Pigling Bland is very sensible but the more frivolous Alexander loses his pig licence and, when he fails to produce it for a passing policeman, is made to return to the farm.

The second pig, a beautiful black Berkshire sow named Pig-wig, suggests they run away so that they won't be sold, or worse, eaten.

By being co-operative, and with Pigling Bland faking a limp, the two pigs manage to gain time and, once the grocer is at a safe distance, flee to the county boundary to Westmorland and finally, over the hills and far away, where they dance to celebrate their new-found freedom.

In a letter written in 1909 to her friend Millie Warne, sister of her late fiancé Norman, Potter describes the sale of two such pigs whose "appetites were fearful – five meals a day and not satisfied."

"[2] The story was completed and published in 1913, though Potter had had a busy year, coping with illness, her forthcoming marriage to William Heelis and their move to the larger Castle Cottage.

In a letter to a fan, Potter denied that the pigs were "a portrait of me and Mr Heelis [...] When I want to put William in a book – it will have to be as some very tall thin animal.