Freddy the Pied Piper by Walter R. Brooks Page A

said
    That pigs are brave, that pigs are bold ,
    That pigs are handsome quadrupeds
    With wills of iron and hearts of gold?
    â€œ Fat as a pig” the saying goes;
    â€œ Pig-headed,” “dirty as a pig”;
    Each reference, in verse or prose ,
    To pigs contains a dirty dig.
    I demand justice for the pig!
    No more shall he be stigmatized
    By adjectives, both small and big ,
    So vulgar and unauthorized.
    O pigs, arise and prove your worth ,
    Assert your honesty and charm;
    Let kindly, clean and polished pigs
    A bound on every ranch and farm.
    Let “pig” no longer be a word
    Applied with snorts and sniffs and jeers;
    Let pigs be proud of being pigs
    As peers are proud of being peers.
    Justice! Justice for the pig!
    Let every pig in every pen
    Lift up his voice, assert his rights
    As one of nature’s noblemen.

Chapter 8
    Freddy stayed at the hotel that night and went back in the morning to the pet shop and spent the day there. Mrs. Guffin didn’t cause them any trouble. She looked tired and sort of depressed, which I guess was only natural for anyone who had spent the night in a room with a lion; and she said frankly that Freddy could have Leo for nothing if he’d only take him away; all she wanted was to be rid of them. But they kept her locked in the pantry just the same. The “Measles” sign kept any customers away from the shop, but Freddy thought it was queer that none of her friends called, if they knew she was sick.
    Leo said: “She hasn’t got any friends.”
    â€œNot any at all?”
    â€œWell, none that ever come to see her.”
    â€œI thought everybody had some friends,” Freddy said.
    â€œNot her. Listen, Freddy; one day there was a woman came, and when she saw Mrs. Guffin she held out her arms and said: ‘Why, Gwetholinda Guffin! Well, well, you look just the same after all these years!’ But Mrs. Guffin just folded her arms and said: ‘Who are you?’ ‘Why, don’t you remember your old schoolmate, Mary What’sis?’ says the woman. ‘Well,’ says Mrs. Guffin, ‘what of it?’ ‘Well, dear me,’ says the woman, ‘I thought you’d be glad to see me, because I just got back to Tallmanville after being in Chicago so long, and we were such good friends.’ ‘Well, you could have stayed in Chicago for all of me,’ says Mrs. Guffin, and the woman just stared at her a minute, and Mrs. Guffin says: ‘Well, what do you want? I’ve got to get back to my housework.’ So the woman just turned around and went.”
    Freddy said: “Tut, tut!” At least he made the clicking sound with his tongue that is always written “Tut, tut,” in books because you can’t really spell it. If he had said: “Dear me, how dreadful!” it would have meant the same thing, and I wouldn’t have had to explain so much. Anyway, that’s what he did, and he said: “That’s certainly no way to keep friends.”
    â€œMaybe Mrs. G. was mad because her friend told her she looked the same after all these years,” said Jinx. “Golly, don’t you suppose she’s changed at all? She must have been a pretty tough looking little girl.”
    But later in the day they came across a photograph album, and in it Jinx found a picture of Mrs. Guffin, aged nine. She looked just the same, only smaller. They all looked at it and said, “Tut, tut, tut!” And then they shut the album and put it away. It wasn’t anything you could really figure out.
    Freddy spent that night in his hotel room again, but didn’t go back to the pet shop in the morning. He didn’t think Mrs. Church would get there before afternoon, but he didn’t dare take the chance of missing her, so he sat in the window and watched the street. And about two o’clock Mrs. Church’s big car drew up before the door. Freddy ran down, and when he had explained all that had