A Collection of Beatrix Potter StoriesPotter, Beatrix
General
A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories
Potter, Beatrix
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, English; Short stories
He was obliged to shut his eyes and pretend to sleep. She became quiet,
and there was a smell of peppermint.
"I thought you had eaten them," said Pigling, waking suddenly.
"Only the corners," replied Pig-wig, studying the sentiments with much
interest by the firelight.
"I wish you wouldn't; he might smell them through the ceiling," said the
alarmed Pigling.
Pig-wig put back the sticky peppermints into her pocket; "Sing
something," she demanded.
"I am sorry ... I have tooth-ache," said Pigling much dismayed.
"Then I will sing," replied Pig-wig. "You will not mind if I say iddy
tidditty? I have forgotten some of the words."
Pigling Bland made no objection; he sat with his eyes half shut, and
watched her.
She wagged her head and rocked about, clapping time and singing in a
sweet little grunty voice--
"A funny old mother pig lived in a
stye, and three little piggies had she;
"(Ti idditty idditty) umph, umph,
umph! and the little pigs said, wee, wee!"
She sang successfully through three or four verses, only at every verse
her head nodded a little lower, and her little twinkly eyes closed up.
"Those three little piggies grew peaky
and lean, and lean they might very
well be;
"For somehow they couldn't say umph,
umph, umph! and they wouldn't
say wee, wee, wee!
"For somehow they couldn't say--
Pig-wig's head bobbed lower and lower, until she rolled over, a little
round ball, fast asleep on the hearth-rug.
Pigling Bland, on tip-toe, covered her up with an antimacassar.
He was afraid to go to sleep himself; for the rest of the night he sat
listening to the chirping of the crickets and to the snores of Mr.
Piperson overhead.
Early in the morning, between dark and daylight, Pigling tied up his
little bundle and woke up Pig-wig. She was excited and half-frightened.
"But it's dark! How can we find our way?"
"The cock has crowed; we must start before the hens come out; they might
shout to Mr. Piperson."
Pig-wig sat down again, and commenced to cry.
"Come away Pig-wig; we can see when we get used to it. Come! I can hear
them clucking!"
Pigling had never said shuh! to a hen in his life, being peaceable; also
he remembered the hamper.
He opened the house door quietly and shut it after them. There was no
garden; the neighbourhood of Mr. Piperson's was all scratched up by
fowls. They slipped away hand in hand across an untidy field to the
road.
The sun rose while they were crossing the moor, a dazzle of light over
the tops of the hills. The sunshine crept down the slopes into the
peaceful green valleys, where little white cottages nestled in gardens
and orchards.
"That's Westmorland," said Pig-wig. She dropped Pigling's hand and
commenced to dance, singing--
"Tom, Tom, the piper's son, stole a pig
and away he ran!
"But all the tune that he could play,
was 'Over the hills and far away!'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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