The Teenie Weenies usually bought their eggs from a queer old hen that lived near the Teenie Weenie village. She was a Plymouth Rock and like most Plymouth Rocks she was talkative. Because she was continually clucking and making a fuss, the Teenie Weenies had named her "The Boomer." It took a lot of bargaining to get an egg out of her, for she was rather sharp in a business deal. Some of the Teenie Weenies could understand a little chicken talk, but when a deal was on for an egg, it was usually the Chinaman who bargained for it because he speaks Plymouth like a hen.

The Teenie Weenies were entirely out of egg. There wasn't a doughnut or cookie in the village, and the General was most unhappy without his morning omelet. The little folk had been trying for several weeks to get an egg from the old hen, but she was very cranky and demanded black market prices. However, the weather helped the Teenie Weenies out of their trouble. It turned bitter cold and the Teenie Weenies were able to do the hen a favor which made her more reasonable in her price.

One cold morning the Sailor reported that the hen's drinking water was frozen. "She's thirsty and she wants us to break the ice," the Sailor told the General.

"Ah, shucksl" exploded the Dunce. "We're all the time breakin' ice for old hens. Don't do it until she agrees to lay us an egg."

"No," said the General, "we can't take advantage of her trouble. That would be wrong. But we can go over and help her get a drink."

The hen's drinking water had been put into an old tin cup and the water had frozen solid. The little men carried some Teenie Weenie tools and the Cook's biggest kettle, which the Teenie Weenies use for making apple butter. While some of the men chopped off pieces of ice, the Cook set up the kettle and built a fire under it. The pieces of ice were thrown into the kettle and when they were melted the water was poured into a carrying thimble and given to the thirsty hen as quickly as the little men could take it to her.

She was terribly thirsty and she drank 18 thimbles of water. She was so grateful she promptly laid a large egg and she told the General her price would be only 7½ grains of corn and 4 grasshoppers - the grasshoppers to be delivered to her next Summer. She had been asking 10 grains of corn and 6 large, plump grasshoppers or 8 small grasshoppers.

"For goodness sake!" exclaimed the Cook one morning when he swept two blackberry thorns from behind the kitchen stove. "Gogo, I wish you'd take these thorns out of the kitchen. They've been back of the stove here for more than three weeks."

"Yas, sah," answered Gogo, who was drying the breakfast dishes. "Ah reckon those thorns are dry by now. Ah is gwine fo' to make a combination grub hoe and wah club out of those thorns."

"WAR CLUB?" gasped the Cook. "What in the name of prune seeds do you want with a war club?"

"Ah is gwne fo' to make wah on caterpillars, ants and other varmints next Summah and Ah decided fo' to make a good stout garden hoe and a wah club," grinned Gogo.

"Those blackberry thorns are sure tough," said the Cook. "One of 'em saved my life once."

"How dat?" asked Gogo.

"Well," began the Cook as he sat down on the kitchen stool, "I wanted to get about seven or eight blackberries to make into jam and jelly. I tried to get the boys to bring some berries, but they were all busy digging a potato and I decided to get them myself. There are some big bushes growing right beside the lane, and I was afraid if I waited too long the birds or the big folks would get them. I climbed up to the top of one of the bushes because the berries ripen first at the top. I pulled off a big one and was reaching for another when an automobile went tearing by on the lane. The speed of the auto as if rushed by made a blast of wind like a cyclone and I was blown off the bush. I grabbed a leaf as I fell but it tore loose from the bush and I'd have been a goner if a thorn hadn't caught my sweater and kept me from falling. If was a long way down to the ground and I just hung there for a few minutes before I was calm enough to drag myself back onto the bush. I'll tell you, I was pretty well scared. I wished I had waited until some of the boys could come with me."

"Did yo' get enough berres fo' de jam?" asked Gogo, who was particularly fond of jam on his bread. "Or did you jes' light out for home when you got down on the ground once mo?"

"Oh, yes, I got my berries all right," answered the Cook. "I pulled off eight or nine and dropped them to the ground and then I climbed down and packed them home on my back. I got 41 jars of jam and 26 jars of jelly from those berries. The Lady of Fashion said it was the best blackberry jam and jelly she ever ate."

Not long ago the Dunce became interested in a little girl who lives in one of the big houses near the Teenie Weenie village. By holding a maple leaf In front of his tiny body, he could get rather close to the little girl without being seen. The little girl had a kitten which she dressed up in her doll's clothes, and that tickled the Dunce.

One day while the family was away the Dunce thought it would be fun to visit the little girl's house. He asked several of the Teenie Weenie men to go along and they soon made their way into the house. The kitten was at home, but it was fast asleep and the little men did not disturb it. They examined everything in the house with much interest and then they climbed up onto a desk that stood in the little girl's room. There were several books. a couple of lead pencils, a bottle of ink, a box, a rule and some pieces of writing paper on the desk.

At first, the little men had lots of fun lying on the rule and measuring themselves. To the Dunce's great delight, he was the tallest Teenie Weenie, measuring 2 1/16 inches - just 1/32 of an inch taller than the Turk.

"I'm going to write a letter," announced the Dunce, picking up one of the pencils. "I know the little girl well enough to write to her."

"But she doesn't know you," the Turk objected. "Maybe she doesn't even know Teenie Weenies live here."

"She'll soon know," the Dunce promised.

The other Teenie Weenies gathered around and looked on while the Dunce struggled with the heavy pencil. The pencil was so big it was about all the Dunce could do to move it along the paper, but finally he managed to pencil out a rather scrawly note.

"I'll bet that little girl will be surprised when she finds this letter," said the Dunce, wiping his sweaty forehead with his sleeve.

When the little girl found the letter on her desk that evening, she was properly surprised. But she had a hard time reading it, for the writing was very bad and the spelling was even worse. After a great deal of puzzling, this is what she read:

It had been raining off and on for nearly a week and the Chinaman was very discouraged. It was most trying to live in a teapot along with a week's washing of wet clothes even though was a Teenie Weenie washing.

"Allie same me sorry to live all time with wet clothes everywheres," the Chinaman complained to the Turk.

"What you need is a drying house," said the Turk.

"That what me thinks," answered the Chinaman brightly. "Me all time think that belly basket you found the other days would make a velly fine house to dry clothes in."

"Shucks!" exploded the Turk. "We're going to use the boards in that berry basket to put down a new floor in the town hail. That lumber is too good to use for a drying house."

"Allie light," said the Chinaman, "no drying house no more washie. Me do no washie until me gets a place to dry clothes. Me tired living in teapot with wet washie."

The following week the Chinaman refused to do the Teenie Weenie washing. He went fishing with the Dunce and visited Skippy, the chipmunk, and birds who live near the Teenie Weenie village. When two weeks' washing piled up and there were no clean sheets for the Teenie Weenie beds, the little people began to complain. "Allie light," said the Chinaman, "make dry house out of that belly basket and I washie."

Berry baskets are the finest lumber for Teenie Weenie use. The boards are not too thick for Teenie Weenie saws and nails and the men hoard a berry basket for that reason. The Turk offered to move up a pasteboard box for a drying house, but the Chinaman refused that on the grounds that it would get wet and soon break down. Finally there wasn't a clean handkerchief or bed sheet in the village. The Cook washed out his dish towels occasionally and the Lady of Fashion washed her bedclothes and tiny undergarments in a thimble. Finally, the Turk agreed to build a drying house for the Chinaman out of the berry basket the Teenie Weenies had been saving.

The men moved the basket near the teapot, cut in windows, made a door and built on a waterproof roof. The Chinaman was delighted and he set to work washing all the soiled Teenie Weenie clothes. He washed and ironed for days before he had all the clothes clean.

"Me don't mind washie clothes," the Chinaman says, "but me don't all time like to live in teapot with a wet washie drying there."

Remember to visit the newsletter site at The-TW-King.com

Please sign or comment in our guest book here: Guest Book