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!
Then Barney lay down to sleep, and Tom sat on a bench outside the door
and began to make a whistle out of the pig's tail with his
pocket-knife.
Now Farmer Bowser, when he had finished sawing the wood, found it was
time to feed the pig, so he took a pail of meal and went to the
pigsty. But when he came to the sty there was no pig to be seen, and
he searched all round the place for a good hour without finding it.
"Piggy, piggy, piggy!" he called, but no piggy came, and then he knew
his pig had been stolen. He was very angry, indeed, for the pig was a
great pet, and he had wanted to keep it till it grew very big.
So he put on his coat and buckled a strap around his waist, and went
down to the village to see if he could find out who had stolen his
pig.
Up and down the street he went, and in and out the lanes, but no
traces of the pig could he find anywhere. And that was no great
wonder, for the pig was eaten by that time and its bones picked clean.
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