Chapter 40:

The Adventures of Frank and Periwinkle

"The Goat"

- Part 3 -

The next morning Morton awoke to see Frank leaping off the roof and landing in the creek where he swam and played. Morton thought of teaching him a lesson, but he didn’t know how to swim and so let Frank continue - besides, Morton’s stomach still hurt.

The farmer’s wife came out with a cake of alfalfa, and some pieces of bread for them, and, like clockwork, Morton was the first one there looking around to see if Frank or Mrs. P would try and question his authority, but instead saw Mrs. P happily chewing on the handles of the push-mower. Morton raced over and told her to stop, asking why she didn’t eat the alfalfa.

"Oh," she cried happily, "you can keep the silly alfalfa, because I like chewing on this lawnmower ever so much more."

This infuriated Morton who forbid her to ever chew on the mower again, and told her that she had to eat the alfalfa the farmer’s wife brought out instead while he got to eat the lawnmower, which he then set about to eat while Mrs. P walked off to eat the alfalfa. Morton thought the lawnmower tasted terrible, and he could not seem to do more than gnaw the rubber off the handles, and the paint off the body of the thing, but he kept to it in order to make his point.

Later that afternoon when the farmer came out and threw a handful of corn to Frank, Morton raced over, but Frank was not there. Instead, Frank was nibbling at the corner of the house. Morton would not stand for it, and ordered him to stop it immediately and only eat the corn that the farmer tossed him, and Morton was the only one who could eat the corner of the house. Frank walked over and began pecking at the corn trying to look dejected while Morton settled in to nibble on the siding... which tasted far better than the mower, but it was not about taste, but about the point he was trying to make.

The next morning when Morton awoke, Mrs. P was chewing on the tractor’s tire, and Frank was trying to eat a can of paint - - both of which Morton stopped them from doing while taking over in their place. The tire popped leaving his mouth with the taste of rubber, and the paint spilled all over the porch and left a nasty aftertaste.

That afternoon Morton’s stomach hurt, and he lay in the shady spot and tried to sleep, but couldn’t because of his stomach.

"What seems to be the problem Morton?" asked Frank as he and Mrs. P walked up.

"My stomach hurts," He told them.

"Oh," said Mrs. P, "you know what helps?"

"No."

"Eating blue jeans." Said frank, smiling, "and I happen to know where some are. Would you like us to fetch them for you?" Morton nodded, and Mrs. P and Frank went over to the laundry line where they pulled from the line the farmer’s favorite trousers which were drying there. Together they drug them back to Morton who thanked them and began chewing on the jeans. He thought it was helping, so he drug himself slowly and stiffly to the clothes line where he began eating the other clothes off the line.

By the time the farmer’s wife went out to check on the drying clothes, Morton had devoured three pairs of pants, two of the farmer’s wife’s favorite dressed, one towel, six pair of socks, three pairs of bloomers, and a dish-rag.

The farmer’s wife was furious and called her husband to see the trouble. Then they noticed the side of the house had been chewed up as well; the tractor’s tire had a bite in it, the lawnmower handle was bitten through, and there was paint all over the back porch with Morton’s tracks leading away from it. They tied a rope around Morton’s neck and took him that very afternoon to the auction yard to sell him.

Frank and Mrs. P, however, lived happily ever after... until the farmer and his wife got a rather large pig... but that is another story.