d his tail scornfully, and ran off.

Almost dead with grief and horror, the old man gathered up the bones of
his wife, and decently buried them. Then he made a vow to take revenge
on the badger. Just then the hare came back from the mountains, and
after condoling with the old man, said he would also take revenge on the
badger.

[Illustration]

So the hare buckled on his belt, in which he kept his flint and steel,
and made ready a plaster of red peppers.

Going into the forest, he saw Mr. Badger walking home with a load of
fagots and brush on his back. Creeping up softly behind him, the hare
set the bundle on fire. The badger kept on, until he heard the crackling
of the burning twigs. Then he jumped wildly, and cried out, "Oh, I
wonder what that noise is!"

"Oh, this is the Clack-clack Mountain; it always is crackling here,"
said the hare, looking down from the top of the hill.

The fire grew more lively, and the badger became scared. He fell down,
and threw out his fore-paws wildly.

[Illustration]

"Katchi-katchi" (clack-clack), went the dry fagots, as the red-hot coals
flew about.

"What can it be?" said Mr. Badger.

"This mountain is called Katchi-katchi (Clack-clack); don't you know
that?" said the hare, coolly standing on the bridge, and leaning on his
axe.

"Oh! oh! oh! help me!" howled the badger, as the blazing twigs began to
burn the hair off his back. And running through the woods to a stream
near by, he plunged in, and the fire was put out. But his running had
only increased the fire and burning, and his back was all raw. When the
hare found the badger at home in his house, he was howling in misery,
and expecting to die from his burn.

"Let me take a look at your burn, Mr. Badger," said the hare; "I have
some famous salve to cure it"--as he pretended to be very pitiful, and
held up a bowl of what seemed to be fine salve in one paw, while in the
other was a soft brush of fine hair. Then the hare clapped on the
red-pepper plaster, and ran away, while the badger rolled in pain.

By-and-by, when the badger got well, he went to see the hare, to have it
out with him. He found the hare building a boat. "Where are you going in
that boat?" said the badger.

"I'm going to the moon," said the hare. "Come along with me. There's
another boat."

So the badger, thinking to catch some fish by going on the water, got
into the boat, and both launched away.

Now the boat in which Mr. Badger rowed was made