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"Oh dear, Squinty! I wish you didn't have to go and leave us. But still, it may be all for your good." "We might hide him under the straw," suggested Wuff-Wuff. "Then that boy could not find him when he comes to put him in a box, and take him away." "No, that would never do," said Mr. Pig. "The farmer is stronger and smarter than we are. He would find Squinty, no matter where we hid him.
They wanted to hear all about what had happened to him when he had run away, and they wanted him to tell them of his adventures. So they grunted and whispered among themselves. "What happened to you, Squinty?" asked Wuff-Wuff. "Oh, I had a fine swim in a brook," said Squinty. "I wish that had happened to me," said Wuff-Wuff. "What else?"
And I was glad of it." "Well, I hope they will soon bring Squinty back," Wuff-Wuff said. "It is lonesome without him." But, after a while, the other pigs found so many things to do, and they were kept so busy, eating sour milk, and getting fat, that they nearly forgot about Squinty. But, all this time, something was happening to the comical little pig.
The sun was low down in the west now, and Mr. and Mrs. Pig knew it must be nearly time for their evening meal. "Come, Wuff-Wuff. Come, Squealer. Come, Squinty, and all the rest of you!" called Mrs. Pig in her grunting voice. "Come, get ready for supper. I think I hear the farmer coming with the nice sour milk!" "Squee! Squee! Squee!" squealed all the little pigs, for they were very hungry indeed.
When he awakened, he thought at first he was back in the pen at home, and he cried out: "Oh, Wuff-Wuff! Oh, Twisty Tail. I had the queerest dream! I thought a boy had me, and that I could jump a rope, and hunt acorns, and do lots of tricks. But I !" And then Squinty stopped. He looked around and found himself all alone in the new pen.
Squinty made up his little mind that he was going to be very careful. Now that he was safely out of the pen again he did not want to be caught the second time. He did not want Don, or the farmer, to see him, so he crawled along, keeping as much out of sight as he could. "I wish my brothers, Wuff-Wuff or Squealer were with me," said Squinty softly to himself, in pig language.
"I found a nice field of corn," went on Squinty, "but I did not like the taste of it. I got lost in the cornfield." "That's too bad," said Wuff-Wuff. "Did anything else happen?" "Yes, I found some pig weed, and ate that, and some little potatoes." "Oh, how nice!" exclaimed Twisty Tail. "I wish that had happened to me. Did you do anything else, Squinty?" "Yes," said the comical little pig.
"Where do you think he is now, Mamma?" Wuff-Wuff would ask. "Oh, I don't know," Mrs. Pig answered. "And will he ever come back to us?" asked Twisty Tail. "Perhaps, some day. I hope so," said Mrs. Pig, sort of sighing. "Oh, yes, I think he will," said Mr. Pig. "When he gets quite large the boy will get tired of having him for a pet, and perhaps bring him back."
When the farmer picked him up, and dropped him down among his brothers and sisters, in the clean straw, Wuff-Wuff, Squealer, and Curly Tail, and the others, were so glad to see Squinty that they grunted, and squealed and walked all over one another, to be the first to get close to him. "Oh, Squinty, where were you?" "Where did you go?" "What did you do?" "Weren't you awfully scared?"
"I saw something I thought was a potato, and it jumped away from me. It was a hoptoad." "That was funny," said Squealer. "I wish I had seen it. Did anything else happen?" "Yes," said Squinty. "I thought I saw another potato, but when I bit on it I found it was only a stone, and it hurt my teeth." "That's too bad," said Wuff-Wuff. "I am glad that did not happen to me. Tell us what else you saw."
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