No animal could have said more plainly:
"I've got the joke on you this time, boys, and I'm laughing so hard that
I can't keep my eyes open."
"I tell you there is a good deal more in the heads of brutes than many
of us think," said Nick Ribsam, after he had studied the actions of the
hound; "I believe he wanted to make us believe there was some sort of
game out there so as to play the fool with us."
"Do you think he foresaw the trick of the hog?" asked Herbert, who was
rubbing his bruised elbows and knees.
"That would have been impossible, for we could not have foreseen it
ourselves if we had arranged the joke; he simply meant to mislead us,
and then we acted the fool for _his_ amusement."
It looked very much as if Nick Ribsam was correct in his supposition,
and that Bowser enjoyed even more than they the shrewd trick he had
played on them.
"I suppose there are several hundred hogs wandering through the woods,"
said Nick, "picking up acorns and nuts that have fallen off the trees,
and making a good living at it."
"Yes, lots of them have been running wild for weeks and months," added
Sam, "and when their owners try to gather them in, there will be
trouble, for it doesn't take hogs long to become savage."
"It didn't take that hog very long, I'm sure," observed Herbert, sitting
down with care upon the ground.
"But how was it there was but _one_?" asked Sam.
"There wasn't need of any more than one," said Nick; "he had no trouble
in doing as he pleased with us.
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