gave a tremendous
pull.

"Dear me!" said the Whale. "That cow must be stuck mighty tight"; and he
drove his tail deep in the water, and gave a marvellous pull.

He pulled harder; the Elephant pulled harder. Pretty soon the Whale
found himself sliding toward the land. The reason was, of course, that
the Elephant had something solid to brace against, and, beside, as fast
as he pulled the rope in a little, he took a turn with it round his
trunk!

But when the Whale found himself sliding toward the land he was so
provoked with the cow that he dived head first, down to the bottom of
the sea. That was a pull! The Elephant was jerked off his feet, and came
slipping and sliding to the beach, and into the surf. He was terribly
angry. He braced himself with all his might, and pulled his best. At the
jerk, up came the Whale out of the water.

"Who is pulling me?" spouted the Whale.

"Who is pulling me?" trumpeted the Elephant.

And then each saw the rope in the other's hold.

"I'll teach you to play cow!" roared the Elephant.

"I'll show you how to fool me!" fumed the Whale. And they began to pull
again. But this time the rope broke, the Whale turned a somersault, and
the Elephant fell over backward.

At that, they were both so ashamed that neither would speak to the
other. So that broke up the bargain between them.

And little Brother Rabbit sat in the bushes and laughed, and laughed,
and laughed.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Adapted from two tales included in the records of the American
Folk-Lore Society.

THE LITTLE HALF-CHICK

There was once upon a time a Spanish Hen, who hatched out some nice
little chickens. She was much pleased with their looks as they came from
the shell. One, two, three, came out plump and fluffy; but when the
fourth shell broke, out came a little half-chick! It had only one leg
and one wing and one eye! It was just half a chicken.

The Hen-mother did not know what in the world to do with the queer
little Half-Chick. She was afraid something would happen to it, and she
tried hard to protect it and keep it from harm. But as soon as it could
walk the little Half-Chick showed a most headstrong spirit, worse than
any of its brothers. It would not mind, and it would go wherever it
wanted to; it walked with a funny little hoppity-kick, hoppity-kick, and
got along pretty fast.

One day the little Half-Chick said, "Mother, I am off to Madrid, to see
the King! Good-bye."

The poor Hen-mother d