“It’s you, is it! Up to your favorite trick of biting my toes! Well, it serves you right. Of course I am glad you like me, but I wish you would show your affection in some other way!”
“Oh,” cried the pig. “So you were the strange tree that kicked me and spoke to me! I recognize you by the taste of your toes. But how was I to know that the last time I nibbled you, you were a tree,—unless I nibbled you again to find out?”
“In that case, I’ll forgive you,” said Snythergen, “and I hope you’ll overlook the fright I gave you.”
They lay on the ground side by side and gazed up at the stars.
“Tell me, how did you learn to talk?” asked Snythergen.
“The farmer’s wife taught me,” said the pig.
“Why did she do that?”
“Because I was hungry.”
“That’s no reason. They give people food when they are hungry—they don’t teach them to talk.”