"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.

The supper dishes had been washed and put away. The Teenie Weenie Cook dropped a soap flake into an acorn shell dish, filled it with hot water from the cook stove tank and took down several soiled Teenie Weenie dish towels from the rack against the kitchen wall.

"I have to wash out these towels," the Cook told Gogo, who was warming his hands at the stove, "and I wonder if you'll help me out by going to the smokehouse and fetching in a half ham that's hanging near the door. We haven't a bit of meat in the house for breakfast."

"Suah," answered Gogo, "Ah'll get de ham." He reached for a Teenie Weenie lantern that stood behind the kitchen door, for it was dark outside. He took off the chimney, filled the cherry seed bowl with a drop of oil and lit the wick at the stove.

The Cook took the tiny smokehouse key out of a cherry seed vase on the wall shelf and handed it to Gogo, who went out humming a Teenie Weenie song. When he reached the smokehouse, made from a tomato can, Gogo unlocked the tiny padlock, stepped into the can and removed the half ham from the smoke rack. Just as he took it down, he heard a noise outside.

"Who dat?" he said, peering through the door. There was no answer and no one was in sight. He stepped out of the can, set the lantern and the ham on the ground and was about to close the door when he heard soft footsteps. He swung around just in time to see Ginky snatch up the ham. Gogo made a flying tackle and caught the mouse as he started off.

Now Ginky is a very daring mouse but he would never try any of his tricks when a number of Teenie Weenies were together. Seeing Gogo alone, he thought he could steal the ham but he soon discovered he had made a very grave mistake, for Gogo is mighty strong and as bold as a weasel. In no time the mouse was flat on the ground, with Gogo sitting on his neck. The Teenie Weenie grabbed the mouse's long whiskers and gave them a mighty twist, which made Ginky squeal at the top of his mouse voice.

"Dat's right," grinned Gogo. "Ah don't want to waste mah voice callin' de police. A little louder next time."

He gave the whiskers another twist and Ginky let out a wild squeal that brought the Policeman and the Dunce running to the spot. Gogo explained what had happened and with Gogo and the Policeman grasping the mouse's whiskers and the Dunce holding onto Ginky's tail, they marched him off to the pint fruit jar which served the Teenie Weenies for a jail.

A certain man who lives in one of the big houses near the Teenie Weenie village has been puzzled lately by happenings around his home. First, he noticed that a piece had been sawed from a cake of soap in his bathroom. There were saw marks on the soap and there was a tiny heap of soap dust where the piece had been sawed off. The man thought that mighty peculiar, but what happened to his shoes was even more puzzling.

One morning the man carried a pair of shoes out onto the back porch, expecting to polish them. When he came home from work that night he found his shoes beautifully polished. He noticed that small spots of the polish on the porch floor had the appearance of very small footprints. He picked up one of the shoes and examined it carefully. He noticed what appeared to be tiny fingerprints. "Of course," he said to himself, "they are too small for fingerprints. No one has hands that small." However, they were finger marks - Teenie Weenie finger marks - and this is how they happened to be there on the man's shoes.

Some time ago the Teenie Weenies were entirely out of soap and so they went to the man's house while he was away and cut off a small piece with their tiny crosscut saw. The Teenie Weenies only wanted to borrow the bit of soap, but they couldn't get soap to repay the man. Then they decided to even up the matter in some other way. The little people kept a close watch on the place for a chance to repay their debt and finally the Sailor, who was watching the house from behind a bush near by, saw the man leave his shoes and polish on the porch. When he went off to work the Sailor reported the matter to the Teenie Weenies, who decided they could pay for the borrowed soap by polishing the shoes.

The little folk carried Teenie Weenie ladders, brooms and a mop to the porch. They swept off the dust from the shoes with the Teenie Weenie brooms and the mop was used for a swab to rub on the polish. The Dunce insisted on dabbing on the polish and he got almost as much of the blacking on himself as he did on the shoes. The other Teenie Weenies rubbed the shoes with tiny rags and after several hours of hard work they had polished the shoes until they shone like mirrors. Of course the little people had very dirty hands when they were through with the work and the Dunce had to have a regular bath, but two thimbles of hot water and a piece of soap not much bigger than a large grain of coffee made the entire tribe fresh and clean.

There hadn't been a single soap flake in the Teenie Weenie village for weeks. The Chinaman had washed the clothes the best he could, but the tiny garments soon began to have a gray look because it is impossible to make clothes white and clean without soap. The little folk had hunted everywhere for the bits of soap that big people usually throw away, but the big people were short of soap, too. The Teenie Weenies could have made soap if they had had grease, but grease was just as hard to find because soap is made from grease.

The Dunce didn't mind the lack of soap. He would rather have dirty hands and face than to go to the trouble of washing, but the rest of the little people, who really like to be clean, minded it a lot. Finally, the General called a meeting in the town hall to discuss the matter.

The Turk reported that he had seen a large piece of soap in a wash bowl in one of the big houses near the Teenie Weenie village and he suggested that they borrow some. The General spoke against that because he had always warned against taking things from big people's houses.

"All we need is a piece about the size of a pecan," argued the Turk. "The big people won't miss that and it will keep us clean for a long time."

After a great deal of talk, the Teenie Weenies agreed that if would be all right to borrow a small piece of the soap, which they would repay in the future. Several of the little men went to the house when the big folk were away. They climbed up a bath towel to the wash bowl and began sawing off a small piece of soap with their Teenie Weenie crosscut saw. When they had cut through the soap as far as they could with the saw, they tried to pry off the piece with a Teenie Weenie ax. Just as they broke off the piece, the cake of soap skidded off into the bowl, which was nearly full of water.

"We'll have to get that soap out of the water," said the Old Soldier. "If we leave it there it will soak up in the water and be lost."

It was decided that the best way to save the soap would be to remove the stopper and let the water run out of the bowl. The men tried to pull up the stopper by the chain that was fastened to it, but they couldn't move it. It was necessary to fetch a Teenie Weenie block and tackle, and even then it took all their Teenie Weenie strength to pull it free. It took an awful lot of work to get that tiny piece of soap, but little people have to work just as hard for little things as big people have to work for big things.

The little heating stove which the Teenie Weenie men had made for the Lady of Fashion's bedroom burned merrily during the winter. It did burn up a great deal of firewood but the Teenie Weenies never suspected that the tiny stove was causing the Lady of Fashion a lot of trouble. She did mention the matter in an offhand way but even Teenie Weenie men are as slow as big men to catch onto a woman's hint.

The two thimbles made an excellent stove but it had to be constantly stuffed with firewood. Match sticks cut into convenient lengths were generally used and match stick firewood doesn't last long even in a thimble stove. The Lady of Fashion mentioned coal as a fine fuel. She mentioned it often as the days passed but none of the little men seemed to show any interest in the subject. The little lady often put on her tiny caterpillar fur coat and took long walks. After one of these walks she reported that she had found a perfectly lovely lump of coal and she mentioned the lump of coal so often it finally occurred to the Cowboy that there was something behind her remarks. What do you want coal for?" he bluntly asked.

"I dearly love my little stove," answered the Lady of Fashion, "but it takes most of my time to keep the fire going with wood. I believe coal would burn longer and wouldn't have to be replaced so often."

"We'll get the coal for you," answered the Cowboy, "but why didn't you say you wanted coal?"

"I've been trying to do that for a long time," answered the Lady of Fashion modestly.

The Cowboy only grunted but he set off the next morning with several Teenie Weenies to fetch the coal the Lady of Fashion had found. There wasn't enough snow on the ground to use a sled and so the Cowboy hired Skippy the chipmunk to pull the Teenie Weenie cart. The lump of coal was about as large as a small orange and it took a lot of work to load it onto the cart. On the way home the Dunce insisted on riding and just as the cart passed under a bush a dog barked in the distance.

Now chipmunks are very nervous. At the first bark Skippy stood up on his hind feet and stared in the direction of the bark. That tipped the cart backward and the coal rolled off, breaking the end gate and tumbling the Dunce into the snow. After more hard work the men rolled the coal back onto the cart and hauled it to the shoe house where it was broken up into pieces suitable for a thimble stove. Now the Lady of Fashion is quite happy.

After being arrested for breaking into the Teenie Weenie town hall Ginky and his light pawed friend were locked up in the pint glass fruit jar which the little folks use for a jail. It wasn't very pleasant there for the greedy mice received only two grains of corn a day and after a few days of being shut up they finally became very humble. They offered to lead upright lives if the Teenie Weenies would set them free and they crossed their mousy hearts to prove their good intentions. Finally the Teenie Weenies set the mice free but in no time the rascals were up to their old tricks as the Teenie Weenies learned from Tilly Titter their morning newspaper.

The English sparrow flies all about the neighborhood of the Teenie Weenie village and nothing misses her bright little eyes. Almost every morning she brings the gossip of the neighborhood to the little folks and that is most welcome for Teenie Weenies do not get about often during the cold weather when deep snow covers the ground.

One morning the Teenie Weenie Cook put on three dried peas to boil while he waited for the two pans of Teenie Weenie bread to bake in the tiny stove oven. The Lady of Fashion began washing up the hazel nut mixing bowl and the Policeman, who had smelled the baking bread, strolled into the kitchen just as some one began tapping on the window.

"That's probably Tilly," said the Cook, "open the window."

The Policeman opened one of the tiny windows and Tilly Titter popped her head through the opening. The sparrow giggled and twittered so much the Teenie Weenies could hardly understand her chirping but finally they made out that Ginky had gotten into trouble again.

"'E was mussin' around in one of the big 'ouses and 'e fell into a jar of molasses," she said. "'E's all stuck up and can't get the bloomin' stuff off 'is fur. 'E's licked himself off as far as 'e can reach 'imself but there's a lot of 'imself 'e can't reach and 'e's been rollin' in the snow tryin' to get that off."

The Cook took a pan of bread from the oven and dumped the loaves out onto the kitchen table. "Serves him right," grinned the Cook. "Ginky and his pals are lazy thieving mice."

"It's too bad it isn't summer time," giggled Tilly.

"How's that?" asked the Policeman.

"If Ginky 'ad all that molasses on 'imself in the summer time the bees would be after 'im aplenty," answered Tilly.

After Ginky's eviction from the grocery cellar where he had been living in luxury he became terribly embittered. He joined two unscrupulous mice and began a "tricks or treat" racket among the mice of the neighborhood. The three rascals would go to a respectable mouse's home end threaten to do it damage unless they were fed. They spread terror among the respectable mice and a number of the best mouse families moved out of the district.

The Teenie Weenies had seen very little of the racketeers, for Ginky knew the little people would not stand for his bad ways. But being puffed up over his success in frightening the timid mice, he boldly began annoying the Teenie Weenies. The bandits always came around at night when the Teenie Weenies were in bed and they did nothing more than steal the garbage from the garbage thimble on the back porch of the shoe house. The little folk's didn't mind that because it saved them the trouble of burying it. Then one night Ginky and his gang brazenly broke into the Teenie Weenie town hall, and the little folk put a stop to their wickedness.

While the Policeman was making his last rounds of the Teenie Weenie village before bedtime he noticed several mouse tracks in the snow. They led to the old felt hat which the little people used for a town hall. The place was dark, but he saw that one of the windows had been broken out and the hole had been stuffed with a Teenie Weenie rug. He could plainly hear mouse snores and he went to the shoe house for help. Followed by a number of Teenie Weenies, the Policeman returned to the hall and quietly unlocked the tiny door. By the light of a Teenie Weenie lantern, they saw Ginky and his two friends asleep on the floor.

"Grab 'em!" shouted the Policeman.

Before the mice could rub their sleepy eyes, the Teenie Weenies were upon them. Ginky made a dash for the door, but the Dunce tackled him. In the fight that followed, the roof over the doorway was knocked off, the Dunce got a black eye and lost an arm of his sweater. The Dunce and the Policeman finally subdued Ginky. One mouse escaped after a good whack from a broom in the hands of the Turk. The other mouse tried to escape through a window but Gogo hung onto his tail and he was captured, too.

The two mice were locked up in the pint fruit jar which serves the Teenie Weenies for a jail, and now there is some law and order in the neighborhood of the Teenie Weenie village.

Snow had covered the hard ground for many days and the birds could find little to eat. All sorts of birds came begging food from the Teenie Weenies. The little folk gave the hungry birds as much as they could spare, but soon their tiny hoard of supplies began getting dangerously low. The big folk threw out bread, but snow would often fall and cover the food before the birds could find it.

One day the Teenie Weenie Policeman, while on his rounds near the lane, saw many mouse tracks leading into a hole in the snow. He crawled down through the hole and discovered several slices of bread which had probably been thrown out by the big folk for the birds. The Policeman reported his find to the General, who sent Teenie Weenies with picks and shovels to investigate.

The Teenie Weenies dug down through the snow and uncovered several big slices of bread.

"This bread is frozen too hard for the birds to eat," said the Cook after he had examined the bread. "If it is broken up into small pieces, I can cook it and make it into a warm mush for the birds."

A great deal of snow had to be shoveled away before the first slice of bread could be moved. The Teenie Weenies tied a string about the bread and pushed and pulled with all their might, but it was mighty slow work getting the big slice of bread out of the hole.

Tilly Titter, The English sparrow, flew down while the Teenie Weenies were tugging at the bread. She caught the end of the string in her mouth and gave a mighty pull. The slice of bread fairly popped out of the hole and landed on top of the Dunce. The Dunce set up a great howl from beneath the bread. The Teenie Weenies quickly lifted the slice and the Dunce crawled out unhurt, but very angry.

"What do you mean by hittin' me with the slice of bread? Were you trying to kill me?" sputtered the outraged Dunce.

Poor Tilly was terribly upset, and she chirped her apology to the Chinaman, who immediately translated it to the disgruntled Dunce. The Teenie Weenies dug out 4½ slices of bread. Then they broke them into small pieces and carried them to the Teenie Weenie kitchen, where they were cooked into a warm mush for the hungry birds. The birds were very grateful to the Teenie Weenies but the mice who had discovered the bread, and Ginky was one of them, are furious at the little folks.

One morning several of the Teenie Weenies were returning from their marketing back of the grocery store. They had found two dried prunes and a perfectly good string bean, so they were happy as they trudged through the deep snow. Just as they entered a bit of thick brush they met Ginky, whom they hadn't seen for many weeks. The mouse would have passed them by, but the General bowed and wished him good morning.

Ginky stopped and leaned against a bush and gave the Teenie Weenies a cold nod. "Collecting garbage, I see," he remarked.

"We are getting what has been thrown out of the grocery," answered the General. "We get it honestly no matter whether you call it garbage or not."

''Well, I'm sorry for folks who have to eat garbage," sneered Ginky, quite forgetting that he had often eaten out of the Teenie Weenies' garbage thimble. "I prefer better food."

"You seem to be living well these days." sad the General, glancing at the mouse's sleek hair, rounded tummy, and well-groomed whiskers. "You must have struck it rich."

"Yes, I'm rich," answered Ginky. "I'm living in the grocery basement. Everything I want right at hand and no cat on the place. Wealth is rather troublesome, though, for one has it be constantly on guard to protect one's property. I must be always on the watch for thieving mice. I'm living right beneath a huge cheese. York State cheese, and my favorite brand."

"I thought you didn't believe in property rights," smiled the General. "Have you changed your mind?"

"I don't believe in other folks' property rights - if that's what you mean," answered Ginky.

"Well, Ginky," warned the General, "I'm afraid your prosperity won't last long. Your sin will be found out in time."

"That's what you think," Ginky retorted. "I'm too smart to gnaw into a cheese where it can be seen by the grocer. I work from beneath. That's why I fight off other mice and keep this cheese for myself. They would be stupid enough to eat right off the top and that's a dead give-away."

Throwing the Teenie Weenies a superior glance, the mouse hurried away toward the grocery and his wealth. It wasn't long, though, until the Teenie Weenies heard from a sparrow, who had it straight from one of the respectable mice, that a depression had overtaken Ginky. The grocer had brought a cat to live in the grocery basement.

Most of the Teenie Weenies believed that Gogo was the champion Teenie Weenie roller skater, but a few of the little people thought the Dunce was just as good. The Dunce loudly agreed with those few and he did considerable boasting about his skating.

"You can't prove your skating ability by talkin'," said the Turk after listening to the Dunce's appreciation of his own skating. "If you want to decide who is the champion skater you'll have to hold a race."

The idea of a roller skating race appealed to the little folk and they set about making arrangements. They dragged a big cardboard box cover under some bushes for a rink and Gogo and the Dunce went into training. They skated every spare minute in order to get themselves in condition for the contest. The Dunce announced that he was going on a strict diet in order to be fit for the race. He didn't eat a single doughnut in over a week, which was a great surprise to the Teenie Weenies because the Dunce almost never denies himself anything in the way of good food.

A day was set for the race, but before it could be held a great storm covered the rink with snow. It was then decided to hold the race in one of the big houses whose owners were usually away during the day. One morning the Teenie Weenies went to a house on the lane, but they found the floor was too rough for Teenie Weenie roller skating. Then they climbed up onto a dining table that stood in the room. There were a number of dishes on the table, including a big plate which the Teenie Weenies decided would make a fine track for the race.

While the Dunce and Gogo put on their tiny skates, the Sailor scraped up some dried egg yolk from the plate and made a mark on the rim. "Now you fellows get ready," said the Sailor. "The first man to cross this egg mark after skating around the rim of the plate 10 times will be the champion."

After several false starts, the race finally got under way. The little skaters fairly flew around the plate, and each time one of them passed the egg mark, the Sailor, who was sitting in the center of the plate, made a mark on a tiny piece of paper.

It was a mighty close race for a few rounds but finally Gogo pulled ahead and won by half a plate. To everyone's surprise, the Dunce seemed happy.

"Oh, boy! I'm glad this race is over," he grinned. "Now I'm through dieting and I'm gonna fill up on doughnuts." He hurried home and ate every last crumb in the doughnut thimble.

One afternoon the Cook put a dried raisin on to boil. He brought out his tiny rolling pin, a cherry seed of shortening and his pastry board. He put them on the kitchen table and called up the stairs to the Lady of Fashion.

"All ready for you to make those raisin pies," the Cook shouted.

The little lady had just stepped into the kitchen when a great commotion took place outside the kitchen door. The Cook opened the door and there was an orange surrounded by excited Teenie Weenies.

"Look!" puffed the Dunce, his breath rolling out in clouds on the frosty air. "We found an orange back of the grocery and we've got to get it into the house before it freezes."

"You'll never get that orange through the doorway," said the Cook.

"Get an ax," shouted the excited Dunce, "and I'll cut the doorway bigger."

"Wouldn't it be less trouble to cut the orange in two?" asked the Cook. "Anyhow, half the orange will about fill the kitchen and it will make enough marmalade to fill every thimble and hazelnut container we have on the place."

The weather was very cold outside and in order to keep the orange from freezing, the little men worked like beavers cutting the orange in two with a Teenie Weenie crosscut saw. When it was cut the men had a hard time forcing it through the kitchen doorway. The Cook and the Lady of Fashion pushed the kitchen table against the wall to make a place for the orange.

"Boy!" exclaimed the Cowboy. "That sure will make a lot of marmalade.

"Well, we'd better forget the raisin pies and get busy cutting up this orange," the Cook told the Lady of Fashion. "We'll have to get this orange disposed of before we can have supper."

"The Cook, the Lady of Fashion and several other Teenie Weenies set to work with Teenie Weenie hatchets, axes and knives, and when they had finished cutting up the orange, every single kettle and thimble - even the last acorn shell basket - had been filled to the top.

Of course there was juice and melted snow all over the place, and the kitchen had to be mopped before supper could be cooked. The Teenie Weenies had a very late supper that night and there was no raisin pie. But during the next few days everything that could be filled was brimming with marmalade which will make the little people happy for many days to come.