And there he was, outside the yard!

Grunty Pig squealed for his mother. But no one answered. The fence was
too high for him to look over it. It was too tight for him to peep
through.

"I want to get in!" Grunty cried. "Why doesn't somebody answer?"

The silence from the other side of the fence was dreadful. Grunty Pig
would have been _glad_ to have his mother scold him then, just for the
comfort of hearing her voice.

"Oh! Oh!" he wailed. "What shall I do? Whatever shall I do? Farmer Green
must have put the family back in the pen. And I'll have to spend the
night out here alone!"

XII

WOOF!

Night found Grunty Pig huddled close to the outside of the piggery. Many
times he had walked around the low building, snuffing at the doors and
trying in vain to find some opening through which he might crawl. To his
dismay, all was snug and tight. There wasn't a hole big enough even for
Miss Kitty Cat to creep through.

Though Grunty had called a good many times, nobody had answered him.
Inside the piggery, in their pen, Mrs. Pig and her other children were
sound asleep. Now and then Grunty could hear a throaty snore, which he
knew to be his mother's.

"How can she sleep, when I'm missing?" he cried.

Now, Mrs. Pig had been much upset by Grunty's absence. And when Farmer
Green came to put her family into the piggery for the night she had
tried to explain to him that Grunty had run away. Unfortunately, it
happened that Farmer Green was in a great hurry. He didn't stop to find
out what was troubling Mrs. Pig, but hustled her and her children inside
and closed all the doors.

Try as she would, Mrs. Pig hadn't been able to stay awake. Her eyes
would close, in spite of all she could do. Though she slept, she dreamed
about the truant Grunty. Now and then she cried aloud in the darkness,
when some terrible creature seemed to be chasing him. But Mrs. Pig never
quite waked up.

Once Grunty Pig thought he heard his mother speak his name. And he
called out in as brave a voice as he could muster, "Here I am, just
outside the piggery! Won't somebody please let me in?"

He called in vain. At last he fell asleep, for he was about as tired as
any little pig could be.

In the middle of the night Grunty Pig awoke with a start. Somebody said
"Woof!" And somebody came sniffing and snuffing around the corner of the
piggery. Dimly Grunty could see a dark, burly form. And he was so
frightened that he bawled right out, "It's a