Читать книгу The Teenie Weenies in the Wildwood - William Donahey - Страница 6

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All night long the Teenie Weenies searched without success for the captured Lady of Fashion and the Poet. The Indian found the spot where they had been surprised and taken. Their tiny footprints and the tracks of the wild men, as well as the spot where the canoe had been pushed into the water, showed plainly in the moist sand.

“Him wild man, him get good start,” grunted the Indian after he had studied the footprints for some time. “We no catch ’um before him get home.”

“I’m afraid not,” answered the General. “If that slow-poke snail had been a little faster we might have caught them.”

“Ugh!” was all the Indian said.

When all the Teenie Weenies had returned to the little village after the search, the General called a meeting.

“Men,” he began, “we have got to do something and do it quickly!”

“Call out the army, why don’t you?” shouted an excited mouse that had joined the crowd.

“I believe we’ll have to,” answered the General. “I hate to use the army, but I don’t see what else we can do. These wild men are very savage and I have been told that there are many of them. If we go after the Lady of Fashion and the Poet, we are going on a hard and dangerous mission. We will have many long miles to march and there—there may be fighting. Now, men, I will put it to a vote. All those in favor of sending the army after the wild men in order to free our friends will say ‘yes.’”

“Yes!” shouted every single Teenie Weenie, so loudly that they made the leaves tremble on the old rose bush overhead.

The little people started at once to prepare for the trip into the forest, for it was there that the wild men lived. It takes a great deal of work to outfit an army and the little men were soon buzzing about as busy as bees.

Two squirrels offered their services, but the General was forced to refuse them, for they were such big eaters that the army could not afford to feed them.

Several mice were hired to pull the wagons and the cannons and also for the officers to ride.

A great quantity of food and tools had to be brought out and loaded into the wagons. It took seven hundred grains of wheat, six hundred grains of corn, thirty raisins, six dried prunes, fifty-eight beans, to say nothing of cocoa, salt, pepper, baking powder, picks, shovels, pulleys, ropes, tents, a great quantity of cheese for the mice-horses and many other things.

It was quite late that night before the wagons were loaded and most of the little soldiers slept in their uniforms, for the army was to start into the forest soon after daylight.

The army was to be made up of a division of ten infantrymen, two artillerymen, two mounted scouts, two cooks, a doctor and two nurses.

The General was in command, with the Old Soldier as chief of staff, while Paddy Pinn had command of the artillery.

When the little soldiers had said their last good-byes, the men stepped into line and at the gruff command of the General they swung away towards the great forest in which the wild men lived. The Indian and the Cowboy, mounted on mice, rode ahead of the army and picked out the best and easiest road for the soldiers, while the Turk, who was chosen as the aviator, flew above the army on the back of a bird, ever watchful for enemies.

At noon the army halted for lunch beneath the shade of a lilac bush, where each man eagerly devoured the grain of baked wheat which had been given to each soldier that morning as his ration.

After they had rested a bit, and when they had filled their tiny canteens with water from an old tin can, the command was given to “fall in.” Once more the army took up the march.

The army had a hard time that afternoon, for the road it traveled was very rough. The little soldiers had to stop every now and then to chop weeds and dandelions from the road so the wagons and cannon could pass. Late in the afternoon the Turk told the General he had sighted an excellent place for a camp, and all the tired little chaps were made very happy when the order was given to make camp for the night.