ld
him.

For several days after this nothing happened in the pigs' pen except
that they were washed off with the hose now and then, to clean them of
mud and make them cool. Once in a while the farmer would take a corn cob
and scratch the back of Mr. or Mrs. Pig, and they liked this very much.
The other pigs were almost too little for the farmer to reach over the
top of the pen.

One day the pigs heard merry shouts and laughter up at the farmhouse.
There were the sounds of boys' and girls' voices. Then came the patter
of many feet.

"Oh, look at the pigs!" someone cried, and Squinty, and his brothers and
sisters, looking up, saw, over the edge of the pen, some boys and girls
looking down on them.

"Oh, aren't they cute!" exclaimed a girl.

"Just lovely!" said another girl. "Pigs are so nice!"

"I wonder if any of them can do any tricks?" asked a boy who stood
looking down into the pen.

"These aren't trained circus pigs," spoke one of the girls. "They can't
do tricks."

The boy and the girls stayed for a little while, watching the pigs. Then
the boy said:

"Let's pull some weeds and feed them."

"Oh, yes, let's!" cried the girls. The pigs were glad when they heard
this, and they were more glad when the boy and the girls threw pig weed,
and other green things from the garden, into the pen. The pigs ate them
all up, and wanted more.

After that, for several days, Squinty and his brothers and sisters could
hear the boy and the girls running about the garden, but they could not
see them because the boards around the pig pen were too high. The boy
and the girls seemed to be having a fine time.

Squinty could hear them talking about hunting the hens' eggs, and
feeding the little calves and sheep, and riding on the backs of horses.

Then, one day Squinty looked up out of the pen, and, leaning over the
top board he saw the farmer, the boy and another man.

"Oh, Father!" exclaimed the boy, "do let me have just one little pig.
They are so nice!"

[Illustration: "Oh, Father!" exclaimed the boy, "do let me have just one
little pig."]

"A pig!" cried Father. "What would you do with a pig in our town? We are
not in the country. Where would you keep a pig?"

"Oh, I could build a little pen for him in our yard. Look, let me have
that one, he is so pink and pretty and clean."

"Ha! So you want that pig, do you?" asked the farmer. The boy and his
father and sisters were paying a visit to the farm.

"Yes, I want