
A lonely old woman discovers a bright silver penny while sweeping her modest home and impulsively decides to buy a pig with her windfall. She journeys to the market, secures a sleek, spotted pig, and triumphantly leads it home, only to be halted by a low stile that the reluctant animal refuses to cross. What follows is a cascade of inventive pleas as she tries to persuade the pig, enlisting a dog, a stick, and even the elements themselves to aid her passage.
Each appeal—calling on fire to burn the obstinate stick, begging water to douse the flame, pleading with an ox and a butcher for strength—ends in comic refusal, highlighting her tenacious spirit. The narrative unfolds with a whimsical, almost theatrical rhythm, as talking animals and inanimate objects respond with stubborn silence, turning a simple farmyard problem into a farcical quest. Listeners are treated to a charming, old‑world fable that celebrates resourcefulness and humor, inviting them into a world where everyday objects become characters in a delightfully absurd adventure.
Full title
The Remarkable Adventures of an Old Woman and Her Pig An Ancient Tale in a Modern Dress
Language
en
Duration
~6 minutes (6K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Jacqueline Jeremy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2007-09-27
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects
Some of literature’s most enduring voices come to us without a confirmed name. “Anonymous” stands for storytellers whose identities were never recorded, were deliberately concealed, or were lost over time.
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