Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1910-05-13
When eedelia Emerged She

Last Wednesday R1ckshaw Phfpps,
who has been living in the old boat
house on the river two miles south
of Betzville, came up to town to see
DR.. Tropp, and the doctor sent him
back home with two quarts of nerve
restorer and box of small yellow
pills that taste like all-get-out. When
seen by a reporter of the Betzville
Times, Rickshaw was standing on the
corner, by the Betzville hotel, with
tears running down his face and some
thing that looked like 200 feet Of yell
low garden hose wrapped on an old
hose reel 1t was evident that Rick.
shaw was a nervous wreck, and that
he had recently been under terrible
strain.
Rickshaw said that nothing he had
ever undergone In his life had so
upset him as what happened last
Wednesday night. 1t seems that about
a year ago Rickshaw found a brand
new litter of pigs in his pig-pen, and
thought nothing of 1t, exsept that he
was lucky to have such large clean
litter: but suddenly he noticed that
one of the baby pigs was cleaner and
handsomer than the others, and
seemed to avoid the society of its
brothers and sisters.
He said he thought little Of 1t, how
ever, and might have forgotten it, but
that when he went back to his house.
boat he happened to look down, and
there was the little clean pig at his
feet. The way that little pig rubbed
against his legs showed him at once
that it was a case Of love at first
sight, and the pig would sit and look
at Rickshaw with love and admiration
in its eyes, seeking to tell Rickshaw
as best it could that It thought he
was about the wisest and handsomest
and best man in the whole wide
world. 1t touched Rickshaw to the
heart, but he said he felt that he
should not show any favoritism, so he
put the little pig back in the pen.
The next day the same thing hap
pened The minute he got back to
the house-boat, there was the little
pig, rubbing affectionately against his
ankles. So, just to show the little
creature there was no hard feelings,
he named it Bedelia, but, in order to
show Bedelia that certain rules must
be observed, he took the little pig
back to the pen. Very well. but
when he got back to the house-boat.
there was Bedelia!
Rickshaw said he was puzzled. but
he went back to the pen, and there,
In one corner, was little round hole
no bigger around than his fist, and
that was where Bedelia had squeezed
out. He said he would have filed
up the hole then and there, but he
knew how fast little pigs grow, and
he felt that by the next day Bedelia
would probably be too big to squeeze
through that hole, anyway, so he let
It be. But the next day Bedelia was
out again. Out, and smuggling up
to Rickshaw, and making sleeps eyes
at him.
BY the end of. the week Rickshaw
felt that Bedelia must be stunted
pig, for no ordinary pig of her age
could have got out Of that hole. and
about then was when he noticed some
thing peculiar about Bedelia. She
looked more like dachshund than
any well-shaped pig: long and thin
and low were her general character
istics. Rickshaw thought about it
awhile, and then he took Bedelia and
locked her in the boat house and left
her there for week, and she grew
and grew, and then he took her and
locked her in the pen again. and hid
behind a tree and watched. For
while she looked mournfully at the
locked gate and then tears ran down
her face, and then she summoned all
her love for Rickshaw, and all her res
olution, and made bolt for the hole
in the pen. She was about twice as
large around as the hole was, but she
stuck her head into the hole and
pulled and pushed and wriggled and
squirmed! Rickshaw said he would
never have believed it If he hadn't
seen it with his own eyes, but that
pig actually squeezed through that lit.
tie hole! Of course the effort per-
manently elongated the pig. When
Bedelia emerged she was at least ten
feet long, and not over II inches In
circumstance; but she was happy.