Squinty the Comical Pig: His Many Adventures · Chapter 4Squinty, the Comical Pig (4)
This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.
"What is it, Bob? What is it?"
"Oh, come and see my pig do a trick!" answered the boy. "He is too funny for anything!"
"Can he really do a trick?" asked the smaller sister, whose name was Mollie.
"Indeed he can," the boy said. "He can do two tricks--find hidden acorns, and jump a rope."
"Oh, no, not really jump a rope!" cried Sallie.
"You just come and see!" the boy called.
All this while Squinty was chewing on the apple which he had picked up from the ground after he had jumped over the rope. He heard what the boy said, and Squinty made up his mind.
"Well," said the little pig to himself, "if it is any fun for that boy and his sisters to watch me jump over a rope, and dig up acorns, I don't mind doing it for them. They call them tricks, but I call it getting something to eat."
And they were both right, you see.
Sallie and Mollie, the two sisters, laid down their dolls in the shade, and ran over toward their brother, who still held one end of the rope, that was fast to Squinty's leg.
"Make him do some tricks for us," begged Mollie.
"Show us how he jumps the rope," said Sallie.
"First, I'll have him dig up the acorns, as that's easier," spoke Bob. "Here, Squinty!" he called. "Find the acorns! Find 'em!"
While Squinty had been munching on the apple, the boy had dug a hole, put some sweet acorn nuts into it, and covered them up with dirt. Squinty had not seen him do this, but Squinty thought he could find the nuts just the same.
There were two ways of doing this. Squinty had a very sharp-smelling nose. He could smell things afar off, that neither you nor I could smell even close by. And Squinty could also tell, by digging in the ground with his queer, rubbery nose, just where the ground was soft and where it was hard. And he knew it would be soft at the place where the boy had dug a hole in which to hide the acorns.
So, when Bob called for Squinty to come and find the acorn nuts, even though the little pig had not seen just where they were hidden, Squinty felt sure he could dig them up.
"He'll never find them!" said Sallie.
"Just you watch!" exclaimed the boy.
He pulled on the rope around Squinty's leg. At first the little pig was not quite sure what was wanted of him. He thought perhaps he was to jump over the rope after another apple. But he saw no fruit waiting for him. Then he looked carefully about and smelled the air. The boy was very gentle with him, and waited patiently.
And I might say, right here, that if you ever try to teach your pets any tricks, you must be both kind and gentle with them, for you know they are not as smart as you are, and cannot think as quickly.
"Ha! I smell acorns!" thought Squinty to himself. "I guess the boy must want me to do the first trick, as he calls it, and dig up the acorns. I'll do it!"
Carefully Squinty sniffed the air. When he turned one way he could smell the acorns quite plainly. When he turned the other way he could not smell them quite so well. So he started off in the direction where he could most plainly smell the nuts he loved so well.
Next he began rooting in the ground. At first it was very hard for his nose, but soon it became soft. Then he could smell the acorns more plainly than before.
"See, he is going right toward them!" cried the boy.
"There, he has them!" exclaimed Sallie.
"Oh, so he has!" spoke Mollie. "I wouldn't have thought he could!"
And, by that time, Squinty had found the hole where the boy had covered the acorns with dirt, and Squinty was chewing the sweet nuts.
"Now make him jump the rope," said Mollie.
"I will, as soon as he eats the acorns," replied the boy.
"Ha! I am going to have another apple, just for jumping a rope," thought Squinty, in delight.
You see the little pig imagined the trick was done just to get him to eat the apple. He did not count the rope-jumping part of it at all, though that, really, was what the boy wanted.
Once more Bob placed the apple on the ground, on the far side of the rope. One end of the rope the boy held in his hand, and the other was around Squinty's leg, but a loop of it was made fast to a stick stuck in the ground, so the boy could pull on the rope and raise or lower it, just as you girls do when you play.
"Come on, now, Squinty! Jump over it!" called the boy.
The little pig saw the apple, and smelled it. He wanted very much to get it. But, when he ran toward it, he found the rope raised up in front of him. He forgot, for a moment, his second trick, and stood still.
"Oh, I thought you said he would jump the rope!" said Mollie, rather disappointed.
"He will--just wait a minute," spoke the boy. "Come on, Squinty!" he called.
Once more Squinty started for the apple. This time he remembered that, before, he had to jump the rope to get it. So he did it again. Over the rope he went, with a little jump, coming down on the side where the apple was, and, in a second he was chewing the juicy fruit.
"There!" cried the boy. "Didn't he jump the rope?"
"Oh, well, but he didn't jump it fast, back and forth, like we girls do," said Mollie.
"But it was pretty good--for a little pig," said Sallie.
"I think so, too," spoke the boy. "And I am going to teach him to jump real fast, and without going for an apple each time. I'm going to teach him other tricks, too."
"Oh dear!" thought Squinty, when he heard this. "So I am to learn more tricks, it seems. Well, I hope they will all be eating ones."
"Make him do it again," suggested Mollie, after a bit.
"No, I haven't any more apples," the boy answered. "And at first I'll have to make him jump for an apple each time. After a bit I'll not give him an apple until he has done all his tricks. Come on now, Squinty, back to your pen."
The boy lifted up his pet, and put him back in the pen that had been especially built for the little pig. As soon as he was in it Squinty ran over to the trough, hoping there would be some sour milk in it. But there was none.
"You've had enough to eat for a while," said the boy with a laugh. "Later on I'll give you your milk."
"Uff! Uff!" grunted Squinty, and I suppose he meant he would be glad to have the milk now. But he got none, so he curled himself up in the clean straw and went to sleep.
When he awakened, he thought at first he was back in the pen at home, and he cried out:
"Oh, Wuff-Wuff! Oh, Twisty Tail. I had the queerest dream! I thought a boy had me, and that I could jump a rope, and hunt acorns, and do lots of tricks. But I--!" And then Squinty stopped. He looked around and found himself all alone in the new pen. None of his brothers or sisters was near him, and he could not hear his mamma or papa grunting near the feed trough.
"Ha! It wasn't a dream, after all," thought Squinty, a bit sorrowfully. "It's all real--I can do tricks, and a boy has me."
Every few days after that the boy took Squinty out of his pen, and let him do the rope-jumping and the acorn-hunting tricks. And it did not take Squinty long to learn to jump the rope when there was no apple on the other side. The boy would say:
"Jump over the rope, Squinty!"
And over it the little pig would go. But if he did not get the apple as soon as he jumped, he did get it afterward, which was just as good. It was sort of a reward for his tricks, you see.
"Now you must learn a new trick," said the boy one day. "I want you to learn how to walk on your hind legs, Squinty. It is not going to be easy, either. But I guess you can do it. And I am going to take the rope off your leg, for I do not believe you will run away from me now."
So the rope was taken off Squinty's leg. And he liked the boy so much, and liked his new home, and the nuts and apples he got to eat were so good, that Squinty did not try to run away.
"Up on your hind legs!" cried the boy, and, by taking hold of Squinty's front feet, Bob raised his pet up on the hind legs.
"Now stand there!" the boy cried, but when he took away his hands of course Squinty came down on all four legs. He did not know what the boy meant to have him do.
"I guess I'll have to stand you in a corner to start with," the boy said. "That will brace you up."
Then, kindly and gently, the boy took Squinty over to the place where the corn crib was built on to the barn. This made a corner and the little pig was stood up on his hind legs in that. Then, with something to lean his back against, he did not feel like falling over, and he remained standing up on two legs, with his front feet stuck out in front of him.
"That's the way to do it!" cried Bob. "Soon you will be able to stand up without anything to lean against. And, a little later, you will be able to walk on your hind legs. Now here's an apple for you, Squinty!"
So you see Squinty received his reward for starting to learn a new trick.
In a few days, just as the boy had said, the little pig found that he could sit up on his hind legs all alone, without anything to lean back against.
But learning to walk on his hind legs was a little harder.
The boy, however, was patient and kind to him. At first Bob held Squinty's front feet, and walked along with him so the little pig would get used to the new trick. Then one day Bob said:
"Now, Squinty, I want you to walk to me all by yourself. Stand up!"
Squinty stood up on his hind legs. The boy backed away from him, and stood a little distance off, holding out a nice, juicy potato this time.
"Come and get the potato," called the boy.
"Squee! Squee!" grunted Squinty. "I can't!" I suppose he meant to say.
"Come on!" cried the boy. "Don't be afraid. You can do it!"
Squinty wanted that potato very much. And the only way to get it was to walk to it on his hind legs. If he let himself down on all four legs he knew the boy would not give him the potato. So Squinty made up his little pig mind that he would do this new trick.
Off he started, walking by himself on his hind legs, just like a trained bear.
"Fine! That's the way to do it! I knew you could!" the boy cried when Squinty reached him, and took the potato out of his hand. "Good little pig!" and he scratched Squinty's back with a stick.
"Uff! Uff!" squealed Squinty, very much pleased.
And from then on the comical little pig learned many tricks.
He could stand up a long time, on his hind legs, with an apple on his nose. And he would not eat it until the boy called:
"Now, Squinty!"
Then Squinty would toss the apple up in the air, off his nose, and catch it as it came down. Oh, how good it tasted!
Squinty also learned to march around with a stick for a gun, and play soldier. He liked this trick best of all, for he always had two apples to eat after that.
Many of Bob's boy friends came to see his trained pig. They all thought he was very funny and cute, and they laughed very hard when Squinty looked at them with his queer, drooping eye. They would feed him apples, potatoes and sometimes bits of cake that Bob's mother gave them. Squinty grew very fond of cake.
Then one day something happened. Bob always used to lock the door of the new pig pen every night, for, though he knew his pet was quite tame now, he thought, if the door were left open, Squinty might wander away. And that is exactly what Squinty did. He did not mean to do wrong, but he knew no better. One evening, after he had done many tricks that day, when Squinty found the door of his pen part way open, he just pushed it the rest of the way with his strong nose, and out he walked! No one saw him.
"Uff! Uff!" grunted Squinty, looking about, "I guess I'll go take a walk by myself. I may find something good to eat."
Out of the pen he went. There was no garden here, such as the farmer had at Squinty's first home. But, not far from the pig pen was the big, green wood.
"I'll go over in there and see what happens," thought Squinty. "Perhaps I may find some acorns."
And so Squinty ran away to the woods.
CHAPTER IX
SQUINTY'S BALLOON RIDE
This was the third time Squinty had run away. But not once did he intend to do any wrong; you see he knew no better. He just found his pen door open and walked out--that was all there was to it.
"I wonder what will happen to me this time?" thought the comical little pig, as he hurried along over the ground, toward the woods. "I don't believe Don, the dog, will find me here, for he must be back on the farm. But some other dog might. I had better be careful, I guess."
When Squinty thought this he stopped and looked carefully around for any signs of a barking dog. But he saw none. It was very still and quiet, for it was nearly supper time in the big house where Bob lived, and he and his sisters were waiting for the bell to ring to call them to the table.
But Squinty had had his supper, and, for the time, he was not hungry.
"And if I do get hungry again, I may find something in the woods," he said to himself. "Acorn nuts grow in the woods, and they are very good. I'll root up some of them."
Once or twice Squinty looked back toward the pen he had run away from, to see if Bob, his master, were coming after him. But Bob had no idea his little pet had run away. In fact, just then, Bob was wondering what new trick he could teach Squinty the next day.
On and on ran the comical pig. Once he found something round and yellow on the ground.
"Ha! That looks like a yellow apple," thought Squinty, and he bit it hard with his white teeth. Then his mouth all puckered up, he felt a sour taste, and he cried out:
"Wow! I don't like that. Oh, that isn't an apple at all!"
And it wasn't--it was a lemon the grocery boy had dropped.
"Oh! How sour!" grunted Squinty. "I'd like a drink of water to take the taste of that out of my mouth."
Squinty lifted his nose up in the air, and sniffed and snuffed. He wanted to try to smell a spring of water, and he did, just on the edge of the big wood. Over to the spring he ran on his little short legs, and soon he was having a fine drink.
"Now I feel better," Squinty said. "What will happen next?"
Nothing did for some time, and, when it did it was so strange that Squinty never forgot it as long as he lived. I'll tell you all about it.
He walked on through the woods, Squinty did, and, before very long, he found some acorns. He ate as many as he wanted and then, as he always felt sleepy after he had eaten, he thought he would lie down and have a nap.
He found a place, near a big stump, where there was a soft bed of dried leaves, nearly as nice as his straw bed in the pen at home. On this he stretched out, and soon he was fast asleep.
When Squinty awoke it was real dark. He jumped up with a little grunt, and said to himself:
"Well, I did not mean to stay away from my pen so long. I guess I had better go back."
Squinty started to go back the way he had come, but I guess you can imagine what happened. It was so dark he could not find the path. He walked about, stumbling over sticks and stones and stumps, sometimes falling down on soft moss, and again on the hard ground. Finally Squinty thought:
"Well, it is of no use. I can't get back tonight, that is sure. I shall have to stay here. Oh dear! I hope there are no dogs to bite me!"
Squinty listened carefully. He could hear no barks. He hunted around in the dark until he found another soft bed of leaves, and on that he cuddled himself up to go to sleep for the night. He was a little afraid, but, after all, he was used to sleeping alone, and, even though he was outside of his pen now, he did not worry much.
"In the morning I shall go back to the boy who taught me tricks," thought Squinty.
But something else happened in the morning.
Squinty was awake when the sun first peeped up from behind the clouds. The little pig scratched his ear, where a mosquito had bitten him during the night. Then he stretched first one leg and then the others, and said:
"Ha! Ho! Hum! Uff! Uff! I guess I'll have some acorns for my breakfast."
It was a very easy matter for Squinty to get his breakfast. He did not have to wash, or comb his hair, or even dress. Just as he was he got up out of his leaf-bed, and began rooting around in the ground for acorns. He soon found all he wanted, and ate them. Then he felt thirsty, so he looked around until he had found another spring of cool water, where he drank as much as he needed.
"And now to go back home, to the boy who taught me tricks," said Squinty to himself. "I guess he is wondering where I am."
And indeed that boy, Bob, and his sisters Mollie and Sallie, were wondering where Squinty was. They saw the open door of the pen, and the boy recalled that he had forgotten to lock it.
"Oh, Squinty is gone!" he cried, and he felt very badly indeed. But I have no time to tell you more of that boy now. I must relate for you the wonderful adventures of Squinty.
Squinty went this way and that through the woods, but he could not find the path that led to his pen. He tried and tried again, but it was of no use.
"Well," said Squinty, at last, sitting down beside a hollow log, "I guess I am lost. That is all there is to it I am lost in the big woods! Oh dear! I almost wish Don, the dog, or the farmer would come and find me now."
He waited, but no one came. He listened but he heard nothing.
"Well, I might as well eat and go to sleep again," said Squinty, "Maybe something will happen then."
Soon he was asleep again. But he was suddenly awakened. He heard a great crashing in the trees over his head.
"Gracious! I hope that isn't a dog after me!" cried the little pig.
He looked up, Squinty did. He saw coming down from the sky, through the branches of the trees, a big round thing, like more than ten thousand rubber balls, made into one. Below the round thing hung a square basket, with many ropes, and other things, fast to it. And in the basket were two men. They looked over the edge of the basket. One of them pulled on a rope, and the big thing, which was a balloon, though Squinty did not know it, came to the ground with a bang.
"Well, at last we have made a landing," said one of the men.
"Yes," said the other. "And we shall have to throw out some bags of sand to go up again."
Squinty did not know what this meant. But I'll explain to you that a "landing" is when a balloon comes down to the ground. And when the men in it want to go up again, they have to toss out some of the bags of sand, or ballast, they carry to make the balloon so light that the gas in it will take it up again.
The men began tossing out the bags of sand. Squinty saw them, but he was not afraid. Why should he be? for no men or boys had ever been cruel to him.
"Uff! Uff!" grunted Squinty, getting up and going over to one of the bags of sand. "Maybe that is good to eat!" he thought. "If it is I will take a bite. I am hungry."
"Oh, look at that pig!" suddenly called one of the men in the balloon basket.
"Sure enough, it is a pig!" exclaimed the other. "And what a comical little chap he is!" he went on. "See the funny way he looks at you."
At that moment Squinty looked up, as he often did, with one eye partly closed, the other open, and with one ear cocked frontwards, and the other backwards.
"Say, he's a cute one all right," said the first man. "Let's take him along."
"What for?" asked his friend. "We'd only have to toss out as much sand as he weighs so we could go up."
"Oh, let's take him along, anyhow," insisted the other. "Maybe he'll be a mascot for us."
"Well, if he's a mascot, all right. Then we'll take him. We need some good luck on this trip."
Squinty did not know what a mascot was. Perhaps he thought it was something good to eat. But I might say that a mascot is something which some persons think brings them good luck. Often baseball nines, or football elevens, will have a small boy, or a goat, or a dog whom they call their mascot. They take him along whenever they play games, thinking the mascot helps them to win. Of course it really does not, but there is no harm in a mascot, anyhow.
"Yes, we'll take him along in the balloon with us," said the taller of the two men. "See, he doesn't seem to be a bit afraid."
"No, and look! He must be a trick pig! Maybe he got away from some circus!" cried the other man. For, at that moment Squinty stood up on his hind legs, as the boy had taught him, and walked over toward the big balloon basket. What he really wanted was something to eat, but the men did not know that.
"He surely is a cute little pig!" cried the tall man. "I'll lift him in. You toss out another bag of sand, and we'll go up."
The next moment, before he could get out of the man's grasp if he had wanted to, 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. "He must be a trick pig, and I guess whoever owns him will be sorry he is lost."
"Hu! I'm sorry myself!" thought Squinty to himself, as he walked around on his hind legs.
"I wonder if these men are ever going to give me anything to eat," he went on. He looked at them from his queer, squinting eye, but the men did not seem to know that the little pig was hungry.
On and on sailed the balloon, being blown by the wind like a sailboat. Squinty dropped down on his four legs, since he found that walking on his hind ones brought him no food. Then, as he made his way about the basket, he saw some more of those queer bags filled with something. There were a great many of them in the balloon, and Squinty thought they must have something good in them.
Squinty squatted down beside one, and, with his strong teeth, he soon had bitten a hole in the cloth. Then he took a big bite, but oh dear!
All at once he found his mouth filled with coarse sand, that gritted on his teeth, and made the cold shivers run down his back.
"Oh, wow!" thought poor Squinty. "That's no good! Sand! I wonder if those men eat sand?"
Of course they didn't. The sand in the bags was "ballast." The balloon men carried it with them, and when they found the balloon coming down, because some of the gas had leaked out of the round ball above the basket, they would let some of the sand run out of the bags to the ground below. This would make the balloon lighter, and it would rise again.
"Squee! Squee! Uff! Uff!" grunted Squinty, as he wiped the sand off his tongue on one of his legs. "I don't like that. I'm hungry."
"Why, what's the matter with the little pig?" asked one of the men, turning around and looking at Squinty.
"He must be hungry," said the other. "See, he has bitten a hole in one of our sand bags. Let's feed him."
"All right. Give him something to eat, but we didn't bring any pig food along with us."
"I'll give him some bread and milk," the other man said. "We won't want much more ourselves, for we are nearly at our last landing place."
"Squee! Squee!" squealed Squinty, when he heard this. He watched the man put some bread and milk in a tin pan, and set it down on the floor of the basket. Then Squinty put his nose in the dish and began to eat.
And Oh! how good it tasted! Of course the milk was sweet, instead of sour, for men do not usually like sour milk. Squinty had a good meal, and then he went to sleep.