It's been a few days since her message in the web went viral and she's called a meeting in the barn. First thing on the agenda: roll call. Gander and goslings? Check and seven little checks. Radio silence. But Charlotte thinks they can just move along even in Templeton's absence.
She doesn't seem to have a high opinion of her not-so-friendly rat neighbor. The main point of this meeting is to discuss new messages for Charlotte to weave into the web. Turns out that Charlotte is a master at public relations, and she realizes that the visitors will soon tire of reading the same words over and over. So a new slogan is in order. Templeton is the big barn rat.
Let's be honest: we don't like Templeton one bit. He's rude and mean and gosh can he be a selfish little rodent. In fact, he's so selfish that he doesn't want to help save Wilbur's life. And then it takes a lot of coaxing and bribery for him to help save Charlotte's egg sac. Templeton needs to mind his manners and think of others for a change. If you don't like Templeton, then you're in good company. Even the narrator doesn't have a nice thing to say about this rat. Fern becomes extremely upset and races outside to stop her father.
Moved by her pleas, her father agrees not to kill the pig. He tells Fern to go back inside, where she can feed the pig with a bottle like a baby. Arable brings the pig into the kitchen in a box. Fern peeks inside and is delighted. She kisses her father and mother and then lifts the pig out and holds it against her cheek.
He asks if he too can have a pig, but Mr. Fern feeds the baby pig milk from a bottle. When the school bus honks, Fern and Avery hurry to meet it.
On the bus, Fern thinks of a name for her pig: Wilbur. Fern loves Wilbur. Every morning, she feeds him warm milk from a bottle. Every afternoon after school, she jumps off the bus and races home to feed him some more. Fern also gives Wilbur a bottle at suppertime and again at bedtime. Arable helps by feeding Wilbur at noon, when Fern is in school. At first, Wilbur lives in his box in the kitchen. Soon he moves to a bigger box in the woodshed.
When he is two weeks old, Mr. Arable fixes a large box with straw for Wilbur outside under an apple tree. Wilbur tunnels into the straw to keep warm while he sleeps, which makes Fern feel relieved. Wilbur follows Fern everywhere. Sometimes Fern places him in her doll carriage and wheels him around. When Fern and Avery go swimming, Wilbur follows and plays in the mud onshore. When Wilbur is five weeks old, Mr. Arable says he must be sold. Fern cries, but her father insists.
Fern calls her aunt and uncle, the Zuckermans, who agree to buy Wilbur for six dollars, and so Wilbur goes to live on their farm. Since Fern visits him almost every day, the sheep, geese, and other animals all come to trust her. Yet Wilbur becomes bored. He can only walk outside into his small fenced yard and then back into his pen. One day a goose points out to Wilbur that he can push on a loose fence board and free himself.
The goose encourages him to go wherever he wants and do whatever he pleases. Wilbur obeys, but when Mrs. Zuckerman spots him rooting around in the orchard, she shouts to Mr. Zuckerman and Lurvy, their farmhand, to catch Wilbur. The farm animals all direct Wilbur to run in different directions, which confuses and scares him.
Soon, Mr. Zuckerman brings out a pail of slop. Wilbur smells the food and follows as Mr. Zuckerman leads him back to his pen. As Wilbur eats, Lurvy mends the broken fence. Zuckerman and Lurvy compliment Wilbur, who now feels full, content, and sleepy.
Wilbur decides how to spend his day, but rain ruins his plans. He then wants to talk with Templeton, the rat that lives under his feed trough, but Templeton is not around. Wilbur feels lonely and friendless. Wilbur asks the goose to play with him, but she explains that she must sit on her eggs. He asks the lamb to play with him, but it refuses to play with a pig. Lurvy suspects something is wrong with Wilbur and tells Mr.
Zuckerman, who directs him to give Wilbur some medicine. After dark, Wilbur hears a small voice say that it will be his friend. The voice tells him to go to sleep and that they will meet in the morning. Filled with excitement about meeting his new friend, Wilbur has a hard time sleeping. He loudly asks who the friend is, but he wakes the other animals, and the oldest sheep shushes him.
Lurvy brings Wilbur his slop, which he gobbles up hungrily. As Wilbur lies down for his morning nap, he hears the voice again. The voice greets him and introduces itself as Charlotte, the spider whose web spans the upper corner of the doorway above his pen.
Charlotte demonstrates how she catches and wraps a fly that gets caught in her web. She lists all the insects she eats, explaining that she actually just drinks their blood. Upon hearing this, Wilbur feels disturbed. As Charlotte eats the fly, Wilbur settles down for his nap. School lets out for the summer, and Fern visits Wilbur almost every day.
One egg does not hatch, however. The goose gives it to Templeton, while the gander warns Templeton that he had better stay away from the goslings. Charlotte warns everyone that if the unhatched egg ever breaks, the stink from the rotten egg will fill the whole barn.
Wilbur likes Charlotte more and more, and he grows bigger day by day. The oldest sheep tells Wilbur that the Zuckermans are fattening him up in order to kill him at Christmastime and make ham and bacon from him. Shocked and terrified by this news, Wilbur cries out for someone to save him. Charlotte declares that she will save Wilbur but that he must stop crying and behaving childishly.
Fern watches Charlotte repair her web. Charlotte describes to Wilbur how her legs help her spin. Wilbur brags that he could spin a web too. Smiling, Charlotte agrees to coach Wilbur on how to spin.
Charlotte assures Wilbur that she is thinking of a plan. Charlotte has finally come up with a plan—she will save Wilbur by playing a trick on Mr. They swing on an old rope in the barn doorway and pick raspberries in the pasture.
Fern then decides to visit Wilbur. Fern cries out to stop him. The rotten egg that Templeton had hidden under the trough breaks, and a horrible stench fills the air.
Fern and Avery hold their noses and run away, and Charlotte is saved.
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