“How did you finally get him back to the pen?” Mrs. James wanted to know now.
“Why, in his mad circling he led us quite near to the barnyard, and it was Nat’s idea to entice him by means of a trough full of tidbits,” replied Janet “I realized that diplomacy was the only snare with which to catch pigs, so we left him standing with heaving sides and watching us suspiciously, while we filled the trough and dragged it out close to his snout.
“He was not equal to that temptation and fell instantly. Nat dragged the trough gradually back to the pen while I crept up behind the pig and the moment he had passed within the fence-gate, I closed it.”
“Have you any idea how he escaped the first time?” asked Mrs. James.
“Yes, one, or perhaps all three of the pigs burrowed under my slat fence and crept out through the tunnel they had dug,” said Janet. “But I rolled a rock into it and they’ll try a long time before they can move that obstacle out of the way.”
“Nat and you had a thrilling experience but there were only two to enjoy it. You should have been with Rachel and us—we raced to the woods after our pig, where there was so much room that there was no need for circling or doubling back in his tracks,” laughed Belle, at Janet’s conclusion.
“Miss Mason and her scouts heard the shouting and soon joined us in the chase. It must have looked exactly like one of the slap-stick movie comics where a long string of farmers, policemen, summer-boarders, and the heroine, chase the cross-eyed villain. But we managed to drive him—the pig, I mean—into one of the tents and before he could squirm his way out under the tent-flap, a dozen of us pounced upon him.
“I ought to be exact and say that one or two of us pounced upon the pig, while the other girls pounced upon each other! Then Rachel said: ‘Now you’se got him, whad yoh goin’ to do wid him?’
“We hadn’t thought of how we could get him back to the pen, but Miss Mason was equal to the emergency, as she is equal to anything, I do believe—and we soon had him in a burlap potato-sack. It was a simple thing to carry him back to the pen after that.”
When Belle had finished her narrative, all eyes turned to Mrs. James for her account of the chase, but she shook her head and said nothing. Norma laughed at their surprise, but kept silent.