But the pigs had other plans in view. They divided their forces. One ran down the garden path to Natalie’s truck-farm. One chose the driveway that ran down to the woods and stream. And the third pig took to the highway that ran to Four Corners.
The human forces also divided, now, to give pursuit to each individual deserter from the barnyard. Natalie and Janet raced after the pig which went for the gardens and the tender greens growing there. Rachel and two of the girls chased the pig which ran for the woods; and Mrs. James, with Norma, went after the pig which headed towards Four Corners.
The three individual units had experiences wild and varied for almost an hour, then two of the contingents successfully made “drives” for exhausted pigs, and that netted them two squealing prisoners. Mrs. James and Norma, however, kept on chasing their runaway, until the former said: “Norma, I’ll buy Janet another pig, but I refuse to run into Four Corners after that squealer! Fancy what Amity Ketchum will do. He’ll roll the funny incident under his gossipy tongue for ages to come!”
Norma laughed and shook her head. She was too breathless to speak. But Mrs. James had turned her back on the pig and its objective Four Corners, and started to trudge homewards.
It was a belated breakfast that morning, but the merriest one the girls had ever had. Such funny experiences as each girl had to narrate, kept them all laughing. And Rachel’s version of her race after the pig was not the least amusing, you can rest assured.
“Why, that slippery little rascal shot like an arrow from the bow, making straight for Natalie’s lettuce beds. I thought I had secured a ‘tackle-hold’ on him but he slid instantly out of my hands,” said Janet.
“Yes and he came plump into my shins and tripped me over him. I fell flat on my face in the potato-hills. One good thing that fall did, it frightened away a flock of potato-bugs,” laughed Natalie, when Janet had to pause for breath.
Now Janet took up the thread of narrative again. “In and out of the hills of corn and around the beanpoles he circled, until we both were dizzy. Everytime Nat or I thought we had him at a disadvantage we would swoop with open hands, only to find ourselves clutching a handful of dirt, and the little beast waiting a few feet distant as if to encourage us to keep up the game.”
The other girls laughed merrily at the description of the chase for this particular pig, and Rachel stood leaning against the pantry door, shaking with amusement.
“Girls, I never knew Janet could dance so wonderfully as she did while whirling about after the pig. Pavlova isn’t in it with our Janet! If we only had had a camera to take snap-shots of her high-kicking and leaping, she might have won a medal for her grace from the Girl Scout National Headquarters,” was Natalie’s conclusion to the story.