Muckeen the Pig

Cover: 196 x 130mm.

Spine: 5.6mm

p and a s 1

Fergus Lyons

FERGUS LYONS is an artist and lives in the hills of County Sligo. He has written three other books for the PANDA series, Muckeen and the UFO, Muckeen and the Big Freeze and Shoestring Soup.

MUCKEEN THE PIG

Muckeen loves being dirty and muddy.

And he loves his food.

He is a very happy little pig. But when he is taken to market, Muckeen does not like it at all! Still, Muckeen is a smart pig too and he finds a way out!

ISBN 978-0-86278-528-4

Beginner Readers

O'BRIEN

9 780862 785284

p and a s for

Muckeen the Pig words and pictures by Fergus Lyons

PANDA books are for first readers beginning to make their own way through books.

Mary For

Muckeen The Pig Words and pictures FERGUS LYONS

THE O'BRIEN PRESS DUBLIN

For Mary First published 1997 by The O’Brien Press Ltd, 12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, D06 HD27, Ireland.

Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777 E-mail: books@obrien.ie Website: www.obrien.ie Reprinted 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2013.

Digital edition 2020.

ISBN: 978-0-86278-528-4

Text © copyright Fergus Lyons 1997 Copyright for editing, illustrations, layout and design © The O’Brien Press Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any way or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Typesetting, layout, editing and design: The O‘Brien Press Ltd Illustrations: Fergus Lyons

Published in:

Muckeen The Pig received assistance from the Arts Council

Can YOU spot the panda hidden in the story?

Once upon a time there was a little pig called Muckeen.

He wasn’t a clean little pig.

In fact, he was a very dirty and untidy little pig.

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But he was very happy.

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He played mud pies and digging for worms for hours on end in the farmyard.

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And then at dinner time Mrs Farmer would bring him a big bucket of sloppy for his dinner.

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stuff

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He loved sloppy

stuff

so much that as soon as he heard the bucket rattling he would squeal and dance with happiness.

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When he started on his dinner nothing would stop him until he had eaten

every last little bit.

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When he had finished Muckeen would lick his bucket clean and only then would he run off to play.

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And so the days went by.

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Then one day, at the end of summer, Muckeen heard Mrs Farmer say to Mr Farmer, ‘I think Muckeen is big enough now to take to the market in the town.’

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Muckeen was delighted to hear this news.

He thought that Mr Farmer was going to take him to the town and buy him a nice hat and maybe an ice as a special treat.

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cream

This excited Muckeen so much that it almost made him dizzy.

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So he stretched out on the grass to have a little rest.

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He closed his eyes and was soon fast asleep.

Then he dreamed a wonderful dream.

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First, the dream was about eating lots of ice

cream

on a big mountain of

ice cream, with pink clouds in the sky and snow made of

ice cream

falling all around.

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Then, the dream was about Muckeen showing off in front of the chickens in a new hat.

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Muckeen woke up suddenly with a squeal of fright when a bee landed on his nose.

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Then he remembered that Mr Farmer was going to take him to the market in the town for a new hat and ice

cream.

Muckeen felt happier than ever.

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But Mr Farmer was not going to do this at all.

(He was going to SELL Muckeen in the town!)

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It was a good job Muckeen did not know this, because if he did he would never have gone with Mr Farmer at all.

He would have stayed at home playing mud pies.

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The next morning Mrs Farmer gave Muckeen a good scrub until he was pink and shiny and clean.

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Then Mr Farmer, dressed in his best, tucked Muckeen under his arm and set off for town.

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Half way to the town Mr Farmer met a man.

The man said, ‘That’s a nice little pig you have there.

Will you give him to me?’

‘Oh no!’ said Mr Farmer. ‘I’m taking him to the market in the town – and there I’ll sell him for gold.’

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When Muckeen heard this he didn’t like the idea one little bit.

He started to squeal and

squirm and wriggle and shove until he got free from Mr Farmer’s arms.

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‘I don’t care about getting a new hat!’ said Muckeen to himself.

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‘I don’t even care about ice cream!’

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And back he ran with a skip and a hop along the road to the farmyard, back to his mud pies and the worms he loved to dig for – and the bucket of

sloppy stuff for his dinner.

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Mr Farmer ran after Muckeen, waving a stick in the air.

But he was much too slow and Muckeen was much too fast.

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When Muckeen got to the farmyard, what should he see but a man walking away with

HIS dinner bucket.

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‘This is too much!’ said Muckeen to himself.

‘First, Mr Farmer wants to sell me, and now that man is taking away my

sloppy stuff!’

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So with a brave squeal and a mighty leap he knocked the man over.

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What was in the bucket but all of Mr and Mrs Farmer’s gold!

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At that moment Mrs Farmer ran out of the house.

‘Stop the thief,’ she shouted.

‘He has stolen the gold. He has it in the slop bucket.’

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She gave a great shout of joy when she saw Muckeen.

He was sitting on the robber and looking very pleased with himself.

He had saved his

bucket.

He didn’t care about the gold!

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When Mr Farmer got home, Mrs Farmer told him how Muckeen had stopped the robber and saved all their gold. ‘Well, well, well,’ said Mr Farmer as he counted the gold to make sure all of it was there.

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‘Well, well, well,’ he said again.

‘Isn’t Muckeen a very clever little pig indeed!

I think we’ll have to buy him a nice hat and some

ice cream and let him stay here for ever and ever – and he can keep an eye on our gold.’

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Muckeen thought this was a great idea, and off he went to play mud pies until dinner time – when he would get a grand big bucket of

sloppy stuff!

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Well, did you find him?

Cover: 196 x 130mm.

Spine: 5.6mm

p and a s 1

Fergus Lyons

FERGUS LYONS is an artist and lives in the hills of County Sligo. He has written three other books for the PANDA series, Muckeen and the UFO, Muckeen and the Big Freeze and Shoestring Soup.

MUCKEEN THE PIG

Muckeen loves being dirty and muddy.

And he loves his food.

He is a very happy little pig. But when he is taken to market, Muckeen does not like it at all! Still, Muckeen is a smart pig too and he finds a way out!

ISBN 978-0-86278-528-4

Beginner Readers

O'BRIEN

9 780862 785284

p and a s for

Muckeen the Pig words and pictures by Fergus Lyons