The Tale of Grunty Pig.

by Arthur Scott Bailey.

I

THE RUNT

He was the smallest of seven children. At first his mother thought she would call him "Runty." But she soon changed her mind about that; for she discovered that even if he was the runt of the family, he had the loudest grunt of all. So the good lady made haste to slip a G in front of the name "Runty."

"There!" she exclaimed. "'Grunty' is a name that you ought to be proud of. It calls attention to your best point. And if you keep on making as much noise in the world as you do now, maybe people won't notice that you're a bit undersized. You certainly sound as big as any little shote I ever saw or heard."

So that was settled--though Grunty Pig didn't care one way or another.

He seemed to be interested in nothing but food. There is no doubt that he would have been willing to change his name a dozen times a day for the slight bribe of a drink of warm milk.

His mother sometimes said that he had the biggest appet.i.te--as well as the loudest grunt--of all her seven children. And she was glad that he ate well, because food was the very thing that would make him grow.

"You won't always be runty, Grunty, if you eat a plenty," Mrs. Pig often told him. And then he would grunt, as if to say, "You don't need to urge me. Just give me a chance!"

Grunty Pig soon learned that being the smallest of the family had one sad drawback. His brothers and sisters (all bigger than he!) could crowd him away from the feeding trough. And they not only _could_; but they often _did_. Unless Grunty reached the trough among the first, there was never a place left where he could squirm in. If he tried to eat at one end of the trough he was sure to be shouldered away and go hungry.

So whenever he did succeed in getting the first taste of a meal he took pains to plant himself in the exact middle of the trough. Then there would be three other youngsters on each side of him, all crowding towards him. And though he found it a bit hard to breathe under such a squeezing, at least he got his share of the food.

Poor Mrs. Pig! Her children had frightful manners. Though she talked and talked to them about not crowding, and about eating slowly, and about eating noiselessly, the moment their food was poured into their trough they forgot everything their mother had said.

That is, all but Grunty Pig! If he happened to be left out in the cold, so to speak, and had to stand and look on while his brothers and sister stuffed themselves, he couldn't help remembering his mother's remarks about manners.

"It's awful to watch them!" he would gurgle. "I don't see how they can be so boorish." He thought there was no sadder sight than his six brothers and sisters jostling one another over their food, while he couldn't find a place to push in among them.

II

A NEW WAY TO EAT

One thing, especially, distressed Mrs. Pig. Her children _would_ put their fore feet right into the trough when they ate their meals out of it. Nothing she said to them made the slightest difference. Even when she told them that they were little pigs they didn't seem to care.

"We're all bigger than Grunty is," said one of her sons--a bouncing black youngster who was the most unruly of the litter.

"You're all greedy," Mrs. Pig retorted. "Do try to restrain yourselves when you eat. Remember--there's plenty of time."

"But there's not always plenty of food," Grunty Pig told his mother.

"Sometimes there isn't any left for me."

"I know," said Mrs. Pig. "I know that your brothers and sisters eat your share whenever they can. Farmer Green furnishes enough food for you all.

And if you children didn't forget your manners everybody would get his share--no more and no less."

Now, Mrs. Pig was not the only one that noticed how piggish her youngsters were at the trough. One day Farmer Green himself remarked to his son Johnnie, as they leaned over the pen, that that litter of pigs did beat all he had ever seen.

"They come a-running at meal time as if they were half starved. It's a wonder they don't get in the trough all over."

Johnnie Green liked to watch the pigs.

"That black fellow's the greediest of the lot," he declared. "He's getting to be the biggest. He's almost twice the size of the little runt."

"The runt doesn't get his share," said Farmer Green. "We'll have to do something to help him, or he'll never be worth his salt."

Grunty Pig looked up at Farmer Green and gave a plaintive squeal, as if to say, "Hurry, please! Because I'm always hungry."

And Blackie, his greedy brother, looked up at Farmer Green too. He said nothing. But his little eyes twinkled slyly. And afterward he told his brothers and sisters that Farmer Green needn't think he could keep _him_ from drinking all the skim milk he pleased.

"If Mother can't make me behave, surely Farmer Green won't be able to,"

he boasted.

Of course Blackie Pig was very young. Otherwise he would never have made such a silly remark. And he soon learned that Farmer Green was more than a match for him.

The next day Farmer Green made a long lid that dropped over the feeding trough and covered it completely. And in the lid he cut seven holes--one for each of Mrs. Pig's children.

There was no more jostling at meal time. There was a place for everybody. And Mrs. Pig was delighted with the improvement. When Farmer Green filled the trough, each of the children stuck his head through a hole and ate in the most orderly fashion. To be sure, there was some squealing and grunting, and some snuffling and blowing. But it seemed to Mrs. Pig that no youngsters could have behaved more beautifully.

And Grunty liked the new way of eating, too. But Blackie made a great fuss. He complained because he couldn't stick his nose through two holes at the same time!

III

THE LOOSE BOARD

After Farmer Green put the lid with the holes in it over the top of the feeding trough, Grunty Pig began to grow. At last he was getting as much to eat as his brothers and sisters. And the bigger he grew, the more food he wanted. He was always on the watch for some extra tidbit--always rooting about to find some dainty that others had overlooked. Many a delicious piece of carrot, or turnip, or potato-paring rewarded him for his eager searching.

Still, Grunty Pig was far from satisfied. He had a great longing to get outside the pen where he lived with the rest of Mrs. Pig's seven children.

"Out in the wide world there must be many good things to eat," he thought. "I'd like to find the place where the potato-parings grow."

But of all this, Grunty Pig said nothing to anyone. If the chance ever came to slip out of the pen, he intended to take n.o.body with him. He had not yet caught up with his brothers and sisters in size, even if he had outstripped them in the matter of brains. And he feared that any one of them would crowd him away from the good things that he meant to find beyond the walls of the pigsty.

Little did Mrs. Pig dream what plans filled the head of her son Grunty.

When she saw him sniffing around the walls of the pen she never once guessed that he could be looking for anything except something to eat.

How could she know that Grunty--the littlest of the family--was searching for a place to escape?

Now, it happened that there was one loose board in a corner of the pigpen. The nails that once held it had rusted away. n.o.body but Grunty Pig had discovered that by pressing against an end of this board one could bend it outward.

It was too bad--for him--that he had grown so rapidly. Had he been just a bit smaller he could have squeezed through the opening.