OF ANOTHER RUNAWAY WHO HAS A STRANGE ADVENTURE

When Mr. Crow had finished the story about the little runt pig Mr. Dog
nodded and said that was a good story and that he knew the mate to it.
So then he filled up his pipe, too, and lit it and leaned back and told
the story about

CURLY, THE RUNAWAY.

"This," said Mr. Dog, "is the story of a saucy pig--a saucy, fat pig,
with a curly tail. He wasn't good to his brothers and sisters, and was
greedy, and not very clean, either, because he wouldn't wear his bib at
the table, and often grabbed things and tipped them over, instead of
being polite and taking what his mother put on his plate.

"Besides this, the saucy pig, who was called Curly, used to boast of how
strong he was, and how fast he could run and how far he could jump, and
when he heard some story about a little runt pig who ran away and made
his fortune--the same one you told, perhaps--he went around boasting
that he could do that any day, and that he could run twice as far as any
little runt pig, and get twice as fat and take twice as big a prize at
the fair."

[Illustration: AS BIG AS YOU PLEASE.]

"Well, he talked and bragged about it so much that by and by he really
believed he could do everything he said, and made up his mind to run
away sure enough. He didn't creep out through a hole and slip away, as
your little pig did, but took a pretty valise that he had got for
Christmas and put all his things in it, and some of his brothers' and
sisters' things, too, and then put on his best suit and walked out the
front door, as big as you please, with the others all looking at him and
wishing they were as big and strong as Curly, so they could go, too, or
take their playthings away from him, they didn't care which. Then one of
them ran back and said, 'Oh, ma, Curly's running away! Curly's running
away, ma, and he's taken our things!'

"But Curly's mother didn't worry much. 'Oh, well, just let him go,' she
said. 'He'll be back quick enough.' Then she took her afternoon nap, and
Curly walked out across the meadow, sniffing the sunshine and talking to
himself about what he was going to do."

[Illustration: HE COULDN'T GET THROUGH.]

"Then he remembered that the little runt pig had run, and Curly thought
he ought to run some, too, but he was so fat he couldn't run far, and
had to sit down to rest, and then he walked on again and kept walking
until he thought he must be almost to the edge of the world, which hi