But Natalie would not hear of Janet’s paying for them. “I’ve sacrificed so much, Jan, that I may as well sacrifice all!” sighed she, in a voice that sounded as if all on earth was lost.
Janet gathered up the greens and carried them to the pig pen where she threw them in for breakfast. Then, as long as she was there, she gave the happy little fellows their usual rations of corn and other feed, planning to save expense on the milk that morning.
Immediately after breakfast Frances invited Janet to go with her in the car for the new lawn mower and the mail. So the two girls drove away. Sam was not aware that the pigs had been fed and he prepared the usual liberal breakfast of skim milk and meal. At the pen he shoved the dish through the fence, and went to measure out the grain and other feed for them.
The names of the other two pigs were David and Jonathan because they seemed so fond of each other, but Seizer who always managed to get most of the food given for the three of them, now ate a double share of the breakfast provided by Sam. He already had eaten two-thirds of the greens and food given by Janet.
While at the store, Mrs. Tompkins said she expected her bees to swarm that day, and asked the girls if they wanted to buy another hive. Frances said she would hurry home and ask the others. Consequently, the house scouts were so interested in watching the second swarm captured and hived for them, that no one gave a thought to the live stock of the farm. Even the corporation cow was forgotten until after the bee-hive was placed beside the first one.
Janet remembered the chickens, and went to gather any eggs laid since the previous noon. In passing the pig pen on her way to the chicken coop, she stopped to call to the pigs. To her shocked horror she saw Seizer stiffened out near the trough, with his four little hoofs straight out before him. His body was horribly distended and his tongue was discolored and hanging out of his mouth.
Janet tore back to the house, crying loudly all the way. By the time she reached the kitchen stoop every one was running to find out what new calamity had fallen upon the heads of the scouts.
“My darling Seizer! Oh, my wonderful little Seizer! I used to think him a glutton because he ate his own and his brothers’ share of feed, but now that he’s dead, I wish I had never said a word against him! Poor little Seizer!” wailed Janet, rocking back and forth.
“What’s the matter? Is Seizer dead?” gasped the girls.
“Is de udder two all right?” asked Rachel, not thinking of the bomb she was throwing at Janet. The girl sprang up and was off like a shot for the barn yard.