t as the old dog talked on and on Grunty forgot the painful
part of the plan.

"There's no doubt," he agreed, "that my tail would be a fine sight,
fastened up on the barn where everybody could gaze at it. But don't you
think, Mr. Spot, that I'd look very queer without any tail?"

"N--no!" Spot told him. "N--no! I've seen plenty of pigs without tails.
They didn't look queer at all. Really, they looked better without tails
than they would have looked with them."

Grunty Pig had listened carefully to what Spot said. Yet somehow he
couldn't quite make up his mind to part with his beautiful tail, even if
it would delight many more people when nailed to the outside of the
barn.

"I'd like to see one of those pigs," he said to Spot. "I'd like to see
how they look."

"That's easily arranged," old Spot told him. "I can show you a dozen of
them--all as pink and white and happy as they can be. And not a single
one of them with a tail!"

"I'd certainly like to see them," Grunty Pig murmured.

"They're a pretty sight," Spot assured him. "Don't you think you'd feel
uncomfortable if you appeared before them with a tail? Don't you want
to have yours cut off _before_ you go to see these tailless little
fellows? It seems to me you'd be more at your ease. It would certainly
be _polite_ of you."

Grunty Pig, however, cared little for politeness. He said that nobody
was polite to him. His brothers--and even his sisters--were always
knocking him down and trampling on him.

"Very well!" said Spot. "Squirm through that fence and follow me."

It was a tight squeeze. When Grunty Pig was half through the hole in the
fence he found himself stuck fast. He could move neither forward nor
back. "Oh, dear!" he wailed. "What shall I do?"

"Keep perfectly still!" old dog Spot cautioned him--as if Grunty Pig
could do anything else. "I'll jump the fence and help you."

Now, Grunty Pig thought that old Spot intended to give him a push.
Instead, Spot nipped him smartly.

It was exactly the sort of help that Grunty needed. He gave a frantic
plunge forward and fell, sprawling, on the ground outside the yard,
where Spot soon joined him.

"It takes old Spot to hurry 'em along," said the old dog gleefully.

Grunty Pig said "Umph! Umph!"

Old dog Spot was not quite sure what he meant.

XX

A NEW KIND OF PIG

"Stop grunting and squealing and follow me!" old dog Spot growled. And
Grunty Pig, who had just tumbled through a hole in the