Freddy Plays Football Read Free Page A

night?”
    â€œI guess you’re Aaron all right,” she said. Then she called to Mr. Bean, who was coming across from the barn. “Mr. B! Brother Aaron’s here at last!”
    â€œWell, I kinda thought I heard somebody tiptoein’ in the gate,” said Mr. Bean. “How are you, Aaron?”
    Mr. Doty seized Mr. Bean’s hand. “So this is William, eh? Well, well, well!”
    â€œHe hasn’t got much of a vocabulary,” said Jinx, who was sitting with the mice in the window.
    â€œHe’s got a good big trunk there in the back seat though,” said Eeny. “Must be planning on a long visit.”
    â€œMy land, Aaron,” said Mrs. Bean, “you must be about tuckered out, driving so far. Come in and sit down. —Or, no, I guess we’ll have to wait a minute—the animals want to welcome you,” she said, as Charles, leading his entire family, and followed by the three cows and Freddy and Hank and the two dogs, Robert and Georgie, and Bill, the goat, strutted up to the back porch.
    Mr. Doty turned to face them. “So these are the talking animals old Boomschmidt told me about! Well, well, well! Howdy, animals.”
    Charles flew up on to the porch. “Mr. Aaron Doty, sir,” he said pompously, “as chairman of the reception committee, and as spokesman for the animals here assembled, I wish first to present you with this inexpensive, yet heartfelt token of our affectionate friendship.” He motioned with a claw to Georgie, who walked unsteadily up the steps on his hind legs with an enormous bouquet of daisies and black-eyed Susans, and presented them to the visitor.

    Georgie … presented them to the visitor.

    â€œWell, well, well!” said Mr. Doty. “Flowers and friendship, eh? Flowers I ain’t got much use for. Hundreds here, and only one buttonhole to put ’em in. But friendship—yes; friendship I go for. Yes, sir, I do.”
    â€œAlso and furthermore,” Charles continued, “on behalf of all the livestock here represented, on behalf of every animal, bird and insect; on behalf of every creature that walks, flies, hops, creeps, crawls or slithers over the fields of Bean; on behalf of the inhabitants of every barn, nest, den, hole, burrow or coop on these premises, I welcome you, and extend the warm claw of—”
    At this point the animals all began to cheer. Charles looked annoyed, but when the cheering died down, he resumed. “I extend the warm claw—” Again the cheering interrupted him.
    Four times he tried angrily to go on, but each time cheers drowned him out. And at last Mrs. Bean held up her hand for silence. “Come, come, animals,” she said. “Let Charles finish.”
    But Charles was mad. He hopped down from the porch. “Let ’em make their own speech—they’re so darn smart!” he said, and stalked off towards the henhouse. So then after Mr. Doty had shaken hands with all the animals and thanked them he and the Beans went into the house.
    Freddy walked back to the cow barn with Mrs. Wiggins. Although a cow, and therefore a pretty slow thinker, Mrs. Wiggins had a lot of what is commonly called horse sense, although cows have a good deal more than horses—or indeed than some people; and Freddy valued her opinion highly. As a partner in his detective business she had solved some of his most puzzling cases. Now he said: “Charles didn’t get that warm claw extended very far, did he?”
    â€œI’ve been puzzling over that,” said the cow. “Wish I’d heard the rest of it. Whose claw was he talking about?”
    â€œOh, that was just Charles’ highfalutin way of saying ‘Welcome.’ He was going to extend the claw of fellowship, or friendship, or something.” Freddy thought for a minute. “You know, there’s something about that Doty I don’t like.”
    â€œGood land,” said Mrs.