Directly after he caught sight of a long black back, then
of others, and he saw that he was close to a drove of small black
pigs, hunting for acorns. One of the pigs found him at the same
moment and saluted him with a sharp, barking sound wonderfully like
that of a dog.
This was taken up directly by the other members of the drove, who
with a great deal of barking and grunting came on to the attack,
for they did not confine themselves to threatening, their life in
the forest making them fierce enough to be dangerous.
Robin's first thought was to run away, but he knew that four legs
are better than two for getting over the ground, and felt that the
drove would attack him more fiercely if they saw that he was afraid.
His next idea was to climb 'up into the fork of one of the big
trees, but he knew that there was not time. So he obeyed his third
notion, which was to jump to where a big piece of dead wood lay,
pick it up, and hit the foremost pig across the nose with it.
That blow did wonders; it made the black pig which received it
utter a dismal squeal, and its companions stop and stand barking
and snapping all around him. But the blow broke the piece of dead
wood in two, and the fierce little animals were coming on again,
when a voice cried:
"Hi! you! knocking our tigs about!" And a rough boy about a couple
of years older than Robin rushed into the middle of the herd,
kicking first at one and then at another, banging them with a long
hooked stick he held, and making them run squealing in all
directions.
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