Part 9 (1/2)

said the boy. Squinty smacked his lips at that, for he was hungry even now.

”Oh, have you caged him up? Isn't he cute!” exclaimed one of the boy's sisters. ”I'll give him the core of my apple,” and she thrust it in through the slats of the box. Squinty was very glad, indeed, to get the apple core, and he soon ate it up.

”Come on!” cried the boy's father. ”Is the pig nailed up? We must go for the train!”

”I wonder what the train is,” thought Squinty. He was soon to know. The boy lifted him up, cage and all, and put him into the wagon that was to go to the depot. Squinty knew what a wagon was and horses, for he had seen them many times.

Then away they started. Squinty gave a loud squeal, which was his last good-by to the other pigs in the pen, and then the wagon rattled away along the road.

Squinty had started on his journey.

CHAPTER VII

SQUINTY LEARNS A TRICK

Squinty, the comical pig, tried to look out through the slats of the box, in which he was being taken away, to see in which direction he was going. He also wanted to watch the different sights along the road. But the sides of the farm wagon were so high that the little pig could see nothing. He stretched his fat neck as far as it would go, but that did no good either. Squinty wished he were as big as his papa or his mamma.

”Then I could see what is going on,” he thought.

But just wis.h.i.+ng never made anyone larger or taller, not even a pig, and Squinty stayed the same size.

He could hear the farmer and the children talking. Now and then the boy who had bought Squinty, and who was taking him home, would look around at his pet in the slatted box.

”Is he all right?” one of the girls would ask.

”He seems to be,” the boy would say. ”I am glad I got him.”

”Well, he acts real cute,” said another girl, who was called Sallie, ”but I never heard of having a pig for a pet before.”

”You just wait until I teach him some tricks,” said the boy, whose name was Bob. ”Then you'll think he's fine!”

”Ha! So I am to learn tricks,” thought Squinty in his box. ”I wonder what tricks are, anyhow? Does it mean I am to have good things to eat? I hope so.”

You see Squinty, like most little pigs, thought more of something to eat than of anything else. But we must not blame him for that, since he could not help it.

Pretty soon the wagon rattled over some stones, and then came to a stop.

”Here we are!” called the children's father. ”Bring along your little pig, Bob. Here comes the train.”

”Ha! It seems I am to go on a train,” thought Squinty. ”I wonder what a train is?”

Squinty had many things to learn, didn't he?

The little pig in the box felt himself being lifted out of the wagon.

Then he could look about him. He saw a large building, in front of which were long, slender strips of s.h.i.+ning steel. These were the railroad tracks, but Squinty did not know that. Then all at once, Squinty heard a loud noise, which went like this:

”Whee! Whee! Whee-whee!”

”Oh my! what a loud squeal that pig has!” exclaimed Squinty. ”He can squeal much louder than I can, I think. Let me try.”