Some Experience on the Farm 45 
just a little happier by spading up the ground 
inside of his pen.” 
“Yes,” said Guy; “and perhaps the neighbor’s 
boys will help me.” 
So the next day the boys locked Billy into the 
corn-crib while they turned the ground in his pen 
with spades and freshened it ; the trough was 
scalded and scrubbed, and left in the sun to dry. 
When Billy was led back to his pen, he grunted his 
thankfulness to his friends the best he knew how. 
As for me, I concluded to put Uncle Ellison’s plan 
into my story ; for who knows but some of the boys 
who read it may be farmers some day, and will 
want to try it ? 
While we were at grandpa’s one of his neighbors’ 
hogs was taken sick, and the man brought six lit- 
tle white pigs up to grandpa’s because he wished 
to separate them from their mother, for fear they 
too might catch the disease. I never saw anything 
prettier than those little pigs, and they were just as 
clean as so many kittens. The man put them into 
an old pen not far from Billy’s, and there they 
squealed and grunted to their hearts’ content, and 
stuck their noses through every little crack in the 
pen. I noticed that some of the boards were loose 
