Freddy the Pied Piper by Walter R. Brooks

day several people came up on the porch, but when they saw the sign they went away again without knocking. Fortunately there was plenty of food in the house, and at noon they let Mrs. Guffin out of the pantry long enough to get something to eat for herself. Leo sat close beside her while she ate. He didn’t growl any, but now and then he would draw his lips back from his long sharp teeth in a sort of silent snarl as he watched her. She didn’t seem to have much appetite.
    When they had locked her up again they had their own lunch, and they fed the thirteen cats and the puppies and birds in the shop, and then Freddy walked back to the hotel. When he went in, the manager was talking to the clerk. He glanced up and frowned. “Ah, Mrs. Vandertwiggen, we’ve been looking for you.”
    Freddy said, very haughty: “Well, my good man, here I am. State your business.”
    The manager rubbed his hands together but he didn’t bow. “Well, ma’am,” he said firmly, “it’s about the cats. I’m afraid I shall have to ask you to leave. We can’t allow you to fill your room with cats.”
    â€œI don’t know what you are talking about,” said Freddy. “I understood you had no objection to my having my cat with me. He should be in the room now, but he can hardly be said to fill it.”
    â€œI am not referring to your cat,” said the manager, and he told Freddy what had happened. “It caused a great deal of disturbance, and a great deal of running around and yelling, and we don’t like that here. This is a respectable hotel.”
    Freddy said: “Nonsense! Did you see these cats?”
    â€œNo, ma’am. But—”
    â€œBe quiet!” said Freddy sharply. “You didn’t see them. Nobody saw them, except the chambermaid. Yet you came right upstairs when she screamed. Where did they go to then? Do you mean to tell me that they vanished into thin air?”
    â€œThey must have gone somewhere,” said the manager.
    â€œIf they ever existed,” said Freddy. “And you say when you went up there there were no cats in the room? Where is my cat, then? He is an extremely valuable animal, and if you have let him get out—if he’s lost … Kindly come up to my room with me at once.”
    So the manager went up, and of course Jinx wasn’t there. “Well,” said Freddy, “this is serious for you—very serious indeed. I think I see what happened. You allowed my cat to get away, and to cover up your carelessness you invent this story of a roomful of cats. I shall call my lawyer at once.”
    The manager began to look worried. “Well, ma’am,” he said, “perhaps I was a little hasty. I shall question the chambermaid again. I hadn’t thought of it like that, but it seems possible that she may have done as you say. If so, she shall be discharged at once.”
    But this wasn’t what Freddy wanted at all. He became even more haughty than before. “I’m afraid,” he said, “that you can’t pass off your own stupidity and carelessness on to an innocent person. However, I do not wish to be too hard on you. I will overlook the whole thing, provided you agree to say nothing to the chambermaid. My cat is not stupid, and he’ll come back when he gets ready.”
    So the manager agreed. When he was gone Freddy locked the door and dropped down into a chair and wiped his forehead on the corner of his shawl and said: “Whew!” And by and by when he felt calmer, he got pencil and paper out of his pocket. And he wrote a poem. This is it:
    Men call the dog the friend of man
    And praise him for his deep devotion ,
    And yet the pig is capable
    Of love as deep as any ocean.
    â€œ Bold as a lion,” people say ,
    â€œ Strong as a horse”—pigs too have strength
    And in defense of justice, they
    Will go to almost any length.
    Yet who has ever heard it