Freddy Goes to Florida Read Free Page A

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.
    â€œGo 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?”
    â€œHe can wake himself up,” said Charles. “He doesn’t have to get up so early in the winter-time anyway.”
    â€œWell, 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.
    â€œWhy 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.
    â€œNo,” 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?”
    â€œNonsense!” 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