The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter [36]
She finished a second plate, got up, and looked about her, as though she were going to start.
"You can't go in the dark," said Pigling Bland.
Pig-wig looked anxious.
"Do you know your way by day- light?"
"I know we can see this little white house from the hills across the river. Which way are _you_ going, Mr. Pig?"
"To market--I have two pig papers. I might take you to the bridge; if you have no objection," said
Pigling much confused and sitting on the edge of his coppy stool. Pig- wig's gratitude was such and she asked so many questions that it became embarrassing to Pigling Bland.
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 tiptoe, 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 neighborhood of Mr. Piperson's was all scratched up by fowls. They slipped away hand in hand across an untidy field to the road. "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!'"
"Come Pig-wig, we must get to the bridge before folks are stirring."
"Why do you want to go to market, Pigling?" inquired Pig-wig
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--
presently. "I don't want; I want to grow potatoes." "Have a peppermint?" said Pig-wig. Pigling Bland refused quite crossly. "Does your poor toothy hurt?" inquired Pig- wig. Pigling Bland grunted.
Pig-wig ate the peppermint herself, and followed the opposite side of the road. "Pig-wig! keep under the wall, there's a man ploughing." Pig-wig crossed over, they hurried down hill towards the