"It seems to me—" she sniffed—for she was quite upset—"it seems to me that I remember your saying something about a bear last night. But I wasn't wide awake at the time. And I thought you were fibbing again.
"Perhaps," she added, "this will teach you a few things that you needed to learn.... Always mind your mother!" said Mrs. Pig. "And always tell the truth!"
Her children all repeated the words after her. And Grunty Pig's voice could have been heard plainly above all the rest.
His mother looked at him fondly. She had always claimed that she had no favorite among her children. But now she couldn't help thinking what a promising youngster Grunty was, even if he was the runt of the family.
"That's a good Grunty," said Mrs. Pig. "You won't forget this lesson, will you?"
"No, Mother!" Grunty answered.
Now, that very afternoon Mrs. Pig took it into her head to have her children say the morning's lesson again. So she called her youngsters together. And she asked Grunty the first of all to recite what she had taught him.
"I think it was something about a bear," he stammered, "but I can't remember exactly."
"Dear me!" said poor Mrs. Pig. "I don't know what I'll do with this lad."
Then she asked the other children, one by one, what they had learned that very morning.