Squinty felt himself lifted off the ground. He was put down
in the bottom of the basket, which held many things, and, a second
later, Squinty, the comical pig, felt himself flying upward through the
air.

Squinty was off on a trip in a balloon.

CHAPTER X

SQUINTY AND THE SQUIRREL

Up, up, and up some more went Squinty, the comical pig. At first the
fast motion in the balloon made him a little dizzy, just as it might
make you feel queer the first time you went on a merry-go-'round.

"Uff! Uff!" grunted Squinty. He was so surprised at this sudden
adventure that, really, he did not know what to say.

"I wonder if he's afraid?" said one of the men.

"He acts so," the other answered. "But he'll get used to it. How high up
are you going?"

"Oh, about a mile, I guess."

Squinty cuddled down in the basket of the balloon, between two bags full
of something, and shivered.

"My goodness me!" thought poor Squinty. "A mile up in the air! That's
awfully high."

He knew about how far a mile was on land, for it was about the distance
from the farmhouse, near where his pen used to be, to the village
church. He had often heard the farmer man say so.

"And if it was a mile from my pen to the church, and that mile of road
was stood straight up in the air," thought Squinty, "it would be a
terrible long way to fall. I hope I don't fall."

And it did not seem as if he would--at least not right away. The basket
in which he was riding looked good and strong. Squinty had shut his eyes
when he heard the men speak about going a mile up in the air, but now,
as the balloon seemed to have stopped rising, the little pig opened his
eyes again, and peered all about him.

"Look!" exclaimed one of the men with a laugh. "Hasn't that pig the most
comical face you ever saw?"

"That's what he has," answered the other. "He makes me want to laugh
every time I look at him, with that funny half-shut eye of his."

"Well," thought Squinty, "I'm glad somebody is happy and jolly, and
wants to laugh, for I'm sure I don't. I wish I hadn't run away from the
nice boy who taught me the tricks."

Then, as Squinty remembered how he had been taught to stand up on his
hind legs, he thought he would do that trick now. He was hungry, and he
imagined, perhaps, if he did that trick, the men would give him
something to eat.

"Look at the little chap!" cried one of the men. "He's showing off all
right."

"Yes, he's a smart pig," said the other. "