e earth shook, and the noise
was like thunder, and everybody hastened to get out of the way and to
warn his neighbors, crying: 'Here comes my Lord of the Prairies! Make
way! Make way!' And truly Thunderfoot and his followers were a
magnificent sight, so my great-grandfather told me, and he had it from
his great-grandfather, who was told so by his great-grandfather, who saw
it all with his own eyes. But that was in the days before Thunderfoot's
head was brought low, and he was given the great hump which none of his
descendants have ever been able to get rid of."

"Tell me about that hump and where my Lord of the Prairies, Thunderfoot
the Bison, got it!" begged Peter, with shining eyes. That there was a
story he hadn't the least doubt.

Digger the Badger flattened himself out on the ground, and into his eyes
crept a dreamy, far-away look as if he were seeing things a great, great
way off. "Way back In the days when the world was young, so my
great-grandfather said," he began, "Thunderfoot, the first Bison, was
given the Wide Prairies for a kingdom by Old Mother Nature and strode
forth to take possession. Big was he, the biggest of all living
creatures thereabouts. Strong was he with a strength none cared to test.
And he was handsome. He held his head proudly. All who lived on the Wide
Prairies admired him with a great admiration and hastened to pay homage
to him.

"For a long time he ruled wisely. All the other people brought their
disputes to him to be settled, and so wisely did he decide them that the
fame of his wisdom spread even beyond the Wide Prairies and was talked
about in the Green Forest. The humblest of his subjects could come to
him freely and be sure of a hearing and that justice would be done. Big
as he was and mighty as he was, he took the greatest care never to
forget the rights of others.

"But there came a time when flattery turned his head, as the saying is.
Mr. Coyote and Mr. Fox were the chief flatterers, and in all the Great
World there were no smoother tongues than theirs. They never lost an
opportunity to tell him how handsome he was, and how mighty he was, and
how they admired him and looked up to him, and how unequaled was his
wisdom. You see, being themselves dishonest and mischief-makers, they
frequently were in trouble with their neighbors and would have to appear
before Thunderfoot for judgment. Even when it went against them they
praised the wisdom of it, admitting that they were in the