Old Mr. Thomas had just bought a quaint little house in the countryside.
“I think it will make a good change,” said Mr. Thomas to his friends in the coffee house, as they said goodbye. “I need peace and quiet. My grandkids are good, but they do make so much of noise. It grates on my old ears. I need some peace and quiet.”
When the summer set in Mr. Thomas said goodbye to his son and family and set off to his country house.
“Bye…Bye…Grandpa,” shouted the children as the car turned slowly down the drive and disappeared from view.
Mr. Thomas drove down to his new house in the countryside. An old village woman was asked to clean up before he came.
As the car turned into the gate that led to his new house, the old woman came to greet Mr. Thomas.
“Everything is neat and tidy as it should be, Sir,” said the old woman. “Would there be anything else you need?”
“Nothing, nothing,” said Mr. Thomas. “But are those pigs snuffling on the garden? I am planning to plant some carrots there.”
“Oh, they belong to Farmer Dramp. They will go home by themselves in the evening.”
A peaceful life
“This is a nice house,” said Mr. Thomas to himself. “I am going to enjoy a lot of peace and quiet.”
A few weeks passed by. Mr. Thomas spent the warm summer afternoons digging up the garden and planting carrot seeds.
“I can sell the produce in the village market,” said Mr. Thomas aloud. “Maybe one day I can become a real farmer.”
Things went on and summer passed into the rains. The carrot ferns grew tall and green and Mr. Thomas was waiting for the day when he could dig up the soil and take the carrots out, well before the rains would come.
One morning Mr. Thomas woke up and found his carrot patch dug up and all the carrots gone. He was horrified.
“They must be the rabbits,” laughed the old woman when he called her. “They always wait and watch till the carrots grow tall.”
And when the rains came, the quiet countryside came alive. One day, as Mr. Thomas sat in his kitchen, he heard a sound behind him. A large wet brown mongrel was standing in the kitchen door shaking rain drops off his body on the kitchen mat.
“Go away, go away,” cried Mr. Thomas as he took a cane and waved it at the dog. The dog turned and ran into the bedroom where it hid under the bed. Many hours and biscuits later Mr. Thomas finally drove the dog out and bolted the door.
One day he found a duck waddling in his bath tub where he had drawn some hot water for his bath.
“Holla, Holla,” cried Mr. Thomas. “Do you think I am a toddler to have a duck in my tub? Get away now!”
And the other day Mr. Thomas found a pig caught under his kitchen sink.
“Here, get out, scram…shoo,” cried Mr. Thomas as he tried to drive away the pig. But the pig would not budge.
“He is Farmer Gee’s pig,” said the old woman when Mr. Thomas called her frantically. “The pig goes off and hides when he hears the thunder. If you let him smell a piece of apple pie, that can make him come out. He loves apple pie.”
The pig left happily after eating up Mr. Thomas’s breakfast. It took poor Mr. Thomas the whole morning to wash and clean the kitchen to remove the piggy smell.
A few weeks later, Mr. Thomas returned home. “How is the house in the countryside, Papa?” asked his son. “Do you need any more groceries?”
“No,” said Mr. Thomas, mysteriously, “I have locked up the house. Maybe I can go there next summer. Where are the kids?”
In the old coffee house, Mr. Thomas greeted his old friends like he had not seen them for ages. When they asked him why he had come back so soon, Mr. Thomas was even more mysterious. “I need some peace and quiet,” was all he would say!
