Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, American; Fantasy literature; Short stories, American
"Tiny stood it as long as he could, and then he complained to his
friend, the Whirlwind, about it, and the Whirlwind, who was a very
sensible sort of a fellow, advised him not to mind it. It was only
jealousy, he said, that led the Dude Giant to behave that way, and if
Tiny had not been more successful than Forepate--as the Dude Giant was
called--Forepate wouldn't have been jealous, so that his very jealousy
was an acknowledgment of inferiority. So Tiny made up his mind he
wouldn't pay any attention to the Dude Giant at all, but would go right
ahead minding his own business and making all the money he could.
"This made Forepate all the more angry, and finally he resolved to get
even with the Dwarf in some other way than by making grimaces at him.
Now, it happened that Forepate's place was over by a window directly
opposite to where the Dwarf sat, and so, to get near enough to Tiny to
put his scheme against him into execution, he complained to the manager
that there was a terrible draft from the window, and added that unless
he could sit on the other side of the room he was certain he'd catch
cold in three of his heads anyhow, if not in all of them.
"'Very well,' said the manager. 'Where do you wish to sit?'
"'You might put me next to Littlejohn, over there,' said the head with
red hair.
"'But,' said the manager, 'what shall we do with that stuffed owl with
the unicorn's horns?'
"'Put him by the window,' said another of the Dude Giant's heads.
"'Yes,' said the third head. 'No draft in all the world could give a
stuffed owl a cold.'
"'That's so,' replied the manager. 'We'll make the change right off.'
"And then the change was made, though Tiny did not like it very much.
"To disarm all suspicion, the Dude Giant was very affable to the Dwarf
for a whole week, and to see him talking to Tiny no one would have
suspected that he hated him so, which shows how horribly crafty he was.
Finally the hour for his revenge arrived. It was Monday morning, and
Forepate and Tiny had taken their places as usual, when, observing that
no one was looking, Forepate took his biggest beaver hat and put it over
Tiny, completely hiding him from view. Poor Tiny was speechless with
rage, and so could not cry out. Forepate kept him under his hat all
day, and whenever any one asked where Littlejohn was, one of his heads
would say, 'Alas! Poor Tiny, he has mysteriously disappeared!' And
another head would shake itself and say 'Somebody must have left the
door open and the wind must have whisked the dear little fellow out into
the cold, cold world.' Then the other two heads would blubber, at which
the Dude Giant would take out his handkerchiefs and wipe his eight eyes
and shake all over as if he were inconsolable, and Tiny, overhearing it
all, grew more and more speechless with indignation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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