Page 2 (2/2)

Then one day Uncle Henry ca Woods He had co butcher knife was already sharpened, and Uncle Henry had brought Aunt Polly’s butcher knife

Near the pigpen Pa and Uncle Henry built a bonfire, and heated a great kettle of water over it When the water was boiling they went to kill the hog Then Laura ran and hid her head on the bed and stopped her ears with her fingers so she could not hear the hog squeal

“It doesn’t hurt him, Laura,” Pa said “We do it so quickly” But she did not want to hear him squeal

In a er cautiously out of an ear, and listened The hog had stopped squealing After that, Butchering Tireat fun

It was such a busy day, with so much to see and do Uncle Henry and Pa were jolly, and there would be spare-ribs for dinner, and Pa had pro’s tail

As soon as the hog was dead Pa and Uncle Henry lifted it up and down in the boiling water till it ell scalded Then they laid it on a board and scraped it with their knives, and all the bristles ca in a tree, took out the insides, and left it hanging to cool

When it was cool they took it down and cut it up There were hams and shoulders, side meat and spare-ribs and belly There was the heart and the liver and the tongue, and the head to be made into headcheese, and the dish-pan full of bits to be e

The meat was laid on a board in the back-door shed, and every piece was sprinkled with salt The hams and the shoulders were put to pickle in brine, for they would be s

“You can’t beat hickory-cured ham,” Pa said

He was blowing up the bladder It ht with a string and gave it to Mary and Laura to play with They could throw it into the air and spat it back and forth with their hands Or it would bounce along the ground and they could kick it But even better fun than a balloon was the pig’s tail

Pa skinned it for thee end he thrust a sharpened stick Ma opened the front of the cookstove and raked hot coals out into the iron hearth Then Laura and Mary took turns holding the pig’s tail over the coals

It sizzled and fried, and drops of fat dripped off it and blazed on the coals Ma sprinkled it with salt Their hands and their faces got very hot, and Laura burned her finger, but she was so excited she did not care Roasting the pig’s tail was such fun that it was hard to play fair, taking turns

At last it was done It was nicely browned all over, and how good it smelled! They carried it into the yard to cool it, and even before it was cool enough they began tasting it and burned their tongues

They ate every little bit of ave the bones to Jack And that was the end of the pig’s tail There would not be another one till next year

Uncle Henry went ho Woods But for Laura and Mary and Ma, Butchering Tireat deal for Ma to do, and Laura and Mary helped her