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The Teenie Weenies always had celebrated Thanksgiving Day with a big dinner, but this year things were different. The big fire, which destroyed their village, had burned up all their supplies and about all the little folks had to eat was corn bread and potatoes.

"Aren't we even goin' to have cake and ice cream?" asked the Dunce, looking anxiously at the General one evening while a number of the family sat around the tiny stove discussing the holiday.

"I'm sorry to say that we are not," answered the General sadly. "We will have to celebrate with just plain corn bread and potato soup for our dinner."

"The Turk brought in a piece of apple today," said the Cook. "I can make some apple sauce, but I won't have any sugar to put in it."

"Ah, Jimminie Christmas!" exploded the Dunce, who was mighty fond of good things to eat. "Is that all we get?"

"I'm sorry, Dunce, but that's the best I can do," answered the Cook. "We're poor now, and we can't have the good things we used to have when we were rich."

All the Teenie Weenies were much disappointed, but the Dunce seemed to feel it more than any one else. Perhaps it was because he liked to eat more than the other Teenie Weenies, but, anyway, the little fellow was quite sober for several days, which was quite unusual for him.

"Say, Gogo," said the Dunce one afternoon while the two Teenie Weenies were cutting some wood for the stove, "I have been thinkin' a lot about not havin' a Thanksgiving dinner, and I don't think it's right. We ought to have an egg or something good."

"Dat sounds powerful sensible to me," answered the colored Teenie Weenie. "But where we gwine to get an egg? We's as po' as a skeeter in a ink bottle."

"Well," cried the Dunce, "if we are poor, there wouldn't be any harm in begging an egg, would there? Poor people can beg, can't they?"

"Yes, sah. Dat's de privilege mos' po' folks seem to have."

"Well, then, can't you and me dress up a little in some ol' rags and go around to some of the chicken yards and beg an egg off some old hen?"

"Well, as I'm powerful fond of hen's egg, I done say dat sounds mighty reasonable," agreed the little colored fellow.

"We won't say a word about it to any one, and we'll go and get the egg and surprise every one," said the Dunce.

That afternoon the two Teenie Weenies dressed themselves up in rags to look as poor as possible and then set out to beg an egg.

The first hen the little fellows saw was rather surly looking, but the Dunce screwed up his courage and, walking up to her, he took off his hat and bowed politely.

"Madam," he said, "we are two poor, hungry Teenie Weenies, and I wonder if you would be so kind as to give us an egg?"

"No!" snapped the hen, her red comb turning an angry purple. "No, I don't feed tramps."

The two Teenie Weenies lost little time in getting out of the sight of the crabby old hen, hoping they would have better luck with the next one.

Presently they come to another chicken yard, where they soon discovered an old duck on her nest.

"We are two poor, hungry Teenie Weenies" said the Dunce, "and we wondered if you could spare us an egg?"

"Yes, I think it's going to rain," answered the duck, who was hard of hearing.

"Egg!" shouted the Dunce. "We're hungry. Will you give us an egg?"

"Quite likely," grinned the old duck. "That is, if it doesn't snow."

The poor Dunce climbed up on the edge of the duck's nest and fairly screamed into her ear, but she couldn't hear a single word. She was stone deaf, and the two little fellows made themselves hoarse trying to make her hear.

"No use talkin' to dat old lady," said Gogo, who was sitting on a corncob below. "She pretty neah as deaf as a do'knob." So the two little fellows hunted up another hen.

The next hen seemed quite pleasant. She was plump and neat, and when the Dunce asked her for an egg she promised at once to give them one.

"Why, bless your hearts!" cried the hen, tears gathering in her big yellow eyes. "Of course I'll give you an egg, you poor little things. I just laid an egg not over half an hour ago, and you shall have it." The hen took the two little fellows to her nest, where they found a lovely fresh egg, and they lost little time in rolling it out.

After thanking the hen for her kindness the Teenie Weenies rolled the egg towards home. It took a long time to get it home; in fact, it was quite dark when they arrived. There was great excitement when the Teenie Weenies saw the egg. "Now we'll have a real Thanksgiving dinner," they cried. They stood on their heads, turned handsprings, laughed, hugged each other, and did all sorts of foolish things, for everybody knew there would be a great feast on Thanksgiving Day.

"How about Thanksgiving?" asked the Teenie Weenie Cook one evening.

"We'll celebrate as usual, I suppose," answered the General. "One of your baked frog hams and …"

"Biscuits!" shouted the Doctor. "No Thanksgiving would be complete without the Lady of Fashion's biscuits."

"I'll make the biscuits," said the Lady of Fashion, who was hemming a tiny handkerchief about one-quarter the size of a postage stamp, "but I think it would be nice if we invited Tilly the Sparrow and Nick the Squirrel to dine with us."

"Ah, shucks!" exploded the Dunce'. "Nick eats too much."

"Now, Dunce, that's no way for you to talk," said the Lady of Fashion. "Nick is a very generous fellow and our very best friend."

"That's right," agreed the Turk. ‘Nick and Tilly haven't any place to go on Thanksgiving and it would be nice to have them here."

"They are too big to get into the house," argued the Dunce, "and we'd have to feed them through the window."

"That wouldn't be very polite," laughed the General. "If it's a nice day, we can eat outdoors."

"That will be fine!" exclaimed the Cook. "I'll barbecue a frog ham and make lots of sauce."   

All the Teenie Weenies were pleased with the Cook's suggestion, for they loved frog ham cooked slowly over an outside fire. The Old Soldier with the wooden leg built a long table and two benches for the occasion. The Doctor made a thimbleful of delicious punch and the Lady of Fashion spent all Thanksgiving morning baking biscuits.

Nick the Squirrel brought a black walnut as his share of the good things to eat. Tilly was somewhat embarrassed when she saw that Nick had brought a present.

"I'd have brought a couple of fat worms if they had been in season," she said. "I always want to do my share."

"You can bring in some firewood," said the lazy Dunce, who had been given the task of supplying the fire with fuel.

"Sure," chirped Tilly, "I'll get all the firewood you want," and she immediately flew off in search of wood. She brought in so many twigs that the General finally had to ask her to stop.

When the ham was done to a turn, it was put onto the Teenie Weenies' biggest platter, which really was the top of an olive bottle. Two of the strongest men carried it to the table, where the General sliced portions for everybody. Tilly ate many slices, but Nick, who was a vegetarian, wouldn't touch the meat. However, he ate 23 biscuits, nine and a half loaves of Teenie Weenie bread, 12 sunflower seeds and four raisins.

"Well, it was a nice dinner," said the General when the guests had gone.

"Yes, it was," said the Lady of Fashion, "but I do hope Nick had enough to eat,"

"He should have," laughed the Cook. "He ate all the bread in the place and there isn't a scrap left for breakfast."

 

Those who have been with me for some time know that I sometimes send out a series of TW Christmas strips, one each day starting on the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas day. I plan to do that this year, but I'm only going to post them to the web site, so you won't have your email inboxes filled up.

 

OK, I'm not even going to try to explain why I think this is hilarious:

 

 

This next one is a really long clip of a baby dancing to a music video. It makes me laugh, but I hereby give you permission to skip over it if you just find this sort of thing annoying.

 

 

Here's one for you romantic geeks out there (you know who you are):

 

 

This one is just called, "Things Change""

 

 

And just in case you think the Internet has been just peachy for everyone:

 

 

This idea is kind of fascinating:

 

 

This has been everywhere, so you must have seen it, but just in case ... :

 

 

I call this next one, "Patience and Wisdom":

 

 

Warning, do not let your small children play alone with pit bulls, or something really ugly can happen:

 

 

OK, that's all I've got for now, except below, which I find strangely hypnotic. See ya next time!

 

Don