e said.

Chicken Little was slowly making her way in to the slough. "Jim found
the mother pig near here, Ernest said, but the little scamps may be most
anywhere. Let's listen and see if we can hear any squeals or grunts."

"Yes, I did--I'm most sure, but it didn't sound very close by," Gertie
answered.

Chicken Little listened. "Which way did the sound come from?"

"Toward the creek, but I don't hear it any more."

[Illustration: They had a pretty chase.]

"We'd better search pretty carefully as we go along so we won't have to
come back over the same ground," remarked Katy, who had a genius for
organizing--even a pig hunt. "You are the tallest, Jane, so you take the
tallest grass next the water, and I'll come along half way up the bank
and Gertie can walk through the meadow grass--that way we can't miss
them."

"No, for they must be on this side of the slough: they're too little to
wade across it."

Chicken Little made the first find, two discouraged little porkers,
hopelessly mired and grunting feebly when disturbed. They had no trouble
in catching these, but holding their wet, miry little bodies was a
different matter. They were slippery as eels. Chicken Little and Katy,
who each had one, found them a handful.

"Oh, mine most got away! And I'm all over mud--we'll be a sight!" Katy
giggled hysterically. "I wonder what mother would think if she could see
me now."

"Well, it will all wash off. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't so hard
to clump along in these old boots. It takes forever to get any place."

They had sent Gertie on ahead to open the coop door. With a sigh of
relief, Katy shoved hers into it. Jane was not so lucky. Instead of
going in, as a well-regulated pig should, the small, black-and-white
sinner shot off to one side and made for the slough again. They had a
pretty chase before he finally tangled himself up in the grass and was
captured once more.

They plodded back to take up the search where they had left off, going
through the shorter grass till they should reach the point where they
had found the pigs. They were clumping along, chattering gaily, when
Katy jumped and let out a yell that could have been heard a block away.

"Oh, there's the biggest snake I ever saw--over there near that
rock--don't you see?"

Gertie turned white, but Chicken Little encouraged her by starting
toward the monster, which was indeed a huge bull snake fully five feet
long, as Ernest and Sherm found by actu