SQUINTY AND THE BOY.
: Squinty The Comical PigDid you ever have a little brother or sister who ran away from home, and
was very glad to run back, or be brought back again, by a policeman,
perhaps? Of course your little brother or sister may not have intended
to run away, it may have been that they only wandered off, around the
corner, toward the candy store, and could not find their way back again.
But, when he or she did get home--how glad you were to see them! Weren't
It was just like that at the pen where Squinty, the comical pig, lived.
When the farmer picked him up, and dropped him down among his brothers
and sisters, in the clean straw, Wuff-Wuff, Squealer, and Curly Tail,
and the others, were so glad to see Squinty that they grunted, and
squealed and walked all over one another, to be the first to get close
to him.
"Oh, Squinty, where were you?"
"Where did you go?"
"What did you do?"
"Weren't you awfully scared?"
"Where did the dog find you?"
"Did he bite you very hard?"
These were some of the questions Squinty's brothers and sisters asked of
the little runaway pig. They pressed close up to him, rubbing their
funny, wiggling, rubber-like noses against him, and snuggling up against
him, for they liked Squinty very much indeed.
Then, after the young pigs had had their turn, Mr. Pig and Mrs. Pig
began asking questions.
"What made you run away?" asked Squinty's papa.
"Oh, I wanted to have an adventure," said Squinty.
"Well, did you have one?" asked his mamma.
"Oh, yes, lots of them," answered the little pig. "But I didn't find
very much to eat." Squinty was very hungry now.
"Oh dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Pig. "You are just too late for supper. It is
all eaten up. We did not see that you were not here until too late. It's
too bad!"
Squinty thought so himself, for the smell of the sour milk that had been
in the feeding trough made him more hungry than ever.
Squinty walked over and tried to find a few drops in the bottom of the
wooden trough. These he licked up with his red tongue. But there was not
nearly enough.
"Ha! I guess that little pig must be hungry," said the farmer looking
down in the pen, after he had put some more stones and a board over the
hole where Squinty had gotten out. "I guess I'll have to feed him, for
the others have had their supper."
And how glad Squinty was when the farmer went over to the barrel, where
the pigs' feed was kept, and mixed a nice pailful of sour milk with some
corn meal, and poured it into the trough.
"Squee! Squee!" cried Squinty as he made a rush over to get his supper.
"Squee! Squee!" cried all the other little pigs, as they, too, made a
rush to get more to eat.
"Here! Hold on! Come back!" cried Mr. Pig. "That is Squinty's supper.
You must not touch it. You have had yours!" and he and Mrs. Pig would
not let Squinty's brothers and sisters shove him away from the trough.
For sometimes pigs are so hungry that they do this, you know. Being pigs
they know no better.
So Squinty had his supper, after all, though he did run away. Perhaps he
should have been punished by being sent to bed without having had
anything to eat, but you see the farmer wanted his pigs to be fat and
healthy, so he fed them well. Squinty was very glad of that.
"Now all of you go to sleep," said Mrs. Pig, when it grew darker and
darker in the pen. So she made them all cuddle down in the straw,
pulling it over them with her nose and paws, like a blanket, to keep
them warm. For only part of the pen had a roof over it, and though it
was summer, still it was cool at night.
But Squinty's brothers and sisters had no notion of going to sleep so
soon. They wanted to hear all about what had happened to him when he had
run away, and they wanted him to tell them of his adventures. So they
grunted and whispered among themselves.
"What happened to you, Squinty?" asked Wuff-Wuff.
"Oh, I had a fine swim in a brook," said Squinty.
"I wish that had happened to me," said Wuff-Wuff. "What else?"
"I found a nice field of corn," went on Squinty, "but I did not like the
taste of it. I got lost in the cornfield."
"That's too bad," said Wuff-Wuff. "Did anything else happen?"
"Yes, I found some pig weed, and ate that, and some little potatoes."
"Oh, how nice!" exclaimed Twisty Tail. "I wish that had happened to me.
Did you do anything else, Squinty?"
"Yes," said the comical little pig. "I saw something I thought was a
potato, and it jumped away from me. It was a hoptoad."
"That was funny," said Squealer. "I wish I had seen it. Did anything
else happen?"
"Yes," said Squinty. "I thought I saw another potato, but when I bit on
it I found it was only a stone, and it hurt my teeth."
"That's too bad," said Wuff-Wuff. "I am glad that did not happen to me.
Tell us what else you saw."
But just then Mrs. Pig grunted out:
"Come, now! All you little pigs must keep quiet and go to sleep. Go to
sleep at once!"
So Squinty and the others cuddled closer together, snuggled down in the
soft straw, and soon were fast asleep. Now and then they stirred, or
grunted during the night, but they did not wake up until morning. They
were running around the pen before breakfast, squealing as loudly as
they could, for the farmer to come and feed them. But the farmer had his
cows and horses and chickens to feed, as well as the pigs, and he did
not get to the pen until last. And when he did, all the pigs were so
hungry, even Mr. and Mrs. Pig, that they were squealing as hard as they
could.
"Yes, yes!" cried the farmer, as though he were talking to the pigs.
"I'm coming as fast as I can."
Soon the farmer poured some sour milk and corn meal down into the
trough, and how eagerly Squinty and the others did eat it! Some of the
smaller pigs even put two feet in the trough, they were so anxious to
get their share. Squinty had an especially good appetite, from having
run away, so perhaps he got a little more than the others.
But finally the breakfast was all gone, and the pigs had nothing more to
do until dinner time--that is, all they had to do was to lie down and
rest, or get up now and then to scratch a mosquito, or a fly bite.
"Well, I guess none of you will get out again," said the farmer, after a
while, as he nailed a bigger board over the hole by which Squinty had
gotten out. "Don, watch these pigs," the farmer went on. "If they get
out, grab them by the ear, and bring them back."
"Bow wow!" barked Don, and that meant he would do as his master had told
him.
For several days after this nothing happened in the pigs' pen except
that they were washed off with the hose now and then, to clean them of
mud and make them cool. Once in a while the farmer would take a corn cob
and scratch the back of Mr. or Mrs. Pig, and they liked this very much.
The other pigs were almost too little for the farmer to reach over the
top of the pen.
One day the pigs heard merry shouts and laughter up at the farmhouse.
There were the sounds of boys' and girls' voices. Then came the patter
of many feet.
"Oh, look at the pigs!" someone cried, and Squinty, and his brothers and
sisters, looking up, saw, over the edge of the pen, some boys and girls
looking down on them.
"Oh, aren't they cute!" exclaimed a girl.
"Just lovely!" said another girl. "Pigs are so nice!"
"I wonder if any of them can do any tricks?" asked a boy who stood
looking down into the pen.
"These aren't trained circus pigs," spoke one of the girls. "They can't
do tricks."
The boy and the girls stayed for a little while, watching the pigs. Then
the boy said:
"Let's pull some weeds and feed them."
"Oh, yes, let's!" cried the girls. The pigs were glad when they heard
this, and they were more glad when the boy and the girls threw pig weed,
and other green things from the garden, into the pen. The pigs ate them
all up, and wanted more.
After that, for several days, Squinty and his brothers and sisters could
hear the boy and the girls running about the garden, but they could not
see them because the boards around the pig pen were too high. The boy
and the girls seemed to be having a fine time.
Squinty could hear them talking about hunting the hens' eggs, and
feeding the little calves and sheep, and riding on the backs of horses.
Then, one day Squinty looked up out of the pen, and, leaning over the
top board he saw the farmer, the boy and another man.
"Oh, Father!" exclaimed the boy, "do let me have just one little pig.
They are so nice!"
little pig."]
"A pig!" cried Father. "What would you do with a pig in our town? We are
not in the country. Where would you keep a pig?"
"Oh, I could build a little pen for him in our yard. Look, let me have
that one, he is so pink and pretty and clean."
"Ha! So you want that pig, do you?" asked the farmer. The boy and his
father and sisters were paying a visit to the farm.
"Yes, I want a pig very much!" the boy said. "And I think I'd like that
one," and he pointed straight at Squinty. Poor Squinty ran and tried to
hide under the straw, for he knew the boy was talking about him.
"Oh, see him run!" cried the boy. "Yes, I think he is the nicest pig in
the lot. I want him. Has he any name?"
"Well, we call him Squinty," the farmer said. "He has a funny, squinting
eye."
"Then I'll call him Squinty, too," the boy went on. "Please, Father, may
I have that little pig?"
"Well, I don't know," said his father slowly, scratching his head. "A
pig is a queer pet. I suppose you might have him, though. You could keep
him in the back yard. Yes, I guess you could have him, if Mr. Jones will
sell him, and if the pig will behave. Do you think that little pig will
be good, Mr. Jones?" asked the father of the farmer man.
"Well, yes, I guess so," answered the farmer. "He has run away out of
the pen a couple of times, but if you board up a place good and tight, I
guess he won't get out."
"Oh, I do hope he'll be good!" exclaimed the boy. "I do so want a little
pet pig, and I'll be so kind to him!"
When Squinty heard that, he made up his mind, if the boy took him, that
he would be as good as he knew how.
"When can I have my little pig?" asked the boy, of his father.
"Oh, as soon as Mr. Jones can put him in a box, so we can carry him,"
was the answer. "We can't very well take him in our arms; he would slip
out and run away."
"I guess so, too," laughed the boy.
More
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... SOMETHING ABOUT FIRES.
It was a cold day. Fred was tired of reading, tired of looking out of the window, and so he poked the fire for a change. "I suppose there are a good many different sorts of fires," he said to his mamma, as he laid down the poker. "Yes, indeed,"... SOMETHING LIKE A WHITE ELEPHANT.
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Tommy Fox could think of nothing but Mr. Woodchuck. He thought there could be no use in going back to the hole beneath the big oak in the pasture until the next day, because Mr. Woodchuck would probably be afraid that Tommy was waiting for him to ... SOWING THE SEED.
A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed some fell by the wayside and was trodden down, and birds came and devoured it. And some fell upon a rocky place, where there was not much soil, and as soon as it sprang up it withered away, because... SQUINTY AND THE BOY.
Did you ever have a little brother or sister who ran away from home, and was very glad to run back, or be brought back again, by a policeman, perhaps? Of course your little brother or sister may not have intended to run away, it may have been that t... SQUINTY AND THE DOG
Squinty was a little pig. You could tell he was a pig just as soon as you looked at him, because he had the cutest little curly tail, as though it wanted to tie itself into a bow, but was not quite sure whether that was the right thing to do. And Sq... SQUINTY AND THE MERRY MONKEY
"Where do you live, Squinty?" asked Slicko, the jumping squirrel, as she skipped from one tree branch to another, and so reached the ground near the comical little pig. "Oh, I live in a pen," answered Squinty, "but I'm not there now." "No, I se... SQUINTY AND THE SQUIRREL
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This was the second time Squinty had run out of the pen and into the farmer's garden. The first time he had been caught and brought back by Don, the dog. This time Squinty did not intend to get caught, if he could help it. So, after crawling out ... SQUINTY LEARNS A TRICK
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... STRINGING CRANBERRIES.
Arthur Bancroft was feeling very cross one morning in December. He had a bad cold, and his mother did not think it would be wise for him to go out-of-doors. That was why he was cross. The skating was finer than it had been that season; every other b... SUSY'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT.
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There was once a girl named Tarpeia, whose father was guard of the outer gate of the citadel of Rome. It was a time of war,--the Sabines were besieging the city. Their camp was close outside the city wall. Tarpeia used to see the Sabine soldiers w... TEA TALK
'Excuse me if I sit on you,' the cup said to the saucer. 'I fear I've been here all the afternoon.' 'Spare excuses,' said the saucer; 'you have sat on me before, sir.' 'Oh, I'll stir him up directly,' said the spoon. 'Stop your clatter! Stop... THE ADVENTURES OF THE LITTLE FIELD MOUSE
Once upon a time, there was a little brown Field Mouse; and one day he was out in the fields to see what he could find. He was running along in the grass, poking his nose into everything and looking with his two eyes all about, when he saw a smoot... THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL.
Before Moses died he called the Israelites together, and urged them to faithfully serve God; also directing that when they entered Canaan, they were to build an altar of rough stones, covered with plaster, on Mount Ebal, and to write the words of ... THE ANGEL'S TIDINGS.
It was night. In the fields near Bethlehem a company of shepherds kept watch over their flocks. Probably they were holy men, and often thought of God in the stillness of the early morn. And now they may have been thinking of the coming of the prom... THE ANGRY BOBOLINK.
Pretty little bobolink In your satin coat, Trimmed with white across the neck Black about the throat, Why so angry do you seem? Why so fierce your mien? That you're scolding somebody Plainly can be seen. "Don't you know," says bobolink, As h... THE ANT EXPLORER
Once a little sugar ant made up his mind to roam-- To fare away far away, far away from home. He had eaten all his breakfast, and he had his ma's consent To see what he should chance to see and here's the way he went-- Up and down a fern frond, rou... THE ANT'S HOUSE.
"What a curious picture that is at the head of this story." That is what I think I hear some of the "Little Ones" say. "What does it mean?" some one asks. It looks like a procession of ants. That is just what it is. A procession of ants all marching... THE AXE-MAN
High on the hills, where the tall trees grow, There lives an axeman that I know. From his little hut by a ferny creek, Day after day, week after week, He goes each morn with his shining axe, Trudging along by the forest tracks; And he chops and h... THE BAKER
I'd like to be a baker, and come when morning breaks, Calling out, "Beeay-ko!" (that's the sound he makes)-- Riding in a rattle-cart that jogs and jolts and shakes, Selling all the sweetest things a baker ever bakes; Currant-buns and brandy-sna... THE BALL GAME.
Did you ever know a boy Make believe he had a toy? That's the way Babies play; Babies who are young and small Make believe they play at ball! ... THE BAND
Hey, there! Listen awhile! Listen awhile, and come. Down in the street there are marching feet, and I hear the beat of a drum. Bim! Boom!! Out of the room! Pick up your hat and fly! Isn't it grand? The band! The band! The band is marching by... THE BARBER
I'd like to be a barber, and learn to shave and clip, Calling out, "Next please!" and pocketing my tip. All day I'd hear my scissors going, "Snip, Snip, Snip;" I'd lather people's faces, and their noses I would grip While I shaved most carefully al... THE BARREN FIG-TREE.
In the morning, when Jesus had left Bethany and was coming towards Jerusalem, He was hungry. Seeing a fig-tree afar off, covered with leaves, He came to it, hoping to find some fruit on it. But the tree was a young one, and had not yet commenced t... THE BEARS' FEAST.
A man had come to town with two tame bears. They were very clever bears, and could climb posts and trees, dance and turn summersets and do a great many other tricks besides. One day the man was taken ill and had to stay in the house all day. He t... THE BIGGEST SURPRISE OF ALL
It was a pretty big surprise for Tommy Fox, when Mr. Grouse sprang out of the snow, right beneath his feet. But it was nothing at all, compared with the surprise Tommy had when he reached home. Very late at night Tommy stole into his mother's ho... THE BIRDS' CHRISTMAS
Founded on fact. "Chickadee-dee-dee-dee! Chickadee-dee-dee-dee! Chicka--" "Cheerup, cheerup, chee-chee! Cheerup, cheerup, chee-chee!" "Ter-ra-lee, ter-ra-lee, ter-ra-lee!" "Rap-atap-atap-atap!" went the woodpecker; "Mrs. Chickadee may speak... THE BLACKBERRY-BUSH
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The 10:15 train glided from Paddington May 7, 1847. In the left compartment of a certain first-class carriage were four passengers; of these two were worth description. The lady had a smooth, white, delicate brow, strongly marked eyebrow... THE BOY WHO CRIED "WOLF!"
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