XXIV

A PIG IN THE PARLOR

Grunty Pig had got out of his pen and out of the piggery, too. Ever since his talk with Moses Mouse the day before he had been hoping for a chance to escape. And shuffling across the farmyard somewhat heavily--for he was growing longer and taller and fatter every day--Grunty went straight to the woodshed door. It was open. And he walked through it. Then he clattered over the woodshed floor and peered into the kitchen. There was no one there.

For a few moments Grunty stood sniffing in the doorway. A delicious odor greeted him. He wasn't sure what it was. A pan sat near the edge of the table. And Grunty Pig had no trouble upsetting it with his nose.

Doughnuts rolled in every direction--crisp, brown, freshly fried doughnuts. And Grunty Pig showed that he was thoughtful. He went to the trouble of picking them all up off the floor. But he forgot to drop them back into the pan. Instead, he put every one of them into his own mouth.

"That Moses Mouse was all wrong," he murmured. "He complained of the food here. When I see him I'll have to tell him that he was mistaken.

Why, I never ate anything that tasted better than these rings!"

After making sure that there was nothing else for him to devour in the kitchen Grunty Pig pushed through a door that stood ajar. He found himself in a long, dimly lighted hall. There were doors on both sides of it. Grunty nosed around each one in turn. Not till he came to the last of all, at the further end of the hall, did he find one that wasn't shut tight. This door yielded to a little gentle pushing. And Grunty then found himself--though he did not know it--in the parlor of the farmhouse.

As he stood still and gazed about him, who should come stealing into the room but Moses Mouse.

"Ah!" said Moses in a whisper. "So you've arrived at last?"

"Yes!" said Grunty Pig. "Isn't this a fine pen? Now that I've come to the farmhouse to live I believe I'll make this pen my headquarters."

"That's a good idea," Moses Mouse told him. "Farmer Green's family don't use it often. They seldom come here unless they have company."

While he listened, Grunty Pig sidled up to a table in the center of the room and began, in an absent-minded fashion, to rub his back against it.

To his surprise, the table tipped over and a lamp that had stood upon it crashed into a hundred pieces on the floor. Then a door slammed somewhere. And steps sounded in the hall.

Moses Mouse tried not to look startled.

"I must be going now," he said abruptly. "I'll see you later." Then he dashed into the fireplace and ran up the chimney.

"The accident was really your fault," Grunty called to him. "If you hadn't talked so much I'd have noticed what I was doing."

Moses Mouse, however, did not reply. And a moment later Farmer Green's wife appeared in the doorway. When she saw Grunty Pig she gave a scream.

Mrs. Green couldn't help being surprised at first. But soon she began to laugh as if she would never stop.

"A pig in our parlor!" she cried. "Who ever would have thought it?"

Grunty Pig tried to explain that the broken lamp was really Moses Mouse's fault. But Mrs. Green wouldn't listen. She ran out of the room and came back at once with a broom in her hand. Then, opening the front door, she drove Grunty Pig into the yard.

"Now, I wonder why Mrs. Green put me out of the farmhouse," he muttered.

Suddenly an idea popped into his head. "It must be," he cried, "because I told tales. I tattled on Moses Mouse; and Mrs. Green didn't like it.

Next time I'll be careful about what I say to her."

There never was a next time. Perhaps Farmer Green took pains to keep the door of Grunty's pen shut. Perhaps Farmer Green made the fence outside the piggery "hog tight," as he would say. Or perhaps Grunty Pig grew so fat that he couldn't squeeze through any ordinary opening.

Anyhow, Grunty never set foot inside the farmhouse again. After a while he didn't care. The bigger he was, the less he liked to roam about. And at last Farmer Green began calling him his "prize hog."

So you can see how very fat he must have been.

THE END

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