"It looks as though we shall have no doughnuts for Christmas," said the Teenie Weenie Cook one evening, as he set an acornful of buckwheat pancake batter before the Teenie Weenie fireplace for the next morning's breakfast.

"WHAT!" exclaimed several of the little people. "NO DOUGHNUTS FOR CHRISTMAS!"

"No, we haven't enough oil to fry them in," said the Cook.

"AH, JINKS!" cried the Dunce. "It won't seem like Christmas unless we have doughnuts."

"Allie same, me know where plenty automobile oil," put in the Chinaman.

"No," laughed the Cook, "that won't do. Peanuts make the best oil for frying doughnuts, but we haven't enough to grease a griddle."

The thought of celebrating Christmas without doughnuts was a great disappointment for the Teenie Weenies. They had always had doughnuts to feast upon during the holidays. The Cook had always made two thimblefuls and all the Teenie Weenies felt that doughnuts were as much a part of the Christmas celebration as hanging up their stockings.

A number of the little men trudged through the snow all the next day looking for peanuts. They searched from morning until night without finding a single nut.

"I've asked some mice to be on the lookout for peanuts," said the Turk. "They usually know where to find them."

"Tilly Titter, the sparrow, said that she would hunt for them, too," put in the Dunce. "She's always moving around the neighborhood. If anyone can find them, it will be Tilly."

The next morning the Cook was just putting two grains of hominy into the oven for luncheon when there was a loud knocking on the kitchen roof. It shook the whole kitchen, and a cherry seedful of salt fell off the shelf over the kitchen sink. It spilled over the cheese sauce the Cook had made for the hominy, and he was angry. He threw open the kitchen door, expecting to find the Dunce playing a prank, but there was Tilly Titter.

The Teenie Weenies heard Tilly, for she was excited and Tilly always talked loudly when she was excited. The little people came pouring out of the old shoe house and gathered about the bird.

"Saw a man throw a bag away," she said. "He threw it under some bushes, and I pecked a hole in the bag and took a peek. Landsakes! If it wasn't nearly full of peanuts! Come on and I'll show you."

The bird flew off and the little folk wallowed through the snow as fast as they could go. They found the bag, cut a hole through the side and, dragging out the nuts, they carried them to the shoe house. There they removed enough oil to make all the doughnuts they could possibly eat.

The Cook roasted a nut in the Teenie Weenie stove, for the peanuts were a bit stale, and presented it to Tilly.

"Merry Christmas!" shouted the delighted bird when the Cook gave her the nut.

"It will be a Merry Christmas," said the General, "and you have been the one to make it so. If you hadn't found those peanuts, we'd have had a pretty dull Christmas without doughnuts,"