>
>
>       XX
 JOEL: Someone punched out the story, it's got X's in its eyes.
>
>       A FREE RIDE
  TOM: When you've already paid.
>
>       Inside the jug,
 CROW: [ As Grumpy ] 'Get my mouthpiece on the horn!'
>                       where he had hidden to escape Henry
> Hawk, Grumpy Weasel yawned widely and licked his chops.
  TOM: Oh, at least he has something to snack on while he waits, that's nice.
>                                                         He
> was having a dull time,
 JOEL: He should jus skip to the next scene then.
>                         waiting until he was sure that Henry
> Hawk had given up the chase and gone away.
 CROW: [ As Grumpy ] Are you still out there?
 JOEL: [ As Henry ] No!  I mean!  ... Oh, you *are* a wily one.
>
>       In a little while Grumpy believed he could venture
> out in safety.
  TOM: A little Squirrel Scout came out to ask if she could walk him across the road.
>                But suddenly, to his great disgust, a wagon
> came clattering in from the road
 CROW: Aw, great.  Tourists.
>                                  and pulled up right beside
> the pile of empty barrels near him.
 JOEL: Oh, he would get stuck the day the cooper-monger came to review the wares.
>
>       It was Farmer Brown, driving his old horse Ebenezer.
  TOM: Who'd just been visited by the Ghosts of Preaknesses Past, Present, and Yet To Come.
> And of course Grumpy Weasel didn't care to show himself just
> then,
 JOEL: Weasels are known to be weak to horse types.
>       especially with old dog Spot nosing around.
 CROW: Hey, we can ask Spot about that capture Fatty Raccoon was talking about!
>                                                   He had
> already heard Spot give several sharp yelps.
  TOM: Spot is reviewing things left and right!  He can't be stopped!
>
>       "That old dog knows I'm here somewhere
 CROW: I mean, you're always *somewhere*.
  TOM: Not if you don't have object permanence!  
>                                              but he can't
> tell exactly where," Grumpy said to himself.
 JOEL: Aw, go ahead and tell him, he won't gossip.
>                                              "He can yelp his
> head off, for all I care."
  TOM: Not in the Snuffy Smith way!  That way's odd.
>
>       And then Spot began to whine, and run in and out
> among the barrels,
 JOEL: Hey, those aren't barrels of wine.
>                    until he all but tripped Farmer Green, who
> was loading the barrels into the wagon.
  TOM: Sneaking more Marx Brothers into the story!
>
>       "Let him whine!" said Grumpy Weasel softly.
 JOEL: Oh please don't, it makes the neighbors tense.
>                                                   "His
> yelping and whining don't scare me. He can't get inside this
> jug of mine.
  TOM: This little jug of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.  
>              And I certainly shan't leave it so long as he
> stays here."
 CROW: Once he leaves, though, maybe I shan.
>
>       Meanwhile he could hear Farmer Green talking to old
> Spot, telling him not to be silly.
 JOEL: [ As Spot ] 'But ... I got my clown makeup out and *everything*!
>
>       "From the way you're acting anybody might think there
> was a bear around here," he told Spot.
  TOM: [ As a Bear ] 'I am!  ... ... uh ... rawr?'
>
>       Old dog Spot explained to Farmer Green in no
> uncertain fashion that it was no bear---but a weasel
 CROW: Or as the Germans call them, 'a sneaky pounce bear'.
>                                                     ---that
> he was looking for. His nose told him that.
 JOEL: Tattletale!
  TOM: Tattle*nose*.
>                                             And there was no
> mistake about it. But somehow Farmer Green couldn't
> understand a word he said.
 CROW: Try telling him in Law French!
 JOEL: Why?
 CROW: I just like there's such a thing as 'Law French'.
>                            So after putting the last barrel
> on the load Farmer Green climbed up himself and started to
> drive off.
  TOM: Donkey Kong: The Prequel Menace.
>
>       But old dog Spot wouldn't budge an inch.
 CROW: Inches are the most stubborn creatures on the farmyard.
>                                                He hovered
> about the jug where Grumpy Weasel was hiding and made such a
> fuss that Farmer Green looked back at him.
  TOM: Little nip for the dog that bit you?
>
>       "Well! well!" he exclaimed.
 JOEL: [ As Farmer Green ] 'A dog that can hover!  You're sure to win the County Floating Contest!'
>                                   And he stopped the horse
> Ebenezer and jumped down and walked back again.
 CROW: [ As Ebeneezer ] A visitation from the Ghost of Small Errands Yet To Run!
>
>       "I declare I'd have forgotten to take this jug if you
> hadn't reminded me of it," he told Spot.
 JOEL: Farmer Green believes his pets worry about unfinished chores.
>                                          And thereupon he
> picked up the jug and set it in the back of the wagon.
  TOM: Old Weasel, 100 proof.
>
>       This time Spot followed.
 CROW: Follow the Spots.
 JOEL: Leaves a little dotted line like Billy in The Family Circus.
>                                This time he was in the
> wagon before Farmer Green was.
  TOM: He wants the front seat.
>                                And all the way down the road,
> until they reached the farmyard, he acted (or so Farmer Green
> told him!) like a simpleton.
 JOEL: [ As Farmer Green ] 'Yep, ol' Spot, it's really easy.  They're going to look at my jug full of weasel and they're going to say, 'Now, Daniel Green, we know you can't build a full-grown weasel in a bottle like that, and we know you can't fit a baby weasel in there and grow him up inside, so how did you get a full-grown weasel in side there?'  And I'll slap my knee and tell them, 'It's all easy once you remember that my first name is Richard'.'
>
>       The whole affair made Grumpy Weasel terribly angry.
  TOM: Luckily, 'Angry' is his middle name.
 CROW: You suppose his parents named him?
> He thought it was an outrage for Farmer Green to kidnap him
> like that.
 CROW: Well sorry, I don't see *you* suggesting better ways to kidnap yourself.
>            And he was so enraged that he would have taken a
> bite out of anything handy.
 JOEL: Even crime.
>                             But there wasn't a thing in the
> jug except himself.
  TOM: And he can't do that, that's Meany Weasel's thing.
>
>       At last the strange party drew up in front of the
> barn and stopped.
 CROW: 'Strange' party?
 JOEL: Yeah, like you have to come dressed as your third-favorite commedia dell'arte character and the music is entirely that twenty-minute cover of 'Sex Dwarf' that sounds like it was done tranquilized.
  
>                   Farmer Green led Ebenezer into his stall.
  TOM: But could not make him drink.
> And then he took the jug, with Grumpy Weasel still inside in,
> and in spite of Spot's protests set it high up on a shelf in
> the barn.
 CROW: [ As Farmer Green ] 'A little treat for later.'
>
>       It was easy for Grumpy, after that, to crawl out of
> the jug.
 JOEL: [ As Grumpy ] 'Say you!'  (Thump!)
>          He scurried along the shelf, climbed up the wall,
> and glided through a crack in the ceiling,
 CROW: Um, excuse me, where was it established there were cracks in the ceilings before?  Deus ex machina anyone?
>                                            to hide himself in
> the haymow above.
  TOM: o/` Haymow, haymow, my boyfriend's back.  o/`
>
>       "Old Spot didn't get me this time!" he said
> gleefully.
 JOEL: [ As Spot ] 'Let's try it again, I bet I get farther!'
>            "Not by a jugful, he didn't!"
 CROW: Not by a jugful?
  TOM: It's an old-timey expression because it's literally true!
[ to continue ... ]
-- 
                                                                Joseph Nebus
 Math Blog: 
https://nebusresearch.wordpress.com
Humor Blog: 
https://nebushumor.wordpress.com
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