the winner. Each mouse was confident that he would win the cheese.

When the riders were ready the Cook gave a signal and the mice leaped off around the course. The first two times around, the mice leaped the scrubbing brush almost together, but on the last jump the Dunce's mouse cleared the brush first by half a tail's length and he was declared the winner.

The Dunce boasted constantly after the race, but all that stopped in a few days when a mouse he was riding ran away with him. The Dunce was thrown off the mouse's back and considerably banged up. He has been rather meek since then and now there is no more boasting about mousemanship, because the Cowboy is too modest to go around telling everybody that he is the champion rider in the Teenie Weenie village.

Quite a while ago the Teenie Weenies found a small gold wrist watch in the lane that runs near the Teenie Weenie village. They tried to find the owner, but even with the help of Tilly Titter the English sparrow, the respectable mice and Skippy, the chipmunk, they never could find who owned the watch. The Teenie Weenies kept the watch in their workshop and there it lay waiting for its owner to claim it.

The Teenie Weenies have little use for clocks. In fact, they do not have clocks and watches, for they are able to tell the time of day or night by the sun and various other signs. The Teenie Weenie Cook says he doesn't need a clock to tell him when to cook the Teenie Weenie meals because the Dunce's appetite is as good as any clock made. However, some of the little people thought it would be nice to use the watch for a clock in the Teenie Weenie shoe house.

"A clock will just make a lot more work," argued the Old Soldier with a wooden leg. "We'll have to wind it every night."

"But if will be so nice to hear it tick," put in The Lady of Fashion. "A clock has such a cozy sound."

"Yeah," said the Old Soldier. "You'll soon get tired of the ticking. If will make such a noise no one will be able to sleep at night and everybody will be grumpy all the time."

"Well, can't we try it?" pleaded the Lady of Fashion. "I think it would be real fashionable to have a gold clock hung over the fireplace in the living room."

"Okay," answered the Old Soldier. "I'll put it up and we can give it a trial.

The Old Soldier made some special hooks to hold the watch in place on the Teenie Weenie mantel. When the hooks were ready the Cook and the Sailor carried the watch into the shoe house and it was bolted in place over the mantel just as the Lady of Fashion wanted it.

The ticking watch did make a lot of noise. It could be heard way out in the kitchen and some of the little folk had to cover up their tiny heads with their bedclothes so the ticking wouldn't keep them awake. The men soon grew tired of winding the watch, for it had to be taken down each night and wound with a Teenie Weenie stillson wrench. After a week of the watch, the Teenie Weenies decided they could get along without it and it was carried back to the workshop, where it still lies near a scrap pile of bobby pins, paper clips and broken darning needles.

Ginky was never happier than when he had been locked up in the Teenie Weenie jail. There the lazy mouse could sleep day and night, and as long as he was locked up, the Teenie Weenies had to feed him. He had been handled rather roughly when he tried to steal a frog ham out of the Teenie Weenie smokehouse. Gogo, who had caught the thieving mouse, had given him a sound thrashing. When Ginky had awakened the next morning in the fruit jar which the Teenie Weenies use for a jail, he complained of pains in his tail.

The Teenie Weenie Doctor visited the jail with his tiny medicine case and he found, on examination, that the mouse had several fractured bones in his tail. The Doctor set the bones and encased the injured tail in a cast.

"He'll have to be quiet for a couple of weeks," the Doctor said, "and he must be given better food than the regular prison ration, too."

That suited Ginky because, being fond of good food, he didn't like the regular Teenie Weenie daily prison ration of two grains of dried corn. Even though Ginky had been extremely troublesome to the Teenie Weenies, the little folk felt sorry for the injured mouse and they supplied him with a nice soft bed and three full meals every day. The Teenie Weenie Cook baked lima beans for Ginky, gave him baked raisins stuffed with butternut meats and often sent an acorn shell basket of fried doughnuts over to the jail.

Ginky was delighted with his prison life and he confided to the Policeman that he would recommend the Teenie Weenie jail to all his mouse friends. However, even with all the good food, and in spite of the easy life he was living, Ginky grew restless and asked to be let out of jail. The Doctor agreed that a little exercise might be helpful, so the mouse was let out for walks occasionally.

Walking around wasn't as pleasant as Ginky had expected, for it was rather difficult to get about with the heavy cast on his tail dragging along behind him. Finally, Gogo had a bright idea. By sawing off pieces from a lead pencil, punching out the lead and using the pieces of pencil for wheels, he built a little trailer for Ginky's tail. The cast was lashed to the trailer and Ginky was able to walk with ease.

Ginky was soon well enough to be sent away, but the mouse was quite contented with his easy life. Not until the little people threatened to call in Tompkins, the cat, were they able to rid themselves of Ginky.