Pigs grow quickly, quicker even than children: and much though the latter altered in the first month on board, the little black porker (whose name by the by was Thunder) altered even more. He soon grew to such a size one could not possibly allow him to lie on one’s stomach any more: so, as his friendliness did not diminish, the functions were reversed, and it became a common thing to find one child, or a whole bench of them, sitting on his scaly side. They grew very fond of him indeed (especially Emily), and called him their Dear Love, their Only Dear, their Own True Heart, and other names. But he had only two things he ever said. When his back was being scratched he enunciated an occasional soft and happy grunt; and that same phrase (only in a different tone) had to serve for every other occasion and emotion--except one. When a particularly heavy lot of children sat down on him at once, he uttered the faintest ghost of a little moan, as affecting as the wind in a very distant chimney, as if the air in him was being squeezed out through a pinhole. One cannot wish for a more comfortable seat than an acquiescent pig. ‘If I was the Queen,’ said Emily, ‘I should most certainly have a pig for a throne.’ ‘Perhaps she has,’ suggested Harry. ‘He _does_ like being scratched,’ she added presently in a very sentimental tone, as she rubbed his scurfy back. The mate was watching: ‘I should think _you_’d like being scratched, if your skin was in that condition!’ ‘Oh how disGUSTing you are!’ cried Emily, delighted. But the idea took root. ‘I don’t think I should kiss him quite so much if I was you,’ Emily presently advised Laura, who was lying with her arms tight round his neck and covering his briny snout with kisses from ring to ears. ‘My pet! My love!’ murmured Laura, by way of indirect protest. The wily mate had foreseen that some estrangement would be necessary if they were ever to have fresh pork served without salt tears. He intended this to be the thin end of the wedge. But alas! Laura’s mind was as humoursome an instrument to play as the Twenty-three-stringed Lute. When dinner-time came, the children mustered for their soup and biscuit.