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Richard Barnum >> Squinty the Comical Pig
SQUINTY
THE COMICAL PIG
HIS MANY ADVENTURES
BY
RICHARD BARNUM
Author of "Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel,"
"Mappo, the Merry Monkey,"
"Tum Tum, the Jolly Elephant,"
"Don, a Runaway Dog," etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRIET H. TOOKER
KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES
By Richard Barnum
SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG
SLICKO, THE JUMPING SQUIRREL
MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY
TUM TUM, THE JOLLY ELEPHANT
DON, A RUNAWAY DOG
Large 12mo. Illustrated. Price per volume
40 cents, postpaid
1915
_Squinty, the Comical Pig_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I SQUINTY AND THE DOG
II SQUINTY RUNS AWAY
III SQUINTY IS LOST
IV SQUINTY GETS HOME
V SQUINTY AND THE BOY
VI SQUINTY ON A JOURNEY
VII SQUINTY LEARNS A TRICK
VIII SQUINTY IN THE WOODS
IX SQUINTY'S BALLOON RIDE
X SQUINTY AND THE SQUIRREL
XI SQUINTY AND THE MERRY MONKEY
XII SQUINTY GETS HOME AGAIN
ILLUSTRATIONS
Squinty looked at the beautiful wagons, and at the strange animals
Squinty saw rushing toward him, Don, the big black and white dog
"Hop on," he said to the toad. "I won't bother you."
"Oh, Father!" exclaimed the boy, "do let me have just one little pig"
Squinty gave a little spring, and over the rope he went
The next moment Squinty felt himself lifted off the ground
"Why, I am Mappo, the merry monkey," was the answer
SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG
CHAPTER I
SQUINTY AND THE DOG
Squinty was a little pig. You could tell he was a pig just as soon as
you looked at him, because he had the cutest little curly tail, as
though it wanted to tie itself into a bow, but was not quite sure
whether that was the right thing to do. And Squinty had a skin that was
as pink, under his white, hairy bristles, as a baby's toes.
Also Squinty had the oddest nose! It was just like a rubber ball,
flattened out, and when Squinty moved his nose up and down, or sideways,
as he did when he smelled the nice sour milk the farmer was bringing for
the pigs' dinner, why, when Squinty did that with his nose, it just made
you want to laugh right out loud.
But the funniest part of Squinty was his eyes, or, rather, one eye. And
that eye squinted just as well as any eye ever squinted. Somehow or
other, I don't just know why exactly, or I would tell you, the lid of
one of Squinty's eyes was heavier than the other. That eye opened only
half way, and when Squinty looked up at you from the pen, where he lived
with his mother and father and little brothers and sisters, why there
was such a comical look on Squinty's face that you wanted to laugh right
out loud again.
In fact, lots of boys and girls, when they came to look at Squinty in
his pen, could not help laughing when he peered up at them, with one eye
widely open, and the other half shut.
"Oh, what a comical pig!" the boys and girls would cry. "What is his
name?"
"Oh, I guess we'll call him Squinty," the farmer said; and so Squinty
was named.
Perhaps if his mother had had her way about it she would have given
Squinty another name, as she did his brothers and sisters. In fact she
did name all of them except Squinty.
One of the little pigs was named Wuff-Wuff, another Curly Tail, another
Squealer, another Wee-Wee, and another Puff-Ball. There were seven pigs
in all, and Squinty was the last one, so you see he came from quite a
large family. When his mother had named six of her little pigs she came
to Squinty.
"Let me see," grunted Mrs. Pig in her own way, for you know animals have
a language of their own which no one else can understand. "Let me see,"
said Mrs. Pig, "what shall I call you?"
She was thinking of naming him Floppy, because the lid of one of his
eyes sort of flopped down. But just then a lot of boys and girls came
running out to the pig pen.
The boys and girls had come on a visit to the farmer who owned the pigs,
and when they looked in, and saw big Mr. and Mrs. Pig, and the little
ones, one boy called out:
"Oh, what a queer little pig, with one eye partly open! And how funny he
looks at you! What is his name?"
"Well, I guess we'll call him Squinty," the farmer had said. And so,
just as I have told you, Squinty got his name.
"Humph! Squinty!" exclaimed Mrs. Pig, as she heard what the farmer said.
"I don't know as I like that."
"Oh, it will do very well," answered Mr. Pig. "It will save you thinking
up a name for him. And, after all, you know, he _does_ squint. Not that
it amounts to anything, in fact it is rather stylish, I think. Let him
be called Squinty."
"All right," answered Mrs. Pig. So Squinty it was.
"Hello, Squinty!" called the boys and girls, giving the little pig his
new name. "Hello, Squinty!"
"Wuff! Wuff!" grunted Squinty.
That meant, in his language, "Hello!" you see. For though Squinty, and
his mother and father, and brothers and sisters, could understand man
talk, and boy and girl talk, they could not speak that language
themselves, but had to talk in their own way.
Nearly all animals understand our talk, even though they can not speak
to us. Just look at a dog, for instance. When you call to him: "Come
here!" doesn't he come? Of course he does. And when you say: "Lie down,
sir!" doesn't he lie down? that is if he is a good dog, and minds? He
understands, anyhow.
And see how horses understand how to go when the driver says "Gid-dap!"
and how they stop when he says "Whoa!" So you need not think it strange
that a little pig could understand our kind of talk, though he could not
speak it himself.
Well, Squinty, the comical pig, lived with his mother and father and
brothers and sisters in the farmer's pen for some time. As the days went
on Squinty grew fatter and fatter, until his pink skin, under his white
bristles, was swelled out like a balloon.
"Hum!" exclaimed the farmer one day, as he leaned over the top of the
pen, to look down on the pigs, after he had poured their dinner into the
trough. "Hum! That little pig, with the squinty eye, is getting pretty
big. I thought he was going to be a little runt, but he seems to be
growing as fast as the others."
Squinty was glad when he heard that, for he wanted to grow up to be a
fine, large pig.
The farmer took a corn cob, from which all the yellow kernels of corn
had been shelled, and with it he scratched the back of Squinty. Pigs
like to have their backs scratched, just as cats like to have you rub
their smooth fur, or tickle them under the ears.
"Ugh! Ugh!" grunted Squinty, looking up at the farmer with his comical
eyes, one half shut and the other wide open. "Ugh! Ugh!" And with his
odd eyes, and one ear cocked forward, and the other flopping over
backward, Squinty looked so funny that the farmer had to laugh out loud.
"What's the matter, Rufus?" asked the farmer's wife, who was gathering
the eggs.
"Oh, it's this pig," laughed the farmer. "He has such a queer look on
his face!"
"Let me see!" exclaimed the farmer's wife.
She, too, looked down into the pen.
"Oh, isn't he comical!" she cried.
Then, being a very kind lady, and liking all the farm animals, the
farmer's wife went out in the potato patch and pulled up some pig weed.
This is a green weed that grows in the garden, but it does no good
there. Instead it does harm, and farmers like to pull it up to get rid
of it. But, if pig weed is no good for the garden, it is good for pigs,
and they like to chew the green leaves.
"Here, Squinty!" called the farmer's wife, tossing some of the juicy,
green weed to the little pig. "Eat this!"
"Ugh! Ugh!" grunted Squinty, and he began to chew the green leaves. I
suppose that was his way of saying: "Thank you!"
As soon as Squinty's brothers and sisters saw the green pig weed the
farmer's wife had tossed into the pen, up they rushed to the trough,
grunting and squealing, to get some too.
They pushed and scrambled, and even stepped into the trough, so eager
were they to get something to eat; even though they had been fed only a
little while before.
That is one strange thing about pigs. They seem to be always hungry. And
Squinty's brothers and sisters were no different from other pigs.
But wait just a moment. They were a bit different, for they were much
cleaner than many pigs I have seen. The farmer who owned them knew that
pigs do not like to live in mud and dirt any more than do cows and
horses, so this farmer had for his pigs a nice pen, with a dry board
floor, and plenty of corn husks for their bed. They had clean water to
drink, and a shady place in which to lie down and sleep.
Of course there was a mud bath in the pig pen, for, no matter how clean
pigs are, once in a while they like to roll in the mud. And I'll tell
you the reason for that.
You see flies and mosquitoes and other pests like to bite pigs. The pigs
know this, and they also know that if they roll in the mud, and get
covered with it, the mud will make a coating over them to keep the
biting flies away.
So that is why pigs like to roll in the mud once in awhile, just as you
sometimes see a circus elephant scatter dust over his back, to drive
away the flies. And even such a thick-skinned animal as a rhinoceros
likes to plaster himself with mud to keep away the insects.
But after Squinty and his brothers and sisters had rolled in the mud,
they were always glad when the farmer came with the garden hose and
washed them clean again, so their pink skins showed beneath their white,
hairy bristles.
Squinty and the other pigs grew until they were a nice size. They had
nothing to do but eat and sleep, and of course that will make anyone
grow.
Now Squinty, though he was not the largest of the family of pig
children, was by far the smartest. He learned more quickly than did his
brothers and sisters, how to run to the trough to eat, when his mother
called him, and he learned how to stand up against one side of the pen
and rub himself back and forth to scratch his side when a mosquito had
bitten him in a place he could not reach with his foot.
In fact Squinty was a little too smart. He wanted to do many things his
brothers and sisters never thought of. One day when Squinty and the
others had eaten their dinner, Squinty told his brother Wuff-Wuff that
he thought it would be a nice thing to have some fun.
Wuff-Wuff said he thought so, too, but he didn't just know what to do.
In fact there was not much one could do in a pig pen.
"If we could only get out of here!" grunted Squinty, as he looked out
through a crack in the boards and saw the green garden, where pig weed
was growing thickly.
"Yes, but we can't," said Wuff-Wuff.
Squinty was not so sure about this. In fact he was a very inquisitive
little pig--that is, he always wanted to find out about things, and why
this and that was so, and what made the wheels go around, and all like
that.
"I think I can get out through that place," said Squinty to himself, a
little later. He had found another crack between two boards of the
pen--a large crack, and one edge of the board was loose. Squinty began
to push with his rubbery nose.
A pig's nose is pretty strong, you know, for it is made for digging, or
rooting in the earth, to turn up acorns, and other good things to eat.
Squinty pushed and pushed on the board until he had made it very loose.
The crack was getting wider.
"Oh, I can surely get out!" he thought. He looked around; his mother and
father and all the little pigs were asleep in the shady part of the pen.
"I'm going!" said Squinty to himself.
He gave one extra hard push, and there he was through the big crack, and
outside the pen. It was the first time he had ever been out in his life.
At first he was a little frightened, but when he looked over into the
potato patch, and saw pig weed growing there he was happy.
"Oh, what a good meal I shall have!" grunted Squinty.
He ran toward a large bunch of the juicy, green pig weed, but before he
reached it he heard a dreadful noise.
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!" went some animal, and then came some
growls, and the next moment Squinty saw, rushing toward him Don, the big
black and white dog of the farmer. "Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!" barked
Don, and that meant, in his language: "Get back in your pen, Squinty!
What do you mean by coming out? Get back! Bow wow!"
[Illustration: Squinty saw rushing toward him, Don, the big black and
white dog.]
"Oh dear! Oh dear!" squealed Squinty. "I shall be bitten sure! That dog
will bite me! Oh dear! Why didn't I stay in the pen?"
Squinty turned on his little short legs, as quickly as he could, and
started back for the pen. But it was not easy to run in a potato field,
and Squinty, not having lived in the woods and fields as do some pigs,
was not a very good runner.
"Bow wow! Bow wow!" barked Don, running after Squinty.
I do not believe Don really meant to hurt the comical little pig. In
fact I know he did not, for Don was very kind-hearted. But Don knew that
the pigs were supposed to stay in their pen, and not come out to root up
the garden. So Don barked:
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Get back where you belong, Squinty."
Squinty ran as fast as he could, but Don ran faster. Squinty caught his
foot in a melon vine, and down he went. Before he could get up Don was
close to him, and, the next moment Squinty felt his ear being taken
between Don's strong, white teeth.
"Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear!" squealed Squinty, in his own queer, pig
language. "What is going to happen to me?"
CHAPTER II
SQUINTY RUNS AWAY
Between the barking of Don, the dog, and the squealing of Squinty, the
comical pig, who was being led along by his ear, there was so much noise
in the farmer's potato patch, for a few moments, that, if you had been
there, I think you would have wondered what was happening.
"Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!" barked Don, still keeping hold of Squinty's
ear, though he did not pinch very hard. "Bow wow! Get back to your pen
where you belong!"
"Squee! Squee! Squee!" yelled Squinty. "Oh, please let me go! I'll be
good!"
And so it went on, the dog talking in his barking language, and Squinty
squealing in his pig talk; but they could easily understand one another,
even if no one else could.
Back in the pen Mrs. Pig suddenly awakened from a nap. So did Mr. Pig,
and all the little pigs.
"Don't you hear something making a noise?" asked Mrs. Pig of her
husband.
"Why, yes, I think I do," he answered slowly, as he looked in the feed
trough, to see if the farmer had left any more sour milk there for the
pig family to eat. But there was none.
"I hear someone squealing," said Wuff-Wuff, the largest boy pig of them
all.
"So do I," said Squeaker, a little girl pig.
Mrs. Pig sat up, and looked all over the pen. She was counting her
children to see if they were all there. She did not see Squinty, and at
once she became frightened.
"Squinty is gone!" cried Mrs. Pig. "Oh, where can he be?"
The squealing noise became louder. So did the barking of the dog.
"Look, there is a board off the side of the pen," said Mr. Pig.
"Yes, Squinty wanted me to come outside with him," said Wuff-Wuff. "But
I wouldn't go."
"Oh, maybe my little boy pig is outside there, making all that noise!"
cried Mrs. Pig to her husband.
"Well, he isn't making _all_ that noise by himself," said the father
pig. "Someone is helping him make it, I'm sure."
They all listened, and heard the barking of Don, as well as the
squealing of Squinty.
"Oh, some animal has caught him!" cried Mrs. Pig. Then she pushed as
hard as she could with her nose, against the loose board near the hole
in the pen, through which Squinty had run a little while before. Mrs.
Pig soon knocked off the board, and then she ran out into the garden,
Mr. Pig and all the little pigs ran after her.
The first thing Mrs. Pig saw was her little boy pig down on the ground
in the middle of a row of melon vines, with Don holding Squinty's ear.
"Bow wow!" barked Don.
"Squee! Squee!" cried Squinty.
"Oh, you poor little pig!" grunted Mrs. Pig. "What has happened to you?"
"Oh, mamma!" squealed Squinty. "I--I ran out of the pen to see what it
was like outside, and I was just eating some pig weed, when this big dog
chased after me."
"Yes, I did," said Don, growling in his deep voice. "The place for pigs,
little or big, is in their pen. The farmer does not want you to come out
and spoil his garden. He tells me to watch you, and to drive you back if
you come in it.
"This is the first time I have seen any of you pigs in the garden," went
on Don, still keeping hold of Squinty's ear, "and I want you, please, to
go back in your pen."
"Oh, I'll go! I'll go!" cried Squinty. "Only let loose of my ear, Mr.
Dog, if you please!"
"What! Have you hold of Squinty's ear?" asked Wuff-Wuff. "Oh, do please
let him go!"
"Yes, I will, now that you are here," said Don, and he took his strong,
white teeth from the piggy boy's ear. "I did not bite him hard enough to
hurt him," said Don. "But I had to catch hold of him somewhere, and
taking him by the ear was better than taking him by the tail, I think."
"Oh, yes, indeed!" agreed Mr. Pig. "Once, when I was a little pig, a dog
bit me on the tail, and I never got over it. In fact I have the marks
yet," and he tried to look around at his tail, which had a kink in it.
But Mr. Pig was too fat to see his own tail.
"So that's why I took hold of Squinty by the ear," went on Don. "Did I
hurt you very much?" he asked the little pig who had run out of the pen.
"Oh, no; not much," Squinty said, as he rubbed his ear with his paw.
Then, as he saw a bunch of pig weed close to him, he began nibbling
that. And his brothers and sisters, seeing him do this, began to eat the
pig weed also.
"Come! This will never do!" barked Don, the dog. "I am sorry, but all
you pigs must go back in your own pen. The farmer would not like you to
be out in his garden."
"Yes, I suppose we must," said Mrs. Pig, with a sigh. "Yet it is very
nice out in the garden. But we must stay in our pen."
"Come, children," said Mr. Pig. "We must stay in our own place, for if
we rooted up the farmer's garden, much as we would like to do it, he
would have no vegetables to eat this winter. Then he might be angry at
us, and would give us no more sour milk. So we will go back to our pen."
"Bow wow! Bow wow!" barked Don, running here and there. "I will show you
the way back to your pen," he said, kindly.
And he capered about, here and there, driving the pigs back to the place
where Squinty had run from, and where all the others had come from, to
see what had happened to him.
The farmer, who was hoeing corn, heard the barking of his dog. He
dropped the hoe and ran.
"Something must have happened!" he cried. "Maybe the big bull has gotten
loose from his field, and is chasing someone with a red dress."
Into the garden he ran, and then he saw Don driving Squinty, and his
brothers and sisters, and mother and father, back to the pen.
"Ha! So the pigs got loose!" the farmer cried. "Good dog! Chase 'em
back!"
"Bow wow!" barked Don. "I will!"
But the pigs did not need much driving, for they were very good, and did
not want to cause Don, or the farmer, any trouble if they could help it.
Soon Squinty and the others were safely in the pen again. The farmer
looked at them carefully.
"So, you thought you'd like to get out and have a run, did you?" he
asked, speaking to pigs just as if they could understand him. And they
did, just as your dog understands, and minds you when you call to him to
come to you.
"So you wanted a run in the garden, eh?" went on the farmer. "Well, I
don't blame you, for it isn't much fun to stay cooped up in a pen all
the while. But still I can't have you out. But I'll give you a nice lot
of pig weed, just the same, for you must be hungry."
Then the farmer pulled up some more of the green stuff, and tossed it
into the pen. He also gave them plenty of sour milk, which pigs like
better than sweet milk. Besides, it is cheaper.
"Well, I guess you won't run away again," the farmer went on, as he
nailed back on the pen the board which Squinty had pushed off. Perhaps
the farmer thought one of the big pigs--the papa or mamma one--had made
the hole for the others to get out. I am sure he never thought little
Squinty, with his comical eye, did it. But we know Squinty did, don't
we?
For some time after this Squinty was a very-good pig, indeed. Not that I
mean to say he was bad when he ran out of the pen, for he did not know
any better. But, after the board was nailed on tightly again, he did not
try to push it off. Perhaps he knew he could not do it.
Squinty and his brothers and sisters had lots of fun in the pen, even if
they could not go out. They played games in the straw, hiding away from
one another, and squealing and grunting when they were found. They raced
around the pen, playing a game much like our game of tag, and if they
could have had someone to tie a hand-kerchief over their eyes, they
might have played blind-man's buff. But of course they did not really do
this.
However, they raced about, and jumped over each other's backs, and
climbed upon the fat sides of their father and mother while the big pigs
lay asleep in the shade.
Squinty was a pig very fond of playing tricks. Sometimes he would take a
choice, tender piece of pig weed, which the farmer had tossed into the
pen, and hide it in the soft dirt in one corner.
"Now see who can find it!" Squinty would call to his brothers and
sisters, and they would hunt all over for it, rooting up the earth with
their strong, rubbery noses.
Digging in the dirt was good practice for them, and their mother and
father would watch them, saying:
"Ah, when they grow up they will be very good rooting pigs indeed. Yes,
very good!"
Then Squinty, or his brothers or sisters, would root up the hidden pig
weed, and the old pigs would go to sleep again, for they did not need to
practice digging, having done so when they were young. About all they
did was to eat and sleep, and tell the little pigs how to behave.
"Squinty, how is your ear that Don, the dog, bit?" asked Mrs. Pig of her
little boy pig one day.
"Oh, it doesn't hurt me," answered Squinty. "Don did not bite very hard.
He only wanted to catch me."
"Yes, Don is a good dog," said Mrs. Pig. "But you must be careful of
other dogs, Squinty."
"Why, are not all dogs alike?" the little pig boy asked.
"Oh, no, indeed!" answered Mrs. Pig. "Some of them are very bad and
savage. They would bite you very hard if they got the chance. So,
whenever you see any dog, except Don, running toward you, run away as
fast as you can."
"I will," promised Squinty. And he did not know how soon he would be
glad to remember his mother's good advice.
For some days nothing much happened in the pig pen. Once or twice
Squinty pushed his nose against the board the farmer had nailed on, but
it was very tight, he found, and he could not push it off.
"Are you trying to get out again?" asked Wuff-Wuff.
"Oh, I don't know," Squinty would answer. "I think it would be fun if we
all could; don't you?"
"No, indeed!" cried Wuff-Wuff. "Some big dog might chase us. I want to
stay in the pen."
But Squinty was a brave, bold, mischievous little pig. He was not
content to stay in the pen. He wanted to have some adventures. He wanted
to get out in the garden, which looked so nice and green.
Squinty looked all around the other sides of the pen. He wanted to see
if there was another loose board. If there was, he made up his little
pig mind that he would go out again. But he said nothing of this to his
brothers or sisters, or to his father or mother. He felt that they would
not like him to go away again.
"But there is not much fun staying in the pen all the while," thought
Squinty. "I wish I could get out."
Squinty, you see, had made up his mind to run away. Often horses run
away, so I don't see why pigs can't, also. Anyhow, that was what Squinty
intended to do.
But, for nearly a week after his first adventure in the garden, Squinty
had no chance to slip out of the pen. All the boards seemed very tight.
Then, one day, it was very hot. The sun shone brightly.
"Dig holes for yourselves in the cool ground, and lie down in them,"
said Mrs. Pig. "That will cool you off."
Each little pig dug a hole for himself, just as a hen does when she
wants to take a dust bath. Squinty dug his hole near the lower edge of
the boards, on one side of the pen.
"I'll make a big hole," he thought to himself.
And, as Squinty dug down, he noticed that he could see under the bottom
of the boards. He could look right out into the garden.
"That is very queer," thought the little pig boy. "I believe I can get
out of the pen by crawling under a board, as well as by pushing one
loose from the side. I'll try it." Squinty was learning things, you see.
So he dug the hole deeper and deeper, and soon it was large enough for
him to slip under the bottom board.
"Now I can run away," he grunted softly to himself. He looked all around
the pen. His father, mother, sisters and brothers were fast asleep in
their cool holes of earth.