"Go hungry," replied Barney, "unless you want to take my pipes and play in the village. Perhaps they will give you a penny." "No," answered Tom, shaking his head; "no one will give me a penny for playing; but Farmer Bowser might give me a penny to stop playing, if I went to his house. He did last week, you know." "You'd better try it," said his father; "it's mighty uncomfortable to be hungry." So Tom took his father's pipes and walked over the hill to Farmer Bowser's house; for you must know that Tom, Tom, the piper's son, Learned to play when he was young; But the only tune that he could play Was "Over the hills and far away." And he played this one tune as badly as his father himself played, so that the people were annoyed when they heard him, and often begged him to stop. When he came to Farmer Bowser's house, Tom started up the pipes and began to play with all his might. The farmer was in his woodshed, sawing wood, so he did not hear the pipes; and the farmer's wife was deaf, and could not hear them. But a little pig that had strayed around in front of the house heard the noise, and ran away in great fear to the pigsty. Then, as Tom saw the playing did no good, he thought he would sing also, and therefore he began bawling, at the top of his voice, "Over the hills, not a great ways off, The woodchuck died with the whooping-cough!" The farmer had stopped sawing to rest, just then; and when he heard the singing he rushed out of the shed, and chased Tom away with a big stick of wood. The boy went back to his father, and said, sorrowfully, for he was more hungry than before, "The farmer gave me nothing but a scolding; but there was a very nice pig running around the yard." "How big was it?" asked Barney. "Oh, just about big enough to make a nice dinner for you and me." The piper slowly shook his head; "'Tis long since I on pig have fed, And though I feel it's wrong to steal, Roast pig is very nice," he said. Tom knew very well what he meant by that, so he laid down the pipes, and went back to the farmer's house. When he came near he heard the farmer again sawing wood in the woodshed, and so he went softly up to the pig-sty and reached over and grabbed the little pig by the ears. The pig squealed, of course, but the farmer was making so much noise himself that he did not hear it, and in a minute Tom had the pig tucked under his arm and was running back home with it. The piper was very glad to see the pig, and said to Tom, "You are a good son, and the pig is very nice and fat. We shall have a dinner fit for a king." It was not long before the piper had the pig killed and cut into pieces and boiling in the pot. Only the tail was left out, for Tom wanted to make a whistle of it, and as there was plenty to eat besides the tail his father let him have it. The piper and his son had a fine dinner that day, and so great was their hunger that the little pig was all eaten up at one meal!