The first book I decided to read was The Classic Tale of Pigling Bland, a picture book. It's by Beatrix Potter. I've read many of her books and when I found this book in the back of my grandmother's library closet I just had to read it. Goofy I know, but still. In the beginning, Aunt Pettitoes sends 7 of her 8 pigs out into the world. The 8th, Pigling Bland, she send to the market with work papers so someone can hire him. She tells him to stay away from traps, hen roosts, and bacon and eggs. She packed him a little lunch and 8 pepperments and sent him off.
After a while of walking and singing he sat down and ate his lunch- every bit- as the book says. He started walking again, but came to a sign the read: To Market, 5 miles; Over the Hills, 4 miles. Pigling decided to take the shorter route thinking he wouldn't get to the market by dark. But he got lost on the trail. It was then that he started to ignore everything his aunt had told him. He ran into a hen house to get out of the dark. All the hens started shouting, "Trap, bacon and eggs!" The farmer heard this when he went to get six hens to take to the market the next day. He put Pigling in a cage with the chickens and he got all scratched up.
After a long while, he was taken out of the cage and given dinner. Everytime the man made dinner, oatmeal, he always took a third bowel into the closet and locked it up. Pigling looked into the hole, but could see nothing, so he sliped the last of his peppermints under the door and they promptly disappeared. The next day the man repeated the same thing at dinner, except this time he didn't close and lock the door all the way, and went to sleep. While Pigling was eating his dinner by the fire another pig, this one black and named Pig-Wig came out and scared him. She wanted more oatmeal, so Pigling gave her the rest of his. Pigling asked her why she didn't run away, she said she'd do it after dinner. He suggested that they wait until first light.
When it was dawn they left the man's house. As they got to the top of hill they saw a bridge, but then a grocer came by in his wagon and asked for their working papers. Pigling gave him his. The grocer looked at it and noticed it said nothing about the girl pig. He spotted a farmer and decided to ask him if the girl was his pig. As soon as the grocer left they made a beeline for the bridge and crossed it hand in hand, then danced.
I was hoping there would be more to the end, but I guess Beatrix Potter wrote it like that for a reason.
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