DE VRACHTRIJDER.

Mickey heeft met zijn ezelwagen een grote partij trommels, trompetten en andere muziekinstrumenten opgehaald. Onderweg gaat hij bij zijn vriendin Minnie langs. Ze maken veel plezier. Samen met de dieren van de boerderij vormen ze een orkestje en spelen wat vrolijke muziek. Pluto zwerft ondertussen wat rond en vindt bij wat werklui een paar grote staven dynamiet, waar hij lekker op gaat liggen kauwen. De staven ontploffen en het hele orkest vliegt met een grote knal de lucht in. Gelukkig raakt niemand daarbij gewond en het groepje gaat gewoon verder met spelen, waarmee ze aantonen dat muziek zich niet zomaar het zwijgen laat opleggen door het noodlot.

" Hi-Yi ! Giddup ! " Bumpity, bump, bump, over rocks and ruts came Mickey Mouse with a big wagon-load of musical instruments. There he was, bouncing around on the piano keys and shouting at his old mule, as Pluto skipped and barked along beside him.

It began to look like a hard day for Mickey, until he heard a familiar voice singing gaily in the back-yard of a house he was passing. " Whoa! Hold everything! " And stopping his mule, he turned to Pluto and whispered, " It's Minnie. Let's sneak up and surprise her! "

Rubbitty, rubbitty, rubbitty, rub-- 
She washed the clothes in a big wooden tub;
She soaped them well and rinsed them out,
While bubbles and suds floated round about.
Then she wrung them dry as dry could be,
As she sang " In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree."
But yonder, on linen and corset and coat,
Crunched a tattered and battered old billy goat.

Then Mickey slipped over to the clothesline, and climbing into a pair of panties hanging on the line, he took the clothes prop and pushed himself quietly along until he came up behind Minnie. Reaching down he strummed her tail, like a harp.

Minnie turned around in surprise, and guessing that it was Mickey who was teasing her (he was always doing something like that), she pushed the panties over the tub, pulled the string and let Mister Smarty fall ker-splash, right into the water!

While o'er in the barnyard the air was blue,
With " baa-a" and "yonk" and "quack" and "moo-o-o,"
As horns and fiddles and drums quite big
Fell on the cow, the goat and the pig. 

" Oh, Mickey, a PIANO 1 Can you play it ? " " A little bit," answered Mickey twisting a button off his pants. " Come on and play it," urged Minnie. " Aw,__

I have to be coaxed," said Mickey. So Minnie rolled her big brown eyes and leaning over she smiled sweetly in his face, saying, " Well, I'm coaxing you, Big Boy! " And Mickey just couldn't help himself.

Old Bossy blew hard on the sliding trombone
While the lamb toodle-ooed on the saxophone;
The caterpillar jumped on the big bass drum
And stamped with his feet, rat-a-tit -Bum, BUM!
Down in the grass on the bass violin,
Three squirrels bowed merrily, chiming in.
Way up in a tree hung a banjo neat,
And the birds plink-a-plinked it with their feet.

You would have laughed to see the goat hanging by his horns from the tree, playing the drum with his hoofs. And way up on the barn roof a fat pig blew his horn and made the weathervane spin around. Mickey and Minnie sat on the piano, blowing cornets and tapping the keys with their feet. Then Mickey followed a turtle around the yard, drumming on its back while he yanked the mule's tail so that his ears whanged the cymbals together. Everybody was certainly having a glorious time. But meanwhile Pluto was 'way up the road, sniffing around some workmen. One of them threw some dynamite into a pile of rocks and Pluto, thinking it was a stick, chased it. When the workmen saw him coming with it in his mouth, they ran for their lives and jumped into a barrel of black, sticky tar.

So Pluto, hearing the music afar,
Left the roadmen in their barrel of tar,
And grabbing the sputtering dynamite stick,
Ran to Mickey and dropped it quick!

Mickey and Minnie were too busy playing to notice Pluto. So he lay down on the ground and began to chew the dynamite, not realizing what terrible danger they were all in.

P'raps you've heard that wise old rats,
When their ship is sinking, seize their hats
And swim for shore while yet they've time,
Ere the brave ship settles 'neath the brine.
And so it was with Pluto's fleas--
They heard their master chew and wheeze,
And leaped far out and hopped away
They preferred to die another way !

BANG! CRASH ! exploded the terrible dynamite. Up into the air went Mickey and Minnie, the mule and the piano. And as the smoke cleared away, down came the piano and the mule lit right behind it. Then came Mickey, and finally Minnie-- with her tambourine stuck to the seat of her panties.

Of course, the whole back end of the piano was gone, but the hammers were still there, only instead of striking the strings they played on the old mule's ribs. And, would you believe it, it sounded even better than before!

First Mickey by his job was peeved,
But now he felt gay and relieved.
They showed by playing until late
That music can't be stopped by fate.

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