# Fraudulent Holidays explained — The Middle Five

> Chapter companion for The Middle Five by Francis La Flesche.

## What happens

The chapter recounts various schemes by the boys to create holidays and escape schoolwork, including a pig chase engineered by Warren and the narrator's terrifying solo trip to shut off the hydraulic ram at night, which ends with him catching a white rabbit that is later sold for cakes.

## Themes in this chapter

### Resistance and Rebellion

The boys deliberately break the stovepipe and engineer a pig escape to create holidays, rebelling against the strict school routine.

### Childhood and Play

The chapter highlights the boys' longing for play and their joyful chase of pigs, games in the twilight, and the rabbit as a pet.

### Friendship and Loyalty

The boys collaborate in schemes, share the rabbit as a pet, and honor the cake contract system, showing bonds of loyalty.

## Character check-ins

### Graybeard

The teacher who conducts the reading lesson and later dismisses school after the stovepipe incident.

### Robert Brown

Called 'little Bob'; reads the 'Summer' poem poorly and is corrected by Graybeard.

### Brush

Helps with the pig transfer, devises the plan to let the pigs out, and later negotiates the sale of the rabbit for cakes.

### Frank La Flesche

Selected by the farmer to help move the pigs.

### Lester

Participates in the pig transfer, loses part of his trousers to the sow, and suggests using the rabbit to scare the boys.

### Me

The narrator; responsible for the hydraulic ram, catches the white rabbit, and later sells it for cakes.

## Key lines

> Come, come, come, the Summer now is here.

The boy reads the opening line of a poem about summer in a monotone, prompting Graybeard to correct him.

_Illustrates the strict reading instruction and the boys' lack of engagement with the material._

> I want to transfer a sow with a litter of pigs from one pen to another, and I've come to ask if you could let me have the help of some of the boys?

The farmer requests student labor to move a sow and her piglets.

_Shows the integration of manual labor into the school day and the boys' eagerness to escape lessons._

> If you will give each one of us seventeen cakes, you can take the rabbit.

Brush sets a high price of seventeen cakes per boy for the rabbit, expecting it to be refused.

_Demonstrates the use of Sunday cake as currency among the boys and their resourcefulness._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_middle_five_se/chapters/viii-fraudulent-holidays
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_middle_five_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_middle_five_se/chapters