"I saw a bear in the pasture!" he cried.
Mrs. Pig promptly forgot her displeasure. Although her son was certainly unharmed, she couldn't help being startled. It gave her what she called "a turn" to learn that Grunty had met a bear.
"A bear!" Mrs. Pig gasped. "A bear is a terribly dangerous creature. It's a wonder that you ever got home.... What did you do when you saw him?" Mrs. Pig demanded.
"I walked away," said Grunty.
"He couldn't have noticed you," Mrs. Pig declared. "If you had squealed it would have been the end of you."
Grunty Pig felt that he was the most important member of the family. Not one of his brothers or sisters had ever seen a bear. At least they had never claimed to have enjoyed so fearsome a sight.
"It was nothing," he boasted. "I'd as soon meet a bear as the Muley Cow."
His mother, however, was of another mind. She kept looking about in an uneasy fashion.
"I wish Farmer Green would come and put us into our pen," she murmured. "It will soon be dark. And I shouldn't like to spend the night out here—not with a bear in the neighborhood."