THE PIG WHO COULD CONJURE THE WIND

Now in Sooeee Hollow there lived an old pig, beyond the falls, in a house by herself and tumbled down. And she wore a pair of coveralls. And she was a witch. . . and [had] only one passion in life: to be up in the wind and away."" Miss Folly (that's the pig) also loves bells, but a demon's curse decrees that ""ringing bells will make you fall."" And so one Sunday morning when the church bells begin to ring, Miss Folly falls in through the window in the midst of the service and is soon being tried for a witch. Also on trial is the old man who had caught her as she fell (then took her home, introduced her to the wonderful surge and swell of music, and was taken for a wind ride in return); but a little boy the pig had saved from the demon explains to the judge that ""It's the bells made her fall you see. She didn't fly in church, not once""--and all ends well, with pig, child, and old man soaring aloft to their hearts' content. Murphy's prose is calculated to sweep readers up too; it might work for some who don't mind being tossed about but taken nowhere.