LONG AGO STORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

LONG AGO STORIES

A PIG IN A POKE. The first time Gertrude went to market by herself she was very proud. She had four miles to walk and she pushed a little cart containing eggs. When she reached the country town where the market was held, she took a good look round, before trying to sell her eggs. She was an Anglo-Saxon, but she was quite friendly, with the Normans and used many French words when she spoke. After she had sold her eggs she went in search of a nice fat little pig for her mother, who was free-holder of a little plot of land, and paid tax to the Norman over-lord in bacon.

Seeing a Norman farmer with many beautiful pigs for sale Gertrude went and bargained for one. She called the

little creatures pigs and he called them pork, but they understood one another perfectly. “Have''you a poke to put him in? asked the farmer. Gerturde produced a sack from her barrow. “I be going to buy an earthen howl, she said, “and I will take the pig oil my way back.” ’ She bought a bowl from a Norman, who called it a pot, picked up the pig in the sack, put it into her cart and started on her four mile walk home, feeling very pleased with her day. As she tripped along she saw the little pig moving in the sack, and she thought of the Saxon bacon he would make and of how the Norman lord would smile when she took it to his manor.

“Aye, little pig,” she murmured, “you will drink up all the milk we have left over and your food will cost us nothing, and perhaps his lordship will be so pleased with you that he will give me a root of strange herbs from his garden and then I can flavour our broth as the Normans do their soup. How could we live without pigs?!’ Her mother was waiting for her and the girl took the sack out of the cart and proudly carried it to the pen prepared for the little pig. “He be a little fat beauty,” she said.

Then she opened the sack and out jumped a cat! “You have bought a pig in a poke!” cried her mother. “My girl, you have much to learn! You should have opened the poke to see that the pig was there, and then you would have let the cat out of the bag and the farmer would have been obliged to give you a pig. ’Tis a cruel trick they play on the innocent, and our good money be gone. But cheer up, my girl, and count it as a lesson learnt.”

“And I was so pleased,” sobbed Gertrude. “Never again will I buy a pig in t poke!”