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 thelittlest of the family. In one way you are the luckiest of all mychildren."
Grunty Pig didn't stop weeping. He saw no reason--yet--to feel morecheerful.
"Did you know--" his mother asked him--"did you know that in one respectyou are the handsomest one of the whole litter? You have the curliesttail of them all!"
Grunty Pig gazed, open-mouthed, at his mother. He stopped snivelling. Upto that time he had scarcely given his tail a thought. So long as itfollowed him wherever he went he had been satisfied with it.
Grunty Pig Stuck Fast in the Fence.
(_Page 86_)]
From that moment Grunty began to think a great deal about his tail. Hewas always turning his head to look at it, to make sure it hadn't lostany of its kink. Now and then he was even late for a meal, because hewas feasting his eyes on his tail when Farmer Green came to the pen withfood for Mrs. Pig's family.
It must be confessed that Grunty sometimes boasted before his brothersand sisters about his beautiful curly tail. And just before meal timehis brother Blackie was known, upon occasion, to mention the subject oftails. He did that in the hope that Grunty would be late at the feedingtrough.
Sad to say, Grunty Pig was fast becoming vain. He even talked abouttails with the neighbors, taking pains to explain that his own was thehandsomest 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 useit to switch a fly off your back. The Muley Cow can do that. And so canthe 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," saidSpot.
"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 mostbeautiful one in the neighborhood, old dog Spot yawned.
"If that's the case," he remarked, "I should think you'd want your tailwhere you could see it more easily. Don't you find it a nuisance to haveto 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 inthe world.
"If Farmer Green should cut off your tail and nail it up on the outsideof 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 peoplethat drive along the road could enjoy it. Everybody spoke about the tallcorn that we nailed to the barn last fall. And I'm sure that folks wouldadmire your tail."
When Spot spoke of Farmer Green's cutting off his tail, Grunty Pigwinced. But as the old dog talked on and on Grunty forgot the painfulpart 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 youthink, 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 tailsthan they would have looked with them."
Grunty Pig had listened carefully to what Spot said. Yet somehow hecouldn't quite make up his mind to part with his beautiful tail, even ifit would delight many more people when nailed to the outside of thebarn.
"I'd like to see one of those pigs," he said to Spot. "I'd like to seehow they look."
"That's easily arranged," old Spot told him. "I can show you a dozen ofthem--all as pink and white and happy as they can be. And not a singleone 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 feeluncomfortable if you appeared before them with a tail? Don't you wantto have yours cut off _before_ you go to see these tailless littlefellows? It seems to me you'd be more at your ease. It would certainlybe _polite_ of you."
Grunty Pig, however, cared little for politeness. He said that nobodywas polite to him. His brothers--and even his sisters--were alwaysknocking 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 thefence he found himself stuck fast. He could move neither forward norback. "Oh, dear!" he wailed. "What shall I do?"
"Keep perfectly still!" old dog Spot cautioned him--as if Grunty Pigcould 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 franticplunge 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. AndGrunty Pig, who had just tumbled through a hole in the fence, scrambledto his feet and trotted after his guide.
Old Spot had promised to show Grunty a dozen pink and white pigs, allwithout tails. He wanted Grunty to see how handsome they looked.
"You'll like them," Spot told Grunty over his shoulder as they joggedacross the farmyard. "You'll ask Farmer Green this very day to cut offyour 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 hardto tell whether Grunty's _umphs_ stood for _yes_ or _no_.
Around the corner of the farmhouse, near the woodshed door, old dog Spotcame to a halt before a two-storied cage, the front of which was coveredwith fine-meshed wire netting.
Stopping beside Spot, Grunty Pig peered inside the cage. He saw a numberof odd little creatures running about upon the sawdust-strewn floor ofthe tiny house, one or another of them giving a faint squeak now andthen as if ordering the two unasked callers to move on.
Whoever they were, they were a bright-eyed little family. But GruntyPig 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 telljust what it was.
Together Grunty and Spot stood there, silent, for a time; until at lastGrunty said, "Come along! Let's not stay here any longer. I want to seethose 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, whatmade the little, pudgy, white strangers look so queer. There wasn't oneof 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 thepigs in the world were exactly like your family--did you?"
Grunty didn't know what to say. He looked at the odd little creaturesagain. 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.... Maybetheir tails haven't sprouted yet."
Old dog Spot seemed to choke over something. He turned his head away fora moment or two before he spoke.
"These pigs," he
said, "won't ever have tails. Not one of them wouldknow 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 happythey are without tails, you ought not to delay any longer about havingyours cut off. I hope," Spot added, "I'll see your tail nailed up on thebarn 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 runningout of the woodshed.
"Get away from my guinea pigs!" he shouted.
Grunty and Spot both turned and ran in opposite directions. Gruntydidn'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 tofeel somewhat ashamed of himself for having tried to play a trick onGrunty 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 beechtree stood beside the road. In the fall, when the nuts were ripe,Johnnie Green often visited the tree. And so did Frisky Squirrel. Andso, likewise, did that noisy rascal, Jasper Jay. They likedbeechnuts--all three. And somehow they got the notion that the beechtree belonged to them--and to nobody else.
One fine, crisp fall day when Johnnie Green was in school, a fourthnut-lover wandered down the road, stopped right between the wheeltracks, and sniffed. It was Grunty Pig. "I smell beechnuts!" he criedwith a joyful squeal. And crashing into the light underbrush along theroadside, he began to search among the fallen leaves with his long nose.
Soon Grunty came upon a cluster of the three-sided nuts, clinging insidea bur that the frost had split open. He ate the sweet nuts, shells andall. And with many a grunt of delight he grubbed beneath the tree fromwhich the nuts had fallen. His keen nose led him to burs that JohnnieGreen had trampled over that very morning, and missed.
"I wonder--" said Grunty Pig aloud--"I wonder why nobody ever told meabout this beech tree."
"Perhaps it was because you are a pig," said a voice right over hishead.
He looked up. And there on a low branch sat Frisky Squirrel. Gruntyknew 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 tobeechnuts."
"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 knowthat 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 topardon you. But Jasper Jay wouldn't, if he caught you taking any of thenuts that fall from this tree."
There was truth in what Frisky said. Even as he spoke a patch of blueflashed 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, hebegan nosing about for another beechnut bur.
For a moment or two Jasper Jay watched him. And then Jasper began tosquawk.
"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 Isuppose I shall have to obey him," Grunty muttered half under hisbreath.
"Don't mumble! Speak up!" cried Jasper Jay. "If you have any excuses tomake, let's hear them!"
XXII
JASPER JAY OBJECTS
While Jasper Jay, in the beech tree, waited for Grunty Pig, on theground, to speak up and make his excuses for taking beechnuts, a burdropped from a twig and landed right in front of Grunty's nose. He fellupon it greedily. And, tearing it open, he devoured the nuts withrelish.
For a few moments his action struck Jasper Jay dumb. That blue-coatedrascal 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 thegentler folk in Pleasant Valley shudder. And he called Grunty Pig namesthat would have made many a person angry.
Grunty Pig, however, never even blinked. And after a while Jasper Jayused up all his special words, which he generally employed at suchtimes. 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 inmud."
"Ha!" Jasper Jay sniffed. And he spoke again to Frisky Squirrel. "Thischap is thick-headed, too. I see that I'm going to have trouble makinghim understand what I say."
Frisky Squirrel merely grinned at his companion.
"Look here, young Porker!" Jasper called to Grunty Pig. "Doesn't FarmerGreen 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 everteach you that things that grow on trees--such things as nuts--belong tothe 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 Jaygrumbled. "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 ofour nuts."
Grunty Pig shook his head.
"I can't promise that, exactly," he said. "But I'll promise not to eatany that I don't find on the ground."
"Huh!" Jasper Jay scoffed. "That means that you won't eat any nuts thatyou 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 dropsoff this tree."
Grunty Pig made no reply. He would have wandered on, but for a freshbreeze that had begun to whip the branches of the beech tree. He decidedto wait there. More burs might fall. And Grunty wanted to be on hand tomeet them when they dropped.
"Go home!" Jasper Jay shrieked at him. "Go back to your pigpen where youbelong. We don't want you here." And he said many more things that werestill ruder.
But Grunty Pig never showed the least sign of anger. He didn't even letJasper Jay know that he had heard. When the wind died down he waddledoff down the road. And Frisky Squirrel followed him through the treetops. 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 whenJasper was abusing you. I know that I should have lost my temper. Can itbe that you didn't hear what he said?"
"Oh, I heard him clearly enough," said Grunty. "But there was no sensein my getting angry with _him_. If he had been standing on the groundnear me he would never have dared talk to me as he did. Jasper Jaycalled me names because he was safe in the tree. If he hadn't had thattree 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 araging wind to-night that will rob it of every bur it has.... I'd uprootthe 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 theworld," Grunty Pig declared.
XXIII
MOSES MOUSE'S WAY
One day when Grunty Pig was at home, in the pigpen, a squeaky voicedpiped "Good morning!" to him. Looking up, Grunty saw a plump littlegentleman 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 Ihave a nest in the wall.... The cat's away," he explained. "That's whyI decided to stroll across the yard and visit you folks out here."
"Some people," said Grunty Pig, "have all the luck. You live in thefarmhouse. 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 incold weather. It must be pleasant to have your home where there's alwaysplenty 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 thatMrs. Green is terribly neat. She doesn't leave much food around for usMice."
"Well," Grunty remarked, "it's an honor, anyhow, to live in thefarmhouse. You ought not to complain about the food, even if it is abit scarce at times. I'd be glad to live there. And I dare say I'd finda 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? Whydon't you come to the farmhouse for the winter, anyhow?"
Grunty Pig shook his head.