Freddy Goes to the North Pole by Walter R. Brooks Page A

eye—and he could hear a buzz-buzz as they whispered to each other: “Too sophisticated. Yes, yes; too sophisticated.” Then suddenly an idea came to him. He ruffled out his feathers.
    â€œMy friends,” he said importantly, “on the face of it, what you allege against me seems to be true. I did not see fit to burden us with large stores of food and clothing, which would seriously have hampered us. There is a better way to get what we need. There are reasons why I did not tell you about it before—”
    Bill giggled audibly. “I’ll say there were!” he muttered coarsely; but Ferdinand gave him a hard look and he subsided, though his beard continued to tremble with subdued laughter.
    â€œThe time, however,” continued the crow, “has now come. As you have seen, these woods are full of birds and animals—creatures of little experience, who have never known much about anything but their small woodland affairs and are intensely curious about the outside world. What’s the one thing we can give them that they haven’t got? Why, our experience of the outside world, of course. We’ve travelled; we’ve been everywhere and done everything; we know life. We can sell that knowledge for the things we need.”
    At this point Bill snickered again. “You mean you’re going to trade your good advice for food?” he asked. “Well, if these animals are anything like me, you won’t get many customers. My experience is that you can get all the good advice you want from your relatives. You don’t have to go outside the family. And you don’t have to pay for it, either. Sell advice indeed! Huh! Might as well try to sell Cecil here a quill toothpick!”
    â€œThat was not what I meant,” said Ferdinand coldly, “and now that this unseemly interruption is over, I will tell you that my idea was simply this: to give a series of lectures of various kinds, admission to which will be paid in articles of food or clothing.”
    â€œThat’s a good idea all right,” said Uncle William, “as far as food goes. But how do you expect to get blankets and clothing for the children? These woods animals haven’t got such things.”
    â€œThey’ll find them,” said the crow confidently. “Why, suppose you wanted to find an old coat for this boy to wear. I mean if you were at home, in your own stable. Couldn’t you do it?”
    â€œWhy, yes, as a matter of fact, I could,” replied the horse. “There’s a couple of old overcoats down in the tool-shed. But that’s different. Up here in the woods—”
    â€œUp here in the woods it’s just the same,” said Ferdinand. “There are hunters and campers and trappers and lumbermen, and they’re always throwing away things.”
    â€œBut how can you find them, in all these square miles of trees?”
    â€œ You couldn’t. That’s just the point. But take one of these deer. He knows every square inch of ground for miles. If there’s an old coat within five miles of here, he’ll know it. If there isn’t, he’ll have a friend over the hill who’ll know where there is one. And so on.”
    â€œWhy not have a lecture tonight?” said Charles. “I have one, you know, that I prepared after our trip to Florida. ‘A Trip to the Sunny Southland.’ And that one about Washington: ‘How Our Legislators Live.’ That was very well received. And—”
    â€œOh, be still!” said Henrietta. “Nobody wants to hear you lecture If they’d heard you talk as much as I have, they’d pay to stay away.”
    â€œBut that’s the point: they haven’t!” said Charles triumphantly.
    â€œWell, they will!” said his wife sarcastically. “Believe me, if there’s an animal between here and the pole that doesn’t know your life-history by the time the