Half A Loaf – April 6th, 1947

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.

A Drop Or Two – April 13th, 1947

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.

Spring Cleaning – April 20th, 1947

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."

Busy Days – April 27th, 1947

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.