Freddy the Pied Piper Read Online Free Page A

and the bareback riders and the men to put up the tents and look after the animals, and more money to buy the food for them all. And if you did all that, you still wouldn’t have the animals. According to Jerry, they’re scattered all over the country by this time.”
    â€œMaybe so,” Freddy said. “But I’ve got to try. Mr. Boomschmidt is my friend, and so are Leo and the others. But of course if you don’t want to help—”
    â€œWho said I didn’t?” Jinx demanded. “We’ve always tackled things together, haven’t we? I’m with you from whiskers to tail, Freddy.” He knocked his unfinished portrait into a corner. “Kind of sick of looking at my own face in a mirror for weeks on end, to tell you the truth.”
    â€œI didn’t suppose you ever got sick of that,” said Freddy with a grin. For Jinx was proud of his good looks.
    But the cat shook his head. “To be quite frank with you, Freddy, I didn’t suppose so either. Shucks, everybody likes to—well, let’s be honest—everybody likes to admire himself. You do it, I do it, everybody does it. It’s animal nature. But I don’t know.” He looked at his friend with a puzzled frown. “It’s all right for a while. You keep finding new things that you like—the way your eyes sparkle, or how noble you look when you hold your head back a little. But pretty soon you begin to notice other things. Maybe it’s a little squint in one eye, or a kind of foolish expression when you smile. And you sort of begin to wonder …” He stopped and shook his head again. “It don’t do to study anything too long, even your own face,” he said. Then he shook himself and said: “Well, what do we do first?”
    â€œThe first thing,” said Freddy, “is to go down to Centerboro. I’ve got a sort of plan, and we’ll see if it works.”

Chapter 3
    Half an hour later Freddy and Jinx set out on the long walk to Centerboro. Freddy hadn’t been able to get back to the pigpen, and he bundled up in an old shawl that he borrowed from Mrs. Bean. As he trudged down the long groove made by the snow plow with Jinx at his side, he looked like a little old woman out for a walk with her pet cat. Jinx of course had a warm coat of his own fur and didn’t need anything else.
    When they reached Centerboro they went right to the bank, and Freddy asked for the president, Mr. Weezer. As the founder and president of the first animal bank in the country, Freddy was well known in banking circles, and they were shown at once into Mr. Weezer’s office.
    The banker greeted them cordially, shook hands with Jinx, and then leaning back in his chair tapped the side of his sharp nose with his glasses and said: “And now, gentlemen, what can I do for you?”
    So Freddy told him about Mr. Boomschmidt. “And we’d like your advice, sir, as to what we can do to help him get his circus started again.”
    â€œH’m,” said Mr. Weezer. “Ha. I know Boomschmidt. A fine man. But it takes a lot of money to get a circus going. Even if he had all his animals.”
    â€œA thousand dollars?” Freddy asked.
    â€œMore than that. Well, perhaps if he was willing to start small, a thousand would do it.”
    â€œWould your bank lend him a thousand dollars?” Freddy asked.
    Mr. Weezer shook his head. “Couldn’t do it. If it was my money, I might take a chance. Boomschmidt’s a good fellow, and I’d like to help him. But the money we have in this bank isn’t mine; it belongs to the people who have left it here for safe keeping. So when I lend any it has to be on good security.”
    â€œWhat’s security?” Jinx asked.
    â€œOh, you know, Jinx,” Freddy said. “When you borrowed twenty-five cents from the First Animal Bank to buy that catnip mouse, you had to leave your best collar with the