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a prickling at the back of my neck to think about it.

  I could hardly wait to get the injection into the sow and climbed

  eagerly into the pen. Gertrude didn't appreciate having a needle

  rammed into her thigh and she swung round on me with an explosive bark.

  But I got the ten cc in before ma king my escape "We just wait twenty

  minutes, then?" Will Hollin leaned on the rail and looked down

  anxiously at his pig. He was a hard-working small holder in his

  fifties and I knew this meant a lot to him.

  I was about to make a comforting reply when Gertrude popped out another

  pink, squirming piglet. The farmer leaned over and gently nudged the

  little creature towards the udder as the sow lay on her side, but as

  soon as the nose made contact with the teat the big pig was up in a

  flash, all growls and yellow teeth.

  He snatched the piglet away quickly and deposited it with the others in

  a tall cardboard box.

  "Well, you see how it is, Mr Herriot."

  "I certainly do. How many have you got in there now?"

  "There's six. And they're grand pigs, too."

  I peered into the box at the little animals. They all had the

  classical long bodied shape.

  "Yes, they are. And she looks as though she has a lot more in her

  yet."

  The farmer nodded and we waited.

  It seemed to take a long time for the twenty minutes to pass but

  finally I lifted a couple of piglets and clambered into the pen. I was

  about to put them to the sow when one of them squealed. Gertrude

  rushed across with a ferocious roar mouth gaping, and I leaped to

  safety with an agility which surprised me.

  "She don't look very sleepy," Mr Hollin said.

  "No . . . no . . . she doesn't, does she? Maybe we'd better wait a

  bit longer."

  We gave her another ten minutes and tried again with the same result. I

  injected a further ten cc of the Soothitt, then about an hour later a

  third one.

  By nine o'clock Gertrude had produced fifteen beautiful young pigs and

  had chased me and her family from the pen six times. She was, if

  anything, livelier and fiercer than when I started.

  "Well, she's cleansed," Mr Hollin said gloomily.

  "So it looks like she's finished."

  He gazed, sad-faced, into the box.

  "And now I've got fifteen pigs to rear without their mother's milk. I

  could lose all this lot."

  "Nay, nay." The voice came from the open doorway.

  "You won't lose 'em."

  I looked round. It was Grand ad Hollin, his puckish features set in

  their customary smile. He marched to the pen and poked Gertrude's ribs

  with his stick.

  She responded with a snarl and a malignant glare and the old man's

  smile grew broader.

  "Ah'll soon fettle the awd beggar," he said.

  'fettle her?" I shifted my feet uncomfortably.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Why, she just wants quiet in', the knaws."

  I took a long breath.

  "Yes, Mr Hollin, that's exactly what I've been trying to do., "Aye, but

  you're not coin' it the right way, young man."

  I looked at him narrowly. The know-all with his liberal advice in a

  difficult situation is a familiar figure most veterinary surgeons have

  to tolerate, but in grand ad Hollin's case I didn't feel the usual

  irritation. I liked him. He was a 0"Ce man, the head of a fine

  family. Will was the eldest of his four sons and he had several farmer

  grandsons in the district.

  &` Anyway' I had failed miserably. I was in no position to be

  uppity.

  Vet in a Spzn "Well, I've given her the latest injection," I mumbled.

  He shook his head.

  "She don't want injections, she wants beer."

  "Eh ?"

  "Beer, young man. A drop o' good ale." He turned to his son.

  "Haste g.

  clean bucket, Will, lad?"

  "Aye, there's a new-scalded one in t'milk house."

  "Right, ah'll slip down to the pub. Won't be long." Grand ad swung on

  his heel and strode briskly into the night. He must have been around

  eighty, from the back he looked like a twenty-five-year-old upright,

  square-shouldered jaunty.

  Will Hollin and I didn't have much to say to each other. He was sullen

  with disappointment and I was awash with shame. It was a relief when

  Grand ad returned bearing an enamel bucket brimming with brown

  liquid.

  "By gaw," he chuckled.

  "You should've seen their faces down at t"Wago Horses. Reckon they've

  never heard of a two gallon order afore."

  I gaped at him.

  "You've got two gallons of beer?"

  "That's right, young man, and she'll need it all." He turned again to

  his I "She hasn't had a drink for a bit, has she, Will?" ~ "New I was

  goin' to give her some water when she'd finished piggin', b .

  haven't done it yet."

  Grand ad poised his bucket.

  "She'll be nice and thirsty, then." He leaned ~ the rail and sent a

  dark cascade frothing into the empty trough. .

  Gertrude ambled moodily across and sniffed at the st range fluid.

  After ~j hesitation she dipped her snout and tried a tentative swallow,

  and within seoq' the building echoed with a busy slobbering.

  "By heck, she likes it!" Will exclaimed.

  "She should," Grand ad murmured wistfully.

  "It's John Smith's best bit, It took a big sow a surprisingly short

  time to consume the two gallons when she had finished she licked out

  every corner of the trough before turning away. She showed no

  inclination to return to her straw bed but began to sa round the pen.

  Now and then she stopped at the trough to check that the' no more beer

  in it and from time to time she looked up at the three overhanging the

  timber walls.

  On one of these occasions I caught her eye and saw with a sense of

  dread that the previously baleful little orb now registered only a

  gentle benevolence In fact with a little effort I could have imagined

  she was smiling.

  As the minutes passed her perambulations became increasingly

  erratic."

  were times when she stumbled and almost fell and finally with an

  unmistakable hiccup she flopped on the straw and rolled on to her

  side.

  Grand ad regarded her expressionlessly for a few moments, whistling

  lessly, then he reached out again and pushed his stick against the

  fleshy but t' only response he received from the motionless animal was

  a soft `r ret ~ was stoned to the wide.

  ~_ an gestured towards the cardboard box.

  "Put the little 'uns in into the pen with a wriggling armful, then

  another, andes they didn't have to be told what to do. Fifteen rave

  noun
  ~%, to bring about with my modern veterinary skill, thbl It~o, +, ~;

  tiny stomachs with the life-giving fluid.

  I could dise~ ~
  morning along ale. I didn't feel great. ~ Mr Barge had been >, o~ `x

  of Soothitt phials and was beating an unol' -. NHollin called after

  me.

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