Freddy Goes to Florida (2 page)

The meeting was a great success.

“Now, my friends,” said Charles, when he had told them all he had learned from the birds, “I have placed before you these facts. It remains for us to act upon them. I, for one, intend to follow the example of the birds and go south for the winter. It is true that it is easier for the birds than it is for us. The birds can fly across rivers that we shall have to swim or wade, and across mountains that we shall have to climb. I do not conceal from you that it may be a hard journey. But it is my experience that nothing that is worth getting is easy to get. However, I shall be glad to hear what anyone else may have to say, and I accordingly throw the meeting open to discussion.” And amid prolonged cheers he hopped down from the seat of the old buggy from which he had addressed the meeting.

Then for quite a while the animals were much excited and all talked at once. All of them hated the thought of the long, cold winter, and when somebody—I think it was Freddy, the smallest and cleverest of the pigs—shouted: “Why don't we start to-night?” they all gave three cheers and started toward the door.

But just then Jock, the larger of the two dogs, a wise old Scotch collie, got up.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began, “you have all heard what my friend the rooster has said, and I think we all agree with him that it would be fine if we could all go south this winter.” (“Yes, yes!” cried all the animals together.) “But there is one thing that I think we have forgotten. I am not a fine speaker like Charles, but I just want to say that we must not forget our duty. We cannot all leave Mr. Bean, for he could not get along without us——”

Here Charles interrupted excitedly. “Mr. Bean!” he shouted. “What do we care for Mr. Bean? What has he ever done for us?
He
can sleep warm these winter nights;
he
can have featherbeds and stoves; but
we
don't have such things—
we
don't matter! Why doesn't he warm
our
houses for us? Why——”

“Yes, yes, Charles,” said Jock quietly. “But listen to me a minute. Mr. Bean feeds us and gives us a place to live and looks after us when we're sick. We can't just desert him, can we?”

“Well, perhaps you're right,” said Charles unwillingly.

“Of course I am,” said Jock. And he went on to say that, while those of them whom Mr. Bean did not need during the winter could go south if they wanted to, he thought the others should stay. “I can't go,” he said. “And one of the horses should stay to take Mr. Bean into town when he wants to go. And one of the cows and some of the hens ought to stay, too, so he will have eggs and milk. That is all I have to say.” And he bowed and sat down.

A long discussion followed, but as all the animals wanted to go, none of them except Jock would admit that they were needed on the farm. They talked louder and louder, and grew more and more angry at each other, and it seemed likely that the meeting would break up in disorder, when there was a loud ear-piercing “Meeaooouw!” and Jinx, the cat, bounded through the doorway.

In the silence that followed, all the mice upon the rafter gave a horrified squeak, and then they rose as one mouse and tiptoed softly into a convenient hole.

“Hello, folks,” said Jinx breezily. “What's all the row? I could hear you way down by the millpond, where I was hunting frogs. Better make less noise, or you'll have old Bean out here with his shotgun. What's the matter anyway?”

“Fine!” he said when they had told him. “Fine! That's a great idea, Charley, old boy! Didn't think you had it in you. But see here. No use quarrelling about who's to go and who's not. Draw lots; that's the way to do it. Now you say only one cow can go. Well, here's three of 'em—Mrs. Wiggins and Mrs. Wurzburger and Mrs. Wogus. Here, Jock, you take three straws in your mouth, one long one and two short. Now let 'em draw, and the one that gets the long straw goes.”

Jock got the straws, and the cows drew. Mrs. Wiggins won.

“All fair and above-board, you see,” said Jinx. “Now, horses next. Step up, please; it's getting late.”

As soon as the cat had taken charge of things, the meeting became more orderly, and arrangements for the departure of all those whom Mr. Bean would not need during the winter were quickly made. Then, when everything was decided, Charles got up again to make another speech. There wasn't really anything left for him to say, but he was fond of making speeches, and he spoke so beautifully that everybody liked to hear him, although when they got home they could never remember anything he had said.

“Now, my friends,” he began, “before we break up this distinguished meeting, I should like to give you one thought to take home with you in your hearts—something to carry away with you as a memento of the kindness and good-fellowship we have enjoyed here together to-night. As I look about me this evening upon all these bright, eager young faces, gathered together here under one roof it is borne in upon me——” But what it was that was borne in upon him they never knew, for at that point he stopped suddenly and climbed hastily down from the buggy seat. His wife, Henrietta, had come in the door.

She marched straight down toward him between the rows of silent animals, and caught him by the wing.

“‘Bright, eager young faces,' is it?” she exclaimed angrily. “
I'll
give you a bright, eager young face!” And she boxed his right ear with her claw. “
I'll
give you something to carry home with you!” And she boxed the other ear. “I never heard such nonsense!”

Charles hunched his head down between his shoulders. “But, my dear!” he protested.

“Don't you ‘my dear' me!” she said. “You come along home, where you belong. Staying out all night like this! Revelling and carousing with a lot of silly pigs and cows that don't know any better! The very idea!” And she pushed him unceremoniously toward the door.

But before they reached it another figure appeared—a short, bearded man in a long, white night-shirt and carpet slippers. Mr. Bean had been awakened by the noise, and had come out to see what was the matter. He had a lantern in one hand and a carriage whip in the other, and on his head was the white cotton night-cap with the red tassel.

“You animals go to bed!” he said gruffly. Then he turned round and stumped back to the house.

In thirty seconds all the animals had gone and the cow barn was empty, except for Mrs. Wiggins and Mrs. Wurzburger and Mrs. Wogus, who lived there.

III

The next morning, as soon as Mr. Bean had left the house, Jinx, the cat, who had been pretending to be asleep under the stove, jumped up on the table and got a pencil and a piece of paper, and carried them out and laid them down under the big elm-tree beside the barn. Then he looked up among the branches, and pretty soon he saw a bright little eye peeping out at him from behind a limb.

“Good-morning, robin,” he said politely. “I wonder if you'd do me a little favour? We animals are going to migrate this fall, but as none of us have ever been south before, we don't know the way, and I thought perhaps you'd be willing to draw us a little map.”

The robin hopped a little way along the branch and cocked his head and looked down at Jinx with his right eye. “I don't know what made you think that,” he said. “I don't know why I should do anything for you. You're always chasing me, and there's never a minute's peace for me or my family when you're in the barn-yard, and you ate up my wife's third cousin last June. But I suppose you've forgotten all about that.”

“I certainly haven't,” said Jinx. “It was a most regrettable incident, and I was really terribly upset about it. I had no idea that robin was any relative of your wife's, and when I saw him prowling around your nest, I thought he wanted to steal your children, and of course I didn't stop to make inquiries then. Afterwards, when I found out what a mistake I had made, I would have done anything to restore him to you. But of course it was too late.”

“Rather late,” said the robin dryly, “since there was nothing left of him but a few tail feathers.”

“Well, let's not rake up old scores,” said Jinx. “What's done is done, as the saying goes. And if you'll make this map for me, I'll promise never to chase you or any of your family again.”

“Well, that's fair enough,” said the robin. And he flew down, and picking up the pencil in his claw, began to draw the map that would show them exactly how to get to Florida.

Meanwhile all the other animals who were going were packing up and making their farewell calls on those who were to stay at home. For they had heard Mr. Bean say that he was going to drive into town the next morning, and they thought that would be the best time for them to start on their journey, because he wouldn't get back until late in the afternoon, and by that time they would be many miles away.

Nearly everybody in the barn-yard was happy but Charles the rooster. He sat alone in the darkest corner of the hen house, his tail feathers drooping miserably. For his wife, Henrietta, had positively refused to let him go.

“Go south in the winter, would you?” she had said. “Never in my life have I heard such a pack of nonsensical notions! What right have you to go traipsing off over the country—you, with a wife and children to look after? Not that you ever do look after them. Who's going to get Mr. Bean up in the morning, I should like to know?”

“He can wake himself up,” said Charles. “He doesn't have to get up so early in the winter-time anyway.”

“Well, you're not going—that's flat!” said his wife. And that settled it. When Henrietta put her foot down, there was nothing more to be said.

Some of the animals, too, had held the opinion that the cat ought not to go either, since it was his duty to keep the mice out of the barn where the grain and vegetables were stored. But that was easily arranged, for some of the mice wanted to go, and so Jinx promised that he would let them alone if the mice that stayed home would keep away from the barn while he was gone. This pleased the other animals, for although Jinx was a wild fellow, rather careless of appearances and a bit too free in his speech, they all felt that he would be a good animal to have with them in a pinch, and no one knew what dangers might lie in wait for them on the road to Florida.

Indeed, a number of the more timid animals who had been carried away by enthusiasm at the meeting in the cow barn had not felt so anxious to go when they had thought it all over. All the sheep had backed out, and most of the mice, and all of the pigs except Freddy. The pigs were not afraid; they were just awfully lazy, and the thought of walking perhaps twenty miles a day for goodness knew how many days was too much for them.

At last the great day came. Mr. Bean harnessed up William to the buggy early in the morning, and drove off to town, and then all the animals gathered in the barn-yard. From the window of the hen house Charles watched them unhappily. They were all so merry and excited, and the pigs had come up to see Freddy off and were all talking at once and giving him a great deal more advice than he could possibly remember, and Hank, the old, white horse, was continually running back into the barn for another mouthful of oats, because he didn't know when he should get any good oats again, and Alice and Emma, the two white ducks, had waddled off down to the end of the pasture to take one last look at the old familiar duck pond, which they wouldn't see again until next spring. It made Charles very sad.

“Why don't you go out and say good-bye to them, Charles?” asked Henrietta. It made her feel bad to see him so unhappy, for she really had a kind heart, and way down inside of it she was very fond of him. But he was so careless and forgetful that she often had to be quite cross to him.

“No,” said Charles mournfully. “No. I shall stay here. They've forgotten all about
me. They
don't care because I can't go with them.
They
don't remember who it was that gave them the idea in the first place. No, let them go. Heartless creatures! What do I care?”

“Nonsense!” said Henrietta. “Go along out.” And so Charles ruffled up his feathers and held his head up in the air and marched out into the yard.

All the good-byes had been said and the travellers were ready to start. The barn-yard was silent as they formed in a line and marched out through the gate into the road that stretched away like a long, white ribbon to far distant Florida. First came Jinx, with his tail held straight up in the air like a drum-major's stick. Then came Freddy, the pig, and the dog, Robert, who was Jock's younger brother. After them marched Hank and Mrs. Wiggins, and the procession was brought up by the two white ducks, Alice and Emma, who were sisters. The mice—Eek, Quik, Eeny, and Cousin Augustus, ran along the side of the road so as not to be stepped on.

The stay-at-homes crowded out to the gate, waving paws and hoofs, and calling: “Good-bye! Good-bye! Don't forget to write! Have a good time and remember us to Florida!”