“No, I don’t,” said David; “I mean pig.”
“But it’s not a common sort of pig at all,” put in Pennie hastily, for she saw her brother’s face getting crimson with anger, “and it’s beautifully clean and clever. It shakes hands.”
“We’ve got lots of animals,” added Ambrose, “only you must come round to the barn to see them.”
“Well,” said Ethelwyn as the children all moved away, David rather sulkily, with hands in his pockets, “I never heard of a pig as a pet. I don’t believe it’s a proper sort of pet at all. Now, I’ve got a little tiny toy terrier at home, and he has a collar with silver bells. I had a canary, but Nurse left its cage on the window-ledge in a high wind, and it blew right down on the pavement from the very tip-top of the house, so it died.”
“Oh,” cried Nancy, horror-stricken, “how dreadful! Weren’t you sorry?”
“Not very,” said Ethelwyn coolly. “You see I’d had it a long time, and I was rather tired of it, and I often forgot to feed it.”
The animals were now visited, and introduced by their respective owners, but without exciting much interest in Ethelwyn, for whatever she saw it always appeared that she had something far better at home. Even Antony’s lively talents failed to move her, and, though she could not say she had a nicer pig herself, she observed calmly:
“Ah, you should see the animals in the Zoological Gardens!”
And to this there was no reply.
Then she was taken to swing in the barn, and this proved a more successful entertainment, for as long as the children would swing her Ethelwyn was content to be swung. When, however, Nancy boldly remarked: