at were you doing all that for?" asked Buster John.

"Well, I'll tell you," Mr. Rabbit replied. "I had a grudge against
Brother Bear, and I wanted to work a little scheme. Along at first I
just went on by the back of Brother Bear's house, and around through
the woods home, but in a few days I'd pass by the house and then get
over the fence and creep back to hear what Mrs. Bear had to say. One
morning I heard her talking. She was out in the yard fixing to do her
week's washing while Brother Bear was in the house dozing. I could
hear what Mrs. Bear said, but I was too far off to hear what answer
Brother Bear made.

[Illustration: MRS. BEAR HANGING OUT CLOTHES]

"Mrs. Bear says, says she: 'Honey, you ain't asleep, are you?
Brother Rabbit has just gone along by the gate dressed to kill.' A
grumbling sound came from the house. Mrs. Bear says, says she, 'I
wonder where he goes every day, with his hair combed so slick?'
Grumble in the house. 'You'd better wish you looked half as nice,'
says Mrs. Bear. Grumble in the house. 'Well, I don't care if he is a
grand rascal, he looks nice and clean, and that's more than anybody
can say about you,' says Mrs. Bear. Growl in the house. Mrs. Bear
says, says she, 'Oh, you can rip and rear, but Brother Rabbit goes
about with his head combed, and he looks lots better that way than
them that go about with rat nests in their hair--lots better.'"

Here Brother Rabbit chuckled again. "I thought to myself, thinks I,
that I'd better be getting on toward home, and so I crept back up the
fence and went on my way.

"The next day as I was going along the road, who should I meet but old
Brother Bear himself. Well, here's a row, thinks I, but it didn't turn
out so. Brother Bear was just as polite to me as I had been to his old
woman.

"We passed the time of day and talked about the crops a little while,
but I could see that Brother Bear had something serious on his mind.
Finally, he shuffled around and sat down on a stump beside the
roadside.

"'Brother Rabbit,' he says, says he, 'how in the world do you manage
to keep your hair so slick and smooth all the time? My old woman sees
you passing by every day, and she's been worrying the life out of me
because I don't keep my hair combed that way. So I said to myself I'd
ask you the very next time I met you.'

"Brother Bear was looking pretty rough and tough, and so I says, says
I, 'You look as if she had been tousling you about it.'

"He hung hi