Twinkle Toes and His Magic Mittens

<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br/> <span class="smaller">EARNING MONEY</span></h2> <p>Twinkle Toes woke up early next morning, and skipped about with his travelling bag, singing,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“With travelling bag away he goes,</div> <div class="verse indent0">So sings your little Twinkle Toes.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>“Let me go too, let me go too,” cried the Three Little Kittens in one breath.</p> <p>They all had their little travelling bags with them and they shouted,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“To Squirrel Town away we go,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Three Little Kittens, ha, ha, ho, ho.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>As it happened, they did not go to Squirrel Town that day, nor the next, nor the next, for Old Mother Kit-Cat said, “Dot, Tot, Trot, you must earn some money, so I can knit a pair of mittens for Twinkle Toes.”</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_26"></SPAN>[26]</span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus5.jpg" width-obs="550" height-obs="700" alt="" /> <p class="caption">TWINKLE TOES WAS DREAMING ABOUT A PAIR OF MAGIC MITTENS</p> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27"></SPAN>[27]</span></p> <p>Old Mother Kit-Cat’s rocking chair went to and fro, to and fro, and all this time her needles went “click, click click.”</p> <p>Dot and Tot said,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Oh dear, oh dear, pray, what shall we do,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Mother Kit-Cat, to earn money for you?”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>Brave Little Trot said,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“I’ll take my snow shovel, that’s what I’ll do,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Mother Kit-Cat, to earn pennies for you.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28"></SPAN>[28]</span></p> <p>“Hurrah, hurrah,” cried Dot and Tot, “we will all take our snow shovels and go to the woods and shovel paths for the animals!”</p> <p>Twinkle Toes waltzed round and round, and suddenly without warning, down came a little snow shovel, and he put it over his shoulder and marched merrily along.</p> <p>I don’t know whether it was a magic snow shovel or not, but Twinkle Toes worked three times as fast clearing paths as the Three Little Kittens.</p> <p>“My furry tail, how cold it is!” said Dot.</p> <p>“My long whiskers, how the wind whistles,” said Tot.</p> <p>Brave little Trot said,</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29"></SPAN>[29]</span></p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“If we will sing once in a while,</div> <div class="verse indent0">It will shorten the longest mile.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>Twinkle Toes waltzed round and round while the Three Little Kittens shouted at the top of their lungs in a sing-song way,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“We are Three Little Kittens</div> <div class="verse indent0">Who once lost our mittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">We are Three Little Kittens</div> <div class="verse indent0">Who frolic and play,</div> <div class="verse indent0">We are Three Little Kittens</div> <div class="verse indent0">Who once found our mittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">We are Three Little Kittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">So cunning and gay.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>At this very minute, an astonishing thing happened!</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30"></SPAN>[30]</span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus6.jpg" width-obs="550" height-obs="700" alt="" /> <p class="caption">TWINKLE TOES WORKED THREE TIMES AS FAST CLEARING PATHS</p> </div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31"></SPAN>[31]</span></p> <p>A great deep growly voice cried,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Come shovel me out, you dear little Kittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I’ll give you pennies to buy wool for mittens.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>They were by old Curly-Bear’s den.</p> <p>They were not a bit afraid.</p> <p>They all went to work with a will and shoveled a good path to the old Bear’s den.</p> <p>Then Curly-Bear reached out his paw and said,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“When I heard Three Little Kittens sing,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I thought it was almost time for spring.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>He handed Trot six pennies and went back into his den for another nap.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32"></SPAN>[32]</span></p> <p>“I wish we could sleep all winter,” said Dot. Tot said, “I do miss my nice warm mittens, why do I always forget to put them on?”</p> <p>“Overshoes too, overshoes too,” laughed the wind as he whistled by.</p> <p>They had all done enough shovelling of snow that day, but next day they went to the Ground Hog’s hole and he cried sleepily,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Come shovel me out, you dear little Kittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I’ll give you pennies to buy wool for mittens.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>They began to shovel with right good will and all the while Old Shadow, the Ground Hog was scolding about sunshine and shadow.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33"></SPAN>[33]</span></p> <p>He said he could never tell whether or not he would cast his shadow until he came out of his hole.</p> <p>By and by he peeped out and gave Trot the pennies, then he went back into his hole for another nap.</p> <p>Twinkle Toes waltzed round and round, and the Three Little Kittens went on until they heard a voice cry:—</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Come shovel me out, you dear little Kittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">I’ll give you pennies to buy wool for mittens.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>They went to the Beaver’s house built by the pond and worked away, and will you believe it, the Beaver said all the time, “Work like a Beaver, work like a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34"></SPAN>[34]</span> Beaver. Some day we may tell you how we build our homes, but don’t come too near, for we are very shy.”</p> <p>The Beaver tossed six pennies out of his window and called “Good bye” as the Three Little Kittens trudged merrily down the road.</p> <p>“My shovel gets heavier every minute,” said Dot.</p> <p>“I cannot walk another step, I am most frozen,” said Tot.</p> <p>Brave Little Trot said, “We will keep on a few steps more and maybe we will meet some of our friends, or cousins, or uncles, or aunts.”</p> <p>Twinkle Toes waltzed round and round.</p> <p>Just then, was heard the “Jingle, jingle,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_35"></SPAN>[35]</span> jingle,” of sleighbells. Some one was coming in a sleigh.</p> <p>The Three Little Kittens stood in the road waving their snow shovels, and they blocked the path.</p> <p>The sleigh came nearer, and nearer, every minute.</p> <p>When Twinkle Toes saw who was in the sleigh he set up a shout, “It is Old Uncle Mouser, stop him, stop him.”</p> <p>Uncle Mouser was pleased to see his old friends you may be sure and he said,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Creep under my fur robe, as still as a mouse,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Then home we will ride to your own little house.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>No sooner said than done, they all<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_36"></SPAN>[36]</span> scrambled under the warm fur robe and rode away, away, away, to the home of the Three Little Kittens.</p> <p>When they arrived Old Mother Kit-Cat stood in the doorway looking for them.</p> <p>She was delighted to see Uncle Mouser again and he said he would stay, if he could sleep in his red plush-lined basket.</p> <p>Such a shaking of snow as there was from fur and whiskers, and Trot gave Old Mother Kit-Cat the pennies they had earned.</p> <p>When they were all ready to go to sleep Dot said, “We forgot to ask Curly-Bear if he had ever seen our mittens.”</p> <p>Tot said, “We forgot to ask Old Shadow if he had seen our mittens, that time they were lost so long.”</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_37"></SPAN>[37]</span></p> <p>Trot said, “Perhaps Billy Beaver could have told us something about them.”</p> <p>Old Mother Kit-Cat said,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“Hush, be still, ’tis time to sleep,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Three Little Kittens, quiet keep.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>Twinkle Toes and Old Mouser were already asleep.</p> <p>They lay side by side in the red plush-lined basket.</p> <p>Old Mother Kit-Cat had already started a pair of mittens for Twinkle Toes, but she needed yarn to finish them.</p> <p>She said, “I will send the Three Little Kittens for yarn to-morrow.”</p> <p>She was not at all sleepy, so she thought she would finish one of the mittens she had started.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_38"></SPAN>[38]</span></p> <p>She took up her needles, and to her surprise, they went to and fro, to and fro, in her paws and in less than a twinkling of an eye, one mitten was finished.</p> <p>“By my furry tail,” said Mother Kit-Cat, that must be a magic mitten after all. “Perhaps this is one of the magic mittens Twinkle Toes has been talking about.”</p> <p>Then, to her surprise the finished mitten began to sing,</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse indent0">“When you do good deeds for others,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Fathers, sisters, cousins, mothers,</div> <div class="verse indent0">Even helpful things for kittens,</div> <div class="verse indent0">You may wear some magic mittens.”</div> </div></div> </div> <p>Old Mother Kit-Cat was not sure whether she was asleep or dreaming, for all the rest of the family had gone to dreamland.</p> <hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_39"></SPAN>[39]</span></p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/header1.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="60" alt="" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />