A Piggy Tale

By Jacqueline Henley

This is the story

Of Penny the Pig,

Who would do her chores daily

And never renege.

She cleaned her sty proudly

With brushes and pail

And groomed herself neatly

From head down to tail.

She watered the flowers

That grew by her door,

And when she was finished,

She planted some more.

She polished the handle

And bolt on the gate.

She scrubbed out the trough

Till the day became late.

All of the other pigs

Laughed and poked fun.

A pig cleaning her sty—

It just wasn’t done!

For everyone knows

That pigs like to be grubby,

To sleep in the mud

And eat till they’re tubby.

But Penny was clever,

Not just being prim.

She found that the work

Kept her figure quite trim.

So when, once a month,

The farmer came by

To check on the pigs

And look in each sty,

He’d walk right past Penny

And, “Tut!”—just say that—

Then look in the next sty

For a pig that was fat.

So, though she was mocked,

Penny knew she was safe

In her neat, tidy sty,

Staying as thin as a waif.

And at length, those who mocked her

Hung sadly in shops,

For their fat, lazy bodies

Became bacon and chops.

Illustrated by Shauna Mooney