The name "Porker" made Grunty Pig look up.

"I'm Mrs. Pig's son," he said. "Don't call me 'Porker'!"

"Well--Pig, then!" Jasper Jay squalled. "Doesn't Farmer Green feed you?"

"Yes!"

"Well, then--don't come here and take our nuts! Didn't your mother ever teach you that things that grow on trees--such things as nuts--belong to the people that live in the trees?"

"Does Johnnie Green live in this tree?" Grunty Pig inquired.

"He spends half his time here--or a quarter, anyhow," Jasper Jay grumbled. "And you may be sure he gets his share of these beechnuts.

Goodness knows he leaves few enough for me and my friend here.

"Now," Jasper Jay went on, "I want you to promise not to eat any more of our nuts."

Grunty Pig shook his head.

"I can't promise that, exactly," he said. "But I'll promise not to eat any that I don't find on the ground."

"Huh!" Jasper Jay scoffed. "That means that you won't eat any nuts that you can't reach. That's no promise at all. It's nothing but a threat.

It's the same as saying that you're going to eat every nut that drops off this tree."

Grunty Pig made no reply. He would have wandered on, but for a fresh breeze that had begun to whip the branches of the beech tree. He decided to wait there. More burs might fall. And Grunty wanted to be on hand to meet them when they dropped.

"Go home!" Jasper Jay shrieked at him. "Go back to your pigpen where you belong. We don't want you here." And he said many more things that were still ruder.

But Grunty Pig never showed the least sign of anger. He didn't even let Jasper Jay know that he had heard. When the wind died down he waddled off down the road. And Frisky Squirrel followed him through the tree tops. When they had travelled out of Jasper Jay's sight and hearing, Frisky asked Grunty Pig a question.

"I should like to know," he said, "how you managed to keep still when Jasper was abusing you. I know that I should have lost my temper. Can it be that you didn't hear what he said?"

"Oh, I heard him clearly enough," said Grunty. "But there was no sense in my getting angry with _him_. If he had been standing on the ground near me he would never have dared talk to me as he did. Jasper Jay called me names because he was safe in the tree. If he hadn't had that tree to help him he'd never have dared say what he did.

"To tell the truth, I am a bit out of patience with that beech tree,"

Grunty confessed. "It played me a mean trick. And I hope there'll be a raging wind to-night that will rob it of every bur it has.... I'd uproot the beech," he added, "if I didn't like beechnuts so much."

"Well, you _are_ an odd one," said Frisky Squirrel.

"If everybody was as odd as I am there'd be fewer Jasper Jays in the world," Grunty Pig declared.

XXIII

MOSES MOUSE'S WAY

One day when Grunty Pig was at home, in the pigpen, a squeaky voiced piped "Good morning!" to him. Looking up, Grunty saw a plump little gentleman clinging to the top board on one side of the pen.

"Good morning!" Grunty answered. "May I inquire what your name is?"

"I'm Moses Mouse," his caller replied.

"Do you live in the piggery?--or in the barn?" Grunty asked him.

"Neither!" said Moses Mouse. "I live in the farmhouse. My wife and I have a nest in the wall.... The cat's away," he explained. "That's why I decided to stroll across the yard and visit you folks out here."

"Some people," said Grunty Pig, "have all the luck. You live in the farmhouse. Miss Kitty Cat lives in the farmhouse--when she's at home.

And old dog Spot spends a good deal of his time there--especially in cold weather. It must be pleasant to have your home where there's always plenty to eat, whenever you happen to feel hungry."

"Miss Kitty Cat and old dog Spot always fare well," Mr. Mouse admitted.

"But I've often gone to bed half starved. Maybe you didn't know that Mrs. Green is terribly neat. She doesn't leave much food around for us Mice."

"Well," Grunty remarked, "it's an honor, anyhow, to live in the farmhouse. You ought not to complain about the food, even if it is a bit scarce at times. I'd be glad to live there. And I dare say I'd find a plenty to eat. The farmhouse is where the sour milk comes from."

"If you feel like that," said Moses Mouse, "why don't you join us? Why don't you come to the farmhouse for the winter, anyhow?"

Grunty Pig shook his head.

"No!" he said, half to himself. "No! I can't do it."

"Why not?" Mr. Mouse wanted to know.

"I've never been invited," Grunty told him, with something like a frown.

Moses Mouse surprised him with a merry laugh.

"Ho!" he exclaimed. "Neither have I. If I had waited for an invitation I wouldn't be living in the farmhouse. I'd have shivered my days out in the barn."

Grunty Pig looked at his caller with growing interest. He would have said that so tiny a gentleman would be too timid to crowd in where he wasn't asked.

"Don't wait any longer for an invitation," Moses Mouse urged him. "Go to the farmhouse and walk right in."

"Oughtn't I to rap?" Grunty inquired.

"Certainly not!" said Moses Mouse. "Make yourself right at home. Act as if the farmhouse belonged to you. That's the way I do. And n.o.body ever bothers me, except Miss Kitty Cat--or Miss Snooper, as we Mice call her.

Even she can't drive me away from the farmhouse. I lived there before she ever came to Pleasant Valley."

"She certainly couldn't drive me away," Grunty Pig muttered. "Besides, didn't you say she was away herself?"

"Yes!" said Moses Mouse. "And I hope she has gone for good."

"Then," said Grunty Pig, "it ought to be quite safe for me to go to the farmhouse. And as soon as I have a chance to get out of this pen I'll do as you suggest."

"Good!" cried Moses Mouse. And he said that he hoped to have many a chat with Grunty, at the farmhouse.

"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. And Mr. Mouse was much pleased, for he took that to mean "Yes!"