barn, and I spent a day setting it
in order for our guests. I repaired the outlets, swept it, and put in
nice clean hay. I built a yard easy of access from the pen, and
installed a generous and even handsome trough. Westbury said our
preparations were quite complete. I could see that our pigs also
approved of it. They capered about, oof-oofing, and enjoyed their trough
and contents. True, their manners left something to be desired, but that
is often the case with the young.

What round, cunning, funny little things they were! We named them Hans
and Gretel, and were tempted to take them into the house, as pets. We
might have done so, only that I remembered the story of the Arab who
invited his camel to put his head in the tent. I had a dim suspicion
that those two pigs would own the house presently, and that we should
have no place to go but the pen. Lazarus was fascinated by them. He hung
over the side of their private grounds and wanted to carry them
refreshments constantly.

"Dem cert'ney make mighty fine shotes by spring," he announced to
everybody that came along, "an' by killin'-time dey grow as big as dat
barn. I gwine to feed 'em all day an' see how fat dey gits."

[Illustration]

"You're elected, Lazarus," I said. "It's your job. You look after Hans
and Gretel and we'll look after you."

"Yo' des watch 'em grow," said Lazarus.

For a while we did. We went out nearly every day to look at our
prospective ham and bacon supply, and it did seem to be coming along.
Then I had some special work which took me away for a fortnight, and
concurrently a bad spell of weather set in. Elizabeth, occupied with
the hundred supplementary details of getting established, and general
domestic duties, could not give Hans and Gretel close personal
attention, and they fell as a monopoly to Lazarus. With his passion for
pigs, she thought he might overfeed them, but as she had never heard of
any fatalities in that direction he was not restrained.

But it may be this idea somehow got hold of Lazarus. I came home one
evening and asked about the pigs. Elizabeth was doubtful. She had been
out that day to look at them and was not encouraged by their appearance.
She thought they had grown somewhat--in length. When I inspected them
next morning, I thought so, too. I said that Hans and Gretel were no
longer pigs they were turning into ant-eaters. Their bodies appeared to
have doubled in length and halved in bulk. Their pudgy noses had be