A FIERY OLD GENTLEMAN. 49 



us. At first they could see nothing of the pig, but the 

 waving of the paddy soon showed them where he was 

 making for. The shouting of the men and banging of 

 the kerosine tins warned piggy that there was to be no 

 peace for him in the btl, so he began to move ahead 

 very reluctantly, I should say. He was now above his 

 depth, so progress was slow ; and to the boatmen also, 

 who could move but very slowly in the thick paddy and 

 weeds. To us, standing on terra ftrma, nothing was 

 visible but the stern of the dinghy, and we knew now 

 that the pig was coming across to the side we were on. 

 For a short time we were in suspense, till we caught 

 sight of the pig as he got on to a ridge, and then, I sup- 

 pose, seeing us he stood waiting to see what was going 

 to happen next. We could see the boat gradually forg- 

 ing ahead till it was nearly on top of the pig ; the men 

 in the boat on seeing him started shouting and beating 

 on the empty cans. Master piggy was roused by this 

 time, for no sooner did he see the bow of the boat get near 

 him than he made a charge at it ; luckily for its occu- 

 pants, as he did so he fell again into deep water, and 

 though he managed to get his two front legs in the boat, 

 he could not jump in, as he would have otherwise done 

 had his feet rested on the ground. Being baulked in 

 his efforts, the boar sullenly retired and made towards 

 where we were ; he had partly to swim and partly to 

 wade ; but no sooner he got on drier land than he made 

 for us, at first at a trot, and when about twenty paces or 

 so he put on spurt and came charging straight down, 

 D. P 4 



