Poppy Whiteheart The Three Little Pigsies " Pixies" by Poppy Whiteheart

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

The Three Little Pigsies There was once a fox, who prowling by night in search of prey, came unexpectedly on a colony of pixies. Each pixy had a separate house. The first he came to was a wooden house. 'Let me in, let me in,' said the fox. 'I won't,' was the pixy's reply, 'and the door is fastened.' So the fox climbed to the top of the house, pushed it down, and made a meal of the unfortunate pixy. The next house was made of un-mortared stones.

'Let me in, let me in,' said the fox. 'I won't,' replied the pixy, 'and the door is fastened.' So the fox climbed to the top of the house, pushed it down, and made a meal of the unfortunate pixy. The third was an iron house. 'Let me in, let me in,' said the fox. 'I won't,' replied the third pixy, 'and the door is fastened.'

'But I bring good news,' said the fox. 'No, no,' answered the pixy, 'I know what you want. You shall not come in here tonight.' That house the fox tried in vain to destroy. It was too strong for him and he went away in despair. But he returned the next night and exerted all his fox-like qualities in the hope of deceiving the pixy. For some time he tried in vain, until at last he mentioned a tempting field of turnips in the neighbourhood, to which he offered to conduct the pixy - who agreed to meet him the next morning at four o'clock. But the pixy outwitted the fox, for he found his way to the field and returned laden with turnips long before the fox was out of bed. The fox was greatly vexed, and long unable to devise another scheme, until he thought of a great fair soon to be held a short way off, and proposed to the pixy that they should set off for it together at three in the morning. The pixy agreed, but the fox was again outwitted, for he was only up in time to meet the pixy returning with his fairings (purchases from the fair) - a clock, a crock and a frying pan. The pixy, who saw the fox coming, got into the crock and rolled himself down the hill; and the fox, unable to find him, abandoned the scent and went away. The pixy went home, but unfortunately forgot to fasten his door. The fox returned the next morning and, finding the door open, went in - when he caught the pixy in bed, put him in a box, and locked him in. 'Let me out,' said the pixy, 'and I will tell you a wonderful secret.' The fox was at last persuaded to lift the cover, and the pixy, corning out, threw such a spell upon him that he was compelled to enter the box in his turn - and there at last he died. (This curious story appeared in 1846 in the Athenaeum magazine. It was submitted as an example of a tale about piskies then current in the West Country. No mention was made at the time, or in subsequent letters, of its similarity to the nursery story of the three little pigs. I have found no version of the pig story until 1849, three years after this appeared, but that is not to say they do not exist. The version here has lost its punch line, since the clock and the frying pan should have a function in the story, and the 'spell' is an unsatisfactory solution. Piskieses are perhaps more likely to live in houses than pigs, and they must certainly use 'turnup' which (meaning swede) is an essential ingredient in Cornish pasties.)