rched. The
creeks ran dry, and the rivers got so low the mills had to stop. I
remember that when Brother Bear tried to carry me across the ferry
his flatboat ran aground in the middle of the river, and the water was
so low we found we could wade out.

"The drouth got so bad that everybody was complaining--everybody
except me. Brother Wolf and Brother Bear would come and sit on my
front porch and do nothing but complain; but I said nothing. I simply
smoked my pipe and shook my head, and said nothing. They noticed this,
after so long a time, and one day, while they were sitting there
complaining and declaring that they were ruined, I went in to get a
drink of water. I came back gently and heard them asking each other
how it was that I didn't join in their complaints. When I came out,
Brother Wolf says, says he: 'Brother Rabbit, how are your craps?' I
remember he said 'craps.'

"'Well,' says I, 'my craps are middling good. They might be better,
and they might be worse, but I have no cause to grumble.'

"They looked at each other, and then Brother Bear asked if I had had
any rain at my house. 'None,' says I, 'to brag about--a drizzle here
and a drizzle there, but nothing to boast of.'

"They looked at each other in great surprise, and then Brother Wolf
spoke up. 'Brother Rabbit,' says he, 'how can you get a drizzle and
the rest of us not a drop?'

"'Well,' says I, 'some folks that know me call me the rain-maker. They
may be right. They may be wrong. I'm not going to squabble about it.
You can call me what you please. I shall not dispute with you.'

"Presently they went away, but it wasn't long before they came back,
bringing with them all the neighbors for miles around. They gathered
in the porch and in the yard and outside the gate, and begged me, if I
was a rain-maker, to make it rain there and then to save their crops.
They begged me and begged me, but I sat cross-legged and smoked my
pipe--this same pipe you see here. Brother Fox, who had done me many a
mean trick (though he was always well paid for it), got on his knees
and begged me to make it rain for them.

"Finally I told them that I'd make it rain for the whole settlement on
two conditions. The first condition was that every one was to pay
toll."

[Illustration: MR. RABBIT SAYING NOTHING]

"Toll is the pay the miller takes out at the mill," remarked Buster
John.

"Yes," replied Mr. Rabbit, "you take your turn of meal to the mill and
the miller takes