The Pigs in the Pen and Peter's Pants

When I was a little girl I lived on a farm with many animals, barns and sheds and beautiful forests. I lived there with four older brothers and my mother and father. One beautiful, sunny day Peter, Christian and I were walking through the barnyard and we stopped at the Pigpen. Father had just "slopped" the pigs - that is giving them their breakfast of sweet feed, potato peelings, carrot peelings and something very watery that I have no idea what it was. We decided it would be fun to stop and sit on the fence and watch the pigs have their breakfast. In the pigpen was a mother pig - a sow - and her 8 little piglets and the sow's sister. We were never allowed to name the pigs but the mother looked like a Hazel and her sister, a Bertha...



Father had moved on to the main barn to milk the cows and he was well out of earshot from us. We were laughing at the little piglets scurrying and pushing to get at the trough and the slop...they were snorting and grunting and generally making lots of noise... We laughed so hard that Peter slipped off the fence and into the Pigpen! One thing to be aware of is that when sows are feeding it is no time to be near them because they can mistake you for dinner! In a split second Hazel had grabbed Peter's pantleg with her snout and was pulling ! We were scared and I was screaming "Get out of there!" Peter was losing his balance and just when he was about to fall down and be part of a pigs breakfast Christian swooped in, one hand on the fence, and grabbed him by the collar and yanked him up! However, Hazel was not letting go of Peter's pantleg and the more Christian pulled , the more she held fast. Christian was very stubborn and he gave a big yank that left he and Peter tumbling to the other side of the Pigpen fence on safe ground. Hazel was upset and when I looked back at Peter and Christian lying in safety on the ground I saw something very funny! Peter had lost his pants to the Pigpen and Hazel!



We were relieved! Whew! Because I was the youngest and should not have been so near the Pigpen Christian said "Peter, we have to tell Mother that you threw your pants in to Hazel and Bertha otherwise she will be upset that Christina was with us for such a calamity!" And that is how Peter lost his pants to the Pigpen.