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Al his ear He went down to Trout River and swaht it wasn’t fair that he was the youngest in the family

That afternoon the rass under the balsam tree in the yard Royal stuck the butcher knife into the dewy green rinds, and every melon was so ripe that the rinds cracked open

Almanzo and Alice and Eliza Jane and Royal bit deep into the juicy, cold slices, and they ate till they could eat nothem at Eliza Jane until she made him quit Then he slowly ate the last slice of melon, and he said:

“I’ to fetch Lucy to eat up the rinds”

“You will not do any such thing!” Eliza Jane said “The idea! A dirty old pig in the front yard!”

“She is not, either, a dirty old pig!” said Als are the cleanest aniht to see the way Lucy keeps her bed clean, and turns it and airs it and makes it up every day Horses won’t do that, nor cows, nor sheep, nor anything Pigs—”

“I guess I know that! I guess I know as s as you do!” Eliza Jane said

“Then don’t you call Lucy dirty! She’s just as clean as you be!”

“Well, Mother told you to obeyto wasteto make watermelon-rind preserves”

“I guess they’re as ot up and said:

“Co, ’Manzo It’s chore-time”

Almanzo said no more, but when the chores were done he let Lucy out of her pen The little pig was as white as a lamb, and she liked Almanzo; her little curled tail quirked whenever she saw hi happily, and she squealed for him at the door till Eliza Jane said she couldn’t hear herself think

After supper Almanzo took a plate of scraps and fed them to Lucy He sat on the back steps and scratched her prickly back Pigs enjoy that In the kitchen Eliza Jane and Royal were arguing about candy Royal wanted some, but Eliza Jane said that candy-pulls were only for winter evenings Royal said he didn’t see why candy wouldn’t be just as good in the suht so, too, and he went in and sided with Royal

Alice said she kne to ar and molasses and water, and boiled th

em; then she poured the candy on buttered platters and set it on the porch to cool They rolled up their sleeves and buttered their hands, ready to pull it, and Eliza Jane buttered her hands, too