Then one day something happened.  Bob always used to lock the door of the new pig pen every night, for, though he knew his pet was quite tame now, he thought, if the door were left open, Squinty might wander away.  And that is exactly what Squinty did.  He did not mean to do wrong, but he knew no better.  One evening, after he had done many tricks that day, when Squinty found the door of his pen part way open, he just pushed it the rest of the way with his strong nose, and out he walked!  No one saw him.

“Uff!  Uff!” grunted Squinty, looking about, “I guess I’ll go take a walk by myself.  I may find something good to eat.”

Out of the pen he went.  There was no garden here, such as the farmer had at Squinty’s first home.  But, not far from the pig pen was the big, green wood.

“I’ll go over in there and see what happens,” thought Squinty.  “Perhaps I may find some acorns.”

And so Squinty ran away to the woods.

CHAPTER IX

SQUINTY’S BALLOON RIDE

This was the third time Squinty had run away.  But not once did he intend to do any wrong; you see he knew no better.  He just found his pen door open and walked out—­that was all there was to it.

“I wonder what will happen to me this time?” thought the comical little pig, as he hurried along over the ground, toward the woods.  “I don’t believe Don, the dog, will find me here, for he must be back on the farm.  But some other dog might.  I had better be careful, I guess.”

When Squinty thought this he stopped and looked carefully around for any signs of a barking dog.  But he saw none.  It was very still and quiet, for it was nearly supper time in the big house where Bob lived, and he and his sisters were waiting for the bell to ring to call them to the table.

But Squinty had had his supper, and, for the time, he was not hungry.

“And if I do get hungry again, I may find something in the woods,” he said to himself.  “Acorn nuts grow in the woods, and they are very good.  I’ll root up some of them.”

Once or twice Squinty looked back toward the pen he had run away from, to see if Bob, his master, were coming after him.  But Bob had no idea his little pet had run away.  In fact, just then, Bob was wondering what new trick he could teach Squinty the next day.

On and on ran the comical pig.  Once he found something round and yellow on the ground.

“Ha!  That looks like a yellow apple,” thought Squinty, and he bit it hard with his white teeth.  Then his mouth all puckered up, he felt a sour taste, and he cried out: 

“Wow!  I don’t like that.  Oh, that isn’t an apple at all!”

And it wasn’t—­it was a lemon the grocery boy had dropped.

“Oh!  How sour!” grunted Squinty.  “I’d like a drink of water to take the taste of that out of my mouth.”

Squinty lifted his nose up in the air, and sniffed and snuffed.  He wanted to try to smell a spring of water, and he did, just on the edge of the big wood.  Over to the spring he ran on his little short legs, and soon he was having a fine drink.