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Smith" /> + <meta name="DC.Title" content="The Tale of Grunty Pig" /> + <meta name="DC.Date" content="2008" /> + <meta name="DC.Language" content="en" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Tale Of Grunty Pig, by Arthur Scott Bailey. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + p.slumb1 {text-align: center; margin-top: 1.0em; font-size: 120%; margin-bottom: 0em;} + p.slumb2 {text-align: center; font-size: 80%; margin-top: 0em;} + p.slumb3 {text-align: center; font-size: 80%;} + p.slumb4 {text-align: center; font-size: 110%; margin-bottom: 0.1em;} + p.slumb5 {text-align: center; font-size: 120%; letter-spacing: 0.1em; margin-bottom: 0em;} + p.slumb6 {text-align: center; font-size: 80%; margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em;} + p.slumb7 {margin-left: 3em; margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 1.0em; font-variant: small-caps;} + p.title1 {text-align: center; font-size: 120%; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em;} + p.title2 {margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 130%; letter-spacing: 0.2em;} + p.title3 {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + p.title4 {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 180%; letter-spacing: 0.1em;} + p.title5 {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 250%; letter-spacing: 0.1em;} + p.title6 {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 80%;} + p.title7 {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 130%;} + p.title8 {margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 80%;} + p.title9 {margin-top: 0em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center;} + p.title10 {margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 60%;} + p.title11 {margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center;} + p.title12 {margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 60%;} + p.title13 {margin-top: 6em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 80%; letter-spacing: 0.1em;} + p.title14 {margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 130%; letter-spacing: 0.2em;} + p.title15 {margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 0em; text-align: center; font-size: 80%; letter-spacing: 0.3em;} + p.title16 {margin-top: 0.2em; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center; font-size: 60%;} + p.pub {margin-top: 4em; font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center; font-size: 80%;} + p.pub1 {margin-bottom: 4em; text-align: center; font-size: 90%;} + p.ads1 {margin-left: 8em; margin-right: 8em; text-indent: 1em;} + p.ads2 {margin-left: 8em;} + p.ads3 {margin-left: 8em; margin-right: 8em; margin-bottom: 0em;} + p.ads4 {margin-left: 9em; margin-right: 9em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; text-indent: 1em; font-size: .9em;} + p.ads5 {text-align: center; font-size: 120%; letter-spacing: 0.1em; margin-top: 0.2em;} + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 65%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + border: none; + border-bottom: 1px solid black; + } + hr.tiny { width: 15%; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + hr.front { width: 80%; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-top: 0.2em; border-bottom: 3px solid black;} + hr.end1 {width: 60%; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-top: 4em;} + hr.end2 {width: 60%; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-top: 0.2em;} + hr.end3 {width: 25%; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-top: 0.2em;} + hr.end4 {width: 60%; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-top: 4em; border-bottom: 3px solid black;} + hr.end5 {width: 60%; margin-bottom: 4em; margin-top: 0.2em; border-bottom: 3px solid black;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + td.left {text-align: left; text-indent: 1em;} + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + div.main {max-width: 40em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto;} + img {border: 0} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: small; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; + padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; + color: #444; background-color: #EEE;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .chapr {text-align: right; font-size: 80%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Grunty Pig, by Arthur Scott Bailey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tale of Grunty Pig + Slumber-Town Tales + +Author: Arthur Scott Bailey + +Illustrator: Harry L. Smith + +Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG *** + + + + +Produced by Joe Longo, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="main"> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<a name="cover.jpg" id="cover.jpg" href="images/cover.jpg"> +<img src="images/cover_th.jpg" width="450" height="678" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /></a> +</div> + +<p class="title1"> +THE TALE OF<br /> +GRUNTY PIG</p> + + + + +<table width="300" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Slumber Town Tales Book List" border="1"><tr><td> +<p class="slumb1"><em>SLUMBER-TOWN TALES</em></p> +<p class="slumb2">(Trademark Registered)</p> + +<p class="slumb3">BY</p> +<p class="slumb4">ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY</p> + +<p class="slumb3">AUTHOR OF</p> + +<p class="slumb5"><em>SLEEPY-TIME TALES</em></p> +<p class="slumb2">(Trademark Registered)</p> + +<p class="slumb5"><em>TUCK-ME-IN TALES</em></p> +<p class="slumb6">(Trademark Registered)</p> +<hr class="tiny" /> +<p class="slumb7">The Tale of the Muley Cow<br /> +The Tale of Old Dog Spot<br /> + +The Tale of Grunty Pig<br /> + +The Tale of Henrietta Hen<br /> + +The Tale of Turkey Proudfoot<br /> + +The Tale of Pony Twinkleheels<br /> + +The Tale of Miss Kitty Cat</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<p><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-top: 30px;"> +<a name="frontispiece.jpg" id="frontispiece.jpg" href="images/frontispiece.jpg"> +<img src="images/frontispiece_th.jpg" width="450" height="683" alt="Grunty Pig is Scolded by Henrietta Hen." title="" /></a> +<p class="center"><span class="caption">Grunty Pig is Scolded by Henrietta Hen.<br /> + +<i>Frontispiece</i> (<a href="#Page_17"><i>Page</i> 17</a>)</span> +</p></div> + + + + +<table width="400" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Title Page" border="1"><tr><td> +<p class="title2"><em>SLUMBER-TOWN TALES</em></p> +<p class="title3">(Trademark Registered)</p> +<hr class="front" /> + +<p class="title4">THE TALE OF</p> +<p class="title5">GRUNTY PIG</p> +<p class="title6">BY</p> +<p class="title7">ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY</p> +<p class="title8">Author of</p> +<p class="title9">"SLEEPY-TIME TALES"</p> +<p class="title3">(Trademark Registered)</p> +<p class="title10">AND</p> +<p class="title11">"TUCK-ME-IN TALES"</p> +<p class="title3">(Trademark Registered)</p> +<p class="title12">ILLUSTRATED BY</p> +<p class="title9">HARRY L. SMITH</p> +<p class="title13">NEW YORK</p> +<p class="title14">GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> +<p class="title15">PUBLISHERS</p> +<p class="title16">Made in the United States of America</p> +</td></tr></table> +<hr /> +<p class="pub">Copyright, 1921, by</p> +<p class="pub1">GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="smcap"> +<table border="0" width="450" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> + +<col style="width:12%;" /> +<col style="width:58%;" /> +<col style="width:30%;" /> +<tr><td class="chapr">CHAPTER</td><td></td><td class="chapr">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">I</td><td class="left">The Runt</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II</td><td class="left">A New Way to Eat</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III</td><td class="left">The Loose Board</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IV</td><td class="left">The Wide, Wide World</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V</td><td class="left">Sixes and Sevens</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI</td><td class="left">Mr. Crow Helps</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VII</td><td class="left">The Grumbler</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VIII</td><td class="left">Fearful News</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">IX</td><td class="left">A Great Adventure</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">X</td><td class="left">A Queer Bear</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XI</td><td class="left">Locked Out</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XII</td><td class="left">Woof!</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIII</td><td class="left">Home at Last</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XIV</td><td class="left">An Odd Thought</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XV</td><td class="left">Grunty Means Mischief</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVI</td><td class="left">Danger Ahead</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XVII</td><td class="left">A Puzzle Solved</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XVIII</td><td class="left">The Luckiest of All</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XIX</td><td class="left">Dog Spot's Plan</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XX</td><td class="left">A New Kind of Pig</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXI</td><td class="left">Beechnuts</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXII</td><td class="left">Jasper Jay Objects</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align="right">XXIII</td><td class="left">Moses Mouse's Way</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">XXIV</td><td class="left">A Pig in the Parlor</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> +<table border="0" width="450" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> + +<col style="width:80%;" /> +<col style="width:20%;" /> +<tr><td></td><td class="chapr">PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Grunty Pig is Scolded by Henrietta Hen</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#frontis"><em>Frontispiece</em></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Muley Cow Advises Grunty Pig to go Home</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Illo1">32</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">"Always Mind Your Mother," Said Mrs. Pig</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Illo2">64</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Grunty Pig Stuck Fast in the Fence</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Illo3">80</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> +<h1>THE TALE OF<br /> GRUNTY PIG</h1> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<h3>THE RUNT</h3> + + +<p>He was the smallest of seven children. At first his mother thought she +would call him "Runty." But she soon changed her mind about that; for +she discovered that even if he was the runt of the family, he had the +loudest grunt of all. So the good lady made haste to slip a G in front +of the name "Runty."</p> + +<p>"There!" she exclaimed. "'Grunty' is a name that you ought to be proud +of. It calls attention to your best point. And if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> you keep on making as +much noise in the world as you do now, maybe people won't notice that +you're a bit undersized. You certainly sound as big as any little shote +I ever saw or heard."</p> + +<p>So that was settled—though Grunty Pig didn't care one way or another. +He seemed to be interested in nothing but food. There is no doubt that +he would have been willing to change his name a dozen times a day for +the slight bribe of a drink of warm milk.</p> + +<p>His mother sometimes said that he had the biggest appetite—as well as +the loudest grunt—of all her seven children. And she was glad that he +ate well, because food was the very thing that would make him grow.</p> + +<p>"You won't always be runty, Grunty, if you eat a plenty," Mrs. Pig often +told him. And then he would grunt, as if to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> say, "You don't need to +urge me. Just give me a chance!"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig soon learned that being the smallest of the family had one +sad drawback. His brothers and sisters (all bigger than he!) could crowd +him away from the feeding trough. And they not only <i>could</i>; but they +often <i>did</i>. Unless Grunty reached the trough among the first, there was +never a place left where he could squirm in. If he tried to eat at one +end of the trough he was sure to be shouldered away and go hungry.</p> + +<p>So whenever he did succeed in getting the first taste of a meal he took +pains to plant himself in the exact middle of the trough. Then there +would be three other youngsters on each side of him, all crowding +towards him. And though he found it a bit hard to breathe under such a +squeezing, at least he got his share of the food.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span></p><p>Poor Mrs. Pig! Her children had frightful manners. Though she talked +and talked to them about not crowding, and about eating slowly, and +about eating noiselessly, the moment their food was poured into their +trough they forgot everything their mother had said.</p> + +<p>That is, all but Grunty Pig! If he happened to be left out in the cold, +so to speak, and had to stand and look on while his brothers and sister +stuffed themselves, he couldn't help remembering his mother's remarks +about manners.</p> + +<p>"It's awful to watch them!" he would gurgle. "I don't see how they can +be so boorish." He thought there was no sadder sight than his six +brothers and sisters jostling one another over their food, while he +couldn't find a place to push in among them.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span></p> +<h3>II</h3> + +<h3>A NEW WAY TO EAT</h3> + + +<p>One thing, especially, distressed Mrs. Pig. Her children <i>would</i> put +their fore feet right into the trough when they ate their meals out of +it. Nothing she said to them made the slightest difference. Even when +she told them that they were little pigs they didn't seem to care.</p> + +<p>"We're all bigger than Grunty is," said one of her sons—a bouncing +black youngster who was the most unruly of the litter.</p> + +<p>"You're all greedy," Mrs. Pig retorted. "Do try to restrain yourselves +when you eat. Remember—there's plenty of time."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span></p><p>"But there's not always plenty of food," Grunty Pig told his mother. +"Sometimes there isn't any left for me."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Mrs. Pig. "I know that your brothers and sisters eat your +share whenever they can. Farmer Green furnishes enough food for you all. +And if you children didn't forget your manners everybody would get his +share—no more and no less."</p> + +<p>Now, Mrs. Pig was not the only one that noticed how piggish her +youngsters were at the trough. One day Farmer Green himself remarked to +his son Johnnie, as they leaned over the pen, that that litter of pigs +did beat all he had ever seen.</p> + +<p>"They come a-running at meal time as if they were half starved. It's a +wonder they don't get in the trough all over."</p> + +<p>Johnnie Green liked to watch the pigs.</p> + +<p>"That black fellow's the greediest of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span> lot," he declared. "He's +getting to be the biggest. He's almost twice the size of the little +runt."</p> + +<p>"The runt doesn't get his share," said Farmer Green. "We'll have to do +something to help him, or he'll never be worth his salt."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig looked up at Farmer Green and gave a plaintive squeal, as if +to say, "Hurry, please! Because I'm always hungry."</p> + +<p>And Blackie, his greedy brother, looked up at Farmer Green too. He said +nothing. But his little eyes twinkled slyly. And afterward he told his +brothers and sisters that Farmer Green needn't think he could keep <i>him</i> +from drinking all the skim milk he pleased.</p> + +<p>"If Mother can't make me behave, surely Farmer Green won't be able to," +he boasted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span></p><p>Of course Blackie Pig was very young. Otherwise he would never have +made such a silly remark. And he soon learned that Farmer Green was more +than a match for him.</p> + +<p>The next day Farmer Green made a long lid that dropped over the feeding +trough and covered it completely. And in the lid he cut seven holes—one +for each of Mrs. Pig's children.</p> + +<p>There was no more jostling at meal time. There was a place for +everybody. And Mrs. Pig was delighted with the improvement. When Farmer +Green filled the trough, each of the children stuck his head through a +hole and ate in the most orderly fashion. To be sure, there was some +squealing and grunting, and some snuffling and blowing. But it seemed to +Mrs. Pig that no youngsters could have behaved more beautifully.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span></p><p>And Grunty liked the new way of eating, too. But Blackie made a great +fuss. He complained because he couldn't stick his nose through two holes +at the same time!</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span></p> +<h3>III</h3> + +<h3>THE LOOSE BOARD</h3> + + +<p>After Farmer Green put the lid with the holes in it over the top of the +feeding trough, Grunty Pig began to grow. At last he was getting as much +to eat as his brothers and sisters. And the bigger he grew, the more +food he wanted. He was always on the watch for some extra tidbit—always +rooting about to find some dainty that others had overlooked. Many a +delicious piece of carrot, or turnip, or potato-paring rewarded him for +his eager searching.</p> + +<p>Still, Grunty Pig was far from satisfied. He had a great longing to get +outside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span> the pen where he lived with the rest of Mrs. Pig's seven +children.</p> + +<p>"Out in the wide world there must be many good things to eat," he +thought. "I'd like to find the place where the potato-parings grow."</p> + +<p>But of all this, Grunty Pig said nothing to anyone. If the chance ever +came to slip out of the pen, he intended to take nobody with him. He had +not yet caught up with his brothers and sisters in size, even if he had +outstripped them in the matter of brains. And he feared that any one of +them would crowd him away from the good things that he meant to find +beyond the walls of the pigsty.</p> + +<p>Little did Mrs. Pig dream what plans filled the head of her son Grunty. +When she saw him sniffing around the walls of the pen she never once +guessed that he could be looking for anything except<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> something to eat. +How could she know that Grunty—the littlest of the family—was +searching for a place to escape?</p> + +<p>Now, it happened that there was one loose board in a corner of the +pigpen. The nails that once held it had rusted away. Nobody but Grunty +Pig had discovered that by pressing against an end of this board one +could bend it outward.</p> + +<p>It was too bad—for him—that he had grown so rapidly. Had he been just +a bit smaller he could have squeezed through the opening.</p> + +<p>Here Grunty met the first real problem of his life. For some days he +puzzled over it. One thing was certain: he couldn't make himself +smaller, unless he stopped eating. And that was out of the question. In +the end he made up his mind that there was only one thing to do: he must +make the opening bigger.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span></p><p>Day after day Grunty Pig crowded against the loose board. And at last +came his reward. Two more rusty nails gave way all at once. Under +Grunty's weight the board opened wide. And as he slipped through the +space, to freedom, the board snapped back into place again.</p> + +<p>There he was, with the wide world before him. And there was the pen, +with no opening anywhere to be seen.</p> + +<p>With a grunt of delight Grunty Pig trotted out of the low building and +found himself on the edge of Farmer Green's orchard.</p> + +<p>He noticed that there was a fragrant smell of apples in the air.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span></p> +<h3>IV</h3> + +<h3>THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD</h3> + + +<p>It was the first time Grunty Pig had ever been outside his pen. And +since he didn't know how long it would be before Farmer Green found him +and took him back home, he decided that he had better make the most of +his outing while it lasted.</p> + +<p>Hurrying into the orchard, Grunty ate heartily of the fruit that lay +upon the ground. After he had devoured a few dozen apples he began to +lose his appetite for that sort of food. So he started to root beneath +the trees. It was fun to dig. Besides, he found a good many tender roots +that tickled his taste. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> were different from anything he had ever +eaten before.</p> + +<p>After a while Grunty Pig learned something. He had always supposed that +he could go on eating forever, if he were only lucky enough to have the +chance. But to his surprise he found that there was a limit to the +amount he could consume with comfort. He began to have a <i>tight</i> feeling +about his waistband. At first he dared hope it would go away. But the +more he ate, the worse he felt. And at last he gave a grunt of +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"I can't eat any more," he whined. "Here's a whole world full of food +just going to waste. And I can't even hold one half of it!"</p> + +<p>Still, there were other pleasures to be had besides eating. Grunty +crawled through the fence into the lane. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> near the barn, where the +cows had trampled, he beheld such beautiful, sticky, deep mud as he had +never dreamed could be found anywhere.</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig gave a deep sigh of happiness as he wallowed in the mire. He +lay on his stomach, he turned upon each side. He even squirmed through a +puddle and rolled over in it, so that there wasn't a clean patch on him, +anywhere. Little did he care that his silvery bristles were smeared with +black. The mud felt delightfully cool upon his piggy, pinkish skin.</p> + +<p>"This is almost better than eating," Grunty squealed.</p> + +<p>At last his gurgles and grunts attracted the notice of a proud creature +known as Henrietta Hen. She had been scratching for worms in the +farmyard. And now she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> came running around a corner of the barn and +peered through the fence at Grunty.</p> + +<p>"You careless child!" she squawked. "Stop playing in that mud! Don't you +know that it's very dangerous to get your feet wet?"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig stood up and looked at her.</p> + +<p>"Goodness! You're a sight!" Henrietta Hen exclaimed. "Does your mother +know you're here?"</p> + +<p>Now, Grunty Pig didn't answer a single one of Henrietta's questions. He +merely stared at her and said nothing. So it was no wonder that she +thought him stupid.</p> + +<p>"Poor Mrs. Pig!" thought Henrietta Hen. "It's bad enough to have a child +so untidy as this youngster. But it's far worse to have a dull-witted +one."</p> + +<p>Then to Grunty she said sharply,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> "You'd better get out of that mudhole +and go dry yourself in the sun."</p> + +<p>He actually obeyed her. And as soon as Henrietta Hen saw that he was +sunning himself she walked out of sight around the barn, stopping now +and then to pick up some tidbit or other.</p> + +<p>"Good!" Grunty Pig grunted. "She's gone. This was the easiest way to get +rid of her."</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span></p> +<h3>V</h3> + +<h3>SIXES AND SEVENS</h3> + + +<p>Not until feeding time came did anyone discover that Grunty Pig was gone +from the pen. It may seem strange that neither his mother nor any of his +brothers and sisters missed him. But when there are seven children in a +family it is no wonder that one of them could slip away without having +his absence noticed. It is specially easy, in such a large family, to +overlook the littlest.</p> + +<p>If Mrs. Pig had known there was a loose board on the pen she would +certainly have counted noses to find out whether her children were all +safe at home. But nobody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> knew about that loose board except Grunty +himself.</p> + +<p>It was lucky that Farmer Green had made the lid for Mrs. Pig's +children's feeding trough—the lid with the seven holes in it. When he +poured the children's supper into the trough and slammed down the lid he +stood and watched Mrs. Pig's youngsters as they scrambled to the trough +and stuck—each of them—a nose into a hole.</p> + +<p>All at once Farmer Green noticed something queer. "Hullo!" he cried to +his son Johnnie. "There's an empty hole here. We've lost a pig!"</p> + +<p>He looked closely at the row of six squirming bunches of squeals.</p> + +<p>"I declare!" said Farmer Green. "It's the runt that's gone."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pig, who was enjoying her own supper a little way off, did not hear +what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> Farmer Green said. Her children were making a good deal of noise. +And to tell the truth, Mrs. Pig herself wasn't exactly a silent eater. +When Farmer Green jumped into the pen and began to poke at the sides of +it she wondered what he was doing. Soon he found the loose board and +pushed against it with his foot, exclaiming, "Here's where he got away! +Who'd have thought that the runt was the smartest of the family?</p> + +<p>"Run and get me a hammer and a few nails," said Farmer Green to his son +Johnnie. "We must fix this pen before any more of the pigs crawl out."</p> + +<p>Well, when she heard the news Mrs. Pig nearly choked over a bit of +something or other that she was eating. Grunty was gone! If she hadn't +spent most of the afternoon dozing perhaps she would have missed him. +And poor Mrs. Pig began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span> to reproach herself for what wasn't really her +fault at all.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll find him," she told Farmer Green as he drove a nail into +the loose board. "I hope you won't leave my son out to-night. There's no +knowing what might happen to a child of his tender years."</p> + +<p>Maybe Farmer Green heard her request. Anyhow, as he handed the hammer to +Johnnie he said, "Come and help me, after you put the hammer back. We'll +have to find that pig. If a bear happened to come down from the mountain +to-night he'd treat himself to a feast. That runt would make a nice, +tender meal."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pig must certainly have heard—and understood—Farmer Green's +remark. For she gave a loud squeal of alarm.</p> + +<p>"Hurry!" she begged him. "Please, Mr. Green, do find Grunty before +dark!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span></p> +<h3>VI</h3> + +<h3>MR. CROW HELPS</h3> + + +<p>It was a wonder that Johnnie Green and his father ever found Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p>Soon after Henrietta Hen left him, Grunty crept out of the lane and +wandered into the cornfield. He had an idea that Henrietta might go and +tell his mother that she had seen him wallowing in the mud behind the +barn. And he did not want to be dragged back to the pigpen.</p> + +<p>Grunty had no way of knowing that Henrietta Hen forgot all about him +before she had crossed the farmyard. She fell into a loud dispute with a +neighbor. And she never thought of Grunty again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span></p><p>Grunty Pig enjoyed his ramble into the field of waving corn. The corn +was sweet; and the dirt was loose—just the finest sort to root in that +a body could possibly want. He had the place all to himself until at +last a black gentleman came flying up in a great hurry and ordered him +in a hoarse voice to "get out of the corn—and be quick about it!"</p> + +<p>On him Grunty Pig tried the same trick that he had used on Henrietta +Hen. He looked up with a stupid stare at the newcomer and said never a +word.</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Crow—for it was he that had commanded Grunty to leave—old Mr. +Crow abused him roundly. Mr. Crow was not empty-headed, like Henrietta +Hen. He was not to be deceived so easily.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you answer me?" he bawled. "You make noise enough when you're +at home. I've heard you often,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> way across the cornfield." Mr. Crow +cawed so angrily that a dozen of his cronies flew over from the woods to +see what was going on. And the whole thirteen made such an uproar that +Farmer Green couldn't help noticing them. He and Johnnie were in the +orchard, hunting for Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p>"Those crows are up to some mischief," Farmer Green declared. "You don't +suppose—do you?—that they're teasing that pig?"</p> + +<p>Well, Johnnie Green was willing to go and find out. And sure enough! he +found Grunty in the cornfield.</p> + +<p>Johnnie Green picked him up, tucked him under his arm—plastered with +dried mud as he was—and brought him in triumph to the barn.</p> + +<p>Farmer Green laughed when he saw Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span></p><p>"He looks as if he had been enjoying himself," he remarked as he +dropped Grunty into the pen with the rest of Mrs. Pig's children.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to feed him?" Johnnie Green inquired.</p> + +<p>Again his father laughed.</p> + +<p>"No!" he replied. "That pig has stuffed himself so full he can scarcely +waddle."</p> + +<p>As for Mrs. Pig, she didn't know whether to laugh or to weep. She was +glad to have Grunty safe at home again; but he was a sad sight.</p> + +<p>At first Mrs. Pig thought Farmer Green had made a mistake. She thought +he had found somebody else's child. For Grunty was so daubed with black +mud that she actually didn't know him until she heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> him grunt. "Where +have you been?" she asked him in her sternest voice.</p> + +<p>"I've been out in the world," he answered. "And I've had a fine time."</p> + +<p>"It's easy to see," said Mrs. Pig, "that you're a born wallower. It's a +pity that you haven't your brother Blackie's complexion. The dirt does +show so dreadfully on silver bristles!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p> +<h3>VII</h3> + +<h3>THE GRUMBLER</h3> + + +<p>All the farmyard folk agreed that Farmer Green took the best of care of +everybody. Mrs. Pig often told her children that they were lucky to have +so good a home. And not having lived anywhere else, they never imagined +that anything could be finer than their pen.</p> + +<p>After the day when he escaped from the pen, however, Grunty Pig began to +complain. He wasn't satisfied with the food that Farmer Green gave him, +he grumbled because there was no good place to wallow in mud, and +especially did he object because there wasn't a tree to rub<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> against. +"The orchard," he often said, "is a much pleasanter place than this pen +is. There are trees enough in the orchard for every member of our family +to rub against—all at the same time."</p> + +<p>Somehow, when Grunty talked in that fashion every one of Mrs. Pig's +children began to crowd against the sides of the pen. And even Mrs. Pig +herself felt an annoying tickling along her back. She did wish that +Grunty wouldn't mention such matters.</p> + +<p>But nothing Mrs. Pig could say seemed to do any good. He was always +prattling, anyhow. She could no more stop his flow of grunts and squeals +than she could have kept the water in the brook from babbling down the +mountainside to Swift River.</p> + +<p>And even more annoying to Mrs. Pig was the way her son Grunty tried to +rub his back against <i>her</i>. She said "Don't!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> to him so often that she +became heartily sick of the word.</p> + +<p>What bothered Mrs. Pig most of all was Grunty's behavior whenever Farmer +Green came to the pen. It was mortifying to her to have her son actually +try to <i>scratch his back</i> against her in the presence of a visitor.</p> + +<p>"I do hope," said Mrs. Pig to Farmer Green, "I do hope you don't think +that I haven't tried to teach this child better manners." And then, when +all the rest of her family began to squirm and fidget against the sides +of the pen she added with a sigh, "Look at them! Anyone would suppose +they had had no bringing up at all!"</p> + +<p>Farmer Green smiled as he leaned over the pen and watched the antics of +Grunty Pig and his brothers and sisters.</p> + +<p>"There's something that I can do for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> your family to make them happier," +he told Mrs. Pig. "To-morrow—if I can spare the time—I'll make a +change here. A lady who's raising such a fine family as yours deserves +the best there is. She ought to have a home with every modern +improvement."</p> + +<p>"There!" Mrs. Pig exclaimed to her children as soon as Farmer Green left +them. "Did you hear what he said? Farmer Green is a kind man. I +shouldn't have blamed him if he had put us into the poorest pen on the +place, after seeing your unmannerly actions. You'll have to behave +better—especially after we have our new improvements."</p> + +<p>Well, the next day Farmer Green brought a stout post and set it firmly +in the center of Mrs. Pig's pen.</p> + +<p>"That's for you and your family to rub against," he informed Mrs. Pig.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p><p>Really, he needn't have explained what the improvement was for. No +sooner had he climbed out of the pen than Mrs. Pig and her children +began to put the rubbing post to good use. Grunty was the first of all +to try it. And to his mother's delight, he stopped grumbling at once. +Nor did he ever again disgrace her by scratching his back against her. +Instead, he always walked up to the rubbing post like a little +gentleman. At least, that was what Mrs. Pig said.</p> +<p><a name="Illo1" id="Illo1"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<a name="image1.jpg" id="image1.jpg" href="images/image1.jpg"> +<img src="images/image1_th.jpg" width="450" height="679" alt="The Muley Cow Advises Grunty Pig to Go Home." title="" /></a> +<p class="center"><span class="caption">The Muley Cow Advises Grunty Pig to Go Home.<br /></span></p> + +<p class="right">(<a href="#Page_32"><i>Page</i> 32</a>)</p> +</div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p> +<h3>VIII</h3> + +<h3>FEARFUL NEWS</h3> + + +<p>There came a day at last when Farmer Green gave Mrs. Pig and her family +a great treat. He let them out of their pen and turned them loose in a +little yard out of doors. Such gruntings and squealings hadn't been +heard on the farm for a long time. It was just like a picnic. And +everybody had the finest of times. Still, Grunty Pig wasn't content to +stay in the yard with the rest of the family. It wasn't long before he +found a hole in the fence big enough to wriggle through. And off he +went. And he was actually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> glad, for once, that he was the littlest of +the family. There wasn't another of Mrs. Pig's children that could +squeeze through the opening.</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig trotted the whole length of the lane. When he reached the +pasture he found himself face to face with the Muley Cow, who acted much +surprised to see him there.</p> + +<p>"You'd better go back home at once," she advised him. "There are bears +on Blue Mountain. Sometimes they come down this way. Only last week I +had an adventure with one in the back pasture." She did not tell Grunty +that she had run away from Cuffy Bear, down the hillside. "A bear," said +the Muley Cow, "would be delighted to meet a tender little pig like +you."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig did not even thank the Muley Cow for warning him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span></p><p>"I'd like to meet a bear," he declared stoutly. "I hope I'll meet one +to-day."</p> + +<p>Leaving the Muley Cow, he zigzagged up the hill through the pasture, +stopping now and then to dig up many a juicy root.</p> + +<p>Although Mrs. Pig missed her runaway son after a time, she was not +greatly disturbed.</p> + +<p>"He can't be far off," she thought. "He'll come back before dark." And +when Grunty did at last come crawling into the little yard Mrs. Pig was +merely vexed with him for having gone off without her consent. She was +just about to give him a well deserved scolding. But before she could +speak to him, Grunty greeted her with a loud squeal.</p> + +<p>"I saw a bear in the pasture!" he cried.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pig promptly forgot her displeasure. Although her son was certainly +unharmed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> she couldn't help being startled. It gave her what she called +"a turn" to learn that Grunty had met a bear.</p> + +<p>"A bear!" Mrs. Pig gasped. "A bear is a terribly dangerous creature. +It's a wonder that you ever got home.... What did you do when you saw +him?" Mrs. Pig demanded.</p> + +<p>"I walked away," said Grunty.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't have noticed you," Mrs. Pig declared. "If you had squealed +it would have been the end of you."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig felt that he was the most important member of the family. Not +one of his brothers or sisters had ever seen a bear. At least they had +never claimed to have enjoyed so fearsome a sight.</p> + +<p>"It was nothing," he boasted. "I'd as soon meet a bear as the Muley +Cow."</p> + +<p>His mother, however, was of another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> mind. She kept looking about in an +uneasy fashion.</p> + +<p>"I wish Farmer Green would come and put us into our pen," she murmured. +"It will soon be dark. And I shouldn't like to spend the night out +here—not with a bear in the neighborhood."</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span></p> +<h3>IX</h3> + +<h3>A GREAT ADVENTURE</h3> + + +<p>The next outing that Farmer Green gave Mrs. Pig's family in the little +yard proved to be anything but a picnic—for Mrs. Pig. That poor lady +had a dreadful time. Grunty ran away again. And he hadn't been gone long +before his mother heard a loud squealing in the nearest field. The sound +rapidly grew louder. And as she stood still and listened, Mrs. Pig knew +that it was Grunty's squeal and that he was drawing nearer every moment.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" she cried. "He must be in trouble."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span></p><p>Soon Grunty tumbled through the fence. And scrambling to his feet he +ran to his mother, crying at the top of his voice, "A bear chased me!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh!" shrieked Mrs. Pig. "It's a mercy he didn't catch you. Oh! Oh! +It's lucky you're no fatter, else you couldn't have run so fast." Being +more than fat, herself, and greatly excited, Mrs. Pig had to stop +talking for a time, because she gurgled and wheezed and panted in a most +alarming fashion.</p> + +<p>At last, when she had somewhat recovered from her flurry, she called to +Grunty. And looking at him severely Mrs. Pig said to him, "Let this be a +lesson to you. Never, never stray away from the farmyard again!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mother!" was Grunty's glib reply. Then he sidled away. Somehow he +felt uneasy under his mother's gaze.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span></p><p>"Perhaps it was a good thing, after all, that the bear chased him," +Mrs. Pig muttered. "Maybe this fright will keep him at home."</p> + +<p>She soon discovered that it would take more than a mere fright—more +than a command—to stop Grunty from running away. For it wasn't long +before she missed him again.</p> + +<p>If Mrs. Pig hadn't been so upset she might have been vexed—and with +good reason.</p> + +<p>"Oh! that dear little Grunty!" she wailed. "The bear may have caught him +already, in the cabbage patch."</p> + +<p>Then piercing squeals fell once more on Mrs. Pig's ears.</p> + +<p>"Dear! Dear!" she cried. "I ought to have watched him. I ought to have +kept an eye on Grunty. After all, he's little more than a baby."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p><p>Again the squeals grew louder. Again Grunty Pig burst through the hole +in the fence and romped up to his mother.</p> + +<p>"He chased me another time!" he grunted. "The bear chased me almost as +far as the fence."</p> + +<p>"Sakes alive!" his mother shrieked. "Somebody ought to tell Farmer +Green! This farm is not a safe place to live, with a bear prowling about +it."</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to go and tell Mr. Green?" Grunty inquired.</p> + +<p>"<i>You?</i>" his mother exclaimed. "No, indeed! You stay right here with me! +Don't you dare stir out of this yard!" And to Grunty's astonishment, +Mrs. Pig bowled him right over, to show him that she meant what she +said.</p> + +<p>He jumped to his feet in a jiffy. And he was all ready to slink away +into a corner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span> of the yard; but his mother bade him wait.</p> + +<p>"This bear—" she said—"what did he look like?"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> +<h3>X</h3> + +<h3>A QUEER BEAR</h3> + + +<p>Grunty Pig's little eyes fell away from his mother's when she asked him +what the bear looked like—the bear that had chased him.</p> + +<p>"Er—he was whitish, with brown spots, like Johnnie Green's dog," said +Grunty; "and—er—he had a long tail like the old horse Ebenezer's; and +he had six legs."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pig suddenly made a most peculiar sound. It couldn't be called a +squeal, nor a grunt, nor a gurgle, nor a gasp. It was a little like all +four. And springing clumsily upon her son, Mrs. Pig upset him before he +could dodge her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span></p><p>Grunty Pig began to whimper. "What have I done?" he whined.</p> + +<p>"You've deceived me!" his mother cried. "You haven't seen a bear. You've +never seen a bear in all your life."</p> + +<p>"Ouch," Grunty howled, as his mother sent him sprawling once more. "I +didn't mean any harm. I was only having fun with you."</p> + +<p>"Well," said his mother. "Turn about is fair play. I'll have a little +fun with <i>you</i>, now."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pig gave her wayward son such a punishing that he remembered it all +the rest of that day. At least, he stayed at home. And Mrs. Pig dared +hope that at last she had cured him of two bad habits—running away and +telling fibs.</p> + +<p>The next day, however, the fields called again to Grunty Pig. They +called so plainly that he couldn't resist answering.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p><p>"I'll slip away for just a little while," he said to himself. "If I'm +not gone long no one will miss me." So when his mother was taking a nap +he stole through the hole in the fence. "I'll be back before she wakes +up," he chuckled.</p> + +<p>In the garden, up the lane, through the pasture he made his way. And he +enjoyed his holiday to the full—until he remembered suddenly that he +had been gone a long time—a much longer time than he had planned to +spend away from the farmyard.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" he whined. "Mother must be awake now; and she'll punish me +if I go back." The more he thought about returning, the less he liked +the idea.</p> + +<p>"I won't go home at all!" he cried at last. "I'll stay in the pasture +the rest of my life. There's plenty to eat here; and plenty of fun, +too."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span></p><p>It was afternoon when Grunty Pig made up his mind that he would never +go home. When the Muley Cow warned him once more to beware of the bears +he actually jeered at her.</p> + +<p>"There are no bears in Pleasant Valley," he scoffed. "And you needn't +trouble yourself to mention them again to me. I'm going to live in this +pasture and there's no use of your trying to frighten me away."</p> + +<p>The Muley Cow said nothing more to him. She merely looked at him and +smiled wisely.</p> + +<p>"He'll sing a different song," she thought, "when it begins to grow +dark."</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span></p> +<h3>XI</h3> + +<h3>LOCKED OUT</h3> + + +<p>The Muley Cow was right. She had said to herself, with a smile, that +Grunty Pig, the runaway, would be glad enough to go home when night +came. He had decided to stay right there in the pasture for the rest of +his life, where there was plenty to eat and plenty to do. He felt sure +that he would have a much pleasanter time there than at home. For one +thing, he knew well enough that there was a punishing waiting for him at +the piggery—if he ever went back to get it.</p> + +<p>Not until Johnnie Green and old dog<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> Spot came to the pasture to drive +the cows down the lane did Grunty Pig begin to feel the least twinge of +homesickness. And even then he tried to forget it. He hid in a clump of +brakes near the fence while Johnnie Green and Spot were in the pasture, +for he didn't want them to spy him and take him home with them.</p> + +<p>There was a delicious, damp, woodsy smell in the cool shade of his +hiding place.</p> + +<p>"How much nicer this is than our stuffy pen!" Grunty exclaimed under his +breath.</p> + +<p>Now and then he peeped out to watch the procession of cows moving slowly +towards the barn to be milked. And when the last one had entered the +lane, hurrying to catch up with the rest—and to avoid Spot's nips at +her heels—Grunty crept out into the open.</p> + +<p>Then, strange to say, he hurried towards the lane himself. All at once +the pasture<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> seemed a great, lonesome place. Who knew when a bear might +rise out of a clump of bushes near him?</p> + +<p>He was careful not to follow too closely after the herd as they +meandered down the lane. At the same time, he was careful not to fall +too far behind. And he took many a quick backward glance, to make sure +no bear was creeping up on him.</p> + +<p>Not far from the barn Grunty left the lane and hurried toward the little +yard outside the piggery, where he had run away from his mother and his +brothers and his sisters.</p> + +<p>When he reached the fence through which he had crept while Mrs. Pig was +enjoying a nap, he met with a great surprise. The hole in the fence was +no more! Somebody had mended it. And there he was, outside the yard!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span></p><p>Grunty Pig squealed for his mother. But no one answered. The fence was +too high for him to look over it. It was too tight for him to peep +through.</p> + +<p>"I want to get in!" Grunty cried. "Why doesn't somebody answer?"</p> + +<p>The silence from the other side of the fence was dreadful. Grunty Pig +would have been <i>glad</i> to have his mother scold him then, just for the +comfort of hearing her voice.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh!" he wailed. "What shall I do? Whatever shall I do? Farmer Green +must have put the family back in the pen. And I'll have to spend the +night out here alone!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> +<h3>XII</h3> + +<h3>WOOF!</h3> + + +<p>Night found Grunty Pig huddled close to the outside of the piggery. Many +times he had walked around the low building, snuffing at the doors and +trying in vain to find some opening through which he might crawl. To his +dismay, all was snug and tight. There wasn't a hole big enough even for +Miss Kitty Cat to creep through.</p> + +<p>Though Grunty had called a good many times, nobody had answered him. +Inside the piggery, in their pen, Mrs. Pig and her other children were +sound asleep. Now and then Grunty could hear a throaty snore, which he +knew to be his mother's.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p><p>"How can she sleep, when I'm missing?" he cried.</p> + +<p>Now, Mrs. Pig had been much upset by Grunty's absence. And when Farmer +Green came to put her family into the piggery for the night she had +tried to explain to him that Grunty had run away. Unfortunately, it +happened that Farmer Green was in a great hurry. He didn't stop to find +out what was troubling Mrs. Pig, but hustled her and her children inside +and closed all the doors.</p> + +<p>Try as she would, Mrs. Pig hadn't been able to stay awake. Her eyes +would close, in spite of all she could do. Though she slept, she dreamed +about the truant Grunty. Now and then she cried aloud in the darkness, +when some terrible creature seemed to be chasing him. But Mrs. Pig never +quite waked up.</p> + +<p>Once Grunty Pig thought he heard his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> mother speak his name. And he +called out in as brave a voice as he could muster, "Here I am, just +outside the piggery! Won't somebody please let me in?"</p> + +<p>He called in vain. At last he fell asleep, for he was about as tired as +any little pig could be.</p> + +<p>In the middle of the night Grunty Pig awoke with a start. Somebody said +"Woof!" And somebody came sniffing and snuffing around the corner of the +piggery. Dimly Grunty could see a dark, burly form. And he was so +frightened that he bawled right out, "It's a bear! It's a bear! It's a +bear!"</p> + +<p>Almost at the same instant old dog Spot ran out of his kennel, barking +furiously. And like magic the prowler—whoever he was—vanished into the +night.</p> + +<p>"Keep still!" Grunty's mother called to him; for the noise had half +roused her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> "Don't you mention the word <i>bear</i> again, or I'll attend to +you in the morning."</p> + +<p>Drowsy as she was, Mrs. Pig actually thought Grunty was right there in +the pen with the rest of her children. And in no time at all she was +snoring again.</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig didn't dare open his mouth nor close his eyes the rest of the +night. And when morning came, Farmer Green found him huddled against the +door of the piggery.</p> + +<p>It was a joyful meeting—for Grunty Pig.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span></p> +<h3>XIII</h3> + +<h3>HOME AT LAST</h3> + + +<p>"What's this?" Farmer Green exclaimed, when he went to unlock the +piggery in the morning and found Grunty Pig lying up against the door. +"Did you get locked out last night? Was it you that old Spot was barking +at?"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig didn't dare answer. When Farmer Green dropped him into the +pen he said nothing to anybody—not even "Good morning!"</p> + +<p>A little later Farmer Green found something more outside the piggery. In +the loose dirt he discovered—bear tracks!</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p><p>"Aha!" he cried to his son Johnnie. "Look here! We had a visitor last +night. It was no wonder old Spot woke us all up. A bear called on us! +And he'd certainly have had that pig if Spot hadn't scared him off."</p> + +<p>Naturally the news soon spread all over the farmyard. And when Mrs. Pig +heard it she began to tremble.</p> + +<p>"To think," she quavered, "that my littlest child spent the night out of +doors, with a bear prowling about the neighborhood! And I slept through +it all!</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it, Grunty!" she commanded that young gentleman.</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that Grunty Pig was puzzled. Hadn't his mother told +him, during the night, not to mention the word <i>bear</i> again? And now she +was urging him to talk about that very animal.</p> + +<p>"Squeak up!" said his mother sharply—which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> was the same as saying, +"Speak up!"</p> + +<p>So he told his story. And when he had finished Mrs. Pig fairly covered +him with caresses.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me—" she sniffed—for she was quite upset—"it seems to me +that I remember your saying something about a bear last night. But I +wasn't wide awake at the time. And I thought you were fibbing again.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," she added, "this will teach you a few things that you needed +to learn.... <i>Always mind your mother!</i>" said Mrs. Pig. "And <i>always +tell the truth</i>!"</p> + +<p>Her children all repeated the words after her. And Grunty Pig's voice +could have been heard plainly above all the rest.</p> + +<p>His mother looked at him fondly. She had always claimed that she had no +favorite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> among her children. But now she couldn't help thinking what a +promising youngster Grunty was, even if he was the runt of the family.</p> + +<p>"That's a good Grunty," said Mrs. Pig. "You won't forget this lesson, +will you?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mother!" Grunty answered.</p> + +<p>Now, that very afternoon Mrs. Pig took it into her head to have her +children say the morning's lesson again. So she called her youngsters +together. And she asked Grunty the first of all to recite what she had +taught him.</p> + +<p>"I think it was something about a bear," he stammered, "but I can't +remember exactly."</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said poor Mrs. Pig. "I don't know what I'll do with this +lad."</p> + +<p>Then she asked the other children, one by one, what they had learned +that very morning.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p><p>There wasn't one of them that hadn't forgotten everything.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said unhappy Mrs. Pig. "I don't know what I'll do with all of +them. But I'll treat them all alike. I have no favorite. There isn't one +of them that's stupider than another."</p> + +<p>When Grunty Pig heard that he felt quite proud. It was something, +anyhow, to be as stupid as the rest, even if he was smaller.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span></p> +<h3>XIV</h3> + +<h3>AN ODD THOUGHT</h3> + + +<p>"Umph! Umph!"</p> + +<p>Farmer Green had fenced off a piece of the old orchard. And into this +new yard he turned Mrs. Pig's children.</p> + +<p>"Umph! Umph!"</p> + +<p>They had a fine time there, rooting down under the sod, rubbing their +backs against the trunks of the old apple trees, and sprawling in the +shade when they were sleepy.</p> + +<p>"Umph! Umph!"</p> + +<p>Sometimes an apple dropped from a tree. And then there was a mad +scramble.</p> + +<p>"Umph! Umph!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span></p><p>"Dear me!" said Jolly Robin's wife as she sat in the apple tree where +she and her husband had a nest every summer. "Don't Mrs. Pig's children +make a dreadful noise? I never knew half-grown pigs to have such loud +voices. Their grunts certainly are full-sized."</p> + +<p>Jolly Robin, who had perched himself beside his wife, looked down at +their new neighbors.</p> + +<p>"They're having a good time," he observed cheerfully. "We ought not to +complain. We may be thankful that they don't climb trees and try to +sing."</p> + +<p>Jolly Robin had a way of looking on the bright side of things. It was +seldom that he couldn't act cheerful. Even when he felt quite +downhearted, <i>inside</i>, he managed usually to appear happy, <i>outside</i>. +And now his remark put his wife in a pleasanter frame of mind.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p><p>"Imagine a pig up a tree!" Mrs. Robin tittered.</p> + +<p>"Umph! Umph! Are you talking about me?" a voice inquired right beneath +them. It gave Mrs. Robin such a start that she almost tumbled off the +limb.</p> + +<p>"No! No! We're not talking about you—not exactly!" Jolly Robin +answered.</p> + +<p>It was Grunty Pig that had spoken.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me!" he said. "I thought I heard you mention the name, 'Pig'."</p> + +<p>"Er—yes! We did speak of your family, in a general way," Jolly Robin +admitted.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Grunty Pig. "And what was it you said about us? Weren't you +and your wife laughing about our climbing trees?"</p> + +<p>Somehow Jolly Robin thought that Grunty's little eyes had a spiteful +gleam as he looked upward into the tree top.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> And Mrs. Robin couldn't +help moving to a higher limb. Grunty's glare sent a most uncomfortable +shiver over her.</p> + +<p>Jolly Robin tried his best to act at his ease.</p> + +<p>"It was just an odd thought that popped into my head," he assured Grunty +Pig. "It made Mrs. Robin giggle when I mentioned it." He laughed merrily +enough. And his wife managed to smile faintly. But Grunty Pig frowned.</p> + +<p>"I thought so!" he cried. "You Robins were poking fun at me and my +brothers and sisters. Yes! And no doubt at my mother, too!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no!" Jolly Robin assured him. "We weren't thinking of any one in +particular."</p> + +<p>"Aha!" Grunty snorted. "You were laughing at all of us, then." And Jolly +Robin could say nothing to change his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> opinion. "You can't fool me," +Grunty declared. "You have insulted my whole family. And it's time that +you learned better manners. I see that I shall have to teach you a +lesson."</p> + +<p>Well, when they heard that speech Jolly Robin and his wife had to laugh. +The idea of a lesson in manners from Grunty Pig was the funniest thing +on the farm.</p> +<p><a name="Illo2" id="Illo2"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<a name="image2.jpg" id="image2.jpg" href="images/image2.jpg"> +<img src="images/image2_th.jpg" width="450" height="688" alt="Always Mind Your Mother." title="" /></a> +<p class="center"><span class="caption">"Always Mind Your Mother," Said Mrs. Pig.<br /></span></p> + +<p class="right">(<a href="#Page_57"><i>Page</i> 57</a>)</p> +</div> + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span></p> +<h3>XV</h3> + +<h3>GRUNTY MEANS MISCHIEF</h3> + + +<p>Jolly Robin and his wife told all their friends that Grunty Pig was +going to teach them a lesson. The birds had many a laugh over the +matter. Not till old Mr. Crow visited the orchard one day did the Robin +family cease chuckling over what they called "the joke of the season."</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh too soon!" Mr. Crow croaked. "This Grunty Pig means +mischief. He isn't going to teach you the sort of lesson you've been +snickering about. What he intends to do is to harm you in some way."</p> + +<p>Now, nobody in Pleasant Valley could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> look gloomier than old Mr. Crow. +And when he hinted darkly, in his hoarse way, that there was trouble +ahead for the Robin family, he threw Jolly Robin's wife into a flutter.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what does Grunty Pig mean to do to us?" Mrs. Robin quavered.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather not tell you," said old Mr. Crow. "I don't want you to +worry."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crow left them then. Of course he couldn't have chosen a better way +to upset Mrs. Robin. Even Jolly himself had to admit after a while that +he could think of nothing that seemed to cheer his wife in the least. +"I'll speak to Mr. Crow again," he told his wife. "I'll ask him just +what he meant."</p> + +<p>Alas! Mr. Crow couldn't tell him. The truth was that Mr. Crow had +already told all he knew.</p> + +<p>"I'll ask Grunty Pig himself what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> means to do to us," Jolly then +declared to his wife. "I've noticed that he digs every day at the foot +of our apple tree. The next time he comes here I'll have a talk with +him." So that very day Jolly put his question to Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p>"What is it," he asked, "that you intend to do to us?"</p> + +<p>"You'll find out later," said Grunty Pig. "I expect to be in the top of +your apple tree before fall. And then—"</p> + +<p>Jolly Robin couldn't wait for him to finish. He had to laugh right out, +on the spot. And his wife, who had been listening eagerly, burst into +the first giggle that had passed her bill for days and days.</p> + +<p>So Grunty Pig expected to climb a tree! Mr. and Mrs. Robin gave each +other a merry look. It was all too funny for words.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span></p><p>"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "You won't laugh when I'm in your tree top."</p> + +<p>"How are you going to get up here?" Jolly Robin asked him, with a wink +at Mrs. Robin. "Are you going to <i>fly</i>?"</p> + +<p>"No!" Grunty Pig said. "No!"</p> + +<p>"Then you're going to <i>climb</i>," cried Mrs. Robin. And both she and her +husband choked, as they pictured fat Grunty Pig scrambling up the trunk +of the old apple tree.</p> + +<p>"No!" Grunty Pig said. "No!"</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" Jolly Robin exclaimed. "Don't be so short with your +answers! Explain how you expect to get up into the top of our apple +tree."</p> + +<p>"I never said I expected to get up there," Grunty Pig corrected him.</p> + +<p>"What?" cried Jolly Robin. "What?" cried his wife.</p> + +<p>"No!" said Grunty Pig. "I said I'd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> be in the tree top before fall. If I +work here every day around the foot of the tree I'll have it uprooted at +last. And when it topples over and falls on the ground I'll have no +trouble getting into the top of it."</p> + +<p>When they heard that, Jolly Robin and his wife stopped laughing.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span></p> +<h3>XVI</h3> + +<h3>DANGER AHEAD</h3> + + +<p>Jolly Robin and his wife were terribly worried. Grunty Pig meant to +uproot the apple tree where they had their nest. Every day he came and +dug at the foot of the tree. Every day, just before he went away, he +looked up at them and said, "I hope you'll sleep well to-night. You'd +better enjoy your home while you have it, for the tree will be flat on +the ground before fall."</p> + +<p>Sleep! Mrs. Robin complained that she never had a good night's rest any +more. She said that she had bad dreams. She dreamed that the tree was +falling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> And then she was sure to wake up with a start. And her husband +wasn't there to calm her, because he was roosting in a thicket over in +the pasture with their first brood of the season.</p> + +<p>They both agreed—Jolly and his wife—that they must get their second +brood of children out of the nest as soon as they could.</p> + +<p>"The moment they're old enough, we must teach them to fly," Mrs. Robin +told her husband.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" he said. "And we'll have to be careful of them, too, with all +these seven young porkers in the orchard."</p> + +<p>"Suppose—" said Mrs. Robin—"suppose Grunty Pig should bring our tree +toppling to the ground before the children leave the nest!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! There's no danger of that," Jolly assured her. She was always +looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> on the dark side of things. But he didn't tell her so.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how we're going to be sure the children are safe," Mrs. +Robin continued. "How long do you think it will take Grunty Pig to +uproot our tree?"</p> + +<p>Jolly Robin had to confess that he couldn't answer his wife's question.</p> + +<p>"Then ask somebody who knows something about such matters!" Mrs. Robin +cried. And there was a tart note in her voice that made Jolly Robin say +hastily, "Yes! Yes, my dear! I'll go right now and find an answer to +your question."</p> + +<p>Off he flew. And not knowing where else to go, he sat down on a bush in +Farmer Green's garden, to ponder. Who could tell him how long it would +take Grunty Pig to uproot the old apple tree? Although Jolly Robin +thought and thought, he could think of no one whom he might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> ask. To be +sure, there was Tommy Fox, who was known to be an able digger. But Jolly +Robin didn't trust him. Tommy Fox was tricky. And there was Billy +Woodchuck, who came from a famous family of burrowers. But everybody +knew that old dog Spot had chased him into his hole that very afternoon, +and was watching Billy's front door.</p> + +<p>While Jolly Robin sat there in the garden he happened to look down at +the ground. And right before his eyes a long snout suddenly rose out of +the dirt, followed by the squat form of Grandfather Mole.</p> + +<p>Jolly Robin gave a cheerful chirp. Everybody knew that Grandfather Mole +was the champion digger of Pleasant Valley. And if he couldn't answer +Mrs. Robin's question, then no one could.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span></p> +<h3>XVII</h3> + +<h3>A PUZZLE SOLVED</h3> + + +<p>"Good morning, Grandfather Mole!" Jolly Robin called.</p> + +<p>"What!" cried Grandfather Mole. "Have I made the mistake again of coming +up on top of Farmer Green's garden?"</p> + +<p>"You certainly have," Jolly told him.</p> + +<p>"I must be getting old," said Grandfather Mole. "I'm growing more +careless every day. I didn't mean to dig my way above ground." And then, +thrusting his long nose right into the dirt, he began to burrow out of +sight.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Please stop!" Jolly Robin besought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> him. "I want to ask you a +question about digging."</p> + +<p>Grandfather Mole pulled his nose out of the ground.</p> + +<p>"What's your question?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"It's about Grunty Pig," Jolly Robin began.</p> + +<p>"I thought you said it was about digging," Grandfather Mole grumbled. +And he started to burrow once more.</p> + +<p>"So it is!" Jolly exclaimed. "I want to know how long it will take +Grunty Pig to dig up the apple tree where I live."</p> + +<p>Again Grandfather Mole paused.</p> + +<p>"It all depends," he muttered. "It all depends on how much of his time +he spends at digging."</p> + +<p>"He works every day," said Jolly Robin. "A good, long while every day!"</p> + +<p>Grandfather Mole appeared to be thinking deeply.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span></p><p>"He boasts—" Jolly Robin explained—"he boasts that he will have the +tree uprooted before fall."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" Grandfather Mole snorted. "If Grunty Pig says that, he +doesn't know much about apple trees. He may be a fair digger; but he +must be stupid."</p> + +<p>"That's what I've always thought!" Jolly Robin exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"He can't go very deep into things, or he'd never have made such a +boast," Grandfather Mole declared. "When Grunty Pig digs, does he dig +right down out of sight?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! Never!" said Jolly Robin.</p> + +<p>"Ah! He merely scratches the surface!" Grandfather Mole remarked with a +wise nod of his head. "Well, it's no wonder that he made such a +mistake."</p> + +<p>"Mistake!" Jolly Robin echoed. "Do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> you mean that Grunty Pig won't have +our apple tree down by fall?"</p> + +<p>"I do," Grandfather Mole answered. "The roots of a big, old apple tree +spread out a good rod in every direction. And it would take a hundred +Grunty Pigs a whole summer to dig them free."</p> + +<p>A broad smile spread over Jolly Robin's face.</p> + +<p>"Then—" he ventured—"then wouldn't it take Grunty Pig a hundred +summers to dig up our tree, if he worked alone?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt!" Grandfather replied. "Or, to be on the safe side, I'll say +he could uproot your tree in ninety-nine summers."</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" Jolly Robin shouted. "Hurrah—and thank you, Grandfather +Mole!" And leaving the old gentleman to dig himself out of sight, Jolly +Robin hurried home to his wife.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Robin was glad to see him. She knew, as soon as she caught a +glimpse of his face, that he had good news for her. And she needed +cheering, poor soul! For Grunty Pig was beneath the tree again, digging +away in a most businesslike fashion.</p> + +<p>"Let him dig!" Jolly Robin whispered to his wife. "Grandfather Mole says +it will take him ninety-nine summers to topple our tree over. And you +know that Grandfather Mole is the greatest burrower in Pleasant Valley."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Robin felt better at once. Looking down at Grunty Pig, she said to +her husband, "How stupid this son of Mrs. Pig's is! He has turned up at +least a dozen angleworms while you've been gone. And he has let every +one of them get away from him!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span></p> +<h3>XVIII</h3> + +<h3>THE LUCKIEST OF ALL</h3> + + +<p>Grunty Pig found that being the smallest of the family wasn't all fun. +Not only could his brothers and sisters crowd him at the feeding trough. +Even when they were playing in the pen they often knocked him down and +walked right over him. And if he objected—as he usually did—they were +sure to laugh and call him "Runt."</p> + +<p>Try as she would, Mrs. Pig couldn't rid her children of these boorish +ways. But she shouldn't be blamed for that. It must be remembered that +she had seven youngsters, all of the same age.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span></p><p>At least, Mrs. Pig did what she could to make Grunty's lot easier.</p> + +<p>"Don't feel unhappy!" she said to him one day as he picked himself up, +whimpering, after a hard knock. "Don't feel unhappy because you are the +littlest of the family. In one way you are the luckiest of all my +children."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig didn't stop weeping. He saw no reason—yet—to feel more +cheerful.</p> + +<p>"Did you know—" his mother asked him—"did you know that in one respect +you are the handsomest one of the whole litter? You have the curliest +tail of them all!"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig gazed, open-mouthed, at his mother. He stopped snivelling. Up +to that time he had scarcely given his tail a thought. So long as it +followed him wherever he went he had been satisfied with it.</p> + +<p><a name="Illo3" id="Illo3"></a></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;"> +<a name="image3.jpg" id="image3.jpg" href="images/image3.jpg"> +<img src="images/image3_th.jpg" width="450" height="679" alt="Grunty Pig Stuck Fast in the Fence." title="" /></a> +<p class="center"><span class="caption">Grunty Pig Stuck Fast in the Fence.<br /></span></p> + +<p class="right">(<a href="#Page_86"><i>Page</i> 86</a>)</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span></p><p>From that moment Grunty began to think a great deal about his tail. He +was always turning his head to look at it, to make sure it hadn't lost +any of its kink. Now and then he was even late for a meal, because he +was feasting his eyes on his tail when Farmer Green came to the pen with +food for Mrs. Pig's family.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that Grunty sometimes boasted before his brothers +and sisters about his beautiful curly tail. And just before meal time +his brother Blackie was known, upon occasion, to mention the subject of +tails. He did that in the hope that Grunty would be late at the feeding +trough.</p> + +<p>Sad to say, Grunty Pig was fast becoming vain. He even talked about +tails with the neighbors, taking pains to explain that his own was the +handsomest one on the farm.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span></p><p>Old dog Spot sniffed when Grunty boasted about his tail one day.</p> + +<p>"Why, your tail is of no use whatsoever," Spot told him. "You can't use +it to switch a fly off your back. The Muley Cow can do that. And so can +the old horse, Ebenezer."</p> + +<p>"Ah! But my tail is so pretty to look at!" Grunty Pig exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"You can't puff it up to show you're angry, as Miss Kitty Cat does," +said Spot.</p> + +<p>"Ah! But my tail has a beautiful curl!" said Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p>"You can't wag it, to let folks know you're friendly, as I can," said +Spot.</p> + +<p>"Ah! But my tail is <i>so</i> handsome!" Grunty Pig exclaimed.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span></p> +<h3>XIX</h3> + +<h3>DOG SPOT'S PLAN</h3> + + +<p>When Grunty Pig insisted that his own tightly curled tail was the most +beautiful one in the neighborhood, old dog Spot yawned.</p> + +<p>"If that's the case," he remarked, "I should think you'd want your tail +where you could see it more easily. Don't you find it a nuisance to have +to turn your head around every time you want to look at your tail?"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig admitted that his tail wasn't in the most convenient place in +the world.</p> + +<p>"If Farmer Green should cut off your tail and nail it up on the outside +of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> barn," old Spot suggested, "you could look at it easily enough. +And it would give others a better chance to see it, too. Even the people +that drive along the road could enjoy it. Everybody spoke about the tall +corn that we nailed to the barn last fall. And I'm sure that folks would +admire your tail."</p> + +<p>When Spot spoke of Farmer Green's cutting off his tail, Grunty Pig +winced. But as the old dog talked on and on Grunty forgot the painful +part of the plan.</p> + +<p>"There's no doubt," he agreed, "that my tail would be a fine sight, +fastened up on the barn where everybody could gaze at it. But don't you +think, Mr. Spot, that I'd look very queer without any tail?"</p> + +<p>"N—no!" Spot told him. "N—no! I've seen plenty of pigs without tails. +They didn't look queer at all. Really,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> they looked better without tails +than they would have looked with them."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig had listened carefully to what Spot said. Yet somehow he +couldn't quite make up his mind to part with his beautiful tail, even if +it would delight many more people when nailed to the outside of the +barn.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to see one of those pigs," he said to Spot. "I'd like to see +how they look."</p> + +<p>"That's easily arranged," old Spot told him. "I can show you a dozen of +them—all as pink and white and happy as they can be. And not a single +one of them with a tail!"</p> + +<p>"I'd certainly like to see them," Grunty Pig murmured.</p> + +<p>"They're a pretty sight," Spot assured him. "Don't you think you'd feel +uncomfortable if you appeared before them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> with a tail? Don't you want +to have yours cut off <i>before</i> you go to see these tailless little +fellows? It seems to me you'd be more at your ease. It would certainly +be <i>polite</i> of you."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig, however, cared little for politeness. He said that nobody +was polite to him. His brothers—and even his sisters—were always +knocking him down and trampling on him.</p> + +<p>"Very well!" said Spot. "Squirm through that fence and follow me."</p> + +<p>It was a tight squeeze. When Grunty Pig was half through the hole in the +fence he found himself stuck fast. He could move neither forward nor +back. "Oh, dear!" he wailed. "What shall I do?"</p> + +<p>"Keep perfectly still!" old dog Spot cautioned him—as if Grunty Pig +could do anything else. "I'll jump the fence and help you."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span></p><p>Now, Grunty Pig thought that old Spot intended to give him a push. +Instead, Spot nipped him smartly.</p> + +<p>It was exactly the sort of help that Grunty needed. He gave a frantic +plunge forward and fell, sprawling, on the ground outside the yard, +where Spot soon joined him.</p> + +<p>"It takes old Spot to hurry 'em along," said the old dog gleefully.</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig said "Umph! Umph!"</p> + +<p>Old dog Spot was not quite sure what he meant.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span></p> +<h3>XX</h3> + +<h3>A NEW KIND OF PIG</h3> + + +<p>"Stop grunting and squealing and follow me!" old dog Spot growled. And +Grunty Pig, who had just tumbled through a hole in the fence, scrambled +to his feet and trotted after his guide.</p> + +<p>Old Spot had promised to show Grunty a dozen pink and white pigs, all +without tails. He wanted Grunty to see how handsome they looked.</p> + +<p>"You'll like them," Spot told Grunty over his shoulder as they jogged +across the farmyard. "You'll ask Farmer Green this very day to cut off +your tail and nail it up on the barn. I tell you, these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> pigs look +<i>neat</i>. There's <i>style</i> about them."</p> + +<p>"Umph! Umph!" said Grunty Pig as he shuffled along behind.</p> + +<p>"Now, I wonder what he meant by that!" Spot mused. It was sometimes hard +to tell whether Grunty's <i>umphs</i> stood for <i>yes</i> or <i>no</i>.</p> + +<p>Around the corner of the farmhouse, near the woodshed door, old dog Spot +came to a halt before a two-storied cage, the front of which was covered +with fine-meshed wire netting.</p> + +<p>Stopping beside Spot, Grunty Pig peered inside the cage. He saw a number +of odd little creatures running about upon the sawdust-strewn floor of +the tiny house, one or another of them giving a faint squeak now and +then as if ordering the two unasked callers to move on.</p> + +<p>Whoever they were, they were a bright-eyed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> little family. But Grunty +Pig thought, as he stared at them, that they had a most peculiar look. +There seemed to be something missing about them. Yet he couldn't tell +just what it was.</p> + +<p>Together Grunty and Spot stood there, silent, for a time; until at last +Grunty said, "Come along! Let's not stay here any longer. I want to see +those twelve pigs without tails."</p> + +<p>Old dog Spot snorted.</p> + +<p>"You <i>want</i> to see them!" he cried. "Well, nobody's stopping you. +They're right here in front of you!"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig's mouth fell open—he was so astonished. He knew, now, what +made the little, pudgy, white strangers look so queer. There wasn't one +of them that had even a hint of a tail!</p> + +<p>Then all at once Grunty turned angrily upon old dog Spot.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span></p><p>"These aren't pigs!" he squealed. "You needn't think you can fool me. +They're not pigs at all."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—they are!" Spot insisted. "You didn't suppose that all the +pigs in the world were exactly like your family—did you?"</p> + +<p>Grunty didn't know what to say. He looked at the odd little creatures +again. And then he looked at Spot once more.</p> + +<p>"If these really are pigs," he faltered, "they must be very, very young. +They're certainly smaller than any day-old pigs I ever saw.... Maybe +their tails haven't sprouted yet."</p> + +<p>Old dog Spot seemed to choke over something. He turned his head away for +a moment or two before he spoke.</p> + +<p>"These pigs," he said, "won't ever have tails. Not one of them would +know what to do with a tail if you gave him one.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span> They don't want tails. +They have no use for them. And now that you see for yourself how happy +they are without tails, you ought not to delay any longer about having +yours cut off. I hope," Spot added, "I'll see your tail nailed up on the +barn to-morrow, where everybody can admire it."</p> + +<p>Then Grunty Pig said something that surprised him.</p> + +<p>"Why don't you have your own tail cut off?" he asked old Spot.</p> + +<p>And before old Spot could think of an answer, Johnnie Green came running +out of the woodshed.</p> + +<p>"Get away from my guinea pigs!" he shouted.</p> + +<p>Grunty and Spot both turned and ran in opposite directions. Grunty +didn't see Spot again for more than a week. When they did at last meet, +old Spot never mentioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span> tails at all. To tell the truth, he seemed to +feel somewhat ashamed of himself for having tried to play a trick on +Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p>Or maybe he felt ashamed because he was caught at it.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span></p> +<h3>XXI</h3> + +<h3>BEECHNUTS</h3> + + +<p>Down the hill, a little way from Farmer Green's house, a great beech +tree stood beside the road. In the fall, when the nuts were ripe, +Johnnie Green often visited the tree. And so did Frisky Squirrel. And +so, likewise, did that noisy rascal, Jasper Jay. They liked +beechnuts—all three. And somehow they got the notion that the beech +tree belonged to them—and to nobody else.</p> + +<p>One fine, crisp fall day when Johnnie Green was in school, a fourth +nut-lover wandered down the road, stopped right between the wheel +tracks, and sniffed. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> was Grunty Pig. "I smell beechnuts!" he cried +with a joyful squeal. And crashing into the light underbrush along the +roadside, he began to search among the fallen leaves with his long nose.</p> + +<p>Soon Grunty came upon a cluster of the three-sided nuts, clinging inside +a bur that the frost had split open. He ate the sweet nuts, shells and +all. And with many a grunt of delight he grubbed beneath the tree from +which the nuts had fallen. His keen nose led him to burs that Johnnie +Green had trampled over that very morning, and missed.</p> + +<p>"I wonder—" said Grunty Pig aloud—"I wonder why nobody ever told me +about this beech tree."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was because you are a pig," said a voice right over his +head.</p> + +<p>He looked up. And there on a low branch sat Frisky Squirrel. Grunty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> +knew him; he had sometimes seen him around Farmer Green's corncrib.</p> + +<p>"Of course I'm a Pig," Grunty retorted. "I'm Mrs. Pig's son."</p> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Pig's son, I notice that you have helped yourself freely to +beechnuts."</p> + +<p>"I've eaten all I could find," Grunty told Frisky with a grin.</p> + +<p>"I don't hear any thanks," Frisky Squirrel remarked. "Don't you know +that these beechnuts belong to me and Jasper Jay and Johnnie Green?"</p> + +<p>"Umph!"</p> + +<p>"You did?" Frisky inquired.</p> + +<p>"Umph!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you didn't!" Frisky exclaimed. "Then I suppose I shall have to +pardon you. But Jasper Jay wouldn't, if he caught you taking any of the +nuts that fall from this tree."</p> + +<p>There was truth in what Frisky said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> Even as he spoke a patch of blue +flashed in the top of the beech tree. And a harsh voice sang out, +"What's going on here?"</p> + +<p>Jasper Jay had arrived.</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig, however, did not even give Jasper a glance. Instead, he +began nosing about for another beechnut bur.</p> + +<p>For a moment or two Jasper Jay watched him. And then Jasper began to +squawk.</p> + +<p>"Stop that!" he ordered. "Don't you dare to take any of our beechnuts!"</p> + +<p>"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "I can't find any more on the ground. So I +suppose I shall have to obey him," Grunty muttered half under his +breath.</p> + +<p>"Don't mumble! Speak up!" cried Jasper Jay. "If you have any excuses to +make, let's hear them!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span></p> +<h3>XXII</h3> + +<h3>JASPER JAY OBJECTS</h3> + + +<p>While Jasper Jay, in the beech tree, waited for Grunty Pig, on the +ground, to speak up and make his excuses for taking beechnuts, a bur +dropped from a twig and landed right in front of Grunty's nose. He fell +upon it greedily. And, tearing it open, he devoured the nuts with +relish.</p> + +<p>For a few moments his action struck Jasper Jay dumb. That blue-coated +rascal turned to Frisky Squirrel, who clung to a limb near-by.</p> + +<p>"Well, did you ever?" Jasper gasped. And then, having found his voice, +Jasper began to use it on Grunty Pig.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span></p><p>Now, Jasper Jay was a wild fellow. He often used words that made the +gentler folk in Pleasant Valley shudder. And he called Grunty Pig names +that would have made many a person angry.</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig, however, never even blinked. And after a while Jasper Jay +used up all his special words, which he generally employed at such +times. He gave Frisky Squirrel a helpless look.</p> + +<p>"My! My! Isn't this chap thick-skinned?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Certainly I am!" cried Grunty Pig. "That's why I like to wallow in +mud."</p> + +<p>"Ha!" Jasper Jay sniffed. And he spoke again to Frisky Squirrel. "This +chap is thick-headed, too. I see that I'm going to have trouble making +him understand what I say."</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel merely grinned at his companion.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span></p><p>"Look here, young Porker!" Jasper called to Grunty Pig. "Doesn't Farmer +Green feed you?"</p> + +<p>The name "Porker" made Grunty Pig look up.</p> + +<p>"I'm Mrs. Pig's son," he said. "Don't call me 'Porker'!"</p> + +<p>"Well—Pig, then!" Jasper Jay squalled. "Doesn't Farmer Green feed you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then—don't come here and take our nuts! Didn't your mother ever +teach you that things that grow on trees—such things as nuts—belong to +the people that live in the trees?"</p> + +<p>"Does Johnnie Green live in this tree?" Grunty Pig inquired.</p> + +<p>"He spends half his time here—or a quarter, anyhow," Jasper Jay +grumbled. "And you may be sure he gets his share of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> these beechnuts. +Goodness knows he leaves few enough for me and my friend here.</p> + +<p>"Now," Jasper Jay went on, "I want you to promise not to eat any more of +our nuts."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig shook his head.</p> + +<p>"I can't promise that, exactly," he said. "But I'll promise not to eat +any that I don't find on the ground."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" Jasper Jay scoffed. "That means that you won't eat any nuts that +you can't reach. That's no promise at all. It's nothing but a threat. +It's the same as saying that you're going to eat every nut that drops +off this tree."</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig made no reply. He would have wandered on, but for a fresh +breeze that had begun to whip the branches of the beech tree. He decided +to wait there. More burs might fall. And Grunty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> wanted to be on hand to +meet them when they dropped.</p> + +<p>"Go home!" Jasper Jay shrieked at him. "Go back to your pigpen where you +belong. We don't want you here." And he said many more things that were +still ruder.</p> + +<p>But Grunty Pig never showed the least sign of anger. He didn't even let +Jasper Jay know that he had heard. When the wind died down he waddled +off down the road. And Frisky Squirrel followed him through the tree +tops. When they had travelled out of Jasper Jay's sight and hearing, +Frisky asked Grunty Pig a question.</p> + +<p>"I should like to know," he said, "how you managed to keep still when +Jasper was abusing you. I know that I should have lost my temper. Can it +be that you didn't hear what he said?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span></p><p>"Oh, I heard him clearly enough," said Grunty. "But there was no sense +in my getting angry with <i>him</i>. If he had been standing on the ground +near me he would never have dared talk to me as he did. Jasper Jay +called me names because he was safe in the tree. If he hadn't had that +tree to help him he'd never have dared say what he did.</p> + +<p>"To tell the truth, I am a bit out of patience with that beech tree," +Grunty confessed. "It played me a mean trick. And I hope there'll be a +raging wind to-night that will rob it of every bur it has.... I'd uproot +the beech," he added, "if I didn't like beechnuts so much."</p> + +<p>"Well, you <i>are</i> an odd one," said Frisky Squirrel.</p> + +<p>"If everybody was as odd as I am there'd be fewer Jasper Jays in the +world," Grunty Pig declared.</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span></p> +<h3>XXIII</h3> + +<h3>MOSES MOUSE'S WAY</h3> + + +<p>One day when Grunty Pig was at home, in the pigpen, a squeaky voiced +piped "Good morning!" to him. Looking up, Grunty saw a plump little +gentleman clinging to the top board on one side of the pen.</p> + +<p>"Good morning!" Grunty answered. "May I inquire what your name is?"</p> + +<p>"I'm Moses Mouse," his caller replied.</p> + +<p>"Do you live in the piggery?—or in the barn?" Grunty asked him.</p> + +<p>"Neither!" said Moses Mouse. "I live in the farmhouse. My wife and I +have a nest in the wall.... The cat's away," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> explained. "That's why +I decided to stroll across the yard and visit you folks out here."</p> + +<p>"Some people," said Grunty Pig, "have all the luck. You live in the +farmhouse. Miss Kitty Cat lives in the farmhouse—when she's at home. +And old dog Spot spends a good deal of his time there—especially in +cold weather. It must be pleasant to have your home where there's always +plenty to eat, whenever you happen to feel hungry."</p> + +<p>"Miss Kitty Cat and old dog Spot always fare well," Mr. Mouse admitted. +"But I've often gone to bed half starved. Maybe you didn't know that +Mrs. Green is terribly neat. She doesn't leave much food around for us +Mice."</p> + +<p>"Well," Grunty remarked, "it's an honor, anyhow, to live in the +farmhouse. You ought not to complain about the food,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> even if it is a +bit scarce at times. I'd be glad to live there. And I dare say I'd find +a plenty to eat. The farmhouse is where the sour milk comes from."</p> + +<p>"If you feel like that," said Moses Mouse, "why don't you join us? Why +don't you come to the farmhouse for the winter, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No!" he said, half to himself. "No! I can't do it."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Mr. Mouse wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"I've never been invited," Grunty told him, with something like a frown.</p> + +<p>Moses Mouse surprised him with a merry laugh.</p> + +<p>"Ho!" he exclaimed. "Neither have I. If I had waited for an invitation I +wouldn't be living in the farmhouse. I'd have shivered my days out in +the barn."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span></p><p>Grunty Pig looked at his caller with growing interest. He would have +said that so tiny a gentleman would be too timid to crowd in where he +wasn't asked.</p> + +<p>"Don't wait any longer for an invitation," Moses Mouse urged him. "Go to +the farmhouse and walk right in."</p> + +<p>"Oughtn't I to rap?" Grunty inquired.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" said Moses Mouse. "Make yourself right at home. Act as +if the farmhouse belonged to you. That's the way I do. And nobody ever +bothers me, except Miss Kitty Cat—or Miss Snooper, as we Mice call her. +Even she can't drive me away from the farmhouse. I lived there before +she ever came to Pleasant Valley."</p> + +<p>"She certainly couldn't drive me away," Grunty Pig muttered. "Besides, +didn't you say she was away herself?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span></p><p>"Yes!" said Moses Mouse. "And I hope she has gone for good."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Grunty Pig, "it ought to be quite safe for me to go to the +farmhouse. And as soon as I have a chance to get out of this pen I'll do +as you suggest."</p> + +<p>"Good!" cried Moses Mouse. And he said that he hoped to have many a chat +with Grunty, at the farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. And Mr. Mouse was much pleased, for he took +that to mean "Yes!"</p> + + + +<hr /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span></p> +<h3>XXIV</h3> + +<h3>A PIG IN THE PARLOR</h3> + + +<p>Grunty Pig had got out of his pen and out of the piggery, too. Ever +since his talk with Moses Mouse the day before he had been hoping for a +chance to escape. And shuffling across the farmyard somewhat +heavily—for he was growing longer and taller and fatter every +day—Grunty went straight to the woodshed door. It was open. And he +walked through it. Then he clattered over the woodshed floor and peered +into the kitchen. There was no one there.</p> + +<p>For a few moments Grunty stood sniffing in the doorway. A delicious +odor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> greeted him. He wasn't sure what it was. A pan sat near the edge +of the table. And Grunty Pig had no trouble upsetting it with his nose.</p> + +<p>Doughnuts rolled in every direction—crisp, brown, freshly fried +doughnuts. And Grunty Pig showed that he was thoughtful. He went to the +trouble of picking them all up off the floor. But he forgot to drop them +back into the pan. Instead, he put every one of them into his own mouth.</p> + +<p>"That Moses Mouse was all wrong," he murmured. "He complained of the +food here. When I see him I'll have to tell him that he was mistaken. +Why, I never ate anything that tasted better than these rings!"</p> + +<p>After making sure that there was nothing else for him to devour in the +kitchen Grunty Pig pushed through a door that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> stood ajar. He found +himself in a long, dimly lighted hall. There were doors on both sides of +it. Grunty nosed around each one in turn. Not till he came to the last +of all, at the further end of the hall, did he find one that wasn't shut +tight. This door yielded to a little gentle pushing. And Grunty then +found himself—though he did not know it—in the parlor of the +farmhouse.</p> + +<p>As he stood still and gazed about him, who should come stealing into the +room but Moses Mouse.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Moses in a whisper. "So you've arrived at last?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!" said Grunty Pig. "Isn't this a fine pen? Now that I've come to +the farmhouse to live I believe I'll make this pen my headquarters."</p> + +<p>"That's a good idea," Moses Mouse told him. "Farmer Green's family don't +use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> it often. They seldom come here unless they have company."</p> + +<p>While he listened, Grunty Pig sidled up to a table in the center of the +room and began, in an absent-minded fashion, to rub his back against it. +To his surprise, the table tipped over and a lamp that had stood upon it +crashed into a hundred pieces on the floor. Then a door slammed +somewhere. And steps sounded in the hall.</p> + +<p>Moses Mouse tried not to look startled.</p> + +<p>"I must be going now," he said abruptly. "I'll see you later." Then he +dashed into the fireplace and ran up the chimney.</p> + +<p>"The accident was really your fault," Grunty called to him. "If you +hadn't talked so much I'd have noticed what I was doing."</p> + +<p>Moses Mouse, however, did not reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> And a moment later Farmer Green's +wife appeared in the doorway. When she saw Grunty Pig she gave a scream. +Mrs. Green couldn't help being surprised at first. But soon she began to +laugh as if she would never stop.</p> + +<p>"A pig in our parlor!" she cried. "Who ever would have thought it?"</p> + +<p>Grunty Pig tried to explain that the broken lamp was really Moses +Mouse's fault. But Mrs. Green wouldn't listen. She ran out of the room +and came back at once with a broom in her hand. Then, opening the front +door, she drove Grunty Pig into the yard.</p> + +<p>"Now, I wonder why Mrs. Green put me out of the farmhouse," he muttered.</p> + +<p>Suddenly an idea popped into his head. "It must be," he cried, "because +I told tales. I tattled on Moses Mouse; and Mrs. Green didn't like it. +Next time I'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> be careful about what I say to her."</p> + +<p>There never was a next time. Perhaps Farmer Green took pains to keep the +door of Grunty's pen shut. Perhaps Farmer Green made the fence outside +the piggery "hog tight," as he would say. Or perhaps Grunty Pig grew so +fat that he couldn't squeeze through any ordinary opening.</p> + +<p>Anyhow, Grunty never set foot inside the farmhouse again. After a while +he didn't care. The bigger he was, the less he liked to roam about. And +at last Farmer Green began calling him his "prize hog."</p> + +<p>So you can see how very fat he must have been.</p> + + +<p class="center">THE END</p> +<hr class="end4" /> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"> +<span style="font-size: 180%; letter-spacing: 0.15em;">Little Jack Rabbit Books</span><br /> + +<span style="font-size: 75%">(Trademark Registered.)</span><br /> + +<span style="font-size: 95%">By DAVID CORY</span><br /> + +<span style="font-size: 90%">Author of "Little Journeys to Happyland"</span><br /></p> + +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="slumb3"><b>Colored Wrappers With Text Illustrations.</b> +</p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads1">A new and unique series about the furred and feathered little people of +the wood and meadow.</p> + +<p class="ads1">Children will eagerly follow the doings of little Jack Rabbit, and the +clever way in which he escapes from his three enemies, Danny Fox, Mr. +Wicked Wolf and Hungry Hawk will delight the youngsters.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 8em; margin-right: 8em;"><span style="font-size: 90%;"> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT'S ADVENTURES<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND DANNY FOX<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE SQUIRREL BROTHERS<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND CHIPPY CHIPMUNK<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE BIG BROWN BEAR<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND UNCLE JOHN HARE<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND PROFESSOR CROW<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND OLD MAN WEASEL<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND MR. WICKED WOLF<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND HUNGRY HAWK<br /> +LITTLE-JACK RABBIT AND THE POLICEMAN DOG<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND MISS MOUSIE<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND UNCLE LUCKY<br /> +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE YELLOW DOG TRAMP<br /></span> +</p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads2"><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap</span>, <i>Publishers</i>, NEW YORK</p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<hr class="end5" /> + + +<hr class="end4" /> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"> +<span style="font-size: 160%;">THE PUSS-IN-BOOTS, Jr. SERIES</span><br /> + +<span style="font-size: 120%">By DAVID CORY</span><br /> + +Author of "The Little Jack Rabbit Stories" and "Little<br /> Journeys to +Happyland"</p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"><b>Handsomely Bound. Colored Wrappers. Illustrated.<br /> Each Volume Complete in +Itself.</b></p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads1">To know Puss Junior once is to love him forever. That's the way all the +little people feel about this young, adventurous cat, son of a very +famous father.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 8em; margin-right: 8em;"><span style="font-size: 90%;"> +THE ADVENTURES OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span><br /> +<br /> +FURTHER ADVENTURES OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span><br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span> IN FAIRYLAND<br /> +<br /> +TRAVELS OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span><br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span>, AND OLD MOTHER GOOSE<br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span>, IN NEW MOTHER GOOSE LAND<br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span>, AND THE GOOD GRAY HORSE<br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span>, AND TOM THUMB<br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span>, AND ROBINSON CRUSOE<br /> +<br /> +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, <span class="smcap">Jr.</span>, AND THE MAN IN THE MOON<br /> +</span></p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads2">GROSSET & DUNLAP, <i>Publishers</i>, NEW YORK</p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<hr class="end5" /> +<hr class="end4" /> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"> +<span style="font-size: 160%; letter-spacing: 0.1em;">HAPPY HOME SERIES</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="font-size: 120%;">By HOWARD R. GARIS</span><br /></p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"><b>Individual Colored Wrappers and Colored Illustrations by</b><br /> +LANG CAMPBELL<br /></p> + +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads1">Mr. Garis has written many stories for boys and girls, among them his +Uncle Wiggly volumes, but these books are something distinctly new, +surprising and entertaining.</p> + + +<p class="ads3">ADVENTURES OF THE GALLOPING GAS STOVE</p> + +<p class="ads4">A tale of how Gassy mysteriously disappeared, and how he came riding +home on the back of an elephant. It is also related how he broke his +leg, and fed a hungry family in a cottage near a lake.</p> + + +<p class="ads3">ADVENTURES of the RUNAWAY ROCKING CHAIR</p> + +<p class="ads4">Racky creaked and groaned when fat Grandma sat on him too hard. He felt +himself ill-treated, so he vanished. He did not intend to take Grandma's +glasses with him, but he did. And he rocked a bunny to sleep.</p> + + +<p class="ads3">ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING TABLE</p> + +<p class="ads4">Tippy, the table, always wanted to travel and see the world, but he did +not know how to start. Until, all of a sudden, a diamond ring was hidden +in his leg and a balloon carried him off through the air.</p> + + +<p class="ads3">ADVENTURES OF THE SLIDING FOOT STOOL</p> + +<p class="ads4">Just because he did not want to be used as a milking stool by the Maiden +All Forlorn, Skiddy slid away Christmas eve. With him went Jack the +Jumper, and they had a wonderful time in the top shop.</p> + + +<p class="ads3">ADVENTURES OF THE SAILING SOFA</p> + +<p class="ads4">Skippy always wanted to be a sailor. When the high water came in the +spring, the sofa went sailing. He had a Rooster for a crew, while +Tatter, the rag doll with one shoe button eye, was Captain.</p> +<hr style="width: 60%; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-top: 0.2em;" /> +<p class="ads2">GROSSET & DUNLAP, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>, NEW YORK</p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<hr class="end5" /> + +<hr class="end4" /> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"> +<span style="font-size: 160%; letter-spacing: 0.1em;">CAROLYN WELLS BOOKS</span></p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="center"><b>Attractively Bound. Illustrated. Colored Wrappers.</b></p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads5">THE MARJORIE BOOKS</p> + +<p class="ads1">Marjorie is a happy little girl of twelve, up to mischief, but full of +goodness and sincerity. In her and her friends every girl reader will +see much of her own love of fun, play and adventure.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 12em; margin-right: 8em;"> +MARJORIE'S VACATION<br /> + +MARJORIE'S BUSY DAYS<br /> + +MARJORIE'S NEW FRIEND<br /> + +MARJORIE IN COMMAND<br /> + +MARJORIE'S MAYTIME<br /> + +MARJORIE AT SEACOTE</p> + +<hr class="end3" /> +<p class="ads5">THE TWO LITTLE WOMEN SERIES</p> + +<p class="ads1">Introducing Dorinda Fayre—a pretty blonde, sweet, serious, timid and a +little slow, and Dorothy Rose—a sparkling brunette, quick, elf-like, +high tempered, full of mischief and always getting into scrapes.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 8em; margin-right: 8em;"> +TWO LITTLE WOMEN<br /> + +TWO LITTLE WOMEN AND TREASURE HOUSE<br /> + +TWO LITTLE WOMEN ON A HOLIDAY</p> + +<hr class="end3" /> +<p class="ads5">THE DICK AND DOLLY BOOKS</p> + +<p class="ads1">Dick and Dolly are brother and sister, and their games, their pranks, +their joys and sorrows, are told in a manner which makes the stories +"really true" to young readers.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 10em; margin-right: 8em;"> +DICK AND DOLLY<br /> + +DICK AND DOLLY'S ADVENTURES</p> + +<hr class="end2" /> +<p class="ads2">GROSSET & DUNLAP, <span class="smcap">Publishers, New York</span></p> +<hr class="end2" /> +<hr class="end5" /> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/frontpages.jpg"> +<img src="images/frontpages_th.jpg" width="600" height="436" alt="Inside Front Cover" title="Inside Front Cover" /></a> +<span class="caption">Inside Front Cover</span> +<br /><br /></div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<a href="images/backpages.jpg"> +<img src="images/backpages_th.jpg" width="600" height="452" alt="Inside Back Cover" title="Inside Back Cover" /></a> +<span class="caption">Inside Back Cover</span> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Grunty Pig, by Arthur Scott Bailey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG *** + +***** This file should be named 24731-h.htm or 24731-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/3/24731/ + +Produced by Joe Longo, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tale of Grunty Pig + Slumber-Town Tales + +Author: Arthur Scott Bailey + +Illustrator: Harry L. Smith + +Release Date: March 2, 2008 [EBook #24731] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG *** + + + + +Produced by Joe Longo, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG + + + + + _SLUMBER-TOWN TALES_ + (Trademark Registered) + + BY + ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY + + AUTHOR OF + + _SLEEPY-TIME TALES_ + (Trademark Registered) + + _TUCK-ME-IN TALES_ + (Trademark Registered) + + THE TALE OF THE MULEY COW + + THE TALE OF OLD DOG SPOT + + THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG + + THE TALE OF HENRIETTA HEN + + THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT + + THE TALE OF PONY TWINKLEHEELS + + THE TALE OF MISS KITTY CAT + +[Illustration: Grunty Pig is Scolded by Henrietta Hen. + +_Frontispiece_ (_Page 17_)] + + + + +SLUMBER-TOWN TALES +(Trademark Registered) + +THE TALE OF +GRUNTY PIG + + +BY +ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY + +Author of +"SLEEPY-TIME TALES" +(Trademark Registered) + +AND + +"TUCK-ME-IN TALES" +(Trademark Registered) + +ILLUSTRATED BY +HARRY L. SMITH + + +NEW YORK +GROSSET & DUNLAP +PUBLISHERS + +Made in the United States of America + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY + GROSSET & DUNLAP + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I THE RUNT 1 + + II A NEW WAY TO EAT 5 + + III THE LOOSE BOARD 10 + + IV THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD 14 + + V SIXES AND SEVENS 19 + + VI MR. CROW HELPS 23 + + VII THE GRUMBLER 28 + + VIII FEARFUL NEWS 33 + + IX A GREAT ADVENTURE 38 + + X A QUEER BEAR 43 + + XI LOCKED OUT 47 + + XII WOOF! 51 + + XIII HOME AT LAST 55 + + XIV AN ODD THOUGHT 60 + + XV GRUNTY MEANS MISCHIEF 65 + + XVI DANGER AHEAD 70 + + XVII A PUZZLE SOLVED 74 + + XVIII THE LUCKIEST OF ALL 79 + + XIX DOG SPOT'S PLAN 83 + + XX A NEW KIND OF PIG 88 + + XXI BEECHNUTS 94 + + XXII JASPER JAY OBJECTS 98 + + XXIII MOSES MOUSE'S WAY 104 + + XXIV A PIG IN THE PARLOR 109 + + + + + ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + GRUNTY PIG IS SCOLDED BY HENRIETTA HEN Frontispiece + + THE MULEY COW ADVISES GRUNTY PIG TO GO HOME 32 + + "ALWAYS MIND YOUR MOTHER," SAID MRS. PIG 64 + + GRUNTY PIG STUCK FAST IN THE FENCE 80 + + + + +THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG + +I + +THE RUNT + + +He was the smallest of seven children. At first his mother thought she +would call him "Runty." But she soon changed her mind about that; for +she discovered that even if he was the runt of the family, he had the +loudest grunt of all. So the good lady made haste to slip a G in front +of the name "Runty." + +"There!" she exclaimed. "'Grunty' is a name that you ought to be proud +of. It calls attention to your best point. And if you keep on making as +much noise in the world as you do now, maybe people won't notice that +you're a bit undersized. You certainly sound as big as any little shote +I ever saw or heard." + +So that was settled--though Grunty Pig didn't care one way or another. +He seemed to be interested in nothing but food. There is no doubt that +he would have been willing to change his name a dozen times a day for +the slight bribe of a drink of warm milk. + +His mother sometimes said that he had the biggest appetite--as well as +the loudest grunt--of all her seven children. And she was glad that he +ate well, because food was the very thing that would make him grow. + +"You won't always be runty, Grunty, if you eat a plenty," Mrs. Pig often +told him. And then he would grunt, as if to say, "You don't need to +urge me. Just give me a chance!" + +Grunty Pig soon learned that being the smallest of the family had one +sad drawback. His brothers and sisters (all bigger than he!) could crowd +him away from the feeding trough. And they not only _could_; but they +often _did_. Unless Grunty reached the trough among the first, there was +never a place left where he could squirm in. If he tried to eat at one +end of the trough he was sure to be shouldered away and go hungry. + +So whenever he did succeed in getting the first taste of a meal he took +pains to plant himself in the exact middle of the trough. Then there +would be three other youngsters on each side of him, all crowding +towards him. And though he found it a bit hard to breathe under such a +squeezing, at least he got his share of the food. + +Poor Mrs. Pig! Her children had frightful manners. Though she talked +and talked to them about not crowding, and about eating slowly, and +about eating noiselessly, the moment their food was poured into their +trough they forgot everything their mother had said. + +That is, all but Grunty Pig! If he happened to be left out in the cold, +so to speak, and had to stand and look on while his brothers and sister +stuffed themselves, he couldn't help remembering his mother's remarks +about manners. + +"It's awful to watch them!" he would gurgle. "I don't see how they can +be so boorish." He thought there was no sadder sight than his six +brothers and sisters jostling one another over their food, while he +couldn't find a place to push in among them. + + + + +II + +A NEW WAY TO EAT + + +One thing, especially, distressed Mrs. Pig. Her children _would_ put +their fore feet right into the trough when they ate their meals out of +it. Nothing she said to them made the slightest difference. Even when +she told them that they were little pigs they didn't seem to care. + +"We're all bigger than Grunty is," said one of her sons--a bouncing +black youngster who was the most unruly of the litter. + +"You're all greedy," Mrs. Pig retorted. "Do try to restrain yourselves +when you eat. Remember--there's plenty of time." + +"But there's not always plenty of food," Grunty Pig told his mother. +"Sometimes there isn't any left for me." + +"I know," said Mrs. Pig. "I know that your brothers and sisters eat your +share whenever they can. Farmer Green furnishes enough food for you all. +And if you children didn't forget your manners everybody would get his +share--no more and no less." + +Now, Mrs. Pig was not the only one that noticed how piggish her +youngsters were at the trough. One day Farmer Green himself remarked to +his son Johnnie, as they leaned over the pen, that that litter of pigs +did beat all he had ever seen. + +"They come a-running at meal time as if they were half starved. It's a +wonder they don't get in the trough all over." + +Johnnie Green liked to watch the pigs. + +"That black fellow's the greediest of the lot," he declared. "He's +getting to be the biggest. He's almost twice the size of the little +runt." + +"The runt doesn't get his share," said Farmer Green. "We'll have to do +something to help him, or he'll never be worth his salt." + +Grunty Pig looked up at Farmer Green and gave a plaintive squeal, as if +to say, "Hurry, please! Because I'm always hungry." + +And Blackie, his greedy brother, looked up at Farmer Green too. He said +nothing. But his little eyes twinkled slyly. And afterward he told his +brothers and sisters that Farmer Green needn't think he could keep _him_ +from drinking all the skim milk he pleased. + +"If Mother can't make me behave, surely Farmer Green won't be able to," +he boasted. + +Of course Blackie Pig was very young. Otherwise he would never have +made such a silly remark. And he soon learned that Farmer Green was more +than a match for him. + +The next day Farmer Green made a long lid that dropped over the feeding +trough and covered it completely. And in the lid he cut seven holes--one +for each of Mrs. Pig's children. + +There was no more jostling at meal time. There was a place for +everybody. And Mrs. Pig was delighted with the improvement. When Farmer +Green filled the trough, each of the children stuck his head through a +hole and ate in the most orderly fashion. To be sure, there was some +squealing and grunting, and some snuffling and blowing. But it seemed to +Mrs. Pig that no youngsters could have behaved more beautifully. + +And Grunty liked the new way of eating, too. But Blackie made a great +fuss. He complained because he couldn't stick his nose through two holes +at the same time! + + + + +III + +THE LOOSE BOARD + + +After Farmer Green put the lid with the holes in it over the top of the +feeding trough, Grunty Pig began to grow. At last he was getting as much +to eat as his brothers and sisters. And the bigger he grew, the more +food he wanted. He was always on the watch for some extra tidbit--always +rooting about to find some dainty that others had overlooked. Many a +delicious piece of carrot, or turnip, or potato-paring rewarded him for +his eager searching. + +Still, Grunty Pig was far from satisfied. He had a great longing to get +outside the pen where he lived with the rest of Mrs. Pig's seven +children. + +"Out in the wide world there must be many good things to eat," he +thought. "I'd like to find the place where the potato-parings grow." + +But of all this, Grunty Pig said nothing to anyone. If the chance ever +came to slip out of the pen, he intended to take nobody with him. He had +not yet caught up with his brothers and sisters in size, even if he had +outstripped them in the matter of brains. And he feared that any one of +them would crowd him away from the good things that he meant to find +beyond the walls of the pigsty. + +Little did Mrs. Pig dream what plans filled the head of her son Grunty. +When she saw him sniffing around the walls of the pen she never once +guessed that he could be looking for anything except something to eat. +How could she know that Grunty--the littlest of the family--was +searching for a place to escape? + +Now, it happened that there was one loose board in a corner of the +pigpen. The nails that once held it had rusted away. Nobody but Grunty +Pig had discovered that by pressing against an end of this board one +could bend it outward. + +It was too bad--for him--that he had grown so rapidly. Had he been just +a bit smaller he could have squeezed through the opening. + +Here Grunty met the first real problem of his life. For some days he +puzzled over it. One thing was certain: he couldn't make himself +smaller, unless he stopped eating. And that was out of the question. In +the end he made up his mind that there was only one thing to do: he must +make the opening bigger. + +Day after day Grunty Pig crowded against the loose board. And at last +came his reward. Two more rusty nails gave way all at once. Under +Grunty's weight the board opened wide. And as he slipped through the +space, to freedom, the board snapped back into place again. + +There he was, with the wide world before him. And there was the pen, +with no opening anywhere to be seen. + +With a grunt of delight Grunty Pig trotted out of the low building and +found himself on the edge of Farmer Green's orchard. + +He noticed that there was a fragrant smell of apples in the air. + + + + +IV + +THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD + + +It was the first time Grunty Pig had ever been outside his pen. And +since he didn't know how long it would be before Farmer Green found him +and took him back home, he decided that he had better make the most of +his outing while it lasted. + +Hurrying into the orchard, Grunty ate heartily of the fruit that lay +upon the ground. After he had devoured a few dozen apples he began to +lose his appetite for that sort of food. So he started to root beneath +the trees. It was fun to dig. Besides, he found a good many tender roots +that tickled his taste. They were different from anything he had ever +eaten before. + +After a while Grunty Pig learned something. He had always supposed that +he could go on eating forever, if he were only lucky enough to have the +chance. But to his surprise he found that there was a limit to the +amount he could consume with comfort. He began to have a _tight_ feeling +about his waistband. At first he dared hope it would go away. But the +more he ate, the worse he felt. And at last he gave a grunt of +disappointment. + +"I can't eat any more," he whined. "Here's a whole world full of food +just going to waste. And I can't even hold one half of it!" + +Still, there were other pleasures to be had besides eating. Grunty +crawled through the fence into the lane. And near the barn, where the +cows had trampled, he beheld such beautiful, sticky, deep mud as he had +never dreamed could be found anywhere. + +Grunty Pig gave a deep sigh of happiness as he wallowed in the mire. He +lay on his stomach, he turned upon each side. He even squirmed through a +puddle and rolled over in it, so that there wasn't a clean patch on him, +anywhere. Little did he care that his silvery bristles were smeared with +black. The mud felt delightfully cool upon his piggy, pinkish skin. + +"This is almost better than eating," Grunty squealed. + +At last his gurgles and grunts attracted the notice of a proud creature +known as Henrietta Hen. She had been scratching for worms in the +farmyard. And now she came running around a corner of the barn and +peered through the fence at Grunty. + +"You careless child!" she squawked. "Stop playing in that mud! Don't you +know that it's very dangerous to get your feet wet?" + +Grunty Pig stood up and looked at her. + +"Goodness! You're a sight!" Henrietta Hen exclaimed. "Does your mother +know you're here?" + +Now, Grunty Pig didn't answer a single one of Henrietta's questions. He +merely stared at her and said nothing. So it was no wonder that she +thought him stupid. + +"Poor Mrs. Pig!" thought Henrietta Hen. "It's bad enough to have a child +so untidy as this youngster. But it's far worse to have a dull-witted +one." + +Then to Grunty she said sharply, "You'd better get out of that mudhole +and go dry yourself in the sun." + +He actually obeyed her. And as soon as Henrietta Hen saw that he was +sunning himself she walked out of sight around the barn, stopping now +and then to pick up some tidbit or other. + +"Good!" Grunty Pig grunted. "She's gone. This was the easiest way to get +rid of her." + + + + +V + +SIXES AND SEVENS + + +Not until feeding time came did anyone discover that Grunty Pig was gone +from the pen. It may seem strange that neither his mother nor any of his +brothers and sisters missed him. But when there are seven children in a +family it is no wonder that one of them could slip away without having +his absence noticed. It is specially easy, in such a large family, to +overlook the littlest. + +If Mrs. Pig had known there was a loose board on the pen she would +certainly have counted noses to find out whether her children were all +safe at home. But nobody knew about that loose board except Grunty +himself. + +It was lucky that Farmer Green had made the lid for Mrs. Pig's +children's feeding trough--the lid with the seven holes in it. When he +poured the children's supper into the trough and slammed down the lid he +stood and watched Mrs. Pig's youngsters as they scrambled to the trough +and stuck--each of them--a nose into a hole. + +All at once Farmer Green noticed something queer. "Hullo!" he cried to +his son Johnnie. "There's an empty hole here. We've lost a pig!" + +He looked closely at the row of six squirming bunches of squeals. + +"I declare!" said Farmer Green. "It's the runt that's gone." + +Mrs. Pig, who was enjoying her own supper a little way off, did not hear +what Farmer Green said. Her children were making a good deal of noise. +And to tell the truth, Mrs. Pig herself wasn't exactly a silent eater. +When Farmer Green jumped into the pen and began to poke at the sides of +it she wondered what he was doing. Soon he found the loose board and +pushed against it with his foot, exclaiming, "Here's where he got away! +Who'd have thought that the runt was the smartest of the family? + +"Run and get me a hammer and a few nails," said Farmer Green to his son +Johnnie. "We must fix this pen before any more of the pigs crawl out." + +Well, when she heard the news Mrs. Pig nearly choked over a bit of +something or other that she was eating. Grunty was gone! If she hadn't +spent most of the afternoon dozing perhaps she would have missed him. +And poor Mrs. Pig began to reproach herself for what wasn't really her +fault at all. + +"I hope you'll find him," she told Farmer Green as he drove a nail into +the loose board. "I hope you won't leave my son out to-night. There's no +knowing what might happen to a child of his tender years." + +Maybe Farmer Green heard her request. Anyhow, as he handed the hammer to +Johnnie he said, "Come and help me, after you put the hammer back. We'll +have to find that pig. If a bear happened to come down from the mountain +to-night he'd treat himself to a feast. That runt would make a nice, +tender meal." + +Mrs. Pig must certainly have heard--and understood--Farmer Green's +remark. For she gave a loud squeal of alarm. + +"Hurry!" she begged him. "Please, Mr. Green, do find Grunty before +dark!" + + + + +VI + +MR. CROW HELPS + + +It was a wonder that Johnnie Green and his father ever found Grunty Pig. + +Soon after Henrietta Hen left him, Grunty crept out of the lane and +wandered into the cornfield. He had an idea that Henrietta might go and +tell his mother that she had seen him wallowing in the mud behind the +barn. And he did not want to be dragged back to the pigpen. + +Grunty had no way of knowing that Henrietta Hen forgot all about him +before she had crossed the farmyard. She fell into a loud dispute with a +neighbor. And she never thought of Grunty again. + +Grunty Pig enjoyed his ramble into the field of waving corn. The corn +was sweet; and the dirt was loose--just the finest sort to root in that +a body could possibly want. He had the place all to himself until at +last a black gentleman came flying up in a great hurry and ordered him +in a hoarse voice to "get out of the corn--and be quick about it!" + +On him Grunty Pig tried the same trick that he had used on Henrietta +Hen. He looked up with a stupid stare at the newcomer and said never a +word. + +Old Mr. Crow--for it was he that had commanded Grunty to leave--old Mr. +Crow abused him roundly. Mr. Crow was not empty-headed, like Henrietta +Hen. He was not to be deceived so easily. + +"Why don't you answer me?" he bawled. "You make noise enough when you're +at home. I've heard you often, way across the cornfield." Mr. Crow +cawed so angrily that a dozen of his cronies flew over from the woods to +see what was going on. And the whole thirteen made such an uproar that +Farmer Green couldn't help noticing them. He and Johnnie were in the +orchard, hunting for Grunty Pig. + +"Those crows are up to some mischief," Farmer Green declared. "You don't +suppose--do you?--that they're teasing that pig?" + +Well, Johnnie Green was willing to go and find out. And sure enough! he +found Grunty in the cornfield. + +Johnnie Green picked him up, tucked him under his arm--plastered with +dried mud as he was--and brought him in triumph to the barn. + +Farmer Green laughed when he saw Grunty Pig. + +"He looks as if he had been enjoying himself," he remarked as he +dropped Grunty into the pen with the rest of Mrs. Pig's children. + +"Are you going to feed him?" Johnnie Green inquired. + +Again his father laughed. + +"No!" he replied. "That pig has stuffed himself so full he can scarcely +waddle." + +As for Mrs. Pig, she didn't know whether to laugh or to weep. She was +glad to have Grunty safe at home again; but he was a sad sight. + +At first Mrs. Pig thought Farmer Green had made a mistake. She thought +he had found somebody else's child. For Grunty was so daubed with black +mud that she actually didn't know him until she heard him grunt. "Where +have you been?" she asked him in her sternest voice. + +"I've been out in the world," he answered. "And I've had a fine time." + +"It's easy to see," said Mrs. Pig, "that you're a born wallower. It's a +pity that you haven't your brother Blackie's complexion. The dirt does +show so dreadfully on silver bristles!" + + + + +VII + +THE GRUMBLER + + +All the farmyard folk agreed that Farmer Green took the best of care of +everybody. Mrs. Pig often told her children that they were lucky to have +so good a home. And not having lived anywhere else, they never imagined +that anything could be finer than their pen. + +After the day when he escaped from the pen, however, Grunty Pig began to +complain. He wasn't satisfied with the food that Farmer Green gave him, +he grumbled because there was no good place to wallow in mud, and +especially did he object because there wasn't a tree to rub against. +"The orchard," he often said, "is a much pleasanter place than this pen +is. There are trees enough in the orchard for every member of our family +to rub against--all at the same time." + +Somehow, when Grunty talked in that fashion every one of Mrs. Pig's +children began to crowd against the sides of the pen. And even Mrs. Pig +herself felt an annoying tickling along her back. She did wish that +Grunty wouldn't mention such matters. + +But nothing Mrs. Pig could say seemed to do any good. He was always +prattling, anyhow. She could no more stop his flow of grunts and squeals +than she could have kept the water in the brook from babbling down the +mountainside to Swift River. + +And even more annoying to Mrs. Pig was the way her son Grunty tried to +rub his back against _her_. She said "Don't!" to him so often that she +became heartily sick of the word. + +What bothered Mrs. Pig most of all was Grunty's behavior whenever Farmer +Green came to the pen. It was mortifying to her to have her son actually +try to _scratch his back_ against her in the presence of a visitor. + +"I do hope," said Mrs. Pig to Farmer Green, "I do hope you don't think +that I haven't tried to teach this child better manners." And then, when +all the rest of her family began to squirm and fidget against the sides +of the pen she added with a sigh, "Look at them! Anyone would suppose +they had had no bringing up at all!" + +Farmer Green smiled as he leaned over the pen and watched the antics of +Grunty Pig and his brothers and sisters. + +"There's something that I can do for your family to make them happier," +he told Mrs. Pig. "To-morrow--if I can spare the time--I'll make a +change here. A lady who's raising such a fine family as yours deserves +the best there is. She ought to have a home with every modern +improvement." + +"There!" Mrs. Pig exclaimed to her children as soon as Farmer Green left +them. "Did you hear what he said? Farmer Green is a kind man. I +shouldn't have blamed him if he had put us into the poorest pen on the +place, after seeing your unmannerly actions. You'll have to behave +better--especially after we have our new improvements." + +Well, the next day Farmer Green brought a stout post and set it firmly +in the center of Mrs. Pig's pen. + +"That's for you and your family to rub against," he informed Mrs. Pig. + +Really, he needn't have explained what the improvement was for. No +sooner had he climbed out of the pen than Mrs. Pig and her children +began to put the rubbing post to good use. Grunty was the first of all +to try it. And to his mother's delight, he stopped grumbling at once. +Nor did he ever again disgrace her by scratching his back against her. +Instead, he always walked up to the rubbing post like a little +gentleman. At least, that was what Mrs. Pig said. + +[Illustration: The Muley Cow Advises Grunty Pig to Go Home. + +(_Page 34_)] + + + + +VIII + +FEARFUL NEWS + + +There came a day at last when Farmer Green gave Mrs. Pig and her family +a great treat. He let them out of their pen and turned them loose in a +little yard out of doors. Such gruntings and squealings hadn't been +heard on the farm for a long time. It was just like a picnic. And +everybody had the finest of times. Still, Grunty Pig wasn't content to +stay in the yard with the rest of the family. It wasn't long before he +found a hole in the fence big enough to wriggle through. And off he +went. And he was actually glad, for once, that he was the littlest of +the family. There wasn't another of Mrs. Pig's children that could +squeeze through the opening. + +Grunty Pig trotted the whole length of the lane. When he reached the +pasture he found himself face to face with the Muley Cow, who acted much +surprised to see him there. + +"You'd better go back home at once," she advised him. "There are bears +on Blue Mountain. Sometimes they come down this way. Only last week I +had an adventure with one in the back pasture." She did not tell Grunty +that she had run away from Cuffy Bear, down the hillside. "A bear," said +the Muley Cow, "would be delighted to meet a tender little pig like +you." + +Grunty Pig did not even thank the Muley Cow for warning him. + +"I'd like to meet a bear," he declared stoutly. "I hope I'll meet one +to-day." + +Leaving the Muley Cow, he zigzagged up the hill through the pasture, +stopping now and then to dig up many a juicy root. + +Although Mrs. Pig missed her runaway son after a time, she was not +greatly disturbed. + +"He can't be far off," she thought. "He'll come back before dark." And +when Grunty did at last come crawling into the little yard Mrs. Pig was +merely vexed with him for having gone off without her consent. She was +just about to give him a well deserved scolding. But before she could +speak to him, Grunty greeted her with a loud squeal. + +"I saw a bear in the pasture!" he cried. + +Mrs. Pig promptly forgot her displeasure. Although her son was certainly +unharmed, she couldn't help being startled. It gave her what she called +"a turn" to learn that Grunty had met a bear. + +"A bear!" Mrs. Pig gasped. "A bear is a terribly dangerous creature. +It's a wonder that you ever got home.... What did you do when you saw +him?" Mrs. Pig demanded. + +"I walked away," said Grunty. + +"He couldn't have noticed you," Mrs. Pig declared. "If you had squealed +it would have been the end of you." + +Grunty Pig felt that he was the most important member of the family. Not +one of his brothers or sisters had ever seen a bear. At least they had +never claimed to have enjoyed so fearsome a sight. + +"It was nothing," he boasted. "I'd as soon meet a bear as the Muley +Cow." + +His mother, however, was of another mind. She kept looking about in an +uneasy fashion. + +"I wish Farmer Green would come and put us into our pen," she murmured. +"It will soon be dark. And I shouldn't like to spend the night out +here--not with a bear in the neighborhood." + + + + +IX + +A GREAT ADVENTURE + + +The next outing that Farmer Green gave Mrs. Pig's family in the little +yard proved to be anything but a picnic--for Mrs. Pig. That poor lady +had a dreadful time. Grunty ran away again. And he hadn't been gone long +before his mother heard a loud squealing in the nearest field. The sound +rapidly grew louder. And as she stood still and listened, Mrs. Pig knew +that it was Grunty's squeal and that he was drawing nearer every moment. + +"Dear me!" she cried. "He must be in trouble." + +Soon Grunty tumbled through the fence. And scrambling to his feet he +ran to his mother, crying at the top of his voice, "A bear chased me!" + +"Oh! Oh!" shrieked Mrs. Pig. "It's a mercy he didn't catch you. Oh! Oh! +It's lucky you're no fatter, else you couldn't have run so fast." Being +more than fat, herself, and greatly excited, Mrs. Pig had to stop +talking for a time, because she gurgled and wheezed and panted in a most +alarming fashion. + +At last, when she had somewhat recovered from her flurry, she called to +Grunty. And looking at him severely Mrs. Pig said to him, "Let this be a +lesson to you. Never, never stray away from the farmyard again!" + +"Yes, Mother!" was Grunty's glib reply. Then he sidled away. Somehow he +felt uneasy under his mother's gaze. + +"Perhaps it was a good thing, after all, that the bear chased him," +Mrs. Pig muttered. "Maybe this fright will keep him at home." + +She soon discovered that it would take more than a mere fright--more +than a command--to stop Grunty from running away. For it wasn't long +before she missed him again. + +If Mrs. Pig hadn't been so upset she might have been vexed--and with +good reason. + +"Oh! that dear little Grunty!" she wailed. "The bear may have caught him +already, in the cabbage patch." + +Then piercing squeals fell once more on Mrs. Pig's ears. + +"Dear! Dear!" she cried. "I ought to have watched him. I ought to have +kept an eye on Grunty. After all, he's little more than a baby." + +Again the squeals grew louder. Again Grunty Pig burst through the hole +in the fence and romped up to his mother. + +"He chased me another time!" he grunted. "The bear chased me almost as +far as the fence." + +"Sakes alive!" his mother shrieked. "Somebody ought to tell Farmer +Green! This farm is not a safe place to live, with a bear prowling about +it." + +"Do you want me to go and tell Mr. Green?" Grunty inquired. + +"_You?_" his mother exclaimed. "No, indeed! You stay right here with me! +Don't you dare stir out of this yard!" And to Grunty's astonishment, +Mrs. Pig bowled him right over, to show him that she meant what she +said. + +He jumped to his feet in a jiffy. And he was all ready to slink away +into a corner of the yard; but his mother bade him wait. + +"This bear--" she said--"what did he look like?" + + + + +X + +A QUEER BEAR + + +Grunty Pig's little eyes fell away from his mother's when she asked him +what the bear looked like--the bear that had chased him. + +"Er--he was whitish, with brown spots, like Johnnie Green's dog," said +Grunty; "and--er--he had a long tail like the old horse Ebenezer's; and +he had six legs." + +Mrs. Pig suddenly made a most peculiar sound. It couldn't be called a +squeal, nor a grunt, nor a gurgle, nor a gasp. It was a little like all +four. And springing clumsily upon her son, Mrs. Pig upset him before he +could dodge her. + +Grunty Pig began to whimper. "What have I done?" he whined. + +"You've deceived me!" his mother cried. "You haven't seen a bear. You've +never seen a bear in all your life." + +"Ouch," Grunty howled, as his mother sent him sprawling once more. "I +didn't mean any harm. I was only having fun with you." + +"Well," said his mother. "Turn about is fair play. I'll have a little +fun with _you_, now." + +Mrs. Pig gave her wayward son such a punishing that he remembered it all +the rest of that day. At least, he stayed at home. And Mrs. Pig dared +hope that at last she had cured him of two bad habits--running away and +telling fibs. + +The next day, however, the fields called again to Grunty Pig. They +called so plainly that he couldn't resist answering. + +"I'll slip away for just a little while," he said to himself. "If I'm +not gone long no one will miss me." So when his mother was taking a nap +he stole through the hole in the fence. "I'll be back before she wakes +up," he chuckled. + +In the garden, up the lane, through the pasture he made his way. And he +enjoyed his holiday to the full--until he remembered suddenly that he +had been gone a long time--a much longer time than he had planned to +spend away from the farmyard. + +"Oh, dear!" he whined. "Mother must be awake now; and she'll punish me +if I go back." The more he thought about returning, the less he liked +the idea. + +"I won't go home at all!" he cried at last. "I'll stay in the pasture +the rest of my life. There's plenty to eat here; and plenty of fun, +too." + +It was afternoon when Grunty Pig made up his mind that he would never +go home. When the Muley Cow warned him once more to beware of the bears +he actually jeered at her. + +"There are no bears in Pleasant Valley," he scoffed. "And you needn't +trouble yourself to mention them again to me. I'm going to live in this +pasture and there's no use of your trying to frighten me away." + +The Muley Cow said nothing more to him. She merely looked at him and +smiled wisely. + +"He'll sing a different song," she thought, "when it begins to grow +dark." + + + + +XI + +LOCKED OUT + + +The Muley Cow was right. She had said to herself, with a smile, that +Grunty Pig, the runaway, would be glad enough to go home when night +came. He had decided to stay right there in the pasture for the rest of +his life, where there was plenty to eat and plenty to do. He felt sure +that he would have a much pleasanter time there than at home. For one +thing, he knew well enough that there was a punishing waiting for him at +the piggery--if he ever went back to get it. + +Not until Johnnie Green and old dog Spot came to the pasture to drive +the cows down the lane did Grunty Pig begin to feel the least twinge of +homesickness. And even then he tried to forget it. He hid in a clump of +brakes near the fence while Johnnie Green and Spot were in the pasture, +for he didn't want them to spy him and take him home with them. + +There was a delicious, damp, woodsy smell in the cool shade of his +hiding place. + +"How much nicer this is than our stuffy pen!" Grunty exclaimed under his +breath. + +Now and then he peeped out to watch the procession of cows moving slowly +towards the barn to be milked. And when the last one had entered the +lane, hurrying to catch up with the rest--and to avoid Spot's nips at +her heels--Grunty crept out into the open. + +Then, strange to say, he hurried towards the lane himself. All at once +the pasture seemed a great, lonesome place. Who knew when a bear might +rise out of a clump of bushes near him? + +He was careful not to follow too closely after the herd as they +meandered down the lane. At the same time, he was careful not to fall +too far behind. And he took many a quick backward glance, to make sure +no bear was creeping up on him. + +Not far from the barn Grunty left the lane and hurried toward the little +yard outside the piggery, where he had run away from his mother and his +brothers and his sisters. + +When he reached the fence through which he had crept while Mrs. Pig was +enjoying a nap, he met with a great surprise. The hole in the fence was +no more! Somebody had mended it. And there he was, outside the yard! + +Grunty Pig squealed for his mother. But no one answered. The fence was +too high for him to look over it. It was too tight for him to peep +through. + +"I want to get in!" Grunty cried. "Why doesn't somebody answer?" + +The silence from the other side of the fence was dreadful. Grunty Pig +would have been _glad_ to have his mother scold him then, just for the +comfort of hearing her voice. + +"Oh! Oh!" he wailed. "What shall I do? Whatever shall I do? Farmer Green +must have put the family back in the pen. And I'll have to spend the +night out here alone!" + + + + +XII + +WOOF! + + +Night found Grunty Pig huddled close to the outside of the piggery. Many +times he had walked around the low building, snuffing at the doors and +trying in vain to find some opening through which he might crawl. To his +dismay, all was snug and tight. There wasn't a hole big enough even for +Miss Kitty Cat to creep through. + +Though Grunty had called a good many times, nobody had answered him. +Inside the piggery, in their pen, Mrs. Pig and her other children were +sound asleep. Now and then Grunty could hear a throaty snore, which he +knew to be his mother's. + +"How can she sleep, when I'm missing?" he cried. + +Now, Mrs. Pig had been much upset by Grunty's absence. And when Farmer +Green came to put her family into the piggery for the night she had +tried to explain to him that Grunty had run away. Unfortunately, it +happened that Farmer Green was in a great hurry. He didn't stop to find +out what was troubling Mrs. Pig, but hustled her and her children inside +and closed all the doors. + +Try as she would, Mrs. Pig hadn't been able to stay awake. Her eyes +would close, in spite of all she could do. Though she slept, she dreamed +about the truant Grunty. Now and then she cried aloud in the darkness, +when some terrible creature seemed to be chasing him. But Mrs. Pig never +quite waked up. + +Once Grunty Pig thought he heard his mother speak his name. And he +called out in as brave a voice as he could muster, "Here I am, just +outside the piggery! Won't somebody please let me in?" + +He called in vain. At last he fell asleep, for he was about as tired as +any little pig could be. + +In the middle of the night Grunty Pig awoke with a start. Somebody said +"Woof!" And somebody came sniffing and snuffing around the corner of the +piggery. Dimly Grunty could see a dark, burly form. And he was so +frightened that he bawled right out, "It's a bear! It's a bear! It's a +bear!" + +Almost at the same instant old dog Spot ran out of his kennel, barking +furiously. And like magic the prowler--whoever he was--vanished into the +night. + +"Keep still!" Grunty's mother called to him; for the noise had half +roused her. "Don't you mention the word _bear_ again, or I'll attend to +you in the morning." + +Drowsy as she was, Mrs. Pig actually thought Grunty was right there in +the pen with the rest of her children. And in no time at all she was +snoring again. + +Grunty Pig didn't dare open his mouth nor close his eyes the rest of the +night. And when morning came, Farmer Green found him huddled against the +door of the piggery. + +It was a joyful meeting--for Grunty Pig. + + + + +XIII + +HOME AT LAST + + +"What's this?" Farmer Green exclaimed, when he went to unlock the +piggery in the morning and found Grunty Pig lying up against the door. +"Did you get locked out last night? Was it you that old Spot was barking +at?" + +Grunty Pig didn't dare answer. When Farmer Green dropped him into the +pen he said nothing to anybody--not even "Good morning!" + +A little later Farmer Green found something more outside the piggery. In +the loose dirt he discovered--bear tracks! + +"Aha!" he cried to his son Johnnie. "Look here! We had a visitor last +night. It was no wonder old Spot woke us all up. A bear called on us! +And he'd certainly have had that pig if Spot hadn't scared him off." + +Naturally the news soon spread all over the farmyard. And when Mrs. Pig +heard it she began to tremble. + +"To think," she quavered, "that my littlest child spent the night out of +doors, with a bear prowling about the neighborhood! And I slept through +it all! + +"Tell me all about it, Grunty!" she commanded that young gentleman. + +It is not surprising that Grunty Pig was puzzled. Hadn't his mother told +him, during the night, not to mention the word _bear_ again? And now she +was urging him to talk about that very animal. + +"Squeak up!" said his mother sharply--which was the same as saying, +"Speak up!" + +So he told his story. And when he had finished Mrs. Pig fairly covered +him with caresses. + +"It seems to me--" she sniffed--for she was quite upset--"it seems to me +that I remember your saying something about a bear last night. But I +wasn't wide awake at the time. And I thought you were fibbing again. + +"Perhaps," she added, "this will teach you a few things that you needed +to learn.... _Always mind your mother!_" said Mrs. Pig. "And _always +tell the truth_!" + +Her children all repeated the words after her. And Grunty Pig's voice +could have been heard plainly above all the rest. + +His mother looked at him fondly. She had always claimed that she had no +favorite among her children. But now she couldn't help thinking what a +promising youngster Grunty was, even if he was the runt of the family. + +"That's a good Grunty," said Mrs. Pig. "You won't forget this lesson, +will you?" + +"No, Mother!" Grunty answered. + +Now, that very afternoon Mrs. Pig took it into her head to have her +children say the morning's lesson again. So she called her youngsters +together. And she asked Grunty the first of all to recite what she had +taught him. + +"I think it was something about a bear," he stammered, "but I can't +remember exactly." + +"Dear me!" said poor Mrs. Pig. "I don't know what I'll do with this +lad." + +Then she asked the other children, one by one, what they had learned +that very morning. + +There wasn't one of them that hadn't forgotten everything. + +"Dear me!" said unhappy Mrs. Pig. "I don't know what I'll do with all of +them. But I'll treat them all alike. I have no favorite. There isn't one +of them that's stupider than another." + +When Grunty Pig heard that he felt quite proud. It was something, +anyhow, to be as stupid as the rest, even if he was smaller. + + + + +XIV + +AN ODD THOUGHT + + +"Umph! Umph!" + +Farmer Green had fenced off a piece of the old orchard. And into this +new yard he turned Mrs. Pig's children. + +"Umph! Umph!" + +They had a fine time there, rooting down under the sod, rubbing their +backs against the trunks of the old apple trees, and sprawling in the +shade when they were sleepy. + +"Umph! Umph!" + +Sometimes an apple dropped from a tree. And then there was a mad +scramble. + +"Umph! Umph!" + +"Dear me!" said Jolly Robin's wife as she sat in the apple tree where +she and her husband had a nest every summer. "Don't Mrs. Pig's children +make a dreadful noise? I never knew half-grown pigs to have such loud +voices. Their grunts certainly are full-sized." + +Jolly Robin, who had perched himself beside his wife, looked down at +their new neighbors. + +"They're having a good time," he observed cheerfully. "We ought not to +complain. We may be thankful that they don't climb trees and try to +sing." + +Jolly Robin had a way of looking on the bright side of things. It was +seldom that he couldn't act cheerful. Even when he felt quite +downhearted, _inside_, he managed usually to appear happy, _outside_. +And now his remark put his wife in a pleasanter frame of mind. + +"Imagine a pig up a tree!" Mrs. Robin tittered. + +"Umph! Umph! Are you talking about me?" a voice inquired right beneath +them. It gave Mrs. Robin such a start that she almost tumbled off the +limb. + +"No! No! We're not talking about you--not exactly!" Jolly Robin +answered. + +It was Grunty Pig that had spoken. + +"Pardon me!" he said. "I thought I heard you mention the name, 'Pig'." + +"Er--yes! We did speak of your family, in a general way," Jolly Robin +admitted. + +"Ah!" said Grunty Pig. "And what was it you said about us? Weren't you +and your wife laughing about our climbing trees?" + +Somehow Jolly Robin thought that Grunty's little eyes had a spiteful +gleam as he looked upward into the tree top. And Mrs. Robin couldn't +help moving to a higher limb. Grunty's glare sent a most uncomfortable +shiver over her. + +Jolly Robin tried his best to act at his ease. + +"It was just an odd thought that popped into my head," he assured Grunty +Pig. "It made Mrs. Robin giggle when I mentioned it." He laughed merrily +enough. And his wife managed to smile faintly. But Grunty Pig frowned. + +"I thought so!" he cried. "You Robins were poking fun at me and my +brothers and sisters. Yes! And no doubt at my mother, too!" + +"Oh, no!" Jolly Robin assured him. "We weren't thinking of any one in +particular." + +"Aha!" Grunty snorted. "You were laughing at all of us, then." And Jolly +Robin could say nothing to change his opinion. "You can't fool me," +Grunty declared. "You have insulted my whole family. And it's time that +you learned better manners. I see that I shall have to teach you a +lesson." + +Well, when they heard that speech Jolly Robin and his wife had to laugh. +The idea of a lesson in manners from Grunty Pig was the funniest thing +on the farm. + +[Illustration: "Always Mind Your Mother," Said Mrs. Pig. + +(_Page 57_)] + + + + +XV + +GRUNTY MEANS MISCHIEF + + +Jolly Robin and his wife told all their friends that Grunty Pig was +going to teach them a lesson. The birds had many a laugh over the +matter. Not till old Mr. Crow visited the orchard one day did the Robin +family cease chuckling over what they called "the joke of the season." + +"Don't laugh too soon!" Mr. Crow croaked. "This Grunty Pig means +mischief. He isn't going to teach you the sort of lesson you've been +snickering about. What he intends to do is to harm you in some way." + +Now, nobody in Pleasant Valley could look gloomier than old Mr. Crow. +And when he hinted darkly, in his hoarse way, that there was trouble +ahead for the Robin family, he threw Jolly Robin's wife into a flutter. + +"Oh, what does Grunty Pig mean to do to us?" Mrs. Robin quavered. + +"I'd rather not tell you," said old Mr. Crow. "I don't want you to +worry." + +Mr. Crow left them then. Of course he couldn't have chosen a better way +to upset Mrs. Robin. Even Jolly himself had to admit after a while that +he could think of nothing that seemed to cheer his wife in the least. +"I'll speak to Mr. Crow again," he told his wife. "I'll ask him just +what he meant." + +Alas! Mr. Crow couldn't tell him. The truth was that Mr. Crow had +already told all he knew. + +"I'll ask Grunty Pig himself what he means to do to us," Jolly then +declared to his wife. "I've noticed that he digs every day at the foot +of our apple tree. The next time he comes here I'll have a talk with +him." So that very day Jolly put his question to Grunty Pig. + +"What is it," he asked, "that you intend to do to us?" + +"You'll find out later," said Grunty Pig. "I expect to be in the top of +your apple tree before fall. And then--" + +Jolly Robin couldn't wait for him to finish. He had to laugh right out, +on the spot. And his wife, who had been listening eagerly, burst into +the first giggle that had passed her bill for days and days. + +So Grunty Pig expected to climb a tree! Mr. and Mrs. Robin gave each +other a merry look. It was all too funny for words. + +"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "You won't laugh when I'm in your tree top." + +"How are you going to get up here?" Jolly Robin asked him, with a wink +at Mrs. Robin. "Are you going to _fly_?" + +"No!" Grunty Pig said. "No!" + +"Then you're going to _climb_," cried Mrs. Robin. And both she and her +husband choked, as they pictured fat Grunty Pig scrambling up the trunk +of the old apple tree. + +"No!" Grunty Pig said. "No!" + +"Well, well!" Jolly Robin exclaimed. "Don't be so short with your +answers! Explain how you expect to get up into the top of our apple +tree." + +"I never said I expected to get up there," Grunty Pig corrected him. + +"What?" cried Jolly Robin. "What?" cried his wife. + +"No!" said Grunty Pig. "I said I'd be in the tree top before fall. If I +work here every day around the foot of the tree I'll have it uprooted at +last. And when it topples over and falls on the ground I'll have no +trouble getting into the top of it." + +When they heard that, Jolly Robin and his wife stopped laughing. + + + + +XVI + +DANGER AHEAD + + +Jolly Robin and his wife were terribly worried. Grunty Pig meant to +uproot the apple tree where they had their nest. Every day he came and +dug at the foot of the tree. Every day, just before he went away, he +looked up at them and said, "I hope you'll sleep well to-night. You'd +better enjoy your home while you have it, for the tree will be flat on +the ground before fall." + +Sleep! Mrs. Robin complained that she never had a good night's rest any +more. She said that she had bad dreams. She dreamed that the tree was +falling. And then she was sure to wake up with a start. And her husband +wasn't there to calm her, because he was roosting in a thicket over in +the pasture with their first brood of the season. + +They both agreed--Jolly and his wife--that they must get their second +brood of children out of the nest as soon as they could. + +"The moment they're old enough, we must teach them to fly," Mrs. Robin +told her husband. + +"Yes!" he said. "And we'll have to be careful of them, too, with all +these seven young porkers in the orchard." + +"Suppose--" said Mrs. Robin--"suppose Grunty Pig should bring our tree +toppling to the ground before the children leave the nest!" + +"Oh! There's no danger of that," Jolly assured her. She was always +looking on the dark side of things. But he didn't tell her so. + +"I don't know how we're going to be sure the children are safe," Mrs. +Robin continued. "How long do you think it will take Grunty Pig to +uproot our tree?" + +Jolly Robin had to confess that he couldn't answer his wife's question. + +"Then ask somebody who knows something about such matters!" Mrs. Robin +cried. And there was a tart note in her voice that made Jolly Robin say +hastily, "Yes! Yes, my dear! I'll go right now and find an answer to +your question." + +Off he flew. And not knowing where else to go, he sat down on a bush in +Farmer Green's garden, to ponder. Who could tell him how long it would +take Grunty Pig to uproot the old apple tree? Although Jolly Robin +thought and thought, he could think of no one whom he might ask. To be +sure, there was Tommy Fox, who was known to be an able digger. But Jolly +Robin didn't trust him. Tommy Fox was tricky. And there was Billy +Woodchuck, who came from a famous family of burrowers. But everybody +knew that old dog Spot had chased him into his hole that very afternoon, +and was watching Billy's front door. + +While Jolly Robin sat there in the garden he happened to look down at +the ground. And right before his eyes a long snout suddenly rose out of +the dirt, followed by the squat form of Grandfather Mole. + +Jolly Robin gave a cheerful chirp. Everybody knew that Grandfather Mole +was the champion digger of Pleasant Valley. And if he couldn't answer +Mrs. Robin's question, then no one could. + + + + +XVII + +A PUZZLE SOLVED + + +"Good morning, Grandfather Mole!" Jolly Robin called. + +"What!" cried Grandfather Mole. "Have I made the mistake again of coming +up on top of Farmer Green's garden?" + +"You certainly have," Jolly told him. + +"I must be getting old," said Grandfather Mole. "I'm growing more +careless every day. I didn't mean to dig my way above ground." And then, +thrusting his long nose right into the dirt, he began to burrow out of +sight. + +"Stop! Please stop!" Jolly Robin besought him. "I want to ask you a +question about digging." + +Grandfather Mole pulled his nose out of the ground. + +"What's your question?" he inquired. + +"It's about Grunty Pig," Jolly Robin began. + +"I thought you said it was about digging," Grandfather Mole grumbled. +And he started to burrow once more. + +"So it is!" Jolly exclaimed. "I want to know how long it will take +Grunty Pig to dig up the apple tree where I live." + +Again Grandfather Mole paused. + +"It all depends," he muttered. "It all depends on how much of his time +he spends at digging." + +"He works every day," said Jolly Robin. "A good, long while every day!" + +Grandfather Mole appeared to be thinking deeply. + +"He boasts--" Jolly Robin explained--"he boasts that he will have the +tree uprooted before fall." + +"Nonsense!" Grandfather Mole snorted. "If Grunty Pig says that, he +doesn't know much about apple trees. He may be a fair digger; but he +must be stupid." + +"That's what I've always thought!" Jolly Robin exclaimed. + +"He can't go very deep into things, or he'd never have made such a +boast," Grandfather Mole declared. "When Grunty Pig digs, does he dig +right down out of sight?" + +"Oh, no! Never!" said Jolly Robin. + +"Ah! He merely scratches the surface!" Grandfather Mole remarked with a +wise nod of his head. "Well, it's no wonder that he made such a +mistake." + +"Mistake!" Jolly Robin echoed. "Do you mean that Grunty Pig won't have +our apple tree down by fall?" + +"I do," Grandfather Mole answered. "The roots of a big, old apple tree +spread out a good rod in every direction. And it would take a hundred +Grunty Pigs a whole summer to dig them free." + +A broad smile spread over Jolly Robin's face. + +"Then--" he ventured--"then wouldn't it take Grunty Pig a hundred +summers to dig up our tree, if he worked alone?" + +"No doubt!" Grandfather replied. "Or, to be on the safe side, I'll say +he could uproot your tree in ninety-nine summers." + +"Hurrah!" Jolly Robin shouted. "Hurrah--and thank you, Grandfather +Mole!" And leaving the old gentleman to dig himself out of sight, Jolly +Robin hurried home to his wife. + +Mrs. Robin was glad to see him. She knew, as soon as she caught a +glimpse of his face, that he had good news for her. And she needed +cheering, poor soul! For Grunty Pig was beneath the tree again, digging +away in a most businesslike fashion. + +"Let him dig!" Jolly Robin whispered to his wife. "Grandfather Mole says +it will take him ninety-nine summers to topple our tree over. And you +know that Grandfather Mole is the greatest burrower in Pleasant Valley." + +Mrs. Robin felt better at once. Looking down at Grunty Pig, she said to +her husband, "How stupid this son of Mrs. Pig's is! He has turned up at +least a dozen angleworms while you've been gone. And he has let every +one of them get away from him!" + + + + +XVIII + +THE LUCKIEST OF ALL + + +Grunty Pig found that being the smallest of the family wasn't all fun. +Not only could his brothers and sisters crowd him at the feeding trough. +Even when they were playing in the pen they often knocked him down and +walked right over him. And if he objected--as he usually did--they were +sure to laugh and call him "Runt." + +Try as she would, Mrs. Pig couldn't rid her children of these boorish +ways. But she shouldn't be blamed for that. It must be remembered that +she had seven youngsters, all of the same age. + +At least, Mrs. Pig did what she could to make Grunty's lot easier. + +"Don't feel unhappy!" she said to him one day as he picked himself up, +whimpering, after a hard knock. "Don't feel unhappy because you are the +littlest of the family. In one way you are the luckiest of all my +children." + +Grunty Pig didn't stop weeping. He saw no reason--yet--to feel more +cheerful. + +"Did you know--" his mother asked him--"did you know that in one respect +you are the handsomest one of the whole litter? You have the curliest +tail of them all!" + +Grunty Pig gazed, open-mouthed, at his mother. He stopped snivelling. Up +to that time he had scarcely given his tail a thought. So long as it +followed him wherever he went he had been satisfied with it. + +[Illustration: Grunty Pig Stuck Fast in the Fence. + +(_Page 86_)] + +From that moment Grunty began to think a great deal about his tail. He +was always turning his head to look at it, to make sure it hadn't lost +any of its kink. Now and then he was even late for a meal, because he +was feasting his eyes on his tail when Farmer Green came to the pen with +food for Mrs. Pig's family. + +It must be confessed that Grunty sometimes boasted before his brothers +and sisters about his beautiful curly tail. And just before meal time +his brother Blackie was known, upon occasion, to mention the subject of +tails. He did that in the hope that Grunty would be late at the feeding +trough. + +Sad to say, Grunty Pig was fast becoming vain. He even talked about +tails with the neighbors, taking pains to explain that his own was the +handsomest one on the farm. + +Old dog Spot sniffed when Grunty boasted about his tail one day. + +"Why, your tail is of no use whatsoever," Spot told him. "You can't use +it to switch a fly off your back. The Muley Cow can do that. And so can +the old horse, Ebenezer." + +"Ah! But my tail is so pretty to look at!" Grunty Pig exclaimed. + +"You can't puff it up to show you're angry, as Miss Kitty Cat does," +said Spot. + +"Ah! But my tail has a beautiful curl!" said Grunty Pig. + +"You can't wag it, to let folks know you're friendly, as I can," said +Spot. + +"Ah! But my tail is _so_ handsome!" Grunty Pig exclaimed. + + + + +XIX + +DOG SPOT'S PLAN + + +When Grunty Pig insisted that his own tightly curled tail was the most +beautiful one in the neighborhood, old dog Spot yawned. + +"If that's the case," he remarked, "I should think you'd want your tail +where you could see it more easily. Don't you find it a nuisance to have +to turn your head around every time you want to look at your tail?" + +Grunty Pig admitted that his tail wasn't in the most convenient place in +the world. + +"If Farmer Green should cut off your tail and nail it up on the outside +of the barn," old Spot suggested, "you could look at it easily enough. +And it would give others a better chance to see it, too. Even the people +that drive along the road could enjoy it. Everybody spoke about the tall +corn that we nailed to the barn last fall. And I'm sure that folks would +admire your tail." + +When Spot spoke of Farmer Green's cutting off his tail, Grunty Pig +winced. But as the old dog talked on and on Grunty forgot the painful +part of the plan. + +"There's no doubt," he agreed, "that my tail would be a fine sight, +fastened up on the barn where everybody could gaze at it. But don't you +think, Mr. Spot, that I'd look very queer without any tail?" + +"N--no!" Spot told him. "N--no! I've seen plenty of pigs without tails. +They didn't look queer at all. Really, they looked better without tails +than they would have looked with them." + +Grunty Pig had listened carefully to what Spot said. Yet somehow he +couldn't quite make up his mind to part with his beautiful tail, even if +it would delight many more people when nailed to the outside of the +barn. + +"I'd like to see one of those pigs," he said to Spot. "I'd like to see +how they look." + +"That's easily arranged," old Spot told him. "I can show you a dozen of +them--all as pink and white and happy as they can be. And not a single +one of them with a tail!" + +"I'd certainly like to see them," Grunty Pig murmured. + +"They're a pretty sight," Spot assured him. "Don't you think you'd feel +uncomfortable if you appeared before them with a tail? Don't you want +to have yours cut off _before_ you go to see these tailless little +fellows? It seems to me you'd be more at your ease. It would certainly +be _polite_ of you." + +Grunty Pig, however, cared little for politeness. He said that nobody +was polite to him. His brothers--and even his sisters--were always +knocking him down and trampling on him. + +"Very well!" said Spot. "Squirm through that fence and follow me." + +It was a tight squeeze. When Grunty Pig was half through the hole in the +fence he found himself stuck fast. He could move neither forward nor +back. "Oh, dear!" he wailed. "What shall I do?" + +"Keep perfectly still!" old dog Spot cautioned him--as if Grunty Pig +could do anything else. "I'll jump the fence and help you." + +Now, Grunty Pig thought that old Spot intended to give him a push. +Instead, Spot nipped him smartly. + +It was exactly the sort of help that Grunty needed. He gave a frantic +plunge forward and fell, sprawling, on the ground outside the yard, +where Spot soon joined him. + +"It takes old Spot to hurry 'em along," said the old dog gleefully. + +Grunty Pig said "Umph! Umph!" + +Old dog Spot was not quite sure what he meant. + + + + +XX + +A NEW KIND OF PIG + + +"Stop grunting and squealing and follow me!" old dog Spot growled. And +Grunty Pig, who had just tumbled through a hole in the fence, scrambled +to his feet and trotted after his guide. + +Old Spot had promised to show Grunty a dozen pink and white pigs, all +without tails. He wanted Grunty to see how handsome they looked. + +"You'll like them," Spot told Grunty over his shoulder as they jogged +across the farmyard. "You'll ask Farmer Green this very day to cut off +your tail and nail it up on the barn. I tell you, these pigs look +_neat_. There's _style_ about them." + +"Umph! Umph!" said Grunty Pig as he shuffled along behind. + +"Now, I wonder what he meant by that!" Spot mused. It was sometimes hard +to tell whether Grunty's _umphs_ stood for _yes_ or _no_. + +Around the corner of the farmhouse, near the woodshed door, old dog Spot +came to a halt before a two-storied cage, the front of which was covered +with fine-meshed wire netting. + +Stopping beside Spot, Grunty Pig peered inside the cage. He saw a number +of odd little creatures running about upon the sawdust-strewn floor of +the tiny house, one or another of them giving a faint squeak now and +then as if ordering the two unasked callers to move on. + +Whoever they were, they were a bright-eyed little family. But Grunty +Pig thought, as he stared at them, that they had a most peculiar look. +There seemed to be something missing about them. Yet he couldn't tell +just what it was. + +Together Grunty and Spot stood there, silent, for a time; until at last +Grunty said, "Come along! Let's not stay here any longer. I want to see +those twelve pigs without tails." + +Old dog Spot snorted. + +"You _want_ to see them!" he cried. "Well, nobody's stopping you. +They're right here in front of you!" + +Grunty Pig's mouth fell open--he was so astonished. He knew, now, what +made the little, pudgy, white strangers look so queer. There wasn't one +of them that had even a hint of a tail! + +Then all at once Grunty turned angrily upon old dog Spot. + +"These aren't pigs!" he squealed. "You needn't think you can fool me. +They're not pigs at all." + +"Oh, yes--they are!" Spot insisted. "You didn't suppose that all the +pigs in the world were exactly like your family--did you?" + +Grunty didn't know what to say. He looked at the odd little creatures +again. And then he looked at Spot once more. + +"If these really are pigs," he faltered, "they must be very, very young. +They're certainly smaller than any day-old pigs I ever saw.... Maybe +their tails haven't sprouted yet." + +Old dog Spot seemed to choke over something. He turned his head away for +a moment or two before he spoke. + +"These pigs," he said, "won't ever have tails. Not one of them would +know what to do with a tail if you gave him one. They don't want tails. +They have no use for them. And now that you see for yourself how happy +they are without tails, you ought not to delay any longer about having +yours cut off. I hope," Spot added, "I'll see your tail nailed up on the +barn to-morrow, where everybody can admire it." + +Then Grunty Pig said something that surprised him. + +"Why don't you have your own tail cut off?" he asked old Spot. + +And before old Spot could think of an answer, Johnnie Green came running +out of the woodshed. + +"Get away from my guinea pigs!" he shouted. + +Grunty and Spot both turned and ran in opposite directions. Grunty +didn't see Spot again for more than a week. When they did at last meet, +old Spot never mentioned tails at all. To tell the truth, he seemed to +feel somewhat ashamed of himself for having tried to play a trick on +Grunty Pig. + +Or maybe he felt ashamed because he was caught at it. + + + + +XXI + +BEECHNUTS + + +Down the hill, a little way from Farmer Green's house, a great beech +tree stood beside the road. In the fall, when the nuts were ripe, +Johnnie Green often visited the tree. And so did Frisky Squirrel. And +so, likewise, did that noisy rascal, Jasper Jay. They liked +beechnuts--all three. And somehow they got the notion that the beech +tree belonged to them--and to nobody else. + +One fine, crisp fall day when Johnnie Green was in school, a fourth +nut-lover wandered down the road, stopped right between the wheel +tracks, and sniffed. It was Grunty Pig. "I smell beechnuts!" he cried +with a joyful squeal. And crashing into the light underbrush along the +roadside, he began to search among the fallen leaves with his long nose. + +Soon Grunty came upon a cluster of the three-sided nuts, clinging inside +a bur that the frost had split open. He ate the sweet nuts, shells and +all. And with many a grunt of delight he grubbed beneath the tree from +which the nuts had fallen. His keen nose led him to burs that Johnnie +Green had trampled over that very morning, and missed. + +"I wonder--" said Grunty Pig aloud--"I wonder why nobody ever told me +about this beech tree." + +"Perhaps it was because you are a pig," said a voice right over his +head. + +He looked up. And there on a low branch sat Frisky Squirrel. Grunty +knew him; he had sometimes seen him around Farmer Green's corncrib. + +"Of course I'm a Pig," Grunty retorted. "I'm Mrs. Pig's son." + +"Well, Mrs. Pig's son, I notice that you have helped yourself freely to +beechnuts." + +"I've eaten all I could find," Grunty told Frisky with a grin. + +"I don't hear any thanks," Frisky Squirrel remarked. "Don't you know +that these beechnuts belong to me and Jasper Jay and Johnnie Green?" + +"Umph!" + +"You did?" Frisky inquired. + +"Umph!" + +"Oh, you didn't!" Frisky exclaimed. "Then I suppose I shall have to +pardon you. But Jasper Jay wouldn't, if he caught you taking any of the +nuts that fall from this tree." + +There was truth in what Frisky said. Even as he spoke a patch of blue +flashed in the top of the beech tree. And a harsh voice sang out, +"What's going on here?" + +Jasper Jay had arrived. + +Grunty Pig, however, did not even give Jasper a glance. Instead, he +began nosing about for another beechnut bur. + +For a moment or two Jasper Jay watched him. And then Jasper began to +squawk. + +"Stop that!" he ordered. "Don't you dare to take any of our beechnuts!" + +"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "I can't find any more on the ground. So I +suppose I shall have to obey him," Grunty muttered half under his +breath. + +"Don't mumble! Speak up!" cried Jasper Jay. "If you have any excuses to +make, let's hear them!" + + + + +XXII + +JASPER JAY OBJECTS + + +While Jasper Jay, in the beech tree, waited for Grunty Pig, on the +ground, to speak up and make his excuses for taking beechnuts, a bur +dropped from a twig and landed right in front of Grunty's nose. He fell +upon it greedily. And, tearing it open, he devoured the nuts with +relish. + +For a few moments his action struck Jasper Jay dumb. That blue-coated +rascal turned to Frisky Squirrel, who clung to a limb near-by. + +"Well, did you ever?" Jasper gasped. And then, having found his voice, +Jasper began to use it on Grunty Pig. + +Now, Jasper Jay was a wild fellow. He often used words that made the +gentler folk in Pleasant Valley shudder. And he called Grunty Pig names +that would have made many a person angry. + +Grunty Pig, however, never even blinked. And after a while Jasper Jay +used up all his special words, which he generally employed at such +times. He gave Frisky Squirrel a helpless look. + +"My! My! Isn't this chap thick-skinned?" he exclaimed. + +"Certainly I am!" cried Grunty Pig. "That's why I like to wallow in +mud." + +"Ha!" Jasper Jay sniffed. And he spoke again to Frisky Squirrel. "This +chap is thick-headed, too. I see that I'm going to have trouble making +him understand what I say." + +Frisky Squirrel merely grinned at his companion. + +"Look here, young Porker!" Jasper called to Grunty Pig. "Doesn't Farmer +Green feed you?" + +The name "Porker" made Grunty Pig look up. + +"I'm Mrs. Pig's son," he said. "Don't call me 'Porker'!" + +"Well--Pig, then!" Jasper Jay squalled. "Doesn't Farmer Green feed you?" + +"Yes!" + +"Well, then--don't come here and take our nuts! Didn't your mother ever +teach you that things that grow on trees--such things as nuts--belong to +the people that live in the trees?" + +"Does Johnnie Green live in this tree?" Grunty Pig inquired. + +"He spends half his time here--or a quarter, anyhow," Jasper Jay +grumbled. "And you may be sure he gets his share of these beechnuts. +Goodness knows he leaves few enough for me and my friend here. + +"Now," Jasper Jay went on, "I want you to promise not to eat any more of +our nuts." + +Grunty Pig shook his head. + +"I can't promise that, exactly," he said. "But I'll promise not to eat +any that I don't find on the ground." + +"Huh!" Jasper Jay scoffed. "That means that you won't eat any nuts that +you can't reach. That's no promise at all. It's nothing but a threat. +It's the same as saying that you're going to eat every nut that drops +off this tree." + +Grunty Pig made no reply. He would have wandered on, but for a fresh +breeze that had begun to whip the branches of the beech tree. He decided +to wait there. More burs might fall. And Grunty wanted to be on hand to +meet them when they dropped. + +"Go home!" Jasper Jay shrieked at him. "Go back to your pigpen where you +belong. We don't want you here." And he said many more things that were +still ruder. + +But Grunty Pig never showed the least sign of anger. He didn't even let +Jasper Jay know that he had heard. When the wind died down he waddled +off down the road. And Frisky Squirrel followed him through the tree +tops. When they had travelled out of Jasper Jay's sight and hearing, +Frisky asked Grunty Pig a question. + +"I should like to know," he said, "how you managed to keep still when +Jasper was abusing you. I know that I should have lost my temper. Can it +be that you didn't hear what he said?" + +"Oh, I heard him clearly enough," said Grunty. "But there was no sense +in my getting angry with _him_. If he had been standing on the ground +near me he would never have dared talk to me as he did. Jasper Jay +called me names because he was safe in the tree. If he hadn't had that +tree to help him he'd never have dared say what he did. + +"To tell the truth, I am a bit out of patience with that beech tree," +Grunty confessed. "It played me a mean trick. And I hope there'll be a +raging wind to-night that will rob it of every bur it has.... I'd uproot +the beech," he added, "if I didn't like beechnuts so much." + +"Well, you _are_ an odd one," said Frisky Squirrel. + +"If everybody was as odd as I am there'd be fewer Jasper Jays in the +world," Grunty Pig declared. + + + + +XXIII + +MOSES MOUSE'S WAY + + +One day when Grunty Pig was at home, in the pigpen, a squeaky voiced +piped "Good morning!" to him. Looking up, Grunty saw a plump little +gentleman clinging to the top board on one side of the pen. + +"Good morning!" Grunty answered. "May I inquire what your name is?" + +"I'm Moses Mouse," his caller replied. + +"Do you live in the piggery?--or in the barn?" Grunty asked him. + +"Neither!" said Moses Mouse. "I live in the farmhouse. My wife and I +have a nest in the wall.... The cat's away," he explained. "That's why +I decided to stroll across the yard and visit you folks out here." + +"Some people," said Grunty Pig, "have all the luck. You live in the +farmhouse. Miss Kitty Cat lives in the farmhouse--when she's at home. +And old dog Spot spends a good deal of his time there--especially in +cold weather. It must be pleasant to have your home where there's always +plenty to eat, whenever you happen to feel hungry." + +"Miss Kitty Cat and old dog Spot always fare well," Mr. Mouse admitted. +"But I've often gone to bed half starved. Maybe you didn't know that +Mrs. Green is terribly neat. She doesn't leave much food around for us +Mice." + +"Well," Grunty remarked, "it's an honor, anyhow, to live in the +farmhouse. You ought not to complain about the food, even if it is a +bit scarce at times. I'd be glad to live there. And I dare say I'd find +a plenty to eat. The farmhouse is where the sour milk comes from." + +"If you feel like that," said Moses Mouse, "why don't you join us? Why +don't you come to the farmhouse for the winter, anyhow?" + +Grunty Pig shook his head. + +"No!" he said, half to himself. "No! I can't do it." + +"Why not?" Mr. Mouse wanted to know. + +"I've never been invited," Grunty told him, with something like a frown. + +Moses Mouse surprised him with a merry laugh. + +"Ho!" he exclaimed. "Neither have I. If I had waited for an invitation I +wouldn't be living in the farmhouse. I'd have shivered my days out in +the barn." + +Grunty Pig looked at his caller with growing interest. He would have +said that so tiny a gentleman would be too timid to crowd in where he +wasn't asked. + +"Don't wait any longer for an invitation," Moses Mouse urged him. "Go to +the farmhouse and walk right in." + +"Oughtn't I to rap?" Grunty inquired. + +"Certainly not!" said Moses Mouse. "Make yourself right at home. Act as +if the farmhouse belonged to you. That's the way I do. And nobody ever +bothers me, except Miss Kitty Cat--or Miss Snooper, as we Mice call her. +Even she can't drive me away from the farmhouse. I lived there before +she ever came to Pleasant Valley." + +"She certainly couldn't drive me away," Grunty Pig muttered. "Besides, +didn't you say she was away herself?" + +"Yes!" said Moses Mouse. "And I hope she has gone for good." + +"Then," said Grunty Pig, "it ought to be quite safe for me to go to the +farmhouse. And as soon as I have a chance to get out of this pen I'll do +as you suggest." + +"Good!" cried Moses Mouse. And he said that he hoped to have many a chat +with Grunty, at the farmhouse. + +"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. And Mr. Mouse was much pleased, for he took +that to mean "Yes!" + + + + +XXIV + +A PIG IN THE PARLOR + + +Grunty Pig had got out of his pen and out of the piggery, too. Ever +since his talk with Moses Mouse the day before he had been hoping for a +chance to escape. And shuffling across the farmyard somewhat +heavily--for he was growing longer and taller and fatter every +day--Grunty went straight to the woodshed door. It was open. And he +walked through it. Then he clattered over the woodshed floor and peered +into the kitchen. There was no one there. + +For a few moments Grunty stood sniffing in the doorway. A delicious +odor greeted him. He wasn't sure what it was. A pan sat near the edge +of the table. And Grunty Pig had no trouble upsetting it with his nose. + +Doughnuts rolled in every direction--crisp, brown, freshly fried +doughnuts. And Grunty Pig showed that he was thoughtful. He went to the +trouble of picking them all up off the floor. But he forgot to drop them +back into the pan. Instead, he put every one of them into his own mouth. + +"That Moses Mouse was all wrong," he murmured. "He complained of the +food here. When I see him I'll have to tell him that he was mistaken. +Why, I never ate anything that tasted better than these rings!" + +After making sure that there was nothing else for him to devour in the +kitchen Grunty Pig pushed through a door that stood ajar. He found +himself in a long, dimly lighted hall. There were doors on both sides of +it. Grunty nosed around each one in turn. Not till he came to the last +of all, at the further end of the hall, did he find one that wasn't shut +tight. This door yielded to a little gentle pushing. And Grunty then +found himself--though he did not know it--in the parlor of the +farmhouse. + +As he stood still and gazed about him, who should come stealing into the +room but Moses Mouse. + +"Ah!" said Moses in a whisper. "So you've arrived at last?" + +"Yes!" said Grunty Pig. "Isn't this a fine pen? Now that I've come to +the farmhouse to live I believe I'll make this pen my headquarters." + +"That's a good idea," Moses Mouse told him. "Farmer Green's family don't +use it often. They seldom come here unless they have company." + +While he listened, Grunty Pig sidled up to a table in the center of the +room and began, in an absent-minded fashion, to rub his back against it. +To his surprise, the table tipped over and a lamp that had stood upon it +crashed into a hundred pieces on the floor. Then a door slammed +somewhere. And steps sounded in the hall. + +Moses Mouse tried not to look startled. + +"I must be going now," he said abruptly. "I'll see you later." Then he +dashed into the fireplace and ran up the chimney. + +"The accident was really your fault," Grunty called to him. "If you +hadn't talked so much I'd have noticed what I was doing." + +Moses Mouse, however, did not reply. And a moment later Farmer Green's +wife appeared in the doorway. When she saw Grunty Pig she gave a scream. +Mrs. Green couldn't help being surprised at first. But soon she began to +laugh as if she would never stop. + +"A pig in our parlor!" she cried. "Who ever would have thought it?" + +Grunty Pig tried to explain that the broken lamp was really Moses +Mouse's fault. But Mrs. Green wouldn't listen. She ran out of the room +and came back at once with a broom in her hand. Then, opening the front +door, she drove Grunty Pig into the yard. + +"Now, I wonder why Mrs. Green put me out of the farmhouse," he muttered. + +Suddenly an idea popped into his head. "It must be," he cried, "because +I told tales. I tattled on Moses Mouse; and Mrs. Green didn't like it. +Next time I'll be careful about what I say to her." + +There never was a next time. Perhaps Farmer Green took pains to keep the +door of Grunty's pen shut. Perhaps Farmer Green made the fence outside +the piggery "hog tight," as he would say. Or perhaps Grunty Pig grew so +fat that he couldn't squeeze through any ordinary opening. + +Anyhow, Grunty never set foot inside the farmhouse again. After a while +he didn't care. The bigger he was, the less he liked to roam about. And +at last Farmer Green began calling him his "prize hog." + +So you can see how very fat he must have been. + + +THE END + + + + +Little Jack Rabbit Books + +(Trademark Registered) + +By DAVID CORY + +Author of "Little Journeys to Happyland" + +=Colored Wrappers With Text Illustrations.= + +A new and unique series about the furred and feathered little people of +the wood and meadow. + +Children will eagerly follow the doings of little Jack Rabbit, and the +clever way in which he escapes from his three enemies, Danny Fox, Mr. +Wicked Wolf and Hungry Hawk will delight the youngsters. + +LITTLE JACK RABBIT'S ADVENTURES +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND DANNY FOX +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE SQUIRREL BROTHERS +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND CHIPPY CHIPMUNK +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE BIG BROWN BEAR +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND UNCLE JOHN HARE +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND PROFESSOR CROW +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND OLD MAN WEASEL +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND MR. WICKED WOLF +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND HUNGRY HAWK +LITTLE-JACK RABBIT AND THE POLICEMAN DOG +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND MISS MOUSIE +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND UNCLE LUCKY +LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE YELLOW DOG TRAMP + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK + + + + +THE PUSS-IN-BOOTS, Jr. SERIES + +By DAVID CORY + +Author of "The Little Jack Rabbit Stories" and "Little Journeys to +Happyland" + +=Handsomely Bound. Colored Wrappers. Illustrated. Each Volume Complete in +Itself.= + +To know Puss Junior once is to love him forever. That's the way all the +little people feel about this young, adventurous cat, son of a very +famous father. + +THE ADVENTURES OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR. + +FURTHER ADVENTURES OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR. + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR. IN FAIRYLAND + +TRAVELS OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR. + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND OLD MOTHER GOOSE + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., IN NEW MOTHER GOOSE LAND + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND THE GOOD GRAY HORSE + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND TOM THUMB + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND ROBINSON CRUSOE + +PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND THE MAN IN THE MOON + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK + + + + +HAPPY HOME SERIES + +By HOWARD R. GARIS + +=Individual Colored Wrappers and Colored Illustrations by= +LANG CAMPBELL + +Mr. Garis has written many stories for boys and girls, among them his +Uncle Wiggly volumes, but these books are something distinctly new, +surprising and entertaining. + + +ADVENTURES OF THE GALLOPING GAS STOVE + +A tale of how Gassy mysteriously disappeared, and how he came riding +home on the back of an elephant. It is also related how he broke his +leg, and fed a hungry family in a cottage near a lake. + + +ADVENTURES of the RUNAWAY ROCKING CHAIR + +Racky creaked and groaned when fat Grandma sat on him too hard. He felt +himself ill-treated, so he vanished. He did not intend to take Grandma's +glasses with him, but he did. And he rocked a bunny to sleep. + + +ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING TABLE + +Tippy, the table, always wanted to travel and see the world, but he did +not know how to start. Until, all of a sudden, a diamond ring was hidden +in his leg and a balloon carried him off through the air. + + +ADVENTURES OF THE SLIDING FOOT STOOL + +Just because he did not want to be used as a milking stool by the Maiden +All Forlorn, Skiddy slid away Christmas eve. With him went Jack the +Jumper, and they had a wonderful time in the top shop. + + +ADVENTURES OF THE SAILING SOFA + +Skippy always wanted to be a sailor. When the high water came in the +spring, the sofa went sailing. He had a Rooster for a crew, while +Tatter, the rag doll with one shoe button eye, was Captain. + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +CAROLYN WELLS BOOKS + +=Attractively Bound. Illustrated. Colored Wrappers.= + +THE MARJORIE BOOKS + +Marjorie is a happy little girl of twelve, up to mischief, but full of +goodness and sincerity. In her and her friends every girl reader will +see much of her own love of fun, play and adventure. + +MARJORIE'S VACATION + +MARJORIE'S BUSY DAYS + +MARJORIE'S NEW FRIEND + +MARJORIE IN COMMAND + +MARJORIE'S MAYTIME + +MARJORIE AT SEACOTE + + +THE TWO LITTLE WOMEN SERIES + +Introducing Dorinda Fayre--a pretty blonde, sweet, serious, timid and a +little slow, and Dorothy Rose--a sparkling brunette, quick, elf-like, +high tempered, full of mischief and always getting into scrapes. + +TWO LITTLE WOMEN + +TWO LITTLE WOMEN AND TREASURE HOUSE + +TWO LITTLE WOMEN ON A HOLIDAY + + +THE DICK AND DOLLY BOOKS + +Dick and Dolly are brother and sister, and their games, their pranks, +their joys and sorrows, are told in a manner which makes the stories +"really true" to young readers. + +DICK AND DOLLY + +DICK AND DOLLY'S ADVENTURES + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Grunty Pig, by Arthur Scott Bailey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG *** + +***** This file should be named 24731.txt or 24731.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/7/3/24731/ + +Produced by Joe Longo, Greg Bergquist and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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