The Pirate Pig Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 1999 by Cornelia Funke

  Translation copyright © 2015 by Oliver Latsch

  Interior illustrations copyright © 1999 by Kerstin Meyer

  Cover art copyright © 2015 by Vivienne To

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Originally published as Das Piratenschwein by Cecilie Dressler Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany, in 1999.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Funke, Cornelia Caroline.

  [Piratenschwein. English]

  The pirate pig / Cornelia Funke ; translated by Oliver Latsch ; illustrated by Kerstin Meyer.—First American edition.

  p. cm.

  “Originally published as Das Piratenschwein by Cecilie Dressler Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany, in 1999.”—Copyright page.

  Summary: On Butterfly Island, sailor Stout Sam and his deckhand, Pip, must rescue their treasure-sniffing pig from nasty pirate Barracuda Bill.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37544-3 (trade)—ISBN 978-0-385-37545-0 (pbk.)—ISBN 978-0-385-37546-7 (lib. bdg.)—ISBN 978-0-385-37547-4 (ebook)

  [1. Pigs—Fiction. 2. Pirates—Fiction. 3. Buried treasure—Fiction. 4. Islands—Fiction.] I. Latsch, Oliver, translator. II. Meyer, Kerstin, illustrator. III. Title.

  PZ7.F96624Pj 2015 [Fic]—dc23 2014000879

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v4.1

  a

  For Ben, the little pirate, and for Anna,

  who has to look after him sometimes

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  The Pirate Pig

  Excerpt from​ Emma and the Blue Genie

  On Butterfly Island, everybody knew Stout Sam and his boat with the green sail.

  Sam lived together with Pip, his deckhand, on the beach, in a small hut under trees that grew the sweetest fruit on the whole island.

  But you can’t live on fruit alone.

  That’s why there was a sign on Sam’s hut. It said: ISLAND TRANSPORTS.

  Pip had written the sign, while Stout Sam had watched him full of admiration and growled, “Shiver me timbers, boy, those are some devilishly tricky words you’re writing there.”

  The two of them really had a lot to do. Even when it stormed so badly that the jellyfish crawled ashore, Stout Sam and Pip sailed out and took coconuts, or barrels of rum, or crates full of stockfish from one island to the other. Every evening, they returned to their hut, and they felt happy as they climbed into their hammocks.

  It was a peaceful life, and they liked it.

  But then, one morning, the two decided to take a walk on the beach before work. Stout Sam looked out across the sea, and Pip searched the sand for seashells.

  And suddenly the waves washed up a barrel right in front of their feet.

  When Pip looked inside the barrel, he found a pig grunting back at him. The pig was barely bigger than a pug, and around its neck hung a gold chain with a skull-and-crossbones pendant.

  “Parrot perch and swordfish fins!” said Stout Sam. “We can’t leave the wee thing out here, can we, Pip?”

  “Out of the question,” Pip answered. He lifted the little pig out of the barrel, and they took it back to their hut.

  They named the pig Julie. And very soon they realized what they had found was no ordinary pig.

  While Julie did enjoy rolling around in the mud as much as other pigs, what she loved most was to sit on the beach and look at the sea. Her favorite food was lugworms with sea grass. And when Pip and Stout Sam sailed between the islands, Julie stood right at the prow of the boat, holding her nose into the salty breeze and grunting with joy.

  But Julie wouldn’t swim.

  Because she was afraid of water. Very afraid.

  One day—Julie was still quite a small piglet—Sam and Pip got the job of delivering twenty-three crates of coconuts to the neighboring island.

  And that’s when it happened: way out on the high sea, Julie suddenly began to squeal. She squealed as though a shark had gotten hold of her curly tail. Then she rushed to the old fishing net that lay bundled up next to the mast and nudged it overboard with her snout.

  Sam was dumbfounded. “Thundering typhoons, Julie! What in cod’s name has gotten into you?”

  But when Pip and Sam pulled the net out of the water, it was full of gleaming gold and silver. Pip had to throw two crates of coconuts into the sea to make space for all the treasure.

  “Well, somebody fry me a flounder!” Stout Sam gasped. He tickled Julie behind the ears and said to Pip, “Would you believe it? Our Julie can smell treasure!”

  Pip was staring at the chests full of gold and gemstones. He had started to grow a little pale around the nose. “Captain!” he whispered. “I’ve heard that sometimes pirates catch piglets and train them to smell out treasure. You think Julie could be a…p-p-pirate pig?”

  Stout Sam spat into the water. “Yes, that’s exactly what I think,” he growled. “You know what the pirates do to such a pig when it doesn’t find them enough treasure?”

  Pip shook his head and put his arm around Julie.

  “They stick the poor critter into a barrel and throw it overboard. That’s what they do, those mean mudsnappers.”

  Julie pricked her ears and looked at Sam as though she could understand what he was saying.

  “Ah! So that’s why she has this!” Pip blurted out. He looked at Julie’s pendant. “Nasty thugs.”

  He planted a kiss between Julie’s ears and squeezed her very tight. “That won’t happen again, Julie,” he said. “You can count on that!”

  “One hundred percent!” Stout Sam agreed.

  And with that they finally sailed on to their destination.

  Three months passed. Julie grew bigger and rounder, and nearly every week she found another treasure in the sea.

  Stout Sam threw most of the things back into the water. Silver goblets, gemstones, earrings…what was he going to do with all those trinkets, anyway?

  But they kept the gold coins. To buy food for Julie. Because Julie was always hungry.

  One day, Stout Sam had an idea. It was a nice idea, but also a stupid idea.

  He took three crowns and a couple of yard-long pearl necklaces he and Pip had just fished out of the water and gave them to the kids playing by the docks. Just to make their game of “Pirates and Princesses” a little more fun. That was nice. Very nice.

  But still, Sam should not have done that.

  Soon enough, word got around that Stout Sam’s net caught crowns and pearl necklaces instead of fish. And then people began to say that it must have had something to do with the pig he always took with him.

  “Bah, nonsense!” Stout Sam muttered every time he heard that. “Really, you have to believe me, Julie is just an ordinary pig. Am I right, or am I right, Pip?”

  Pip nodded as hard as he could.

  But it was useless. Nobody believed them.

  In no time, even
the fish in the sea knew that Stout Sam had found himself a real pirate pig.

  And then the inevitable happened: Barracuda Bill heard about Julie.

  Barracuda Bill was the greediest and meanest pirate who had ever sailed the seas between the islands.

  “Well, well!” he growled when his coxswain, Swordfish, told him about Julie. “A pirate pig. Didn’t One-Eared Ernie throw a pig overboard some time ago?”

  “Indeed, Your Nastiness,” Swordfish answered, “because it hadn’t found any treasure in four months.”

  “And now that pig finds so much treasure that Stout Sam is throwing jewels by the chestload back into the sea!” whispered Greasebeard, who always carried Barracuda Bill’s sword for him.

  “Well, it should be obvious what we need to do,” said Barracuda Bill. “Am I making myself clear, you deckload of bandy-legged water rats?”

  His men grinned so much that all their gold teeth showed. “Clear as crystal, Your Nastiness!” they roared.

  And up went the sails.

  The next evening, Stout Sam decided to go for a walk before bedtime. Pip was already snoring in his hammock, so Julie went along with Sam.

  As the two of them strolled along the harbor wall, three of Barracuda Bill’s men snuck up from behind. They pushed Sam into the grimy water and dragged the loudly squealing Julie away.

  Stout Sam was so upset he tore his favorite shirt to shreds.

  He and Pip searched the entire island. They knocked on every door, looked at every pig. Yes, Stout Sam even clambered onto a donkey to search the mountains for Julie.

  But they couldn’t even find a single one of Julie’s pink bristles.

  Brokenhearted, they returned to the harbor.

  Their boat looked terribly empty without Julie.

  “Those scoundrels have probably taken her off the island, Captain!” said Pip as they climbed aboard. “But we’ll carry on searching as soon as the sun rises again. Maybe she was taken to one of the volcanic islands in the south. Or to the mainland.”

  Stout Sam nodded quietly. He sat down on the deck and stared out at the sea. And even though Pip himself was as sad as he’d ever been in his life, he would have loved to cheer Sam up. But how?

  “How ’bout I get us something to eat, Captain?” he suggested.

  Stout Sam just shook his head.

  “Not hungry,” he muttered.

  Now Pip was really getting worried.

  Over in the Thirsty Shellfish, they served fresh jellyfish cream cake—Stout Sam’s favorite. Maybe that would cheer him up.

  “I’ll be right back, Captain!” Pip called. He reached into the chest with the gold coins and ran off.

  The Thirsty Shellfish was packed to the eaves, as usual. Pip squeezed through the bellies and elbows until he reached the counter. He ordered twelve jellyfish cream cakes.

  The Thirsty Shellfish was run by Lanky Lola.

  When she spotted Pip standing by the counter, she went over to hand him the cakes herself.

  “Listen!” she whispered to Pip. “You’re Stout Sam’s shipboy, ain’t ya? Tell him Barracuda Bill has your pig. He’s got it on his ship. He’s been sitting in that corner there all evening, bragging to everybody how the pig is going to make him the biggest pirate of the islands!”

  Lanky Lola looked around anxiously and put a finger to her red lips. “You didn’t hear it from me, understood, boy?”

  And with that, she quickly retreated to the other end of the counter.

  Pip scanned the room.

  He’d never met Barracuda Bill, but everybody knew he was easily recognized by his golden eye patch.

  It was dark and crowded in the Thirsty Shellfish, and it took Pip a while to spot him.

  Barracuda Bill was sitting with his men in the darkest corner. They all looked very wild and dangerous. Pip’s heart nearly dropped into the bottom of his pants.

  You nasty pig thieves, he thought. He shot one last glance in their direction and then quickly pushed his way to the exit. His heart was beating wildly.

  All the excitement made him leave Stout Sam’s jellyfish cream cakes on the counter.

  Pip ran as quickly as his feet would carry him through the dark harbor and past the ships bobbing on the moonlit water. Finally he reached Stout Sam’s boat.

  “Captain!” Pip panted as he jumped on board. “Captain, I know who stole Julie!”

  Stout Sam lifted his head. He’d been shaping pigs from pink marzipan.

  “Barracuda Bill took her!” Pip wheezed. “He’s sitting in the Thirsty Shellfish, bragging about how he stole her.”

  Stout Sam had to digest the news for a while. He spat over the railing three times before he regained his voice.

  “Thundering tarps!” he said. “The Barracuda. Do you know who we’re dealing with here?”

  Pip nodded.

  With a deep sigh, Stout Sam pushed himself to his feet. “Well, then let’s go,” he said, putting his arm around Pip’s shoulders. “Ready the dinghy. We’re taking our pig back.”

  Everybody knew that Barracuda Bill never moored his big ship in the harbor. He preferred to drop anchor out on the open sea and have his men row him to shore in his launch.

  “Let’s hope the scoundrel didn’t leave too many guards on board,” Stout Sam whispered as they rowed their boat out of the harbor.

  Pip nodded. He peered anxiously into the night. The silence was so scary that his heart began to beat even faster.

  Suddenly a ship appeared out of the darkness. Its hull was jet-black, but the deck was well lit by the moon, and the pirate flag fluttered from the highest mast.

  “That must be it!” Pip whispered. He barely dared to breathe as Stout Sam steered the dinghy toward the huge ship.

  Ropes creaked above them. Two guards were fast asleep in the ship—one on top of the mast and one at the stern. A wooden devil grinned down at Stout Sam and Pip from the bow. From his horns hung a rope ladder.

  “Isn’t that nice?” Stout Sam whispered. “They left the ladder out. What they can climb down, we can climb up!”

  “Did you see?” Pip whispered. “They tied our poor Julie to the railing.”

  “Miserable pig torturers!” Stout Sam growled. He quickly rowed the boat to the ladder. Its end dangled less than three feet above the water.

  “Better I go, Captain,” Pip said quietly. “The pirates will be back before you ever manage to heave your big belly up there.”

  Stout Sam wanted to protest, but Pip was already on the ladder.

  “I’ll screech like a gull three times if I spot them coming back,” Sam quietly called after him.

  Pip nodded as he clambered up toward the wooden devil.

  The guards were still snoring when Pip swung his legs over the railing. He could clearly see the man up in the crow’s nest, but all he could see of the other man were his naked feet sticking out from behind a barrel.

  Julie lay tied to the railing. Her bristly back was turned to Pip. He tiptoed toward her and put his hand over her pink snout.

  “Not a peep, Julie!” he whispered. “It’s me, Pip. The captain is also here. We’re taking you home.”

  Julie made a delighted grunt and nudged her nose into Pip’s belly.

  Pip pulled his knife from his belt and began to saw away at the thick rope. He wasn’t making much headway, because Julie kept nudging and sniffing him.

  “Please stop, Julie!” Pip hissed. “I’ll be done soon.”

  But just as he managed to cut through the rope, Pip heard the screech of a gull. Once. Twice. Three times. Stout Sam was sounding the alarm!

  Pip jumped to the railing and peered into the night.

  He heard oars splashing and loud shouts.

  And then he saw a boat appear from the darkness.

  Barracuda Bill was standing unsteadily at the bow, holding a lantern. His men barely managed to row in a straight line, but they were coming closer. Quite quickly, actually.

  “We have to move, Julie!” Pip hissed. He dragged th
e pig to the other side of the ship, but as soon as he swung one leg over the railing, Julie jumped back.

  “Go, Julie!” Pip called. “Jump! You don’t have to be scared. The captain is waiting in the boat.”

  But the pig stood frozen. And Pip suddenly remembered how much Julie was afraid of water.

  “Pip! They’re nearly here! Where are you?” he heard Stout Sam call from below.

  Pip wanted to answer, but at that moment, the man in the crow’s nest woke up. Yawning, he got to his feet and rubbed his puffy eyes. Then he looked out to sea, toward the incoming boat.

  “Commander returning to ship!” he roared so loudly that Julie’s bristles stood on end. “Ready the cannon for the welcome salute!”

  As quickly as he could, Pip dragged Julie under a pile of old sails. And not a moment too soon, for when he peered out from under their hiding place, he saw the second guard scrambling to his feet. He was a bald pirate with huge gold earrings.

  The man stumbled to the nearest cannon and fired a shot over the open sea—Barracuda Bill’s salute.

  Julie trembled and pressed her snout under Pip’s shin.

  Many feet and a couple of wooden pegs trampled onto the deck, and then Pip heard Barracuda Bill’s voice. “Darn this!” he roared. “Were you trying to sink us with that cannonball? And where is my pig?”

  “The pig?” The bald man looked around in confusion. He stammered, “It—it must have drowned!”