all the farmyard folk agreed that farmer green took the best of care of everybody. mrs. pig often told her children that they were lucky to have so good a home. and not having lived anywhere else, they never imagined that anything could be finer than their pen.
after the day when he escaped from the pen, however, grunty pig began to complain. he wasn't satisfied with the food that farmer green gave him, he grumbled because there was no good place to wallow in mud, and especially did he object because there wasn't a tree to rub against. "the orchard," he often said, "is a much pleasanter place than this pen is. there are trees enough in the orchard for every member of our family to rub against—all at the same time."
somehow, when grunty talked in that fashion every one of mrs. pig's children began to crowd against the sides of the pen. and even mrs. pig herself felt an annoying tickling along her back. she did wish that grunty wouldn't mention such matters.
but nothing mrs. pig could say seemed to do any good. he was always prattling, anyhow. she could no more stop his flow of grunts and squeals than she could have kept the water in the brook from babbling down the mountainside to swift river.
and even more annoying to mrs. pig was the way her son grunty tried to rub his back against her. she said "don't!" to him so often that she became heartily sick of the word.
what bothered mrs. pig most of all was grunty's behavior whenever farmer green came to the pen. it was mortifying to her to have her son actually try to scratch his back against her in the presence of a visitor.
"i do hope," said mrs. pig to farmer green, "i do hope you don't think that i haven't tried to teach this child better manners." and then, when all the rest of her family began to squirm and fidget against the sides of the pen she added with a sigh, "look at them! anyone would suppose they had had no bringing up at all!"
farmer green smiled as he leaned over the pen and watched the antics of grunty pig and his brothers and sisters.
"there's something that i can do for your family to make them happier," he told mrs. pig. "to-morrow—if i can spare the time—i'll make a change here. a lady who's raising such a fine family as yours deserves the best there is. she ought to have a home with every modern improvement."
"there!" mrs. pig exclaimed to her children as soon as farmer green left them. "did you hear what he said? farmer green is a kind man. i shouldn't have blamed him if he had put us into the poorest pen on the place, after seeing your unmannerly actions. you'll have to behave better—especially after we have our new improvements."
well, the next day farmer green brought a stout post and set it firmly in the center of mrs. pig's pen.
"that's for you and your family to rub against," he informed mrs. pig.
really, he needn't have explained what the improvement was for. no sooner had he climbed out of the pen than mrs. pig and her children began to put the rubbing post to good use. grunty was the first of all to try it. and to his mother's delight, he stopped grumbling at once. nor did he ever again disgrace her by scratching his back against her. instead, he always walked up to the rubbing post like a little gentleman. at least, that was what mrs. pig said.
