A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

Author:Robert Newton Peck
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Coming of age, Social Issues, Farm & Ranch Life, Animals, Family, Beginner, Readers, Juvenile Fiction, Fathers and sons, Fiction, Vermont, Pigs, Suspense, Swine, Audiobooks, Parents, Farm life, Lifestyles, Adolescence
ISBN: 9780679853060
Publisher: Random House Sprinter Books
Published: 1994-09-20T03:43:00.292523+00:00

That’s what I was remembering as I sat washing up Pinky. That pig sure did get dirty. She’d even got mud in her ears. When I first got her, washing her was no trouble on account of her being so tiny and all. But now! She was getting bigger than August.

Papa come round the kitchen corner, carrying a gear for the quern. Mama had a small hand quern in the milk house, which she used to grind up meal. I turned the crank.

“You’ll wash that pig away,” Papa said. “Won’t be nothing left of Pinky ’cept a lump of lard.”

“I’m getting her clean, so I can put a ribbon on her neck and pretend I’m taking her to Rutland.”

Papa hunkered down on his heels and watched me wash Pinky. She was clean as an archangel.

“Rob?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you think you could keep both your feet out of trouble if you was to go by yourself to Rutland?”

I couldn’t talk. I knew he was funning me about going to Rutland. It weren’t for real.

“Ben Tanner stopped by. He offered to take you to the Fair with him. Seems like Mrs. Bascom told Mrs. Tanner how much you wanted going. Ben asked me. He says he wants to show off them young oxen, and he wants a boy to work ’em in the ring. Said that they was too small just yet for him and that he’d feel foolish.”

“Papa, is this a joke to play on me? If it is, I don’t think I can take it.”

“You ain’t heard all, boy. Mr. Tanner says he’s sending some stock up a day early. He says if you want to show Pinky, she can go too.”

“Papa, please …”

“Now then. It’s more than a week off, so I don’t want to be talked to death about Rutland before you even put a foot on the Fair Grounds. Before you go, there’s the hen coop that needs cleaning out. Manure’s so thick in there, you got to kick a path to get eggs.”

“Ill do it, Papa.”

“Another thing. They won’t be no spending money. Not for nothing. You hear?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Mama will make you a lunch basket that’ll be breakfast, dinner, and supper. And you’re to do all the Tanners ask of you. And see things to be done before they ask.”

“Yes, Papa. I’ll sure do good.”

“If they judge hogs and judge oxen at the same time, your place is with Tanner’s yoke and not your own pig. Promise me, boy.”

“I promise, Papa. I’ll do proud.”

“And one more thing. It’d be right warm if you stop off and give Widow Bascom a thank you. You’re beholding to her for putting the bug to Mrs. Tanner’s ear.”

“I will, Papa. I will. I will.”

Mama was happy I was going to Rutland. Aunt Carrie wasn’t so sure at first. But later that evening she said she was going to give me ten cents for the Fair, providing I didn’t lose it, and didn’t tell about it to Mama or Papa. It was a secret.

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