She looked, and so did Grandmother Gates and Aunt Dorcas, but it was half a minute before there was anything to see, and Bun punched his queer "horse" with a long stick to set him going. A short sharp grunt replied to the punch, and suddenly the speckled pig made a plunging dart forward, and the wagon went with him.
"See!" shouted Bun. "That harness is just beautiful. It pulls first-rate. He'll go anywhere."
The pig felt about it in that way exactly, and the only drawback, so far as he was concerned, was the strong cord that was so well knotted around his left hind-leg. It had been a very strong cord in its day, and it was so now in many places, but there was about an inch of it, not a foot away from the pig's leg, that had seen its best and cordiest days. It was frayed and worn out and weak, and it had been severely tested all that morning. Fibre after fibre and strand after strand had given way, until now it needed but one more long, strong, willful tug with a boy pulling one way and an angry pig another, and the cord parted at its weak spot.
His first rush was straight forward for several yards; but the wagon did not seem to hinder him at all, even with Jeff pulling his best upon the "reins." He would have had to pull that pig's head nearly off before he could have stopped him in that manner, and it was fastened on too strongly.
"Stop him!" shouted Jeff. "He's running away; he's dodging."
That meant that he was making a sudden wheel across the grass-plot, under the big cherry-tree, and that brought him in full view of the garden.
The pig knew where he wanted to go now, and he sprang away in that direction with all his might and main. The boys were after him; but Rube's first attempt at heading him off only made him give so sudden a side rush that poor Jeff was pitched out, as the wagon keeled over, right into the middle of the raspberry bushes. The kick he gave as he landed set the wagon back on its wheels again, and it was easier running for the pig after that.
"OH, THAT PIG!"
"Oh, my son!" was all Mrs. Gates could say, and nobody could guess whether she meant Bun or Jeff; but Jeff himself was remarking at that very moment, "Oh, that pig!" and it was plain enough of whom he was speaking. Aunt Dorcas and Grandmother Gates were at the same instant, as with one united voice, saying the same words, and Aunt Dorcas added: