Grunty didn"t know what to say. He looked at the odd little creatures again. And then he looked at Spot once more.
"If these really are pigs," he faltered, "they must be very, very young.
They"re certainly smaller than any day-old pigs I ever saw.... Maybe their tails haven"t sprouted yet."
Old dog Spot seemed to choke over something. He turned his head away for a moment or two before he spoke.
"These pigs," he said, "won"t ever have tails. Not one of them would know what to do with a tail if you gave him one. They don"t want tails.
They have no use for them. And now that you see for yourself how happy they are without tails, you ought not to delay any longer about having yours cut off. I hope," Spot added, "I"ll see your tail nailed up on the barn to-morrow, where everybody can admire it."
Then Grunty Pig said something that surprised him.
"Why don"t you have your own tail cut off?" he asked old Spot.
And before old Spot could think of an answer, Johnnie Green came running out of the woodshed.
"Get away from my guinea pigs!" he shouted.
Grunty and Spot both turned and ran in opposite directions. Grunty didn"t see Spot again for more than a week. When they did at last meet, old Spot never mentioned tails at all. To tell the truth, he seemed to feel somewhat ashamed of himself for having tried to play a trick on Grunty Pig.
Or maybe he felt ashamed because he was caught at it.
XXI
BEECHNUTS
Down the hill, a little way from Farmer Green"s house, a great beech tree stood beside the road. In the fall, when the nuts were ripe, Johnnie Green often visited the tree. And so did Frisky Squirrel. And so, likewise, did that noisy rascal, Jasper Jay. They liked beechnuts--all three. And somehow they got the notion that the beech tree belonged to them--and to n.o.body else.
One fine, crisp fall day when Johnnie Green was in school, a fourth nut-lover wandered down the road, stopped right between the wheel tracks, and sniffed. It was Grunty Pig. "I smell beechnuts!" he cried with a joyful squeal. And crashing into the light underbrush along the roadside, he began to search among the fallen leaves with his long nose.
Soon Grunty came upon a cl.u.s.ter of the three-sided nuts, clinging inside a bur that the frost had split open. He ate the sweet nuts, sh.e.l.ls and all. And with many a grunt of delight he grubbed beneath the tree from which the nuts had fallen. His keen nose led him to burs that Johnnie Green had trampled over that very morning, and missed.
"I wonder--" said Grunty Pig aloud--"I wonder why n.o.body ever told me about this beech tree."
"Perhaps it was because you are a pig," said a voice right over his head.
He looked up. And there on a low branch sat Frisky Squirrel. Grunty knew him; he had sometimes seen him around Farmer Green"s corncrib.
"Of course I"m a Pig," Grunty retorted. "I"m Mrs. Pig"s son."
"Well, Mrs. Pig"s son, I notice that you have helped yourself freely to beechnuts."
"I"ve eaten all I could find," Grunty told Frisky with a grin.
"I don"t hear any thanks," Frisky Squirrel remarked. "Don"t you know that these beechnuts belong to me and Jasper Jay and Johnnie Green?"
"Umph!"
"You did?" Frisky inquired.
"Umph!"
"Oh, you didn"t!" Frisky exclaimed. "Then I suppose I shall have to pardon you. But Jasper Jay wouldn"t, if he caught you taking any of the nuts that fall from this tree."
There was truth in what Frisky said. Even as he spoke a patch of blue flashed in the top of the beech tree. And a harsh voice sang out, "What"s going on here?"
Jasper Jay had arrived.
Grunty Pig, however, did not even give Jasper a glance. Instead, he began nosing about for another beechnut bur.
For a moment or two Jasper Jay watched him. And then Jasper began to squawk.
"Stop that!" he ordered. "Don"t you dare to take any of our beechnuts!"
"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "I can"t find any more on the ground. So I suppose I shall have to obey him," Grunty muttered half under his breath.
"Don"t mumble! Speak up!" cried Jasper Jay. "If you have any excuses to make, let"s hear them!"
XXII
JASPER JAY OBJECTS
While Jasper Jay, in the beech tree, waited for Grunty Pig, on the ground, to speak up and make his excuses for taking beechnuts, a bur dropped from a twig and landed right in front of Grunty"s nose. He fell upon it greedily. And, tearing it open, he devoured the nuts with relish.
For a few moments his action struck Jasper Jay dumb. That blue-coated rascal turned to Frisky Squirrel, who clung to a limb near-by.
"Well, did you ever?" Jasper gasped. And then, having found his voice, Jasper began to use it on Grunty Pig.
Now, Jasper Jay was a wild fellow. He often used words that made the gentler folk in Pleasant Valley shudder. And he called Grunty Pig names that would have made many a person angry.
Grunty Pig, however, never even blinked. And after a while Jasper Jay used up all his special words, which he generally employed at such times. He gave Frisky Squirrel a helpless look.
"My! My! Isn"t this chap thick-skinned?" he exclaimed.
"Certainly I am!" cried Grunty Pig. "That"s why I like to wallow in mud."
"Ha!" Jasper Jay sniffed. And he spoke again to Frisky Squirrel. "This chap is thick-headed, too. I see that I"m going to have trouble making him understand what I say."
Frisky Squirrel merely grinned at his companion.
"Look here, young Porker!" Jasper called to Grunty Pig. "Doesn"t Farmer Green feed you?"