Freddy Rides Again by Walter R. Brooks Page A

was that when they had chewed all the flavor out of the gum, they would give it back. Then they could have some more. So when the four dollars’ worth was all chewed up, he and Jinx took it up in the loft over the stable and went to work. They shaped it into the form of a duck, and then rolled it around in a lot of feathers out of an old pillow and painted the bill and feet yellow. It looked quite a lot like a real duck. “Uncle Wesley to the life!” said Jinx. “Only it’s got more brains.”
    â€œDoesn’t it seem awful quiet around here?” Freddy said, when they brought their chewing gum duck downstairs. “Don’t you notice it?”
    â€œSure,” said Jinx. “It’s all those jaws that have been chumping and chawing away for the past two hours. Now they’ve stopped. Hey, here comes Arthur!” He quickly covered the duck with an old sack as the big tortoise-shell strolled up.
    â€œI’m obliged to you, Jinx,” Arthur said. “And to Bill. I just couldn’t take it if that awful name got out for all these animals to giggle over.”
    â€œIt won’t get out from us,” said Jinx. “Not as long as you let the mice and birds alone.”
    â€œMy dear Jinx!” Arthur protested. “It pains me deeply that you still distrust me. Ah, well, I shall hope to convince you in time.” And he went on.
    â€œToo blamed sanctimonious,” Jinx said. “Well, I’ll guard this duck and you go cut us out a couple of hosses.”
    Freddy had sent out several wasps as advance scouts to locate their enemy. Now as they rode up towards the duck pond Jacob came buzzing along and lit on the pig’s nose. “Got him, Freddy,” he said. “Cousin Izzy is keeping an eye on him. He’s asleep on the top of the wall—right where that beech overhangs it—see?”
    â€œSwell,” Freddy said. “Couldn’t be better for us. Cy, you and Bill go up along this side of the wall, and when you’re opposite the beech, get into a quarrel and yell at each other. That will cover any sounds we make creeping up along the other side of the wall.”
    So Freddy and Jinx dismounted and circled around and crossed the wall into the woods some distance up. Then they crept cautiously down towards where Jacob had said the snake was sleeping.
    Freddy could move pretty silently when he had to; Jinx of course made no noise at all. As they came closer they could hear their two friends on the other side of the wall.
    â€œYeah?” said Cy. “Well, all I can say is that anybody that could chew up and swallow an old pair of galoshes, buckles and all, hasn’t got any very refined taste in food.”
    â€œOh, is that so!” Bill retorted. “Well, let me tell you that there’s more flavor in a good, well-aged galosh or boot than in a ton of that flat, prickly hay you smack your lips over.”
    The two friends had brought a bamboo fishpole with them. To the end of it they had fastened their chewing-gum duck. When they were six or eight feet from the part of the wall where the rattler was asleep, they crouched behind some bushes and slowly pushed the duck towards the wall. As they did so, Jinx, with as much of a quack in his voice as he could manage, said, “Oh, come on, Emma. There isn’t any snake around here.”
    Freddy who was behind Jinx, said: “Oh, do be careful, sister! He’ll hypnotize you. Oh, oh! How can I ever face Uncle Wesley if I let my dear sister get swallowed.” His voice didn’t sound much like Emma’s.
    Jinx’s whiskers twitched with amusement. He said: “Pooh, just let him try—that’s all; just let him try!”
    Then they saw the rattler. He raised his head from his coils and looked at the duck.
    Jinx pushed it nearer. “Ha, ha!” he said. “I betcha he beats it the minute he sees me. Ah, there you are, old slither and snoop!