Fuskies! - February 17th, 1952

Since last Summer, when Nipper, one of the Teenie Weenie children, saw a bug climbing up the side of the shoe house, the child has spent most of his time trying to imitate the insect. He is constantly climbing up onto things and he has had several bad tumbles. But in spite of many warnings he still tries to out-crawl the bug. However, the Old Soldier with a wooden leg had a long talk with Nipper and it is to be hoped the child will be less bug-like in the future.

Although there was snow on the ground, Nipper and his little brother Zero were allowed to play out on the back porch one pleasant morning. The Old Soldier and the Turk had just set out to cut some firewood when Nipper, who had been trying to climb up onto the top of the garbage thimble, fell off and bumped his tiny head. The Old Soldier picked Nipper up and carried him into the house. He tried to comfort the bellowing child.

"I felled down!" screamed Nipper. "I felled down!"

"No, you didn't fall," said the Old Solder. "The Fuskies pushed you off that thimble."

Nipper forgot to bellow and stared at the Old Soldier.

"The Fuskies pushed you off," continued the Old Soldier. "Fuskies are so little that only a Teenie Weenie with second sight can see them. They are so small they have to use a stepladder to climb up onto a postage stamp. They go around making a lot of trouble because they love to tease folks - especially children who climb up onto things. Fuskies ride around on snowflakes during the Winter - thousands of 'em can get onto a snowflake. In the Summertime they climb onto the backs of lady bugs and butterflies and at night they ride around on fireflies. They hitchhike rides on mosquitoes and make that insect bite folks. They do a lot of mean things but they like best to knock children off when they have climbed up onto things."

"Eh?" Nipper said, wanting to hear more.

"Yes, sir," said the Old Soldier. "The Fuskies are all around everywhere, and when they see a child climbing up onto something they all rush at him - millions of 'em - and push the youngster off. That's what happened to you when you thought you fell off the garbage thimble. The Fuskies pushed you off."

"Bad Fussies!" Nipper said.

"Yes, sir," said the Old Soldier. "The Fuskies are mighty wicked little chaps. If I were you I wouldn't give 'em a chance to push me off of anything."

Fuskie Trouble - November 9th, 1952

When things go badly in the Teenie Weenie village, the little people, no taller than matches, usually blame the Fuskies. Fuskies are so small they must use a stepladder to climb up onto a postage stamp. It would take a Fuskie more than half a day to walk around a five cent piece. They are so tiny they can only be seen by a Teenie Weenie with second sight. Thousands of them can ride on the back of a house fly without stepping on each other's toes. Even though they are so small, they can cause a great deal of trouble, because Fuskies love to tease - and there are so many of them they can do an amazing amount of mischief.

A few days ago the Teenie Weenies had a lot of trouble and blamed it all on the Fuskies, who must have been hanging around by the millions. The whole day was filled with one bad thing after another. It started when the Old Soldier with a wooden leg got out of bed in the morning. He stepped into a cherry seed bowl and broke his wooden leg. While he was mending it he cut his finger, and while the Cook was tying up the finger a pot of breakfast food on the stove boiled over and put out the fire. Nothing more happened until after breakfast, though the sassafras tea was a bit weak, and then one of the Teenie Weenie children fell into a catsup bottle cap that was half full of water. Just as the child was dragged out of the water the Dunce batted a Teenie baseball through a window in the half-gallon syrup can schoolhouse.

One unfortunate thing after another happened all day long, but the Fuskies really got busy just before supper. The wind began to blow and a small branch from a big birch tree near by fell onto the shoe house, badly wrecking the front porch. One of the lead pencils which are used for porch posts was knocked down. The water spout was badly damaged and the Teenie Weenies were scared half out of their wits. Skippy the chipmunk tried to drag off the branch, causing more damage.

"It will have to be sawed into pieces before we can get it off the roof," the Sailor told Skippy, who went off in a huff.

It began to rain and the water leaked through the damaged roof into a bedroom, and several of the men had to catch the dripping water in thimbles and dump it out a window. It was nearly midnight before the little folks could eat their supper.

"The Fuskies have caused all this trouble today," said the Old Soldier. "There's no doubt about it - only millions of Fuskies could do so much damage."

Fuskies Again - November 30th, 1952

During the night the wind began to blow. Great gusts whined through the rosebushes under which the Teenie Weenie village stands. Dry leaves slapped against the shoe house, shaking the building from heel to toe.

"Listen to that," said the Old Soldier with a wooden leg. "All those leaves we gathered up to burn are scattered over the village."

"It's the Fuskies playing pranks again," said Gogo.

"Nonsense!" scoffed the Doctor. "You can't prove there are such things as Fuskies. No one has ever seen them."

"Course you can't see them," argued Gogo. "They're too small to be seen. They are so little that 200 of them can walk shoulder to shoulder through the eye of a needle without even touching the sides."

"If they are as small as all that, they certainly can't do much damage," said the Doctor.

"But there are millions and millions of 'em," said Gogo.

"When ten or twenty million Fuskies get their shoulders under a leaf they can send it flying through the air. They like to make trouble for folks, and when they get busy they sure can do a lot of mischief."

Next morning there was nearly two inches of snow on the ground. If had to be shoveled off the woodpile before the Cook could get breakfast. Then the paths had to be shoveled clear and the porches cleaned off. The men had just finished when the Rhyming Rabbit hopped into the village. He was hungry, so several of the men had to go down into the Teenie Weenie cellar under the shoe house and get him a carrot.

The men had to bring the carrot up through the trap door in the kitchen. The vegetable was so big that hunks had to be cut off to get it through. It delayed breakfast, but even more trouble was in store for the little people, because the rabbit knocked the snow back into the cleared paths on its way out.

"See!" said Gogo. "The Fuskies pushed that old rabbit over here and made him fill up our paths again."

The Doctor snorted as he finished his tea.

Then one of the Teenie Weenie children choked on a raspberry seed which had fallen out of the Lady of Fashion's breast pin. After a lot of excitement the Doctor recovered the seed. Then he was called to the Respectable Mice's home to look after two of the quadruplets, who had come down with a case of tail itch.

"Probably the Fuskies have been visiting the Respectable Mice," the Doctor snorted as he wallowed through the deep snow.