“Look out!” screamed a duck.
“Run!” yelled another.
All the ducks scattered.
A huge chunk of mud came flying over the fence. It landed right where one of the ducks had been standing a few seconds before.
“Here we go again!” cried another.
“That’s disgusting! How can they stand to live like that?” mumbled an older duck that was hiding behind a large rock in the yard.
“What a mess! They’re such pigs!” moaned yet another.
“Oh quit your complaining,” came a voice from over the fence. “What do you expect? We are pigs.”
On the other side of the fence was the pig sty. This was home to a large family of very dirty pigs.
The whole sty was nothing more than a huge puddle of muck. The pigs liked to roll around in the mud. It kept them cool and comfortable. Every now and again one pig would dig his snout in the mud and fling it at another pig. Before long there would be a huge mud fight. Sometimes the mud would fly over the fence and hit some poor, unsuspecting duck.
The ducks hated to get dirty. Their days were spent bathing in their pond. They would dip and dive in the water and then come to shore to clean their feathers till they shined.
“I can’t imagine why you would want to get so filthy. Look at yourselves. You’re a disgrace!” said another duck. “See how beautiful we are? Our feathers practically shine in the moonlight.”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” snorted a pig. “You spend all day cleaning yourselves. What fun is that? I’ll bet you don’t even know how to play. Everyone knows you can’t have fun without getting a little dirty.”
“That’s not true,” squawked one of the ducks. “We have races over the water and dive to the bottom for pebbles. We see who can swim the farthest underwater….and all without getting dirty. You should try it.”
“Maybe we can,” replied a small pig. He was looking up and realized that the gate was not completely closed. With a little push it swung open.
“We’ll try yours if you’ll try ours,” continued the little pig.
The ducks and pigs all talked it over and decided to do it.
The ducks waddled into the pig pen and the pigs made their way over to the duck’s pond. They all just stood there looking at each other until one of the ducks began to scream. He had made his way to the top of a mud pile. When he tried to clean some of the mud off his feet he began to slide toward a giant puddle of muck. There was a huge splash.
“Yahoo!” shouted the duck. “That was great!” He quickly climbed back up to the top of the mud pile. This time he made a run for it and slid down on his belly. He went so fast he skid across the entire puddle and came to a stop on the other side.
The other ducks forgot about how dirty they were and joined in the fun. They played chasing games and splashing games. They were having a wonderful time.
Meanwhile back at the pond the pigs were just standing around. One pig stepped backwards and accidentally pushed another pig into the deep water. Before anyone could do anything he came bobbing up with a lily pad on his head. He felt light as a feather and as you can imagine it was a very strange feeling for a pig.
“WOW!!” he shouted, “You’ve got to try this!”
With that, all the other pigs made their way into the water. It wasn’t long before they were chasing each other through the cattails and climbing out of the water just to jump back in. The longer they spent in the water the cleaner they got. Soon they were all a lovely pink color.
Every one was having such a good time that it wasn’t till the rooster started to crow that they realized they had been playing all night. Slowly the pigs made their way back to the sty and the tired ducks waddled backed to their pond.
From that day on the pigs and ducks lived happily next to each other. They no longer complained how each other lived and played. AND on the rare occasion when the gate gets left open, the ducks and pigs sneak out and play together till the sun comes up.