pig's ear

Harper Leeの 'To Kill a Mockingbird' を読んでいます。

Dill's father was taller than ours, he had a black beard (pointed), and was president of the L & N Railroad.
"I helped the engineer for a while," said Dill, yawning.
"In a pig's ear you did, Dill. Hush," said Jem. "What'll we play today?"

"pig's ear" の意味を調べます。
・Collins Dictionary: something that has been badly or clumsily done; a botched job (esp in the phrase make a pig's ear of (something)): I made a pig's ear of it last time and I'm going to make sure that won't happen again.

動詞のフレーズとして "make a pig's ear of" で掲載している辞書が幾つかありました。
・Wiktionary: To do badly; to make a mess of.: Instead, he had lain awake for hours, knowing he'd made a pig's ear of everything, and trying to think of a way to sort things out.
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: To do a very poor job of something; to ruin something completely. Primarily heard in UK.: I'm going to need to start this table over again from scratch—I really made a pig's ear of it.

このセリフを言ったJemも、言われたDillも子供なのでEngineerの手伝いをしたと言うDillを皮肉ったのですね。