The story of Charlotte's Web begins on a farm in spring. A sow gives birth overnight, and one of the piglets is a runt — unusually small and weak. Fern's father, a practical farmer, decides the runt cannot be kept. He considers it a kindness to act quickly, before the animal suffers. Fern disagrees strongly. She is eight years old and deeply upset. She makes a serious argument: the piglet did nothing wrong. It did not choose to be born small. She points out that smallness at birth is not a reason to be treated differently. Her father, surprised by the clarity of her reasoning, changes his mind and gives the piglet to Fern. Fern names the piglet Wilbur and raises him herself for the first five weeks of his life, feeding him regularly by hand and treating him with great care. When Wilbur grows too large to stay at the family home, he is sold for six dollars to Fern's uncle, Mr Homer Zuckerman, who has a farm nearby. Fern visits every day after school and sits outside his pen. At the Zuckerman farm, Wilbur finds himself in a large barn full of animals and smells. The other animals are not unfriendly, but Wilbur is lonely. He does not yet know that a friendship is about to begin that will change his life entirely.