Freddy Goes to Florida Read Free

and caught him by the wing.
    â€œâ€˜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.
    â€œDon’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.
    â€œYou 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.
    â€œGood-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.”
    â€œI 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.”
    â€œRather late,” said the robin dryly, “since there was nothing left of him but a few tail feathers.”
    â€œWell, 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.”
    â€œWell, 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