ciable. He was sorry, he said, that he couldn't
have asked them to bring down their comp'ny, but he hadn't fixed for so
many, and, after all, it would be nicer now, all alone together.

So then the 'Coon and the 'Possum and the Old Black Crow all sat down to
the table together and ate and ate and ate, and the Old Black Crow ate
most of all.

THE FIRST MOON STORY

A STORY IN WHICH MR. 'COON TELLS MR. 'POSSUM AND MR. RABBIT SOMETHING
ABOUT THE MOON

Last night when the full moon looked into the House of Many Windows the
Little Lady stood looking at it for a long time.

She had been told that the moon was another world, and that the stars
were worlds, too, and she was trying to think how that could be when
they looked so small and close together; also if it were all true, and
they were so big, why they did not get against each other when the sky
itself wasn't any bigger than the world and came down to it everywhere
at the edges. She asked the Story Teller about it when he came in.

The Story Teller tried to explain that the stars and moon were not so
close together as they looked, and that some were a good deal further
away than others, and a lot more things, all of which the Little Lady
doubted, because she said she could see for herself that the sky was
just a round blue ceiling, and that the moon and stars were right
against it, and if any of them were further away than the others they
would be over beyond the ceiling and wouldn't show. This was a good
deal easier for the Story Teller to understand than the things he had
been trying to tell, so he said, "Why, of course. I hadn't thought of
that," and then he said he knew some stories about the moon that were a
good deal truer, he guessed, than most anything else. And then he told
her, first of all,

MR. 'COON'S STORY OF THE MOON.

Once upon a time, when Mr. Dog had invited the Crow and the Turtle to
his house for supper, Jack Rabbit came over to the Hollow Tree to spend
the evening with the 'Coon and the 'Possum, and they took a long walk.
They walked and walked, till by and by they got to the edge of the world
and sat down and hung their feet over and talked and looked at the full
moon that was just rising.

They talked first about one thing and then another, and then they got to
talking about the moon, and come to find out one thought it was this,
and one thought it was that, and the third man, which was the 'Coon,
said he knew it wasn't either on