A travelling salesman was getting quite tired - he'd been on the road for thirteen hours, and it was getting dark - so he started looking around for a motel, or somewhere he could cadge a bed for the night.

Eventually he saw a farm in the distance down a track, so he drove up and knocked on the front door.

"Of course you can stay the night," said the farmer, "we get so few visitors, it'll be nice just to have the extra company."

After a good meal, and some pleasant talk in front of the fire, the salesman went to bed, and slept wonderfully.

In the morning, when he looked out of the window, he could see a large pig wandering round the farmyard. What caught his eye was that the pig had a wooden leg. And not just any wooden leg, but one made of mahogany, and varnished so brightly that he almost couldn't bear to look at it.

When he went downstairs for breakfast, he asked the farmer's wife about the pig.

"Oh, that's Ben. He's the most intelligent pig you ever saw, and brave too. One time, the tractor turned over, and my husband was trapped underneath it. Ben made such a fuss outside, I had to go and see what was up. If he hadn't, Joe would have been trapped for hours, and the Doctor said he might have broken his back. Another time, the barn caught fire while I was inside, and Ben just ran round to the side and kicked a hole in it so I could crawl out to safety. And I could tell you so many more stories like that."

"But what about the wooden leg?" asked the salesman.

"Oh, that's easy," replied the farmer's wife, "after all Ben did for us, we couldn't eat him all at once, now could we?"