After Mr. Dog had finished his pig story he and Mr. Crow got to talking
over old times and telling what happened to them when they were boys and
how everything had changed and how young fellows now had things pretty
much their own way and no trouble to get an education.
Mr. Crow said that he believed if he'd had half a chance when he was
young he'd have made an artist. He said he used to draw off likenesses
on his slate so that anybody could almost tell who they were and that
the 'Coon and the 'Possum each had in their rooms in the Big Hollow Tree
pictures of themselves that he had drawn which were just as good to-day
as the day they were made.
Mr. Dog thought it was mighty fine to be talented like that. He said
that his early education had been neglected, too, and that he knew he
might have been a poet, for he could make rhymes just as easy as falling
off a log, and that he knew three rhymes for every word he could think
of except "silver" and "orange." Of course, it was too late now, and
he had mostly given up poetry and thought some of going into society.
All he needed was good clothes and a few instructions in manners and
some dancing lessons. He said he was just as young and just as good
looking as he ever was, and that in a few days he'd have some new
clothes. Then he asked Mr. Crow if he knew of anybody that would give
him some lessons in politeness and dancing.
[Illustration: MR. RABBIT WAS MAKING SOAP IN THE BACK YARD.]
Mr. Crow thought a while, and then said that he didn't know of a soul in
the neighborhood that could be so polite and dance as well as Mr. Jack
Rabbit, and that he didn't suppose Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Dog were on good
terms. That made Mr. Dog feel pretty bad, 'cause he knew it was just
that way, and by and by he got Mr. Crow to promise that he would go and
call on Jack Rabbit next morning and see if he couldn't fix it up
somehow for him to take a few lessons. So next morning Mr. Crow called
over to see Mr. Rabbit, and found him making soap out in the back yard.
He had a good fire built between some stones and a big kettle full of
brown stuff, which he was stirring with a long stick. He seemed to be
feeling pretty well, for he kept singing,
"Fire and stir, and grease and lye--
Soap to scrub with by and by."
"Ho!" said the Little Lady. "Do they make soap like that?"
They used to in old times. They made what they called a lye by running
water through new wood ashes, and then they put grease in it and boiled
it in a big kettle. It was very strong soap, and people didn't wash
their hands with it, because it got into sore places and burnt and stung
like fury. But they used it a good deal to scrub with, and Jack Rabbit
made it himself because he was smart and knew how.
Well, the Crow told him all about what Mr. Dog had said, and Mr. Rabbit
kept stirring and singing kind of soft like to himself, and smiling a
little, and by and by, when the Crow was done, he said that of course
Mr. Dog wasn't very polite, and that some lessons would certainly do him
good. As for dancing, he said that if Mr. Dog would promise to do just
as he told him he would be able to dance as many as three different
steps in less than five minutes after he got there.
Mr. Crow said that Mr. Dog had promised anything, and that he would send
him over that very afternoon. And, sure enough right after dinner, here
comes Mr. Dog, lickety split, to take lessons. Jack Rabbit had his door
locked and his window open, and was sitting by it and looking out when
Mr. Dog got there. He told Mr. Dog to sit right down and catch his
breath a little, and then the lessons would begin. His kettle of soap
was all done, and he had taken it off of the fire, but the fire wasn't
out yet, though it looked as if it was, because it had burned down to
coals and white ashes.
Mr. Rabbit had his new soap in the house, and he spread some of it on a
cloth and tossed it down to Mr. Dog.
"That's a dance plaster," he said, "but you don't put it on quite yet.
The first thing will be some lessons in politeness. You must look
straight at me and do just as I tell you."
[Illustration: BOWED POLITELY, AS IF HE WERE MEETING LADIES.]
Mr. Dog said that he would do that, and took a seat facing Mr. Rabbit
and paid close attention. Then Jack Rabbit got up and bowed politely, as
if he were meeting ladies, and, of course, took a step or two backward
as he bowed, and then Mr. Dog bowed and took some steps backward, too.
And then he sat down, and Mr. Rabbit told him just where his mistakes
were, and made him do it over and over until Mr. Dog had bowed and
scraped and backed himself almost into the fire, though he didn't know
it.
[Illustration: GAVE A HOWL AND JUMPED STRAIGHT UP INTO THE AIR.]
Next, Jack Rabbit said, they'd have a lesson in paying compliments, and
then the dancing. Now, whenever anybody pays a compliment to Mr. Dog he
always wags his tail; so the Rabbit thought of the very finest
compliment he could think of and paid it to Mr. Dog, and Mr. Dog forgot
that it was only a lesson and was so happy to receive such a compliment
from Mr. Jack Rabbit that he wagged his tail a great big wag sideways
and then up and down, until all at once he gave a howl and jumped
straight up in the air, for he had pounded his tail right into the ashes
and hot coals of Mr. Rabbit's fire.
"Did it burn him much?" asked the Little Lady.
It did that, and he howled and jumped up and down and whirled first one
way and then the other, and Jack Rabbit leaned out of the window and
held his sides and said:--
"That's it! That's the step! Dance, Mr. Dog; dance!"
[Illustration: TOOK OVER THE HILL TOWARDS HOME.]
When Mr. Dog heard that, he thought the Rabbit was really in earnest,
and didn't know, perhaps, he had wagged his tail into the fire; so he
quit howling and really tried to do a few fancy steps, and Jack Rabbit
almost died trying to keep from laughing, but he managed to do it, and
he called out to Mr. Dog that he was doing fine, and that all he needed
now was the dance plaster on his tail. When Mr. Dog heard that, he
thought perhaps a dance plaster would take the smart away, too, and he
sat right down and tied it on, tight. And then pretty soon that soft
soap began to act, and, right then, of all the howling and dancing and
performance that you ever heard of, Mr. Dog did it. Mr. Rabbit couldn't
hold in any longer, and lay back in his chair, and laughed, and rolled
on his bed and shouted, and when Mr. Dog heard him he knew he had been
fooled again, and he took off over the hill toward home a good deal
faster than he came. Every little ways he'd stop to dance and perform,
and try to get that plaster off his tail, and every time he stopped Jack
Rabbit would sing out:--
"That's a new step, Mr. Dog! You're doing fine! Dance, Mr. Dog; dance!"
And for a long time after that Mr. Dog didn't like to go out much,
because everywhere he went somebody would be sure to say to him:--
"That's a new step, Mr. Dog! Dance, Mr. Dog; dance!"