MY FRIEND THE PIG 301 



So I scratched him vigorously with my stick, 

 and made him wriggle his body and wink and 

 blink and smile delightedly all over his face. Then 

 I said to myself : " Now what the juice can I do 

 more to please him ? ): For though under sentence 

 of death, he had done no wrong, but was a good, 

 honest-hearted fellow-mortal, so that I felt bound 

 to do something to make the miry remnant of his 

 existence a little less miserable. 



I think it was the word juice I had just used 

 for that was how I pronounced it to make it less 

 like a swear-word that gave me an inspiration. 

 In the garden, a few yards back from the pen, 

 there was a large clump of old elder-trees, now 

 overloaded with ripening fruit the biggest clusters 

 I had ever seen. Going to the trees I selected and 

 cut the finest bunch I could find, as big round as 

 my cap, and weighing over a pound. This I de- 

 posited in his trough and invited him to try it. 

 He sniffed at it a little doubtfully, and looked at 

 me and made a remark or two, then nibbled at the 

 edge of the cluster, taking a few berries into his 

 mouth, and holding them some time before he 

 ventured to crush them. At length he did venture, 

 then looked at me again and made more remarks, 

 ic Queer fruit this ! Never tasted anything quite 

 like it before, but I really can't say yet whether I 

 like it or not." 



Then he took another bite, then more bites, 

 looking up at me and saying something between 

 the bites, till, little by little, he had consumed the 



