Freddy Goes to Florida (12 page)

The niece thought this was a good idea, and the animals looked at one another and nodded, and so Robert barked very loud to show that they thought it a good idea too. Then Aunt Etta got up. “I'll go in and telephone the newspaper office right away,” she said, “and have the advertisement put in to-night. And then we'll give these animals something to eat and a place to be comfortable. They must be tired, having come such a long way.”

So she telephoned the newspaper office, and then she went out in the barn and got some oats for Hank, and she showed Alice and Emma where the duck pond was, and introduced them to her own ducks, and she found two bones for the dogs, and a piece of cheese for the mice, and a saucer of cream for Jinx, and she cooked up some corn-meal mush for Charles and Henrietta, and led Mrs. Wiggins out into the pasture, where there was a very superior quality of grass. If she had noticed Mr. and Mrs. Webb she would probably have tried to catch some flies for them, she was such a kind and generous old lady, and so grateful for the return of her gold soup tureen.

Then, when the animals had all been given the things they liked best to eat, she sat down on the porch and told her niece everything she had read in the paper for the last six weeks.

XVII

So for two days the animals stayed at Aunt Etta's, who, as Mrs. Wiggins said, was kindness itself. They sat on the front porch with her while she read the paper, and they ate the good things she prepared for them. A good many of the animals in the neighbourhood who had heard about them came to call and to ask about their travels, and as there were so many who were interested in their adventures, Charles very kindly consented to give a lecture in the big barn on the second evening. The name of the lecture was
A Trip to the Sunny South
, and it was a great success.

Then on the third day all the farmers and their wives from far and near who had had things stolen by the burglars gathered in Aunt Etta's parlour, because that was the day the advertisement in the paper had told them to come, to get their things back. All the jewellery and money and watches and silverware were tastefully arranged on little tables covered with white doilies, and all the farmers had to do was to pick out the things that belonged to them. And when they had all got their property back, they made a great fuss over the animals, and one nice old lady, whose name was Mrs. Trigg, and who owned the rope of pearls that Mrs. Wiggins had dressed up in, said: “I wish there was something we could do for these good, kind animals to show them how much we appreciate what they have done for us. Can anyone think of anything?”

The farmers and their wives all clapped their hands and cheered at this, and made more of a fuss over the animals than ever, but no one could think of any way to reward them.

Then Robert had an idea, and he went up to Mrs. Trigg and barked three times.

“I believe that dog understood what you said,” said Aunt Etta. “Just see the way he's looking at you.”

Then Robert ran a little way toward the kitchen, and stopped and looked back; so Aunt Etta and Mrs. Trigg followed him, and he went straight to a shelf in the kitchen and stood on his hind legs and put his forepaws on the edge of it and looked over his shoulder at them and barked again.

There were a number of things on the shelf. There was a photograph of Aunt Etta, and a photograph of her married daughter who lived in Rochester, and a spool of black darning-cotton, and an alarm-clock, and a butcher's bill, and a picture postcard of Niagara Falls, and seven beans, and a box of matches, and quite a lot of dust. The dust was there because Aunt Etta, although she was a kind-hearted woman, wasn't a very good housekeeper. She spent too much time reading the newspaper.

“Now, what do you suppose he wants up there?” said Mrs. Trigg.

“Why I do believe,” said Aunt Etta, and I think she blushed a little—“I do believe he wants that picture of me!” And she took the picture down and gave it to Robert.

Of course the picture wasn't what Robert wanted at all, but he was too polite to let her know it, and he thanked her by wagging his tail and smiling the way dogs do. And then he put his forepaws on the shelf and barked again.

“He wants something else, too,” said Mrs. Trigg. “Now what can it be?” And she began touching all the things on the shelf and looking at Robert. And when she touched the alarm-clock, he barked very loud, so she knew that was what he wanted. So Aunt Etta gave him the clock, and he carried it and the picture out on the porch and showed them to the other animals.

“Now,” he said, “we've got an alarm-clock for Mr. Bean, Charles. You won't have to get up early in the morning any more when we get back.” And Charles was very much pleased.

“
Now we've got an alarm-clock for Mr. Bean
.”

It was getting along toward supper-time by now, and all the farmers were climbing into their buggies and automobiles and driving away. They were happy to have recovered their valuables, and when somebody started to sing, they all joined in. Many of them sang part-songs all the way home. It was very inspiring.

Soon there was nobody left on the porch but Aunt Etta and her niece and Mrs. Trigg and a stout lady who lived across the road and whose name was Mrs. Hackenbutt.

“It does seem to me,” said Aunt Etta, “that a photograph and an alarm-clock are a very small reward to give these animals for bringing back our things.”

“It isn't very much,” agreed her niece, “but I can't think of anything else. Can you?”

“
I
can think of something,” said Mrs. Hackenbutt suddenly. “We could help them to get all that dreadful paint off. I've been watching that cat and he's been licking himself for an hour. He wants to get it off. Now, if we could give them a good scrubbing——”

“That might do,” said Aunt Etta. “I always say that there's nothing that good hot suds won't take out.”

Now, if there is anything a cat hates more than cold water, it is hot water, and so Jinx immediately crawled under the porch and stayed there. Hank and Mrs. Wiggins would have liked to crawl under too, but of course they were too large. As for Robert and Freddy, they thought it was undignified to run away, so they sat nobly on the porch and waited while the women heated water in the wash-boiler and brought it out to them.

Then Mrs. Hackenbutt and Aunt Etta's niece rolled up their sleeves and set to work with scrubbing-brushes. They scrubbed and scrubbed, and pretty soon the thick paint began to loosen its hold on the animals' skins and peel off. “This isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be,” said Mrs. Wiggins.

“It's fine,” said Hank. “I used to wonder why Mr. Bean took a bath every Saturday night, but I know now why he likes it so much.”

When they had got off as much paint as they could, the women led the animals round to the pump and rinsed them off with buckets of cool well-water. But Jinx didn't come out until it was all over, and then he took care to keep out of sight.

They stayed at Aunt Etta's house that night, and would have liked to stay longer, but they knew that Mr. Bean needed them and thought they ought to start along. They hurried back to the log house in the woods and dug up the gold and put it in the phaeton.

“And now,” said Freddy, “our adventures are over. Soon we'll be back in our own comfortable home again, and I for one shall be glad to be there.”

“Yes,” said Mrs. Wiggins, “our adventures are over for this year at least.”

But she was wrong. For the most exciting adventure of all was lying in wait for them up the long, homeward road.

XVIII

Nothing much happened, however, for the next few days. They plodded along the road, doing a steady twenty-five miles a day, for they were used to it now and could go much longer without getting tired than when they first set out. Most of the people they met had heard about them by this time, and although they attracted a good deal of attention, nobody molested them. The heap of gold coins lay in the bottom of the phaeton, but they had covered it up with the old shawl, so that no one knew that anything was there.

At last one morning they came to the bridge where the animals had found Mr. and Mrs. Webb again after they had fallen into the river. The two spiders were much excited, and Mrs. Webb ran up to the tip of Mrs. Wiggins's left horn, and Mr. Webb ran up to the tip of her right horn, and they sat there and looked out across the landscape and shouted to each other: “Oh, do you remember this?” and “Oh, do you remember that?” until Mrs. Webb was so overcome by the recollection of their strange adventure that she burst into tears. Then Mr. Webb climbed hurriedly down from Mrs. Wiggins's right horn and climbed up her left horn and patted his wife clumsily on the back with one of his eight feet, which he could also use as hands, and said: “There, there, Emmeline! Don't cry!” And Mrs. Webb wiped her eyes with a tiny pocket-handkerchief which she had woven herself, and stopped crying.

The animals went on across the bridge and through the village, and when they were out in the country again, Jack said: “I think, if nobody minds, I'd better ride in the carriage for a while. We're getting near to where I used to live, and I don't want the man I used to live with to see me. It might cause trouble.”

Mrs. Wiggins gave a chuckle. “I have to laugh every time I think of that man, and the way he bounced like a rubber ball on the top of his automobile when I tossed him up there. He was an awful coward, even if he did have a big, black moustache.”

“Yes,” said Jack, as he climbed into the phaeton and crouched down under the shawl, “but just the same I think we'd better hurry along. He has a bad disposition, and he would take a lot of trouble to get even with us for the things we did to him.”

“We mustn't take any chances with all this money,” said Henrietta. So they hurried along, and pretty soon they passed the road which led up to the farm where the man with the black moustache lived, and then a little later they passed the swimming-hole in the river, where Mrs. Wiggins had fallen in.

“We ought to be pretty safe now,” said Jack, “because he doesn't often come up this way in his automobile. But I'll stay in here for a while, just the same.”

In another mile or two the road, which had been running across a valley, began to climb a long hill. It was getting along into the afternoon now, and as the animals had been walking fast, they were hot and dusty; so they were all glad when they came to a stream that crossed the road part way up the hill. They decided to take a swim.

“I remember this place,” said Robert. “We stopped here to take a swim the day we started out, just before we met the man with the black moustache the first time.”

“Yes, yes, so we did!” exclaimed the other animals. “Why, we're almost home! If we go on now we can get back to Mr. Bean's before midnight.”

Some of them were all for going on at once when they realized how close home was, but Charles said: “We don't want to get there at night, when Mr. and Mrs. Bean and all the other animals are asleep. That won't be any fun!”

And Freddy said: “We'll be so tired when we get there that we won't want to tell them about our travels, and they'll be so sleepy that they won't want to hear about them. I vote we camp here to-night, and go on in the morning. We'll get home about dinner-time.”

“That sounds sensible,” said Hank. “We've come a long way to-day. If you ask me, I've had about enough. It's all right for you other animals, but I have to pull this carriage, and all that gold is heavier than Mr. and Mrs. Bean put together.”

So they pulled the carriage under a tree, and pretty soon they were all splashing about in the water, which was pretty cold, for it was still early in the spring. But animals, with the exception of cats, do not mind cold water as much as some people do.

Now they were so near home, and so sure that nothing could interfere with their getting there, that they did not keep a very good watch while they were in swimming. And they did not see a pair of sharp eyes that were watching them from the bushes, nor hear the rustle of leaves as the bushes parted and the dirty-faced boy, who was the son of the man with the black moustache, sneaked over to the carriage and, lifting a corner of the shawl that covered the heap of gold coins, peeked under it. When they came back out of the water and ran up and down the bank to dry themselves, the boy had gone.

They did not sit up very late that night, for they were all pretty tired. Before they went to bed, Robert and Charles and Jack wound and set the alarm-clock. They had done this every night since Aunt Etta had given it to them. And this is the way they did it.

Jack held the clock in his mouth, and Robert took hold of the winder with his teeth, and they twisted. Sometimes it took them half an hour to do it, out they always did it. And when the clock part was wound up, they wound the alarm. But the thing you set the alarm with, to make it go off at a certain time in the morning, was so small that neither Robert nor Jack could get hold of it properly. And so when they had got it all wound, Charles would take hold of the thing with his beak and set it for whatever time they wanted to get up. This time they set it for five o'clock, because they wanted to get an early start.