"Stop and and follow me!" old dog Spot . And Grunty Pig, who had just tumbled through a hole in the fence, to his feet and after his guide.  
Old Spot had promised to show Grunty a dozen pink and white pigs, all without tails. He wanted Grunty to see how handsome they looked.
 
"You'll like them," Spot told Grunty over his shoulder as they jogged across the farmyard. "You'll ask Farmer Green this very day to cut off your tail and nail it up on the barn. I tell you, these89 pigs look neat. There's style about them."
 
"Umph! Umph!" said Grunty Pig as he along behind.
 
"Now, I wonder what he meant by that!" Spot . It was sometimes hard to tell whether Grunty's umphs stood for yes or no.
 
Around the corner of the , near the woodshed door, old dog Spot came to a halt before a two-storied cage, the front of which was covered with fine-meshed wire netting.
 
Stopping beside Spot, Grunty Pig peered inside the cage. He saw a number of odd little creatures running about upon the sawdust-strewn floor of the tiny house, one or another of them giving a faint now and then as if ordering the two unasked callers to move on.
 
Whoever they were, they were a bright-eyed little family. But Grunty Pig thought, as he stared at them, that they had a most look. There seemed to be something missing about them. Yet he couldn't tell just what it was.
 
Together Grunty and Spot stood there, silent, for a time; until at last Grunty said, "Come along! Let's not stay here any longer. I want to see those twelve pigs without tails."
 
Old dog Spot snorted.
 
"You want to see them!" he cried. "Well, nobody's stopping you. They're right here in front of you!"
 
Grunty Pig's mouth fell open—he was so astonished. He knew, now, what ma............