One evening, a few days after the writing had appeared in Charlotte's web, the spider called a meeting of all the animals in the barn cellar.
"I shall begin by calling the roll. Wilbur?""Here!" said the pig.
"Gander?""Here, here, here!" said the gander.
"You sound like three ganders," muttered Charlotte. "Why can't you just say 'here'? Why do you have to repeat everything?""It's my idio-idio-idiosyncrasy," replied the gander.
"Goose?" said Charlotte.
"Here, here, here!" said the goose. Charlotte glared at her.
"Goslings, one through seven?""Bee-bee-bee!" "Bee-bee-bee!" "Bee-bee-bee!" "Bee-bee-bee!" "Bee-bee-bee!" "Bee-bee-bee!" "Bee-bee-bee!" said the goslings.
"This is getting to be quite a meeting," said Charlotte. "Any body would think we had three ganders, three geese, and twenty-one goslings. Sheep?""He-aa-aa!" answered the sheep all together.
"Lambs?""He-aa-aa!" answered the lambs all together.
"Templeton?"No answer.
"Templeton?"No answer.
"Well, we are all here except the rat," said Charlotte. "I guess we can proceed without him. Now, all of you must have noticed what's been going on around here the last few days. The message I wrote in my web, praising Wilbur, has been received. The Zuckermans have fallen for it, and so has everybody else. Zuckerman thinks Wilbur is an unusual pig, and therefore he won't want to kill him and eat him. I dare say my trick will work and Wilbur's life can be saved.
"Hurray!" cried everybody.
"Thank you very much," said Charlotte. "Now I called this meeting in order to get suggestions. I need new ideas for the web. People are already getting sick of reading the words 'Some Pig!' If anybody can think of another message, or remark, I'll be glad to weave it into the web. Any suggestions for a new slogan?""How about 'Pig Supreme'?" asked one of the lambs.
"No good," said Charlotte. "It sounds like a rich dessert.""How about 'Terrific, terrific, terrific'?" asked the goose.
"Cut that down to one 'terrific' and it will do very nicely," said Charlotte. "I think 'terrific' might impress Zuckerman.""But Charlotte," said Wilbur, "I'm not terrific.""that doesn't make a particle of difference," replied Charlotte. "Not a particle. People believe almost anything they see in print. Does anybody here know how to spell 'terrific'?""I think," said the gander," it's tee double ee double rr double rr double eye double ff double eye double see see see see s............