Devil would not give
up his plan. Next day he stole seven more ladders, bound them firmly
together, and carried them to the edge of the wood where the moon stands
lowest. In the evening, when the moon rose, the Devil planted the ladder
firmly on the ground, steadied it with both hands, and sent the other
servant up to the moon, cautioning him to hold very tight and beware of
slipping. The servant climbed up as quickly as possible with the bucket,
and arrived safely at the last rung of the ladder. Just then the moon
rose from behind the wood in regal splendour. Then the Devil lifted up
the whole ladder, and carried it hastily to the moon. What a great piece
of luck! It was really just so long that its end reached the moon.

Then the Devil's servant set to work in earnest. But it's not an easy
task to stand on the top of such a ladder and to tar the moon's face
over with a mop. Besides, the moon didn't stand still at one place, but
went on his appointed course steadily. So the servant tied himself to
the moon with a rope, and being thus secure from falling, he took the
mop from the bucket, and began to blacken the moon first on the back.
But the thick gilding of the pure moon would not suffer any stain. The
servant painted and smeared, till the sweat ran from his forehead, until
he succeeded at last, with much toil, in covering the back of the moon
with tar. The Devil below gazed up at the work with his mouth open, and
when he saw the work half finished he danced with joy, first on one
foot, and then on the other.

When the servant had blackened the back of the moon, he worked himself
round to the front with difficulty, so as to destroy the lustre of the
guardian of the heavens on that side also. He stood there at last,
panted a little, and thought, when he began, that he would find the
front easier to manage than the other side. But no better plan occurred
to him, and he had to work in the same way as before.

Just as he was beginning his work again, the Creator woke up from a
little nap. He was astonished to see that the world had become half
black, though there was not a cloud in the sky. But, when he looked more
sharply into the cause of the darkness, he saw the Devil's servant
perched on the moon, and just dipping his mop into the bucket in order
to make the front of the moon as black as the back. Meantime the Devil
was capering for joy below the ladder, just like a he-goat.

"Those are the sort of tricks you are