Freddy the Detective , livre ebook

eBookIt.com - Walter R. Brooks

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

64 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Freddy the pig does some detective work in order to solve the mystery of the missing toy train. The delightful detective story about the beloved animal characters on Mr. Bean's farm, whose adventures have entertained so many children. Freddy the Pig has been reading Sherlock Holmes and knows that he, too, can apply his brain to solving mysteries. beginning with Farmer Bean's son's loss of a toy train Freddy becomes very efficient in the apprehension of criminals. In the end he not only solves the case of the murdered crow, but successfully acts as defense attorney for the falsely accused Jinx the cat. How often did Sherlock do that?

Sujets

Farm Animals

Juvenilee Fiction

Animals

Informations

Publié par	eBookIt.com
Date de parution	01 février 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781456636401
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0050€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Freddy the Detective

by Walter Rollins Brooks
Subjects: Fiction -- Juvenile; Animals

First published in 1932
This edition published by Reading Essentials
Victoria, BC Canada with branch offices in the Czech Republic and Germany
For.ullstein@gmail.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except in the case of excerpts by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Freddy the Detective
Walter R. Brooks

To
Elsie

CHAPTER I
FREDDY’S FIRST CASE

It was hot. When Alice and Emma, thetwo white ducks, got tired of diving andswimming about in the pond, they climbedout on the bank and looked over toward thehouse where Mr. Bean, the farmer, lived,and: “Oh!” said Emma, “the house looks asif it was melting. All the straight lines—theroof and the door and the walls—are wiggling.Look, Alice.”
“It always looks like that when it’s hot,”said Alice.
“Well, I don’t like it,” said Emma. “Itmakes me feel funny in my stomach. I thinkthings ought to stay what they are, even ifthey are hot. Let’s jump in again and cooloff.”
Alice looked at the water without muchinterest. It wasn’t a very large pond, and init were three cows and two horses and a dogand on the bank were half a dozen otheranimals who were resting after their dip.“Too much company,” she said crossly, or ascrossly as she could, for she was really a verymild duck. “I don’t know why they call it a duck -pond. Just as soon as warm weathercomes, every animal on the farm seems tothink he has a perfect right to use it as aswimming-pool without so much as sayingplease. And just look at that, Emma!” sheexclaimed. “What chance would you and Ihave in there now?”
Two of the cows, Mrs. Wiggins and Mrs.Wurzburger, were having a race across thepond and back. They splashed and flounderedand snorted, making waves that wouldhave upset the stoutest duck, while the animalson the bank cheered and shouted encouragement.
“Come on, let’s take a walk,” said Emma.“Let’s find a place in the shade where there’sa breeze. That water’s just as hot as the airis, anyway.”
They waddled up the lane toward thehouse, and in a corner of the fence they cameupon Jinx, the black cat, who was lying onhis back with all four paws in the air, tryingto keep cool.
“Hello, ducks!” he hailed them. “Gosh,you look nice and cool!”
“Well, you don’t,” said Alice. “I shouldthink you’d stifle, lying in that breathlesscorner. Why don’t you come with us? We’regoing to look for a breeze.”
“Whoops!” shouted Jinx, jumping upwith a bound. “I’m with you, girls. Tell youwhat: we’ll go find Freddy. That pig’ll be ina cool spot, you bet. He knows how to becomfortable better than any other animalon this farm.”
Freddy was indeed a very clever pig. Itwas he who had organized the animals onMr. Bean’s farm into a company, known asBarnyard Tours, Inc., which took parties ofother animals on sightseeing trips. He knewhow to read, and he had gathered togetherquite a library of the books and magazinesand newspapers that different animals hadbrought in to pay for their trips with. Hekept them in a corner of the pig-pen whichhe called his study.
The ducks knew that even if Freddywasn’t in a cool spot, he would have a newbit of interesting gossip, or some story hehad just read, to tell them about, so theystarted out to find him.
“Have you heard about Everett’s train ofcars?” asked Jinx as they walked along.
“No,” said the ducks. Everett and his sister,Ella, were the two adopted children ofMr. and Mrs. Bean, whom the animals hadrescued the year before from a dreadfulplace where they had been living in theNorth Woods. Because they had rescuedthem, the animals all felt a great interest inElla and Everett, and they were fond of themtoo, so no two children ever had a bettertime. The ducks taught them to swim andthe horses taught them to ride and the cattaught them how to climb and to movethrough the woods without making a sound,and Ferdinand, the crow, had even wantedto teach them how to fly, but of course thatwasn’t much use, because they didn’t haveany wings. But there were always animalsto play games and do things with, and theycertainly had as good a time as any childrenwho ever lived.
“Well,” said Jinx, “it’s the funniest thing Iever heard of. When Everett went to sleeplast night, the train was beside him on thebed. When he woke up this morning, it wasgone. Mrs. Bean has looked all over thehouse, and I’ve done some looking on myown account. But it’s gone; there’s no doubtabout that.”
“Well, that is queer,” said Emma. “Youdon’t suppose he hid it himself, as a joke?”
“Oh no, not a chance. He’s been lookingeverywhere all morning. He’s very fond ofthat train. I’d like to get my claws on the onethat took it!” the cat exclaimed fiercely.
“Mercy!” exclaimed Emma with a slightshudder. “I wish you wouldn’t glare likethat, Jinx. Alice and I didn’t have anythingto do with it.”
“No, no; of course you didn’t,” repliedthe cat soothingly. “Imagine a duck being aburglar!” He laughed heartily.
But the ducks turned on him indignantly.“Well, I guess we could be burglars if wewanted to!” said Emma. “I guess we’re notas poor-spirited as you seem to think!”
“I guess not, indeed!” put in Alice.“Look at our Uncle Wesley! I guess youknow what he did, that time when that bigold elephant escaped from the circus atCenterboro and tried to take a bath in ourpond. He chased him off the place!”
“Oh sure!” said the cat. “Sure I remember.”Jinx remembered how the elephanthad laughed, too, when pompous littleUncle Wesley had ordered him out of thepond. But he didn’t say anything to theducks about that. “Well, anyway,” he wenton, “I think it’s a shame, and we ought todo something about it.—Though it’s too hotto do anything about anything today,” headded, and stopped to wipe the perspirationfrom his whiskers with a fore-paw.
They walked round the house and downthe road to the fence where the farm ended;then they walked back along the fence tothe woods and across the back pasture, butsaw no sign of Freddy.
“It’s funny,” said Jinx. “I felt sure we’drun into him. Let’s sit down under this treeand rest awhile.”
“You can if you want to,” said Emma,“but I started out to find Freddy, and nowI’m going to find him.” Like all ducks, shewas very stubborn, and when she had madeup her mind to anything, nothing couldstop her.
“Oh, all right,” said the cat good-naturedly.“Only it’s so hot. Let’s try the pig-pen.Maybe he’s in his study.”
But he wasn’t in the pig-pen, and hewasn’t in the stable or the cow-barn.
“He must be puttering round in thewoods somewhere, then,” said Alice.“Maybe he’s calling on Peter.” Peter wasthe bear whom the animals had broughtback from the north the year before, andwho now lived in a cave in Mr. Bean’swoods.
“It’ll be cooler in the woods, anyway,”said Jinx. So they went back across the pastureand plunged into the green silence ofthe trees.
It was very still in the woods, and verydark after the glaring sunshine outside.They walked slowly along, calling:“Freddy! Hey, Freddy!” every now andthen. Jinx liked the woods, but the ducksbegan to get a little nervous. “I don’t likethis,” said Emma. “It’s so dim and still, andI feel as if something were following us.There! Did you hear that?” She stopped,and they all looked back over their shoulders,for somewhere behind them a twig hadsnapped.
“Nonsense!” said Jinx. “There’s nothinghere to hurt you. Come along.”
“Mmmmm,” said Emma doubtfully, “Idon’t like noises behind me. Uncle Wesleyalways said: ‘When you’re out walking andhear noises behind you, it is better to goright home.’ ”
“But you’re with me !” said Jinx.
“Oh, all right,” said Emma. “We knowyou won’t let anything catch us”; and theywent on.
But the ducks were very nervous, and theywalked with their heads turned round so farbackwards that they were continually trippingover roots and stones, and even Jinxbegan to feel a little uneasy, particularly ashis ears, which were sharper than the ducks’,told him that someone really was followingthem. He wasn’t afraid for himself, for therewas no animal in these woods that couldhurt him, but he thought it might be a fox,and there’s nothing a fox likes better forsupper than a nice plump duck.
He was about to suggest that they turnback when Alice suddenly gave a terrifiedquack and tumbled over in a faint.
“Good gracious!” exclaimed Emma.“She must have seen something that frightenedher terribly. She hasn’t done that in Idon’t know when. No, no; there isn’t anythingyou can do. She’ll be all right in aminute. Just keep her head low. Dear me, Iwish we were out of here!”
“We’ll go right back,” said Jinx, whowas supporting the swooning duck in hispaws. “There! She’s coming round now.Well, Alice, you did give us a fright! Whatwas it you saw?”
Alice’s eyes opened slowly. “Where amI?” she murmured; then as she remembered,she scrambled to her feet. “There!” Shepointed with her bill. “Right behind thatclump of bushes. There was a face, with along pointed white nose—” She broke offand shuddered violently. “It gave me sucha turn!”
“You wait here,” said Jinx. “I’ll showhim!” And he crouched low on the groundand crept noiselessly toward the bushes.
As he came close to them, the ducks sawhim gather himself together, then springclean over the bushes. There was a commotionamong the leaves, a snarl, a shrill squealof fright, and out into the open dashedFreddy with Jinx on his back. The cat wascuffing the pig soundly about the head, butas they came near the ducks, he jumpeddown, and Freddy stopped, shook himself,and looked about him ruefully.
“You didn’t have to be so rough, Jinx,”he complained. “I wasn’t doing any harm.”
“You scared Alice, here, into a faint,”said the cat angrily. “What on earth wereyou trying to do—play Indian?”
“I’m sorry, Alice,” said F