if he was able, but
it did say that when we ran behind a brush pile, as we did sometimes, he
must follow around the brush pile and never jump over it, no matter what
happened. This was a hard law for Mr. Dog to keep, for he was mostly fat
and excitable, and my folks would run around and around a brush pile,
as much as a hundred times very often, and tire Mr. Dog so that he
couldn't move. Then my folks would laugh and go home leisurely, while
Mr. Dog would sneak off with his tongue hanging out till it dragged on
the ground."

[Illustration: "MY TWENTY-FIRST GREAT-GREAT-GRANDFATHER COULD NOT RUN
VERY FAST."]

"Well, one day in the spring, when my family was out for an airing and a
little sunshine, they got a good ways from home, and all of a sudden
here comes Mr. Dog and his whole family, too. My folks didn't want
anything to do with them, and set out for home in several directions,
with Mr. Dog's folks following most all of them. My twenty-first
great-great-grandfather was getting pretty old and couldn't run very
fast, and there was a young, anxious looking dog named Leap quite close
behind him. So the first brush pile he came to my relative paused and
when Leap came around one way he went the other, and they kept that up
until Leap got so mad and excited and worn out that he didn't care for
the 'Brush Pile law' or anything else except my twenty-first
great-great-grandfather, and all of a sudden he gave a great big bark
and a high jump right straight over the top of the brush pile, and just
that second the moon tipped up on its edge and all my folks and all Mr.
Dog's folks came tumbling right down through the Big Nowhere to the
earth, because they were all running and not holding on--all except
Leap, who stayed right up in the air, according to law, and he has been
there ever since.

"And when my folks and Mr. Dog's folks got down to the earth they were
all so scared that my folks ran in one direction and Mr. Dog's folks ran
in another. The dog family kept on running till they got to Mr. Man's
house, and there they hid and stayed."

[Illustration: "IT'S JUST AS PLAIN AS CAN BE."]

"And since that day," concluded Mr. Jack Rabbit, "there has never been
any of our family in the moon, and Leap is the only dog there. He's
still jumping over the brush pile because he broke the law, and you can
see him there any clear night when the moon sits up on its edge as it
does now. And that's what those spots are--a dog jumping o