30 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. i.

 

as nothing was to be seen but pigs and strawberries,
the Princesses felt that they must take action accord-
ing to the advice of the squirrels, if they wished to
see that best of friends who was said to have his abode
in the place before them. Accordingly, they ap-
proached the mound and stood upon the edge of the
strawberry bed, the pigs taking no notice whatever of
them, and not appearing in the slightest degree dis-
turbed by their presence. Then Malvina raised her
voice and pronounced in a clear, firm tone the word
‘Rindelgrover!’ Pettina followed her sister’s -ex-
ample; and the words were scarcely out of their
mouths before a chorus of grunts arose around them,
every pig in the place loudly exclaiming in his native
tongue, ‘ Well done, Rindelgrover!’ Once more the
sisters spoke aloud the name of him whom they had
been taught to consider their best friend in the wood,
and then both speaking at once, and not without some
little difficulty, they pronounced the magic word of
words, ‘ Ri-too-fi-lal-lural.’

The effect was instantaneous. From a thicket at
no great distance a pig of larger than ordinary size
suddenly made his appearance. Not, however, a
common pig undistinguishable from the rest of the
herd, but a pig adorned with saddle and bridle and
all the trappings of a horse. He held his head
proudly and bore himself like a pig of importance as
he cantered downwards to the stream ; and so indeed
he well might do, for he bore a rider whom, from the
description given by their mother, the Princesses
instantly recognised as the Dwarf Rindelgrover.
Upright he sat upon his porcine steed, with the