He pierced her with his dilating eyes, and beckoned her to put up
her ear for the information.
"You ain't goin' to play any trick," remonstrated his relative,
"like you did when you got me to say grandmother, grandmother, thith
--thith--thith, and then hit my chin and made me bite my tongue?"
Robert was forced to chuckle at the recollection, but he assured
aunt Corinne that grandmother, grandmother, thith--thith--thith was
far from his thoughts. He hesitated, with aunt Corinne's ear jogging
against his chin. Then in a loud whisper he communicated:
"_It_ was a man with a pig's _head on_ him!"
CHAPTER XII.
JONATHAN AND THRUSTY ELLEN.
Aunt Corinne drew back into a rigid attitude. "I don't believe it!"
she said.
Robert Day passed over her incredulity with a flickering smile.
"People don't have pigs' heads on them!" argued aunt Corinne. "Did
he grunt?"
"And he had a tush stickin' out from his lower jaw," added Robert.
They gazed at each other in silent horror. While this awful
pantomime was going on, the flap of Grandma Padgett's tent was
lifted, and a voice of command, expressing besides astonishment and
alarm, startled their ears with--
"Children!"
Aunt Corinne leaped up and turned at bay, half-expecting to find the
man with the pig's head gnashing at her ear.
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