of the box was nailed a cover with a handle to it, and by
this handle the pig in the little cage could be easily carried.

"There you are!" exclaimed the farmer. "Now he'll be all right until you
get him home."

"And, when I do, I'll put him in a nice big pen, and feed him well,"
said the boy. Squinty smacked his lips at that, for he was hungry even
now.

"Oh, have you caged him up? Isn't he cute!" exclaimed one of the boy's
sisters. "I'll give him the core of my apple," and she thrust it in
through the slats of the box. Squinty was very glad, indeed, to get the
apple core, and he soon ate it up.

"Come on!" cried the boy's father. "Is the pig nailed up? We must go for
the train!"

"I wonder what the train is," thought Squinty. He was soon to know. The
boy lifted him up, cage and all, and put him into the wagon that was to
go to the depot. Squinty knew what a wagon was and horses, for he had
seen them many times.

Then away they started. Squinty gave a loud squeal, which was his last
good-by to the other pigs in the pen, and then the wagon rattled away
along the road.

Squinty had started on his journey.

CHAPTER VII

SQUINTY LEARNS A TRICK

Squinty, the comical pig, tried to look out through the slats of the
box, in which he was being taken away, to see in which direction he was
going. He also wanted to watch the different sights along the road. But
the sides of the farm wagon were so high that the little pig could see
nothing. He stretched his fat neck as far as it would go, but that did
no good either. Squinty wished he were as big as his papa or his mamma.

"Then I could see what is going on," he thought.

But just wishing never made anyone larger or taller, not even a pig, and
Squinty stayed the same size.

He could hear the farmer and the children talking. Now and then the boy
who had bought Squinty, and who was taking him home, would look around
at his pet in the slatted box.

"Is he all right?" one of the girls would ask.

"He seems to be," the boy would say. "I am glad I got him."

"Well, he acts real cute," said another girl, who was called Sallie,
"but I never heard of having a pig for a pet before."

"You just wait until I teach him some tricks," said the boy, whose name
was Bob. "Then you'll think he's fine!"

"Ha! So I am to learn tricks," thought Squinty in his box. "I wonder
what tricks are, anyhow? Does it mean I am to have good things to eat? I
hope so."

You see Squin