Tom, the Piper's SonTom, Tom, the piper's son,Stole a pig and away he run;The pig was eat and Tom was beatAnd Tom ran crying down the street.THERE was not a worse vagabond in Shrewsbury than old Barney thepiper. He never did any work except to play the pipes, and he playedso badly that few pennies ever found their way into his pouch. It waswhispered around that old Barney was not very honest, but he was so slyand cautious that no one had ever caught him in the act of stealing,although a good many things had been missed after they had fallen intothe old man's way.Barney had one son, named Tom; and they lived all alone in a little hutaway at the end of the village street, for Tom's mother had died whenhe was a baby. You may not suppose that Tom was a very good boy, sincehe had such a queer father; but neither was he very bad, and the worstfault he had was in obeying his father's wishes when Barney wanted himto steal a chicken for their supper or a pot of potatoes for theirbreakfast. Tom did not like to steal, but he had no one to teach him tobe honest, and so, under his father's guidance, he fell into bad ways.One morningTom, Tom, the piper's son,Was hungry when the day begun;He wanted a bun and asked for one,But soon found out that there were none."What shall we do?" he asked his father."Go hungry," replied Barney, "unless you want to take my pipes and playin the village. Perhaps they will give you a penny.""No," answered Tom, shaking his head; "no one will give me a penny forplaying; but Farmer Bowser might give me a penny to stop playing, if Iwent to his house. He did last week, you know.""You'd better try it," said his father; "it's mighty uncomfortable tobe hungry."So Tom took his father's pipes and walked over the hill to FarmerBowser's house; for you must know thatTom, Tom, the piper's son,Learned to play when he was young;But the only tune that he could playWas "Over the hills and far away."And he played this one tune as badly as his father himself played, sothat the people were annoyed when they heard him, and often begged himto stop.When he came to Farmer Bowser's house, Tom started up the pipes andbegan to play with all his might. The farmer was in his woodshed,sawing wood, so he did not hear the pipes; and the farmer's wife wasdeaf, and could not hear them. But a little pig that had strayed aroundin front of the house heard the noise, and ran away in great fear tothe pigsty.Then, as Tom saw the playing did no good, he thought he would singalso, and therefore he began bawling, at the top of his voice,"Over the hills, not a great ways off,The woodchuck died with the whooping-cough!"The farmer had stopped sawing to rest, just then; and when he heard thesinging he rushed out of the shed, and chased Tom away with a big stickof wood.The boy went back to his father, and said, sorrowfully, for he was morehungry than before,"The farmer gave me nothing but a scolding; but there was a very nicepig running around the yard.""How big was it?" asked Barney."Oh, just about big enough to make a nice dinner for you and me."The piper slowly shook his head;"'Tis long since I on pig have fed,And though I feel it's wrong to steal,Roast pig is very nice," he said.Tom knew very well what he meant by that, so he laid down the pipes,and went back to the farmer's house.When he came near he heard the farmer again sawing wood in thewoodshed, and so he went softly up to the pig-sty and reached over andgrabbed the little pig by the ears. The pig squealed, of course, butthe farmer was making so much noise himself that he did not hear it,and in a minute Tom had the pig tucked under his arm and was runningback home with it.The piper was very glad to see the pig, and said to Tom,"You are a good son, and the pig is very nice and fat. We shall have adinner fit for a king."It was not long before the piper had the pig killed and cut into piecesand boiling in the pot. Only the tail was left out, for Tom wanted tomake a whistle of it, and as there was plenty to eat besides the tailhis father let him have it.The piper and his son had a fine dinner that day, and so great wastheir hunger that the little pig was all eaten up at one meal!Then Barney lay down to sleep, and Tom sat on a bench outside the doorand began to make a whistle out of the pig's tail with his pocket-knife.Now Farmer Bowser, when he had finished sawing the wood, found itwas time to feed the pig, so he took a pail of meal and went to thepigsty. But when he came to the sty there was no pig to be seen, and hesearched all round the place for a good hour without finding it."Piggy, piggy, piggy!" he called, but no piggy came, and then he knewhis pig had been stolen. He was very angry, indeed, for the pig was agreat pet, and he had wanted to keep it till it grew very big.So he put on his coat and buckled a strap around his waist, and wentdown to the village to see if he could find out who had stolen his pig.Up and down the street he went, and in and out the lanes, but no tracesof the pig could he find anywhere. And that was no great wonder, forthe pig was eaten by that time and its bones picked clean.Finally the farmer came to the end of the street where the piper livedin his little hut, and there he saw Tom sitting on a bench and blowingon a whistle made from a pig's tail."Where did you get that tail?" asked the farmer."I found it," said naughty Tom, beginning to be frightened."Let me see it," demanded the farmer; and when he had looked at itcarefully he cried out,"This tail belonged to my little pig, for I know very well the curl atthe end of it! Tell me, you rascal, where is the pig?"Then Tom fell in a tremble, for he knew his wickedness was discovered."The pig is eat, your honor," he answered.The farmer said never a word, but his face grew black with anger, and,unbuckling the strap that was about his waist, he waved it around hishead, and whack! came the strap over Tom's back."Ow, ow!" cried the boy, and started to run down the street.Whack! whack! fell the strap over his shoulders, for the farmerfollowed at his heels half-way down the street, nor did he spare thestrap until he had given Tom a good beating. And Tom was so scared thathe never stopped running until he came to the end of the village, andhe bawled lustily the whole way and cried out at every step as if thefarmer was still at his back.It was dark before he came back to his home, and his father was stillasleep; so Tom crept into the hut and went to bed. But he had receiveda good lesson, and never after that could the old piper induce him tosteal.When Tom showed by his actions his intention of being honest he soongot a job of work to do, and before long he was able to earn a livingmore easily, and a great deal more honestly, than when he stole the pigto get a dinner and suffered a severe beating as a punishment.Tom, Tom, the piper's sonNow with stealing pigs was done,He'd work all day instead of play,And dined on tart and currant bun.
