We came upon it less than a hundred yards away, jammed fast
between two pine trees. Parts of the harness were broken, the wagon body
was shattered, and ten hogs were at large.
For some minutes we were at a loss to know what to do. How to catch the
hogs and put them back into the wagon was a difficult matter, for many
of them weighed three hundred pounds, and moreover a live hog is a
disagreeable animal to lay hands on. But, taking an axe, we cut young
pine trees and constructed a fence round the wagon to serve as a hogpen.
Leaving a gap at one end that could be stopped when the hogs were
inside, we then set near the wagon the troughs we had brought, poured
the dry corn into them and called the hogs as if it were feeding time.
Most of them, it seemed, were not far away. As soon as they heard the
corn rattling into the troughs all except three came crowding in.
Presently we drove two of the missing ones to the pen, but one we could
not find.
None of the wagon wheels was broken, and in the course of an hour or
two, Willis and I succeeded in patching up the shattered body
sufficiently to hold the hogs. But how to get the heavy brutes off the
ground and up into the wagon was a task beyond our resources.
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