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Three Little Pigs

You can see why "The Three Little Pigs" would interest James Marshall, toward the end of his career. It has a famous cat-and-mouse game, and this was a favorite game of Marshall's.

"The French Lesson" has cat-and-mouse: George thinks he is in control, but in fact he is not. "The Box" again has cat-and-mouse: Here, it's Martha who mistakenly believes she is the cat. But Martha is the mouse.

Cat-and-mouse requires subtext and disguise: To manipulate your fellow player, you have to say what you don't mean.

So, in "The Three Little Pigs," when the Wolf says, "Let's get turnips," he doesn't mean that. He actually means: "Come outside so I can eat you."

You can sense Marshall's imagination coming to life in the Wolf/Pig exchange. Toward the end of the game, the Smart Pig, having fun, says, "I'd love to go to the market with you! Would three o'clock suit you?" (That jaunty language! When we all know the Pig is thinking, Go f**** yourself.)

The Wolf responds: "Colossal!" (When in fact he is thinking, Do my bidding or plan to be tortured....)

The gap between speech and thought is very funny here, and it's really James Marshall's invention. It continues a tradition--the half-concealed motive, the game of charades--that Marshall had already explored in his "hippo tales."

P.S. I made an error in my "Goldilocks" reading. Marshall actually didn't invent the porridge exchange toward the start of the tale; that's there even in the 1800s. But--as far as I can tell--Marshall *did* invent Baby Bear's response to the scalding of his tongue. "I'm dying!" My favorite line in the story.
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