exact middle of the trough. Then there
would be three other youngsters on each side of him, all crowding
towards him. And though he found it a bit hard to breathe under such a
squeezing, at least he got his share of the food.

Poor Mrs. Pig! Her children had frightful manners. Though she talked
and talked to them about not crowding, and about eating slowly, and
about eating noiselessly, the moment their food was poured into their
trough they forgot everything their mother had said.

That is, all but Grunty Pig! If he happened to be left out in the cold,
so to speak, and had to stand and look on while his brothers and sister
stuffed themselves, he couldn't help remembering his mother's remarks
about manners.

"It's awful to watch them!" he would gurgle. "I don't see how they can
be so boorish." He thought there was no sadder sight than his six
brothers and sisters jostling one another over their food, while he
couldn't find a place to push in among them.

II

A NEW WAY TO EAT

One thing, especially, distressed Mrs. Pig. Her children _would_ put
their fore feet right into the trough when they ate their meals out of
it. Nothing she said to them made the slightest difference. Even when
she told them that they were little pigs they didn't seem to care.

"We're all bigger than Grunty is," said one of her sons--a bouncing
black youngster who was the most unruly of the litter.

"You're all greedy," Mrs. Pig retorted. "Do try to restrain yourselves
when you eat. Remember--there's plenty of time."

"But there's not always plenty of food," Grunty Pig told his mother.
"Sometimes there isn't any left for me."

"I know," said Mrs. Pig. "I know that your brothers and sisters eat your
share whenever they can. Farmer Green furnishes enough food for you all.
And if you children didn't forget your manners everybody would get his
share--no more and no less."

Now, Mrs. Pig was not the only one that noticed how piggish her
youngsters were at the trough. One day Farmer Green himself remarked to
his son Johnnie, as they leaned over the pen, that that litter of pigs
did beat all he had ever seen.

"They come a-running at meal time as if they were half starved. It's a
wonder they don't get in the trough all over."

Johnnie Green liked to watch the pigs.

"That black fellow's the greediest of the lot," he declared. "He's
getting to be the biggest. He's almost twice the size of the little
runt."

"The runt doesn't get