People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 January 1897 — TALE OF A RUNAWAY PIG [ARTICLE]

TALE OF A RUNAWAY PIG

Hl» Fondness For Potato Patches Jxxl Him Into Trouble. In the old home we once bad a funny little pig. He was generally to be seen in the act of running away* Hardly ever <io I remember seeing bis face toward me. He also had a knack of getting away from all the other pigs. The field next the house—the "home field," as we used to call it—was a kind of common for the hogs, cattle and fowls. The next was a potato field, and the little pig had taken it into his head to get into that one. How, he got in no one could tell, for the field was well fenced and there was no opening through which he could enter. How did he get in? One day I watched. He wandered in a sort of unnoticeable way toward a crooked old Jog, across which the fence had been built. Suddenly, though closely watching, I lost sight of my little friend. But before I had recovered from my surprise I was astonished to see him in the potato field. ‘‘Well, now', that is very strange," I said. ‘‘How did he do it?” I went to the old log, and, 10, it was hollow. The whole trick became tjuite clear to me. I went into the potato field to drive him out, intending to steer him toward the end of the log so that he might get out the same way he got in. Here he had the best of me entirely. He either could not or would not see the log and maintained such an air of ignorance on that point that 1 had to give up the task in despair, drive him out by the gate and bring him home by a long, roundabfiuLyyaX- -

The next day I made up my mind to play a trick on him, and I did, I wont out very early and moved the log just a little eo that both ends would bo in the “homo field.” Then I stood at some distance off and watched. I never was more amused in my life. He separated himself from the other pigs and then went toward the old log gbt In and through it and (as he evidently thought) got out into the potato field. I could understand this by the way he immediately began to sniff for the potatoes. But, finding none, he seemed somewhat puzzled. Somehow it dawned on him that ho was still in thd ‘ ‘home field, ” and he concluded that he had not gone through the log. So he went through it once more, but only to find himself again in the “home field. ” This seemed to puzzle him more than ever. He looked around in astonishment. I could clearly see that expression on his face. For a moment ho stopped and was evidently thinking very hard. Once more he got through the log, with the same result of finding himself in’the “homo field. ” This time, I am sure, if he could have, talked he would have cried out, “bpooksl” Ho stood quite still for a few seconds, sniffed the air, and I could distinctly see the bristles on his back gradually rising up on end. Suddenly he uttered a peculiar kind of “book” and ran with all his might toward the other pigs. The little pig was never seen in that part of the field again. Many a time we tried to drive him to the old log, but we could not get him to go.—-Ladies’ Journal. —... .•