bit one
another and made piercing outcries.

"Oh, don't I wish 'twas morning!" Willis exclaimed again and again.

Fortunately, the Shakers were early risers, and long before sunrise
three of them, clad in gray homespun frocks and broad-brimmed hats,
appeared. They greeted us solemnly.

"Thee has met with trouble," said one of them, who was the elder of the
village. "But I think we can give thee aid."

They proved to be past masters at handling hogs. From one of the halters
they contrived a muzzle to prevent the hogs from biting us, and then
with their help we caught and muzzled the hogs one by one and boosted
them into the wagon. The good men stayed by us till the horses were
hitched up and we were out of the woods and on the highway again. I had
a little money with me and offered to pay them for their kind services,
but the elder said:

"Nay, friend, thee has had trouble enough already with the lion." And at
parting all three said "Fare thee well" very gravely.

We fared on, but not altogether well, for those hungry hogs were now
making a terrible uproar. We drove as far as Gray Corners, where there
was a country store, and there I bought a bushel of oats for the horses
and a hundred-pound bag of corn for the hogs. The hogs were so ravenous
that it was hard to be sure that each got his proper share; but we did
the best we could and somewhat reduced their squealing.

The hastily repaired wagon body had also given us trouble, for it had
threatened to shake to pieces as it jolted over the frozen ruts of the
road; but we bought a pound of nails, borrowed a hammer and set to work
to repair it better, with the hogs still aboard--much to the amusement
of a crowd of boys who had collected. It was almost noon when we left
Gray Corners, and it was after three o'clock before we reached
Westbrook, five miles out of Portland. Here whom should we see but the
old Squire, who, growing anxious over our failure to appear, had driven
out to meet us. He could not help smiling when he heard Willis's
indignant account of what had delayed us.

He thought it likely that we could recover the missing hog, and that
evening he inserted a notice of the loss in the _Eastern Argus_. But
nothing came of the notice or of the many inquiries that we made on our
way home the next day. The animal had wandered off, and whoever captured
it apparently kept quiet. Instead of blaming us, however, the old Squire
praised us.

"You did well, boys, in t