of a pet hare.
Every day the old man cut up food and set it out on a plate for his pet.

One day a badger came out of the forest, and in a trice drove away the
hare, and eating up his dinner, licked the plate clean. Then, standing
on his hind-legs, the badger blew out his belly until it was as round as
a bladder and tight as a drum, and beating on it with his paws to show
his victory, scampered off to the woods. But the old man, who was very
angry, caught the badger, and tying him by the legs, hung him up head
downward under the edges of the thatch in the shed where his old woman
pounded millet. He then strapped a wooden frame to hold fagots on his
back, and went out to the mountains to cut wood.

The badger, finding his legs pain him, began to cry, and begged the old
woman to untie him, promising to help her pound the millet. The tired
old dame, believing the sly beast, like a good-hearted soul laid down
her pestle and loosened the cords round the beast's legs. The badger was
so cramped at first that he could not stand; but when well able to move,
he seized a knife to kill the old woman. The hare, seeing this, ran away
to find the old man, if possible, and tell him. The badger, after
stabbing the old woman, crushed her to death by upsetting the bureau
upon her, and then threw her body into the mortar, and pounded her into
a jelly. Setting the pot on to boil, he made the woman's flesh into a
mess of soup, and ate all he could of it. Then the badger, by turning
three double somersaults, turned himself into an old woman, looking
exactly like the one he had just eaten. All being ready, he waited till
the husband came home tired and hungry.

Soon the old man came back, thinking of nothing more than the hot supper
he was soon to enjoy. Throwing down his fagots, he came into the house,
and while he warmed his hands at the hearth, his wife (as he supposed)
set the mess of soup and millet, with a slice of radish, before him on a
tray. He fell to, and ate heartily, his wife (as he supposed) waiting
dutifully near by till her lord was served. When the meal was finished
he pulled out a sheet of soft mulberry paper from his bosom and wiped
his old chops, smacking them well, as he thought what a good supper he
had so much enjoyed. Just then the badger took on his real shape, and
yelled out: "Old fool, you've eaten your own wife. Look in the drain,
and you'll find her bones." And he puffed out his body, beat it like a
drum, whiske