Freddy the Politician by Walter R. Brooks

Author:Walter R. Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Overlook Press

Want it enlarged to fit you, eh?

“Not too tight,” said Freddy anxiously. “I don’t want to get stuck.”

Peter’s head was already out of sight, and the stones and dirt were flying all around Freddy. Freddy turned his back, hunched his shoulders, and kept a sharp lookout for the woodpeckers. But he was perfectly safe; politics were absorbing the attention of every bird and animal on the farm.

Freddy turned his attention back to the digging.

Peter went deeper and deeper into the hole and finally disappeared, but dirt continued to fly out. It looked like a small volcano in eruption. After a while it stopped, and there was a scrabbling underground and Peter came out, head first. “There you are,” he said. “All ready for a fitting. Try it on, and if it’s a little too snug under the arms, we’ll alter it free of charge.”

So Freddy went down. He didn’t like crawling down holes much, so he went down backwards. “If I decide to come out in a hurry,” he said to himself, “it will be pleasanter to come out head first.” But the hole wasn’t bad. It was almost straight down, but it was short, and when he got into the board room there was enough light from above so that he could look around. Not that there was much to see. The roof was a big flat rock, and the walls were dirt, with a small hole in one of them which was the tunnel up to the bank. Freddy shoved a couple of loose stones into the tunnel and packed dirt around them. “Guess the room’s woodpecker-proof now,” he said with a grin. Then he went up and thanked Peter, and after sneaking along behind the stone wall until he was some distance from the hole, came out and trotted down to the bank.

Just as he got there, the twelve o’clock whistle blew in Centerboro, and, punctual to the second, Grover and John Quincy came out of the door.

“Good noon, gentlemen,” said Freddy politely. “Off to lunch?”

“Yes,” said John Quincy. “Where are you lunching, Father?”

“I thought of trying that oak down beyond the barn,” said Grover. “The beetles are very good there.”

“I have to make one or two calls before lunch,” said John Quincy. “Meet you at the oak in half an hour. So long, Freddy.”

“Just a minute,” said the pig. “I wanted to ask you when the next board meeting is to be held.”

“What difference does it make to you?” said Grover. “You can’t vote at it.”

“I do if the president isn’t there and I have to take his place.”

“The president will be there, don’t worry,” said John Quincy. “The meeting’s this afternoon at three, though, if you want to know.”

“Well, there’s another thing,” said Freddy. “I’ve decided I’d like to be president of the bank.”

“Have you indeed?” asked Grover sarcastically, and John Quincy said: “Freddy, are you crazy? We just voted you out—do you think we’d vote you in again?”

“Well,” said Freddy humbly, “I just thought maybe you were tired of the job.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.