. Mr. Dog supposed that Father Storm Turtle could not get up a noise
big enough to beat that war noise, and had about given up trying.

Then Mr. Rabbit asked why Mr. Man's people wanted to have war and fire
those big guns at each other, which must be very dangerous and very apt
to kill people, besides causing floods in one place and drought in
another, which was bad for everybody concerned.

Mr. Dog said Mr. Man himself didn't know why all those Mr. Man's over
there wanted to have a war. Mr. Dog had heard Mr. Man say that those
people over there didn't know themselves what it was all about, and that
they were killing each other every day by the thousand with those big
guns, and losing all their property, for no reason at all that anybody
could think of, except, perhaps, to take each other's country, which
probably wouldn't be worth much now, whoever got it. Mr. Dog said that,
of course, Mr. Man's people were very smart in many ways, but that as
nearly as he could find out they had always been very silly about wars,
and had fought many of them, for no good reason, instead of being wise
like the Deep Woods people, who only fight to get something to eat, or
sometimes when there are rivals at a time of courtship. Mr. Dog said his
own people were more like Mr. Man's, probably from association, and that
more than once at Great Corners he had been set upon by a perfectly
strange Mr. Dog, without cause; but even then it was generally a
single-handed affair and soon over, except once, when he believed every
Mr. Dog in Great Corners took a hand for a few minutes, though nobody
was hurt and everybody seemed to feel better for the exercise.

Mr. Dog went on to say that he seldom enjoyed these occasions, and
lately had stayed in Mr. Man's car while they were at Great Corners and
talked earnestly to any strange dog that came around looking for war.

Then Mr. 'Coon, who hadn't said a word so far, but had just been smoking
and thinking, seemed to wake up out of deep reflection, and said:

"I know something about war. I thought of making one, once, and
afterwards I saw one."

Then everybody looked at Mr. 'Coon, who is usually rather quiet, and
asked him to please tell about those wars--nothing could be more
interesting, just now, than to hear about them.

So Mr. 'Coon filled his pipe up fresh, and told them.

[Illustration: I CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT VIOLET COULD SEE IN HIM]

"Well," he said, "there isn't much to tell about the first