302 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
whole bunch; then turning round, he went back 
to his bed with a little grunt to say that I was now 
at liberty to go on to the cows and horses. 
However, on the following morning he hailed my 
approach in such a lively manner, with such a note 
of expectancy in his voice, that I concluded he had 
been thinking a great deal about elder-berries, and 
was anxious to have another go at them. Accord- 
ingly I cut him another bunch, which he quickly 
consumed, making little exclamations the while— 
“Thank you, thank you, very good—very good 
indeed!’ It was a new sensation in his life, and 
made him very happy, and was almost as good as 
a day of liberty in the fields and meadows and on 
the open green downs. 
From that time I visited him two or three times 
a day to give him huge clusters of elder-berries. 
There were plenty for the starlings as well; the 
clusters on those trees would have filled a cart. 
Then one morning I heard an indignant scream 
from the garden, and peeping out saw my friend, the 
pig, bound hand and foot, being lifted by a dealer 
into his cart with the assistance of the farmer. 
“Good-bye, old boy!” said I as the cart drove 
off; and I thought that by and by, in a month or 
two, if several persons discovered a peculiar and 
fascinating flavour in their morning rasher, it 
would be due to the elder-berries I had supplied to 
my friend the pig, which had gladdened his heart 
for a week or two before receiving his quietus. 
