On the way to the chicken coop they passed the pen where the pigs were kept.
“I guess I’ll show you the pigs, Don,” said Bob. “You must get to know them, so if any of them get out, any time, you can chase them, and make them go back into their pen.”
Bob lifted Don up in his arms, and held him over the edge of the pig pen. There was one big, mother pig, and seven little ones. One of the little pigs had a funny, squinting eye. It was partly closed, and the other eye was wide open, and when this little pig looked up at you, with one ear lifted up, and the other drooping down, you felt as though you wanted to laugh, he was so comical.
As Bob lifted his dog Don up to see the pigs, this one I have told you about raised up on his hind legs and squealed.
“Hello, Squinty!” called the boy, for the pig was named Squinty, on account of his squinting eye. “Hello, Squinty!” cried Bob. “I guess you’d like to get out and dig in the garden, eh? Well, you can’t, so you must stay in the pen.”
“Squee! Squee!” cried Squinty, the comical pig, about whom I have told you in the book named after him. He had many adventures, did Squinty――adventures with Slicko, the squirrel; with Mappo, the merry monkey; and with Tum Tum, the jolly elephant.
“Squee! Squee!” grunted Squinty, looking at Don in that funny way.
“No, you can’t get out,” said Bob, laughing.
“You look like a nice dog,” said the little pig. “Can’t you come and let me out of the pen, some day when no one is looking? Do come! I’m tired of staying in here. Wuff! Wuff!”
“Bow-wow!” barked Don, and that was how he got to know Squinty, the comical pig.
“Will you come and bite a hole in the pen so I can get out?” asked Squinty of Don.
“Bow wow! No, that would not be right,” Don said, for he and the little pig could talk together in animal talk, which Bob, the boy, could not understand. Bob thought his dog and the pig were just grunting and squealing, and barking and whining. That goes to show you animals can do things we cannot do.
“No, I can’t let you out,” said Don, as his master set him down, and walked over toward the chicken coop, where the boy was going to fix the fence so the big rooster could not get out again.
But, just before they got there, something happened. There was a loud noise, and Bob’s sister Sallie screamed: