← Whymper heard nothing of this affair, and the eggs were duly delivered, a grocer's van driving up to the farm once a week to take them away. 🔊
← However, Benjamin and Clover could only be with Boxer after working hours, and it was in the middle of the day when the van came to take him away. 🔊
← Sure enough, there in the yard was a large closed van, drawn by two horses, with lettering on its side and a sly−looking man in a low−crowned bowler hat sitting on the driver's seat. 🔊
← And Boxer's stall was empty. The animals crowded round the van. "Good−bye, Boxer!" they chorused, "good−bye!" 🔊
← "Fools! Do you not see what is written on the side of that van?" That gave the animals pause, and there was a hush. 🔊
← At this moment the man on the box whipped up his horses and the van moved out of the yard at a smart trot. 🔊
← The van began to gather speed. Clover tried to stir her stout limbs to a gallop, and achieved a canter. 🔊
← "Boxer!" she cried. "Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!" And just at this moment, as though he had heard the uproar outside, Boxer's face, with the white stripe down his nose, appeared at the small window at the back of the van. 🔊
← All the animals took up the cry of "Get out, Boxer, get out!" But the van was already gathering speed and drawing away from them. 🔊
← It was uncertain whether Boxer had understood what Clover had said. But a moment later his face disappeared from the window and there was the sound of a tremendous drumming of hoofs inside the van. 🔊
← He was trying to kick his way out. The time had been when a few kicks from Boxer's hoofs would have smashed the van to matchwood. 🔊
← In desperation the animals began appealing to the two horses which drew the van to stop. 🔊
← Boxer's face did not reappear at the window. Too late, someone thought of racing ahead and shutting the five−barred gate; but in another moment the van was through it and rapidly disappearing down the road. 🔊
← Some of the animals had noticed that the van which took Boxer away was marked "Horse Slaughterer," and had actually jumped to the conclusion that Boxer was being sent to the knacker's. 🔊
← But the explanation was really very simple. The van had previously been the property of the knacker, and had been bought by the veterinary surgeon, who had not yet painted the old name out. 🔊
← On the day appointed for the banquet, a grocer's van drove up from Willingdon and delivered a large wooden crate at the farmhouse. 🔊