By: Nestor
Old Major at Willingdon
One bright sunny summer morning, Mr. Jones was doing his usual daily routine out in the fields. When he was finished for the morning, he went inside for lunch. He had a peaceful lunch until he picked up the daily newspaper.
On the front page was a giant and fat bright pink pig that stood tall with its fat little snout pointed up into the air. The thing that caught his eye was the big shiny medal hanging around the fat neck of the pig. The big pig was standing beside a very, very familiar face. It was none other than the farmer down the street, Mr. Pilkington and his famous Big Charlie. The headline read: Big Charlie wins again!
"Why does that Big Charlie always have to win!?" Mr. Jones asked the newspaper. He thought to himself. "What if I enter my pig Old Major?" It seemed ridiculous at first, but Mr. Jones couldn't stand it anymore. He had to overthrow Mr. Pilkington one way or another.
Mr. Jones finished eating lunch, and then went outside. He went to the pigpens. He then looked long and hard at the new pig. He wasn't enormous, but he wasn't tiny. He was an active pig, always trying to get the others to play. He would run around in circles and then eat some mush. Mr. Jones smiled and said "Old Major, you're going to win the medal next year"
Mr. Jones for the next year gave Old Major a lot more mush to eat everyday hoping that the pig would get massively fat. It worked. The pig didn't double his weight and size, but he tripled it! Mr. Jones was feeling good about this.
He than came up with a brilliant plan. His plan was that he would first take a picture of Old Major from exactly two-foot strides away. He would then go over to Mr. Pilkington's farm pretending to be nice and take a picture of Big Charlie from exactly two-foot strides away. He would then go home and compare which pig was bigger and if he should feed Old Major more food. He decided that he would execute his plan the next day.
The next day he went to Mr. Pilkington's farm with his camera. To no surprise his front fence had a giant sign with Big Charlie on it and it said: "Home of Big Charlie, the Champion!" Mr. Jones thought to himself, show off. He pulled into the driveway and right away saw Mr. Pilkington. The millisecond that he saw him he put on his fake smile.
He stepped out of his car and said, "How are you Mr. Pilkington?"
Three Hours Later"Yes!" That was pretty easy he thought to himself as he rode back to his farm. All he had to do was say a few lies and pretend to admire him and that was it. The thing that wasn't too good was that his cheeks were really sore from tightening them all the time for trying to keep his fake smile without cracking.
When he stepped out of his truck he quickly rushed into his house and grabbed the picture of Old Major. He held them very close together and examined them closely. It was too close to tell they were so alike it was impossible to tell who was bigger. So he then rushed to his bedroom, which is where he kept his ruler. He measured the two pigs. "Three point five, three point six, three point seven, THREE POINT EIGHT!" His Old Major was bigger than Big Charlie! He was so happy and excited he was even prepared to kiss the pig. He went crazy, he yelled and yelled he ran all over the yard. He even went into the barn. He scared every living thing in that room. The ducks quacked, the cows mooed, the horses' winied, the dog barked, the cat screamed, the rat squeaked, the sheep baaaad, and the pigs squealed. Everything was total chaos in there. Then Mr. Jones said, "This is the best day of my entire life!"
For the next few weeks until the contest, Mr. Jones kept on feeding Old Major as much as he could feed him. He got bigger and bigger everyday. It was incredible. Everyday that passed by he got more and more excited. Then came the big day.
COCKLE-DOODLE-DOOOOO! Cried the rooster. "It's the big day, the big day, oh ya the big day" was what Mr. Jones was singing all morning long. After all it might've even been the biggest day in his entire life. Mr. Jones had his breakfast that he specially prepared for himself the day prior. It was two sunny side up eggs with tomatoes and bread with some milk. It was delicious and it gave him a good boost.
When he got outside he looked over to his van, which he had very colorfully painted. He then went to the pigpens and snatched the wonderful Old Major out of his private pen. Once he got his soon-too be prizewinner Old Major into the back of his van he very confidently said, "Next stop, Willingdon Fair!" It wasn't a very long ride to the fair grounds but it seemed very suspenseful and unimaginable. He was thinking to himself, "Wow, it seems so cool that now I'm not the one who's just admiring the contestant but I'm actually a contestant".
When he got there, he saw the usual fair balloons, kids, candy, people, different colored tents, and animals and vegetables of all different sorts of kinds, shapes, and sizes. He had a feeling that this one wasn't just going to be a normal fair for him, it would be a life changer.
He then heard over the announcing system an old woman speaking and she said, "all pigs wishing to compete in this years fair must come to the judging tent immediately". He then felt very nervous, and scared. He walked at medium pace with his pig on a bright red collar toward the judging tent. When he got to the tent he paused outside of the tent's "door" took a deep breath and said, "This is it". Then he walked in.
It wasn't that exciting in the tent but you could tell by everybody's body language that they were all scared and anxious. But as one by one everyone started looking in the direction of Mr. Jones they all froze in shock. Mr. Jones didn't know what to say so he just said "Hi everybody, I'm Mr. Jones" They all then looked away and tried not to add to the embarrassment.
After a good half an hour of waiting in line, it finally got to be his turn, and he heard a judge say out loud and sort of in an annoying voice, "NEXT!" Mr. Jones then anxiously hurried along toward the judging area. There were three judges all sitting there casually. But when Old Major and Mr. Jones came into the sights of the judges, their eyes widened, they couldn't move, and they all sat there frozen in shock. Then one of the judges finally managed to get the words out of his mouth and he said, "That's one big pig". "Yes, this is my pig Old Major and he is a beauty isn't he".
The judges finally came back to their senses and they started the judging. The first area of judging was appearance. Mr. Jones was ready for this, the day before the contest he thoroughly washed Old Major, and he even brushed the pig's hair. And even though he knew they weren't going to judge him, he still dressed up nicely and slicked his hair back. The first judge very confidently put up a ten (the judging is out of ten). The next judge held up a nine. And the next thought for a moment and then quickly put up a ten. "Wow, I really got good marks for appearance, I hope I do as well in the other areas". Then came the judging of the pig for his tameness. Uh oh, Mr. Jones wasn't ready for this one. One of the judges came up to the pig and said, "Sit". Mr. Jones couldn't stand it. After all of this work, he was going to lose. He then opened his eyes and the best thing had happened, it was a miracle. Old Major actually sat down onto his behind! "Okay, rollover" Old Major actually rolled over four times! "Very good!" exclaimed the judge. The judges then voted: 10,10,and 10. Then came the most important area of marking. Weight. They pulled out a giant weight that measured up to eight hundred kilograms. Mr. Jones then pulled Old Major onto the weight. The meter bursted up and then it slowed down until it finally reached it's ending point. It ended up at three hundred and fifty-two! Right then all of the judges started whispering amongst themselves. Then they all voted straight tens. "Thank you Mr. Jones for your valuable time and effort". Mr. Jones then confidently but also a little bit nervously as well.
He then spent his time walking around the fair. He even played a few games. He played his favorite game Shootin' Hoops. He won a big stuffed animal and a ribbon that said "Shootin' Hoops Master". Then after he had won the prizes, he walked around a little, trying to calm his nerves down. Then he heard the same old woman over the announcing system, "Will the pig competitor please come to the podium area. He finally came to his senses because he was daydreaming that he had already won. He rushed to the podium area and he saw a big crowd. "This is it Old Major".
He went through the crowd and then he got to the entrance to the podium. There was a nicely laid out red carpet that went onto the podium.
One of the judges was on the carpet beside the podium and it seemed as if he was in charge of the announcing. He then took a breath and said "I first want to thank all of you competitors for coming out here on your own time and showing us what you have got in you, and how well you can work. As you all know only three lucky people can stand on this wonderful podium that stands beside me. I will announce the top three people in each area." He then went on about the order of the areas as they would be announced and pigs were second last. One by one every time an area was announced Mr. Jones got more and more nervous. Then came the words "pigs". He then closed his eyes and started to pray. The announcer said the names from third to first. The announcer announced the person who was in the third place; it was Mr. Frederick. He then took a little more time to announce the person who was in second place. He said it in a much slower pace. It was unbelievable; it was the nine-year winning man Mr. Pilkington! The crowd went nuts. All of the loyal fans of Big Charlie were booing like crazy. No one could believe it. Mr. Jones's mind was going crazy. Could his pig Old Major have actually overthrown Big Charlie? Those few seconds were as though they lasted a lifetime. All he could here was the crowd cheering everything went in slow motion. The crowd was jumping up and down. The judge then continued to say, "And the winner of this years Willingdon Fair in the pigs section is …Mr. Jones and his pig Old Major!" The crowd went silent. Then there was a shy little voice of a woman that was heard over the crowds silence. "Mr. Jones is the new champion!" Then the crowd went nuts. They all cheered
"Jones! Jones! Jones!" It was the best day of Mr. Jones's life because not only did he win the medal, but he also found out who shouted the comment "Mr. Jones is the new champion!" It was a pretty looking woman who was the same age as Mr. Jones. This woman about three months later became Ms. Jones. And everyone lived happily ever after. Except the animals.