In The Kitchen - June 17th, 1945

It was a mighty lucky thing that the Cook wasn't in the kitchen when the accident happened. He had set five grains of rice on to boil and he had just stepped off the back porch on his way to the smokehouse to cut some frog ham for supper when a baseball came smashing into the rosebush over head and crashed through the kitchen roof.

Some big boys had been playing ball in the lane that runs near the Teenie Weenie village. The little people could hear the loud crack each time the ball was hit with the bat, but they didn't pay much attention to it, for they often hear people go by. They never dreamed a ball could be hit far enough to land in the village. The little folks were even more frightened when the boys began hunting for the ball because it would be a most unfortunate thing to have the Teenie Weenie village discovered. However, the dense thicket of thorny rosebushes around the tiny houses soon discouraged the boys and they went away loudly complaining over the loss of their ball.

The Cook and the Lady of Fashion were the only Teenie Weenies near the house when the ball fell, but a number of the little men who had been working in the Teenie Weenie garden near by came running when they heard the crash. One end of the kitchen roof, which was covered with waterproofed playing cards, was completely wrecked. The kitchen table had been upset, the kitchen sink had been badly damaged and all the cellophane had been broken out of the window. Although the chimney was knocked off, the stove had not been harmed, and the kettle of rice stood untouched on the tiny stove.

The Teenie Weenies were terribly upset by the accident, and the Cook was so shocked the Teenie Weenie Doctor had to give him some medicine to quiet his shattered nerves.

"Well, we were mighty lucky in spite of all this damage," the General said when he had inspected the wrecked kitchen. "That ball might have hit some of us, and if those big boys had discovered our village in their search we would have had to leave this nice spot and build a new place somewhere else."

"We can patch up the roof for tonight," said the Old Soldier.

"BUT THE BALL!" exclaimed the Cook. "How can I cook supper with that ball filling the place?"

"You'll have to cook around it tonight," laughed the Old Soldier. "Tomorrow we'll tear down the wall because the ball is too big to go through the door. When we built that doorway we never figured we'd have to push baseballs through it."

Out Of The Kitchen - June 24th, 1945

The big boys who batted the baseball that crashed through the roof of the Teenie Weenie kitchen certainly made a lot of extra work for the little people. None of the Teenie Weenies was hurt but one corner of the kitchen roof was completely ruined. The little people were terribly frightened by the accident, especially when the big boys began hunting for their lost ball in the underbrush where the Teenie Weenie village stands. The little folks began packing up their valuables to be ready to leave the village, but the tangle of thorny rose bushes and the thick brush discouraged the boys and they went away to the great relief of the Teenie Weenies.

The baseball was so big it couldn't be pushed out through the tiny kitchen door, so the little men had to tear some of the walls away in order to get the ball out. It was a lot of work to remove the ball, and the little men had to push and pull with all their tiny might to get it out of the kitchen. The Turk strained his back while pushing and he was laid up for several days under the Doctor's care.

The kitchen sink and a few shelves had to be taken out and one corner of the room had to be removed. Some of the roof timbers and the window frame were broken when the ball crashed into the kitchen, but most of the side walls and the roof covering could be used again, for they were made out of stout playing cards. The drain pipe which carried rain water from the kitchen roof was badly bent and the chimney was damaged but fortunately the Cook was able to report that the kitchen stove wasn't hurt.

When the baseball had been rolled out, the men began to make repairs immediately. They replaced the broken timbers, put new cellophane in the tiny window and replaced the chimney in time for the Cook to get the evening meal. The drain pipe was repaired and the shelves and kitchen sink were put back in place. The next day some of the little men gave the repairs a coat of paint, and no one ever would have known that a baseball had wrecked the place.

"Those big boys will be back here looking for their ball," the General said. "I believe it would be wise to roll it out to the lane where they can easily find it, for we don't want them to find our village."

The Teenie Weenies rolled the ball along their secret trail to the lane, where they left it in plain sight. Just as the General had thought, the boys came back next day to hunt for their ball. They found it exactly where the Teenie Weenies had left it, and the General's forethought probably saved the Teenie Weenie village the tragedy of being discovered.

The Lover Twins Join the Teenie Weenie Boy Scouts - June 25th, 1922

The Teenie Weenies have a rule in their little community which the big folks would do well to adopt. Every Teenie Weenie boy and girl is made to join the Teenie Weenie Boy and Girl Scouts. When they are old enough to understand they are taken out into the woods, where they live for several weeks each summer, and they are taught how to take care of themselves in the forest.

It was decided that the Lover twins were old enough to take up their training in woodcraft, so they were told to make ready for their entrance into the order of Teenie Weenie Boy Scouts. Mrs. Lover and the Lady of Fashion made the two little fellows each a suit of Scout clothes and the Old Soldier hammered their tiny axes out of the heads of two carpet tacks. He also made them two little hunting knives and each one a pack to carry his belongings in.

The Indian was to take the little fellows into the woods and the twins could hardly wait for the time to start. Mrs. Lover wanted her children to have every comfort on the trip, so she prepared such a lot of things it would have taken one of the trucks to carry it all. There were four nightshirts apiece, six towels apiece, four changes of underwear for each, a bathrobe apiece, four pairs of stockings each, four shirts apiece, an extra pair of shoes each, bedroom slippers, and many more things. The poor Indian was quite excited when he saw this pile of clothes, for he would have to carry most of the baggage and they had a long ways to go.

"One towel apiece heap enough," cried the Indian. "Wash towel out when get dirty and dry in sun. Two pair socks enough. One cake soap too much."

"Yes, the Indian is right," said the General, who saw Mrs. Lover did not agree with the Indian. "They will have all their food and blankets to carry, as well as their pots and kettles."

After a great deal of argument the Indian finally had his way and only the most necessary things were chosen. When the little party was ready to start off it was plainly seen that they could not have carried another thing. The Indian carried most of the load, while each of the twins carried his sweater, ax, coat, and blanket.

After much weeping and kissing on the part of Mrs. Lover the three set off early the next morning toward the big woods. The first night the Indian made a camp beside the little creek which ran out of the woods. He made a bed of dry moss and soft dandelion down under a big mullen leaf, and after the twins had eaten their supper the tired little fellows soon rolled up in their tiny blankets and in spite of the loud cries of the crickets they quickly fell asleep.

It was just getting light the next morning when the Indian routed the twins out, and after they had washed themselves in the clean creek water they sat down to breakfast. The Indian baked delicious pancakes, which he served with wonderful sirup.

"Where did you get the good sirup?' asked Jerry, one of the twins.

"Me get head of white clover," answered the Indian as he skillfully flipped a cake in the tiny frying pan. "Next me pull out little white flowers and squeeze out honey in pan. Then me put over fire and cook down a little and me have sirup."

After breakfast the three travelers set out for the woods, where they arrived early in the afternoon. The Indian set to work at once putting up a shelter, which he built out of poles and bark. The camp was made next to a big stone, on a clean, dry, sandy beach of the creek. The twins helped to cut the poles for the shelter with their tiny axes and they gathered dry moss for the bed, while the Indian tied the frame of the shelter securely with tough grass blades.

"Me want shelter strong," said the Indian, and the little fellow certainly made it strong, for it held the weight of the ground robin, who perched on it occasionally when he visited camp.

There were plenty of wild strawberries nearby, deliciously sweet, and the little campers ate nearly a whole berry at each meal. After the twins had rested for a couple of days the Indian set to work teaching the little fellows the many wonderful things about the woods.

The Teenie Weenie Boy Scouts In Camp - July 9th, 1922

As soon as the Teenie Weenie children are old enough they are taken out into the woods, where they are taught many useful things. They are told what berries make good food and where to find them; they are taught to swim and how to keep from being lost in the thickest jungle of tall grass.

The Lover twins had joined the Teenie Weenie Boy Scouts, and with the Indian as their guide and teacher they had gone into the big woods for their first lesson in woodcraft. The little campers had a wonderfully snug shelter, which the Indian had built out of sticks, grass, and bark, and their beds were made out of the soft down of the dry dandelion blossom.

The little fellows had spent a week in their tiny camp and the Indian had shown the twins many useful and wonderful things. He taught the two boys how to make a tiny canoe out of birch bark, how to build the frame out of slender sticks, how to bind the bark to the frame with tough grass, and how to make the seams water tight with the pitch from the pine trees. He taught them where to find the ground berry, the raspberry, blackberries, strawberries, huckleberries, and the sassafras and wintergreen, out of which he made tea. The Indian showed them how to get sirup out of the sweet clover blossom, and he explained the use of roots medicine. One day he shot a crawfish and roasted the claws, and when it was thoroughly cooked the three little men scooped the delicious meat out of the shell and ate it.

"This bad time of year to get much food," said the Indian, as the three little fellows sat around their tiny campfire one evening. "Not much berries ripe now. No nuts ripe now. Maybe we get turtle eggs some day. Me go out and look tomorrow."

"Where do you find the turtle eggs?" asked Jerry, one of the twins.

"Turtle he come up on bank of creek and lay eggs in ground," answered the Indian. "Him dig up ground and then sit down in hole and wiggle around until he cover himself all over with dirt. Then he—I mean she—lay heap many eggs, but we must get eggs while them heap fresh or them much no good. After turtle lay eggs he—I mean she—get out of ground and go back to water in creek, and eggs they hatch out into little turtles in maybe four, five, six weeks."

After breakfast the next morning the Indian took his tiny gun and with the twins following close behind he set off down the bank of the creek in search of a turtle's nest. He searched for a long time without finding a sign of a nest and finally stopped to ask a ground squirrel they met if he had seen any signs of turtles making nests along the creek.

"Clip my whiskers, if I didn't see one yesterday," answered the squirrel.

"She was a pretty good sized one, and I think she had just come off her nest. I didn't pay much attention to her, as I was busy huntin' for some nuts I buried last fall."

The squirrel kindly led the three Teenie Weenies along the bank of the creek and pointed to the place where he had seen the turtle. The Indian's keen eyes soon found the place where the nest was, and, chopping a stick with his tiny ax, he set to work digging in the sand. Presently he uncovered a white object, and in a few minutes he lifted a big white turtle egg out of the hole.

"There, that will keep us in food for a long time," said the Indian, as he rolled the egg out. "Now we fill the hole up again and the turtle she never miss it."

"Hadn't we better get some more?" asked one of the twins, for the Indian had uncovered several of the eggs and had explained that there were probably two dozen in the nest.

"No. One egg him plenty to eat for long time," cried the Indian.

The Indian made a tiny raft out of sticks which he lashed together with grapevine bark, and, pushing this into the creek, he loaded the egg on to it and poled down the stream to camp. That night the little campers dined on turtle egg, and, although they ate all they could hold, there was quite enough egg left to last for several days.

A Blue Jay Plays A Joke On The Indian - July 16th, 1922

The two Teenie Weenie Boy Scouts, the Lover twins, had learned great deal about wood craft during their two weeks in the woods with the Indian. They learned how to make a bark canoe, how to make drinking cups out of seeds, and they learned that acorns make handy buckets. The Indian taught them where to look for the many berries that grow in the woods and where to find the crawfish and turtle eggs.

"You fellows learn much fast about woods. You pretty smart maybe, so we will start home at sunup in morning," announced the Indian while the three little people sat about their tiny campfire.

"0, we don't want to go home!" wailed the twins. "We are having such a nice time. Please, can't we stay a few days more?"

"No, can't do," answered the Indian. "Your ma, she say two weeks, no more, so we go home in morning."

Before sunup the next morning the Indian routed out the sleepy twins, and when they had eaten their breakfast each Teenie Weenie gathered up his belongings and did them up into a neat pack. The Indian had carried the canoe down to the creek, and when the campfire had been put out they were all ready for the trip.

"Where my gun?" asked the Indian, looking around the little clearing where they had camped.

"I saw it leaning against that acorn over there," answered Jerry, one of the twins. "It was there when we went out to get wood for the fire a little while ago."

The Indian and the twins hunted for almost an hour for the lost gun. They looked under every leaf all around the camp, but they could not find it. They asked their friends, the ground robin and a chipmunk, to help hunt for the gun, and even these bright eyed creatures of the woods could not find it.

"Well," said the Indian, addressing the bird and the squirrel, "we must go, and if you find the gun just hang it up on a branch of that bush over there, and I will come out maybe next week and look again."

The bird and the squirrel promised, and the three Teenie Weenies pushed off in their tidy canoe up the creek towards home.

It was a beautiful morning, and the little fellows enjoyed the trip, as the tiny canoe slipped silently along, gliding beneath the big ferns which overhung the water. The water was quite swift at times, and at several places the Indian was forced to lift the canoe over sticks and dead leaves. Presently the Teenie Weenies came to a place where the water ran too swiftly among the pebbles and sticks for the tiny boat to get through.

"We'll have to portage here," said the Indian, as he ran the nose of the canoe into the shore.

"What's portage mean?" asked one of the twins.

"It means can't get canoe through, so have to walk and carry everything," answered the Indian.

The Indian lifted the canoe out of the water, and, tossing it over his head, he let it rest on his shoulders.

"Now one of you kids go in front and the other in behind and watch that canoe, him don't get caught by trees as we go through woods," said the Indian.

The three little chaps set off through the deep woods beside the rushing water, stopping now and then while twigs and leaves were cut away in order to let the canoe through.

"Hey, there!" cried a voice as the little fellows tramped along, and, looking up, they saw their friend, the ground robin, standing on a stick of wood which lay over the water.

In his beak was the Indian's gun.

"I found it," said the bird, as he caught the gun in his foot, in order to talk plainer. "That fool Blue Jay that lives over near where you fellows were camping stole your gun, and a short time after you left he told me about it. He seemed to think it was a great joke. I gave him a piece of my mind, that's what I did, and I got the gun from him and flew after you."

The Indian was happy to get his gun, and he thanked the bird many times for his kindness. All day long the little men paddled up the creek, stopping occasionally to make a portage, and at night they stopped beside the stream where they cooked their supper and made camp for the night. The howling of the crickets and mosquitoes made a terrible noise but the three Teenie Weenies were so tired it never bothered them a bit and they slept straight through the night.

The little fellows arrived at the shoe house during the afternoon, and they were given a hearty welcome by the Teenie Weenies. Mrs. Lover hugged and kissed her boys, and laughed and cried and did so many strange things in her joy at having her children home again that the twins thought she had lost her mind, but that's a strange way mothers have. Whether they are big mothers or just Teenie Weenie mothers, they are pretty much alike.