MR. RABBIT HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT THE MOON, DURING WHICH HE EXPLAINS
THE SPOTS ON IT
This is the story that Mr. Jack Rabbit told to Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum
when they sat together on the edge of the world and hung their feet over
and looked at the moon. After Mr. 'Possum had finished his story, the
Rabbit leaned back and swung his feet over the Big Nowhere awhile,
thinking. Then he began.
"Well," he said, "my folks used to live in the moon."
"Humph!" said the 'Coon.
"Nonsense!" said the 'Possum.
"Yes," said Jack Rabbit, "they did. The moon is a world, away over on
the other side of the Big Nowhere, and it doesn't stand still and stay
top side up like this world, but keeps moving about and turning over, so
that you have to look sharp and hang on tight to keep from falling off
when it tips bottom side up, or is standing on its edge as it is
to-night. My folks used to live there and Mr. Dog's folks used to live
there, too. That was a long time ago, before Mr. Dog ever went to live
with Mr. Man, and he was big and savage and had no more manners than he
has now.
"My folks never could and never did get along with Mr. Dog's folks worth
a cent, but they could mostly beat Mr. Dog's folks running, so they
didn't have to associate with him unless they wanted to."
[Illustration: "USED TO HIDE AND WATCH FOR US."]
"Of course Mr. Dog's family didn't like that, for they thought they were
just as good as we were, and they used to hide and watch for us, and
when we came by jump out and try to keep up with us for as much as two
or three miles sometimes, just as Mr. Dog tried to keep up with me the
other day, which you may remember."
The 'Possum and 'Coon grinned to themselves and nodded.
"Well," continued Mr. Rabbit, "there are some laws of etiquette--which
means politeness--up there in the Moon, and they are very strict. The
Old Man in the Moon makes these laws, and when one of them is broken he
makes the one that breaks it just go right on doing whatever it is for
nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and sometimes a good deal longer
when it's a worse break than usual.
"Now the very strictest of all these laws used to be the one about Mr.
Dog trying to keep up with our folks. It was called the 'Brush Pile
law.' It didn't say that he couldn't keep up with us 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 over a brush
pile. It's just as plain as can be."
The 'Possum and the 'Coon looked up at the full moon and said that the
spots certainly did look a good deal like Mr. Dog jumping over a brush
pile, but that the Rabbit couldn't prove his story any more than they
could prove theirs, and that it wasn't any better story, if it was as
good.
"Of course I can prove it," said the Rabbit. "There is an old adage
about it, and you can prove anything by an old adage. It goes this
way:--
"The longest way is often best--
Never jump over a cuckoo's nest.
"I don't know just why it says 'cuckoo's nest,' but I suppose cuckoos
always used to build in brush piles in the moon, and maybe they do yet.
Anyhow it proves it."
"Why, yes," said the 'Coon. "Sure enough!"
"That's so! It does!" said the 'Possum.