Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1865-11-16

certain works of art in which the,
have been represented-not in land
scapes, | may remark so if there hat
been a market for live pigs adjoining
my studio l could not have selected al
available one from the lot. though,
about it good deal during the day
and the result of my meditations was
that on my homeward way in the af
ternoon made a circuit around by the
residence of Peter Van Popp, Dutch
man whom employed to take care o.
! my garden, and to do such other heat,
work as might be necessary from time
to time. On consultation, found tha
Peter was just the man for the bust
ness. He had brother who kept q
small farm up in the vicinity of Schra
lenburgh, back of the Palisades, on
the Hudson and Peter said:
"Next week | goes oop to see Hans,
and my wife she goes along, too, so
brings you a pig home, Mr.. Topp."
GOOD I" said I. "rll paw YOU for
your trouble, Peter, besidss the price
of the pig. A good one, now! None
of your snub-nosed, pug-eyed fellows,
you know--a sleek, intelligent one."
YAH" said Peter.
A few days later the pig came.
was just leaving the house to GO down
town when | met Peter with the pig
in a bag. ...
Il got him." Peter remarked-very
unnecessarily, however, for the pig an
nounced the fact loudly in his own be-
half Nothing but pig could have
squealed so.
Where l put him ?" asked Peter.
"Oh, put him in the barn." said /.
There is barn attached to our house,
but there was nothing in it. Animated
by desire to put the barn to some
useful purpose, l bought cow and
put her in there last summer, but she
gave no milk after the second week,
and so | sold her. l was glad l had
another tenant for the barn.
But Peter shook his head. That
wouldn't do A barn was no place for
a pig. would have to have a pen,
he said.
1t would hardly do to let him run
in the garden, l suppose" said, mus
ingly. "Can you build pen, Peter ?"
Yah, Peter said he could and so |
sent him off after tools and materials,
leaving the pig tied to tree by one
leg. My family gathered about the
newcomer and viewed him with deep
interest. He was little fellow, but
healthy, as was proved by the capaci-
ty of his lungs. -
Mercy!" cried Susan, "What a
noise it makes He must be hungry,
James, Susan's experience with ba-
bies encouraged her to this conclusion.
IL know what'll make more noise
than that said my Fred, with a
roguish twinkle in his eyes.
What is it?" l asked, to encour-
age my son.
1.-TWO more pigs" said Fred.
When | came home at night the pig
was fast asleep in his pen on heap
of straw, and l felt quite pride in
him. had secret hopes of my own
in regard to him, though ! did not inn
part them to Susan. He only cost 81
that is, per SC. The pen cost about
$40 more and Peters fare brought
the sum total up to $l4,s3.
watched the growth of our porker
with high degree of interest. The
swill-pail always stood by the side of
the wood-house door, and, though it
was not an agreeable object in an as-
thetic point of view, | could not for
some time get over vexatious kind
of curiosity as to its contents. / found
some strange things in it sometimes
viewed as articles of food; one of
Fred's boots, for instance, or a pair of
scissors, or a teaspoon. Once, when
l found silver fork in the swill, I re-
monstrated with the servant girl-a
stupid German creature, who had sue
ceeded to our intelligent Bridget when
the latter got married.
1t is not SO much that I care for
the silver, Katrine," said !, "but
don't want the porker choked to death
in his prime"
My wife discharged Katrine, in an
impatient moment, soon after this, be-
cause the girl threw into the swill-pail
four quarts of rich cream-covered milk
that had been procured with great
trouble from the country, to make a
prize pudding for dinner party that
l gave to some of my friends. Kat
rine was pure city-bred, and had never
seen such looking milk before in her
life she supposed it spoiled, and into
the swilipail it went.
We had had our porker about a
month, and he had grown with mar
velous celebrity. The condition of af-
fairs in my back garden occupied a
very large share of my attention; for
though small, it had been very liberal
iy stocked and diligently cared for, and
there was quite rivalry between my
neighbor Jones and myself in this mat
ter. Jones boasted of very superior
eruditioh in these things, and being a
gentleman of leisure he had more time
to look after them than had but
struggled hard not to be distanced.
There was no disputing the point OF
Jones's lsabellas being rather ahead OF
mine, but in most respects l felt my.
self his peer. September showed our
garden rich with abundance of toma
toes, cabbages, onions, beets, beans
and so on, while the apple-trce, the
two plum-trees, and the grape-vines
hung heavy with their load.
One day our porker got out of his
pen, and went roofing around in the
garden with a tumultuous exercise OF
his sudden freedom. Of course those
women never saw him it was wash
ing-day, believe. The havoc he had
made by the time l came home at
night was thrilling to witness. No
body could tell how long he had been
out of his pen but judging by the de,
vastation witnessed he must have
been out since morning. Tennysonis
verse in "Maud" may give faint in.
dication of my emotions as stood in
the back-door that evening:
:" The roots of my hair were stirred.
| And my pulses closed their gates with a