was never such
a light nor such a roar in the world as that was.

"Mother Storm Turtle tumbled over backward and set the house afire
with her torch, and Father Storm was so frightened by the big light that
at first he couldn't help her put the fire out. And just then it began
raining like forty, and all the children came running and screaming out
of the woods, half scared to death by the big light and noise. It made a
terrible commotion there for a few minutes, until they got the fire put
out, and people heard it all over the country, even to Mr. Man's house.
And when they found out what it was, and who started it, everybody
called it a 'storm.' And rain and wind and thunder and lightning, or
most any other kind of a big fuss, is called a 'storm' to this day,
after Father and Mother Storm Turtle."

[Illustration: SLOP AND SPLASH AND PADDLE.]

"And that," said Mr. Turtle, lighting his pipe once more, "was the first
thunder and lightning, and whenever people saw it after that they said,
'We're going to have another storm!' For Father and Mother Storm Turtle
went right on using the big torch and the shell of Old Man Turtle
Himself to call in the children just before a rain, and the children
would come running every time, all except Slop, Splash and Paddle, who
got so at last that they liked the mud and dirty water better than
anything else. They liked the mud so well that Father Storm told them
one day they might go and live in the mud and be named Mud for all he
cared; and so they did, and their names were Mud, and they and all their
families live in dirty water and are called Mud Turtles to this day.
They never went home again, but whenever they hear Father Storm
pounding on the shell, they stop whatever they are doing and listen. And
that's how the saying began that 'a Mud Turtle never lets go till it
thunders.'"

"What makes the noise always get louder and the light brighter just
before it rains?" asked Jack Rabbit.

"Why, you see," said Mr. Turtle, "Father and Mother Storm's
grandchildren and great-grandchildren are a good deal scattered now, and
as the old people run the thunder and lightning mostly on their account,
they try to make it just about bright enough and loud enough to keep up
with the rain wherever it goes."

"It's plenty loud enough," said Mr. 'Coon solemnly.

"And plenty bright enough," said Mr. Crow, blinking.

"What makes it set things on fire sometimes?" asked Mr. 'Possum
sleepily.

"That