Maybe You Don't Know the Comical Little Chap, but the Children and Every One Else are Bound to Like Him When He Appears in the Funny Pictures.....

When children expect company with whom they have never played they wonder, as a rule,
what the new playmate will be like.
So it is only just to the wishes of the children that I introduce to them
Mr. Twee Deedle,
who will appear for the first time in the pages of this newspaper next week.
It might be that some children may happen to know a Twee Deedle,
for I am sure there are more Twee Deedles than the one with whom I happened to become acquainted.

The Twee Deedle I know lived in an old gnarled apple tree growing in a thick woods
out near Silvermine, Connecticut.
Mr. Gutzon Borglum, the sculpter, who owns the property, discovered the tree
and the path leading to the little hole which the Twee Deedle uses as a doorway.

Mr. Borglum often told his little boy and girl about the Twee Deedle and showed them the path and doorway;
but the children could never get a peep at the Twee Deedle,
even though they watched the doorway for hours at a time.
When I moved to Connecticut and heard my little girl
speak of the Twee Deedle
I could not imagine what she meant, so did not give the matter much thought.
That afternoon the Borglum children took my little girl to the tree,
and she came running all excited.
"Papa," she cried, "there really must be a Twee Deedle living in the old tree,
for there is a little path that leads down to the spring,
and there is the cutest little hole in the tree that I am sure he uses for a doorway."
So I put on my hat and we went through the woods to the tree.
Sure enough, there was the path,
just about three inches wide, winding around little sticks and stones
just like a grown-up man's path,
and leading to the crystal spring bubbling about ten feet from the tree.
We brushed the ferns and flowers aside, and there was the doorway,
just large enough for the tinly little person to enter.
I have always believed in encouraging the children in any beautiful belief that their imagination may inspire,
so I told my little girl that I guessed it must be a Twee Deedle that lived in the old tree,
even though I thought the path was made by a little squirrel or a chipmunk.
However, I thought of the place quite often,
and while wandering around through the woods I would often
sneak up to the tree
and watch for the chipmunk that I thought had made the path.
I brought acorns and placed them in the path,
but when I would look the next time the path would be clear and the acorns would be in the grass at the side,
so I knew whatever lived there was not a squirrel, or he would have eaten the nuts.
One Day I left a piece of candy. It was gone the next time I looked.
Apples that I placed in the path wold be rolled off to one side when I would look the next day.
One evening I took a large apple and covered it with white paint
and placed it just in front of the little doorway; then I went away.
Early the next morning I found the apple in the grass
at one side of the little path,
and the paint was covered with prints of a little hand no larger than a tiny kitten's paw.
There was now no doubt in my mind that the Twee Deedle really lived in the tree,
but how to see him was the question that bothered me.
I found out that he would take the candy away which I placed in the path,
so I decided to catch him in a rat trap filled with candy.
I went to town and bought a large trap and placed it in the path in the evening.
I could scarcely sleep that night, and when the clock struck two
I was wide awake,
so I dressed and walked through the woods.
There was no moon that night, and it was quite hard to find the tree.
I do not think I should have found it at all had there not been
fifty or one hundred lightning bugs
on the ferns above the little path.
As I carefully crawled up to the tree I heard the trap spring shut
with a loud snap and the lightning bugs all flew up the air and then settled again on the ferns.
The light from the fireflies cast a soft yellow glow for three or four feet
around the place, so I could see the Twee Deedle sitting inside the trap eating the candy.
I wish that all you children could have seen him.
Just imagine a little figure only eight or nine inches high, with a queer,
comical shaped hat
looking like a morning glory, only the brim was scalloped
more like the petals of a daisy.
His head was just about the size of a dollar, rather large for his body,
and his hair, which was parted in the middle, Indian fashion,
fell down over his shoulders.
He wore a pointed collar, and at each point there hung a round button.
His shirt coat, or dress, scarcely reached to his knees,
and was cut in points just like his collar.
He wore tights that fit his legs so snugly that it seemed as if they were a part of him,
and his feet were encased in the cutest little moccasins that you could imagine.
He was the most cunning little figure I had ever seen,
as he sat cross-legged, tailor fashion, in the bottom of the trap and ate the candy.
I think he must have heard my breathing,
for he looked up in a jerky way, and in a little teeny weeny voice asked...
"That you, Mr. Fox?"
I didn't know what to say, I didn't care to frighten him,
but when he asked again, "That you, Mr. Fox?" I said:.... "No, this is Johnny Gruelle."
"Never heard of you before," he said, and went on eating the candy.
He wasn't a bit afraid. "I brought you the candy," I replied, by way of opening the conversation,
"and I put the trap there to catch you in."
"What trap?", he asked, with his mouth full of candy. "why, the trap you are sitting in of course," I replied.
He gave a little tinkly laugh. "This isn't a trap," he said,
and he stood up and walked right through the wire, just as if there were none there,
and then walked back into the trap and sat down again.
" I thought that was a good trap," I said.
"Mr. Hubble, the hardware man, said the wires were good
and strong and would hold anything."
"Well, he has never tried to hold me," said the Twee Deedle.
Well, it would make quite a long story if I would tell you all we talked about,
but I asked him everything
I could think of and he didn't seem to mind my inquisitiveness.
I told him I was trying to find an idea for a comic series
so that I could enter the prize competition,
and he told me that if I would send the drawings that he suggested,
I would win the prize.
So he told me just what to make, and I made it.
Every morning last autumn at about two o'clock I went over to the tree
and we had long talks,
and he told me of different adventures he and Dickie had gone through.
He didn't tell me who Dickie was or where he lived,
so I cannot tell you any more of Dickie than I tell you in my pictures.
With the coming of cold weather I discontinued my early morning visits to the Twee Deedle tree,
and last week when I went there the snow had banked up over the little doorway and covered the path.
I scraped it away and called, but received no answer,
so I do not know what has become of
Mr. Twee Deedle.
Perhaps he goes South each year, as the birds do,
or perhaps he goes away up into the trunk of the tree and in a
little feathery bed
sleeps until Spring knocks at the door and bids him waken.
I will ask him next summer, if he is in the old apple tree,
just where he goes each winter,
and perhaps I shall let you in on the secret.
JOHN B. GRUELLE

A Twee Deedle doll was produced for the Herald, by A. Steinhardt & Bros. and later by Steiff. For details on these dolls See: Doll Chronology

I chose to create my Mr. Twee Deedle character doll from Gruelle's illustrations, rather than the earlier dolls.
I hope you will enjoy my own interpretation of this mysterious little character.
He is a definite family favorite and is sure to be one of my more sought after Raggedy Character Dolls!