In short, whatever might have been the habits of the family, such were those of the pig.  The latter was usually out early in the morning to take exercise, and the unerring regularity with which he returned at mealtime gave sufficient proof that procuring an appetite was a work of supererogation on his part.  If he came before the meal was prepared, his station was at the door, which they usually shut to keep him out of the way until it should be ready.  In the meantime, so far as a forenoon serenade and an indifferent voice could go, his powers of melody were freely exercised on the outside.  But he did not stop here:  every stretch of ingenuity was tried by which a possibility of gaining admittance could be established.  The hat and rags were repeatedly driven in from the windows, which from practice and habit he was enabled to approach on his hind legs; a cavity was also worn by the frequent grubbings of his snout under the door, the lower part of which was broken away by the sheer strength of his tusks, so that he was enabled, by thrusting himself between the bottom of it and the ground, to make a most unexpected appearance on the hearth, before his presence was at all convenient or acceptable.

But, independently of these two modes of entrance, i. e., the door and window, there was also a third, by which he sometimes scrupled not to make a descent upon the family.  This was by the chimney.  There are many of the Irish cabins built for economy’s sake against slopes in the ground, so that the labor of erecting either a gable or side-wall is saved by the perpendicular bank that remains after the site of the house is scooped away.  Of the facilities presented by this peculiar structure, the pig never failed to avail himself.  He immediately mounted the roof (through which, however, he sometimes took an unexpected flight), and traversing it with caution, reached the chimney, into which he deliberately backed himself, and with no small share of courage, went down precisely as the northern bears are said to descend the trunks of trees during the winter, but with far different motives.

In this manner he cautiously retrograded downwards with a hardihood, which set furze bushes, brooms, tongs, and all other available weapons of the cabin at defiance.  We are bound, however, to declare, that this mode of entrance, which was only resorted to when every other failed, was usually received by the cottager and his family with a degree of mirth and good-humor that were not lost upon the sagacity of the pig.  In order to save him from being scorched, which he deserved for his temerity, they usually received him in a creel, often in a quilt, and sometimes in the tattered blanket, or large pot, out of which he looked with a humorous conception of his own enterprise, that was highly diverting.  We must admit, however, that he was sometimes received with the comforts of a hot poker, which Paddy pleasantly called, “givin’ him a warm welcome.”