aliant heroes as before. We can carry out our great
undertakings by the dim starlight."

"Shall we pull down the moon from heaven?" asked his servants.

"No," said the Devil, "he is fixed too tight, and we can't get him down.
We must do something more likely to succeed. The best we can do is to
take tar and smear him with it till he's black. He may then run about
the sky as he pleases, but he can't give us any more trouble. The
victory then rests with us, and rich booty awaits us."

The fiendish company approved of the plan of their chief, and were all
anxious to get to work. But it was too late at the time, for the moon
was just about to set, and the sun was rising. But they worked zealously
at their preparations all day till late in the evening. The Devil went
out and stole a barrel of tar, which he carried to his accomplices in
the wood. Meantime, they had been engaged in making a long ladder in
seven pieces, each piece of which measured seven fathoms. Then they
procured a great bucket, and made a mop of lime-tree bast, which they
fastened to a long handle.

Then they waited for night, and as soon as the moon rose, the Devil took
the ladder and the barrel on his shoulder and ordered his two servants
to follow him with the bucket and the mop. When they reached a suitable
spot, they filled the bucket with tar, threw a quantity of ashes into
it, and dipped in the mop. Just at this moment the moon rose from behind
the wood. They hastily raised the ladder, and the Devil put the bucket
into the hand of one of his servants, and told him to make haste and
climb up, while he stationed the other under the ladder.

Now the Devil and his servant were standing under the ladder to hold it,
but the servant could not bear the weight, and it began to shake. The
other servant who had climbed up missed his footing on a rung of the
ladder, and fell with the bucket on the Devil's neck. The Devil began to
pant and shake himself like a bear, and swore frightfully. He paid no
more attention to the ladder, and let it go, so it fell on the ground
with a thundering crash, and broke into a thousand pieces.

When the Devil found that his work had prospered so ill, and that he had
tarred himself all over instead of the moon, he grew mad with rage and
fury. He washed and scoured and scraped himself, but the tar and soot
stuck to him so tight that he keeps his black colour to the present day.

But although the first experiment had failed, the