THE LONELY LITTLE PIG
One day the Brown Hog called to her twelve young Pigs and their tenolder brothers and sisters, "Look! look! What is in that cage?"
The twenty-two stubby snouts that were thrust through the opening of therail-fence were quivering with eagerness and impatience. Their ownerswished to know all that was happening, and the old mother's eyes werenot so sharp as they had once been, so if the Pigs wanted to know thenews, they must stop their rooting to find it out. Bits of the softbrown earth clung to their snouts and trembled as they breathed.
"It looks like a Pig," they said, "only it is white."
"It is a Pig then," grunted their mother, as she lay in the shade of anoak tree. "There are white Pigs, although I never fancied the color. Itlooks too cold and clean. Brown is more to my taste, brown or black.Your poor father was brown and black, and a finer looking Hog I neversaw. Ugh! Ugh!" And she buried her eyes in the loose earth. The Pigslooked at her and then at each other. They did not often speak of theirfather. Indeed the younger ones did not remember him at all. One of theCows said he had such a bad temper that the farmer sent him away, and itis certain that none of them had seen him since the day he was drivendown the lane.
While they were thinking of this and feeling rather sad, the wagonturned into their lane and they could plainly see the Pig inside. Shewas white and quite beautiful in her piggish way. Her ears stood upstiffly, her snout was as stubby as though it had been broken off, hereyes were very small, and her tail had the right curl. When she squealedthey could see her sharp teeth, and when she put her feet up on thewooden bars of her rough cage, they noticed the fine hoofs on the twobig toes of each foot and the two little toes high on the back of herlegs, each with its tiny hoof. She was riding in great style, and it isno wonder that the twenty-two Brown Pigs with black spots and black feetopened their eyes very wide. They did not know that the farmer broughther in this way because he was in a hurry, and Pigs will not make hastewhen farmers want them to. The Hogs are a queer family, and the Off Oxspoke truly when he said that the only way to make one hurry ahead is totie a rope to his leg and pull back, they are so sure to be contrary.
"She's coming here!" the Brown Pigs cried. "Oh, Mother, she's cominghere! We're going to see the men take her out of her cage."
The old Hog grunted and staggered to her feet to go with them, but shewas fat and slow of motion, so that by the time she was fairly standing,they were far down the field and running helter-skelter by the side ofthe fence. As she stared dully after them she could see the twenty-twocurly tails bobbing along, and she heard the soft patter of eighty-eightsharp little double hoofs on the earth.
"Ugh!" she grunted. "Ugh! Ugh! I am too late to go. Never mind! Theywill tell me all about it, and I can take a nap. I haven't slept halfthe time to-day, and I need rest."
Just as the Mother Hog lay down again, the men lifted the White Pig fromthe wagon, cage and all, so she began to squeal, and she squealed andsquealed and squealed and squealed until she was set free in the fieldwith the Brown Pigs. Nobody had touched her and nobody had hurt her,but it was all so strange and new that she thought it would make herfeel better to squeal. When she was out of her cage and in the field,she planted her hoofs firmly in the ground, looked squarely at the BrownPigs, and grunted a pleasant, good-natured grunt. The Brown Pigs plantedtheir hoofs in the ground and grunted and stared. They didn't ask her togo rooting with them, and not one of the ten big Pigs or the twelvelittle Pigs said, "We are glad to see you."
There is no telling how long they would have stood there if the Horseshad not turned the wagon just then. The minute the wheels began to grateon the side of the box, every Brown Pig whirled around and ran off.
The poor little White Pig did not know what to make of it. She knew thatshe had not done anything wrong. She wondered if they didn't mean tospeak to her.
EVERY BROWN PIG RAN OFF.]
At first she thought she would run after them and ask to root with them,but then she remembered something her mother had told her when she wasso young that she was pink. It was this: "When you don't know what todo, go to sleep." So she lay down and took a nap.
The Brown Pigs did not awaken their mother, and when they stopped in thefence-corner one of them said to their big sister, "What made you run?"
"Oh, nothing," said she.
"And why did you run?" the little Pigs asked their big brother.
"Because," he answered.
After a while somebody said, "Let's go back to where the White Pig is."
"Oh, no," said somebody else, "don't let's! She can come over here ifshe wants to, and it isn't nearly so nice there."
You see, they were very rude Pigs and not at all well brought up. Theirmother should have taught them to think of others and be kind, which isreally all there is to politeness. But then, she had very little timeleft from sleeping, and it took her all of that for eating, so herchildren had no manners at all.
At last the White Pig opened her round eyes and saw all the Brown Pigsat the farther end of the field. "Ugh!" said she to herself, "Ugh! Imust decide what to do before they see that I am awake." She lay thereand tried to think what her mother, who came of a very fine family, hadtold her before she left. "If you have nobody to play with," her motherhad said, "don't stop to think about it, and don't act as though youcared. Have a good time by yourself and you will soon have company. Ifyou cannot enjoy yourself, you must not expect others to enjoy you."
"That is what I will do," exclaimed the White Pig. "My mother alwaysgives her children good advice when they go out into the world, and sheis right when she says that Pigs of fine family should have finemanners. I will never forget that I am a Yorkshire. I'm glad I didn'tsay anything mean."
So the White Pig rooted in the sunshine and wallowed in the warm brownearth that she had stirred up with her pink snout. Once in a while shewould run to the fence to watch somebody in the lane, and before sheknew it she was grunting contentedly to herself. "Really," she said, "Iam almost having a good time. I will keep on making believe that I wouldrather do this than anything else."
* * * * *
The big sister of the Brown Pigs looked over to the White Pig and said,"She's having lots of fun all by herself, it seems to me."
Big brother raised his head. "Let's call her over here," he answered.
"Oh, do!" cried the twelve little Pigs, wriggling their tails. "Shelooks so full of fun."
"Call her yourself," said the big sister to the big brother.
"Ugh!" called he. "Ugh! Ugh! Don't you want to come over with us, WhitePig?"
You can imagine how the White Pig felt when she heard this; how hersmall eyes twinkled and the corners of her mouth turned up more thanever. She was just about to scamper over and root with them, when sheremembered something else that her mother had told her: "Never run afterother Pigs. Let them run after you. Then they will think more of you."
She called back, "I'm having too good a time here to leave myrooting-ground. Won't you come over here?"
"Come on," cried all the little Pigs to each other. "Beat you there!"
They ate and talked and slept together all afternoon, and when the BrownHog called her children home, they and the White Pig were the best offriends. "Just think," they said to their mother, "the White Pig let usvisit her, and she is just as nice as she can be."
The White Pig in her corner of the pen heard this and smiled to herself."My mother was right," she said; "'Have a good time alone, and everybodywill want to come.'"