MOTHER PORKY GOES VISITING

Monday morning! And such a busy Monday morning in the little brick house! Mother Grunty was washing clothes. The house was a bit neglected, or so Mother Grunty thought, though a stranger entering it would never have guessed it to be so.

The kitchen was steaming with hot suds as Mother Grunty hurried to rub the clothes and feed her wringer so that Blacky-ears could turn it before starting for school. And there at the table sat Little-wee, book in hand, reading, "The clock strikes 11. How many hours ago did it strike 2?" At eight-thirty off hurried Blacky-ears and Little-wee.

"Good-by now, dearies. Do be careful of the crossings! Little-wee, your shoelace is dragging. There! that's better! You don't want to be called Johnny shoestrings, do you?" And then, though she was so very busy, Mother Grunty stood at the door smiling happily as her two trim little piglets trotted off to school.

"Well," she said to herself as she turned back toward the kitchen, "now I simply must go to work if I am ever to finish before night." Then back to her washtub she whisked.

She had just caught up her clothes basket and taken steps toward the back door when "Ringle, ringle, ring!" chimed the front doorbell. With a sigh, Mother Grunty put down her basket, tied on a fresh gingham apron, and went to open her door. And when she had thrown it wide, whom should she see but her very dear friend Mother Porky, with three of her very lovely but very lively little pigs!

"Well, well, well, this is a real surprise! Come right in," said dear, good Mother Grunty.

"I hope it is not too much of a surprise. We know Monday is wash day," smiled Mother Porky.

"No, not at all,—not at all, when such good friends as you come in!" And Mother Grunty really meant what she said, though she could not help worrying a bit about her well-nigh empty bread box and her large washing.

When hats and coats and rubbers had been put away and the four were comfortably settled around the fireplace, Mother Grunty told them all about her washing and about her untidy house and about her "picked-up" dinner. But she told them in such a nice way, such a nice, kindly, cordial way, that good Mother Porky had not the slightest reason to feel unwelcome.

"I don't know when I have had breakfast dishes to wash at this hour," laughed Mother Grunty as she returned to the kitchen, followed by Mother Porky and the three lovely little piglets.

"Now, my dears, you run outside and play," Mother Porky urged. "Blacky-ears and Little-wee have a nice swing and so many playthings out there, just you go on out now."

"All right," the two oldest agreed, but Little-tot, the baby of the family, wanted to stay with her mother. So Mother Grunty found some pictures and crayons and a pencil, and soon Little-tot was settled at one end of the kitchen table, while Mother Grunty and Mother Porky worked away at the breakfast dishes.

And such a good visit as they were having when shrieks and cries made them hurry to the kitchen door and out onto the porch.

"Where are they!" exclaimed Mother Porky, but even as she asked, one of her piglets came running toward her.

"Mamma! Oh, Mamma! Oh, Mamma! Do you know—?" Her breath gave out completely and she had to stop. "Oh, Mamma!" she began once more.

"Tell us what's wrong," urged Mother Grunty rather sharply.

"Oh, Mamma! Pinky is hung up! She's hung up in the oak tree!" she finally managed to say.

"What do you mean?" the two asked in one breath, as they hurried in the direction of the old oak. But when they came nearer the tree, they both gasped in surprise. The question had answered itself.

"What do you mean, Pinky! What do you mean! Haven't I always told you not to climb trees! Now, how ever are you expecting to get down!" scolded Mother Porky.

But Mother Grunty could do nothing but laugh and laugh and laugh. "Guess you won't need to scold her. She is taking her punishment right now," she said.

And if you could have seen Pinky, you would have laughed with Mother Grunty and you would have agreed with her too. Swinging from an old stub of a dead limb was Pinky Porky. Her pretty new skirt of stout tan kindergarten cloth was holding firm in spite of the fact that the old limb had poked a large hole through it, just above the deep hem. And there she swung, several feet high in the air!

"Get me down! Oh, please do get me down," she begged, and the tears dropped right into the grasses below. "I was only trying to jump to the ground, and my skirt caught on this horrid old limb. Get me down!"

"Well, I don't see how it's to be done," sighed Mother Porky, who was growing very much worried for fear the skirt would tear enough more to let her piglet crash to the ground.

But practical Mother Grunty had hurried back toward the house. In the shed she found a stepladder and a pair of grass shears. These she tugged back to the oak from which still hung Pinky, swinging and swaying and begging and crying.

When Pinky saw Mother Grunty coming along with the ladder and shears, she cried harder than ever, for she knew she could not get onto the ladder, and she didn't know what Mother Grunty meant to do with those large sharp-looking shears.

"Just suppose you climb this ladder and do your best to reach up and cut off the skirt while I stand below and catch her as she drops," puffed Mother Grunty as she came up to them.

"Your new kindergarten dress!" sighed Mother Porky as she climbed the ladder and waited for Mother Grunty to hand her the shears. But it was not very easy to reach so high and to cut that stout cloth with its heavy burden dragging at it. "Clip—snip—snap—snip—clip!" went the shears.

"Getting it?" asked Mother Grunty. "Clip—snip—snap—clip!" again went the shears, and down plumped Pinky into her arms with such a force that both of them fell heavily to the ground.

"Do you know, I had forgotten all about Little-tot!" spoke up Mother Porky as she climbed down the ladder.

"Oh, she's all right. She's still coloring away, I guess," soothed Mother Grunty as the little procession walked gravely up the path to the shed where the ladder and shears were put away. Then into the house filed the same silent four, Pinky in her ragged skirt bringing up the rear.

It was very quiet indeed in Mother Grunty's kitchen. "Where is she!" This time Mother Porky's voice was full of anxious tears. "Little-tot, where are you?" she groaned.

"Wite here, Mudder," came a happy, chirping voice from behind the pantry door. Then, as the door swung open, Mother Porky sank right down onto the wash bench and covered her face with her hands!

"Stand still, Little-tot," begged good, patient Mother Grunty. "Stand still like a good little girl until Aunty can help you."

If ever a youngster needed help Little-tot was the one. For you will scarcely believe what I have to tell you. There stood Little-tot, her face and hands and dress and shoes just painted with dripping molasses, while her feet were stuck fast in the pool of molasses that was slowly widening on Mother Grunty's pantry floor.

"What were you trying to do?" Mother Grunty asked as she put on her oilcloth apron and armed herself with sponges and washbasin and towels.

"Nuffin—only eatin' 'lasses," came the chirping reply. "Me just loves 'lasses. Me picked it up by han'fuls! Yep! right in bofe my han's!" How Mother Grunty did laugh, and it was only the stickiness that kept her from hugging the cunning piglet who liked to "eat 'lasses by han'fuls"!

But Mother Porky could not laugh, even when Mother Grunty said not one bit of harm had been done. Indeed, she spoke of going home at once. But, of course, Mother Grunty would not let her do that.

"Very soon now we'll have a bite to eat, and Blacky-ears and Little-wee will be coming home to amuse the children. Then you and I can have our good visit," she coaxed. And sure enough! Just as the Porky piglets had been excused from the table, in bounded Blacky-ears and Little-wee, followed by Kinky-tail and Curly-tail.

"Mumsie, we fellows want to play pirate, and first may we have some bread and molasses?" called Blacky-ears.

"Oh! don't mention molasses in this house," said Mother Porky as she came through the doorway. When the "pirates" spied their new playmates, they shouted for joy, "Oh, goody! Here's somebody to rob! Come on, will you play too?"

Now "pirate" sounded rather dangerous, but it proved a real blessing to the two mothers who wanted a quiet chat, for not until they were called in for supper did the piglets come in with even so much as a question.

After a supper of corn muffins and strawberry preserves, fresh creamy milk and a fruit cake, the Porky family hurried into their wraps, for they had a rather long ride out to Swineton.

"Now don't you ever again think of Little-tot's molasses. And you come whenever you can," were Mother Grunty's parting words.

As she returned to her kitchen and saw her half-finished washing and her table full of dishes, she chuckled to herself, "I always thought Bad Boy Mischief was more friendly with my two than with any other piglets in the world. But to-day he rode on the shoulders of two very lovely but very lively little girls."