as the devil could do to escape with his
life.

"Oh, my poor ribs! My poor ribs!" he gasped when he was safely back in
hell. "He's a terrible man--that farmer! Why, even his old grandfather
is so strong that I thought he'd squeeze me to death!"

But when he had told his full story the other devils laughed at him
louder than before and told him that the farmer had again fooled him.

"You've got to try another match with him," they said. "This time dare
him to a foot race and mind you don't let him fool you."

So in a day or two when the soreness was gone from his bones the devil
went back to earth and dared the farmer to run a foot race with him.

"Certainly," the farmer said, "but it's hardly fair to let you run
against me because I go like the wind. I tell you what I'll do: I'll let
you race with my small son. He's only a year old and perhaps you can
beat him."

The devil--I never knew a more stupid fellow in my life!--agreed to this
and the farmer took him out to a meadow. Under some bushes he showed
him a rabbit's hole.

"My little boy's asleep in there," he said. "Call him out."

"Little boy!" the devil called. "Come out and run a race with me!"

Instantly a rabbit jumped out of the hole and went hoppetylop across the
meadow. The devil tried hard to overtake him but couldn't. He ran on and
on. They came at last to a deep ravine. The rabbit leaped across but the
devil, when he tried to do the same, slipped and fell and went rolling
down over stones and brambles, down, down, down, into a brook. When he
had dragged himself out of the water, bruised and scratched, the rabbit
had disappeared.

"I've had enough of that farmer," the devil said when he got back to
hell. "Why, do you know, he has a small boy just one year old and I tell
you there isn't one of you can beat that boy running!"

But the devils when they heard the rest of the story only laughed and
jeered and told their comrade that the farmer had again tricked him.

"You've got to go back to him another time," they said. "It will never
do for people to get the idea that devils are such fools."

"But I tell you I won't dare him to another wrestling match," the young
devil said, "nor to a foot race, either."

"Try whistling this time," his comrades told him. "You ought to be able
to beat him whistling. Now have your wits about you and don't let him
fool you again."

So the devil went back to earth and said to the farmer:

"We've got to have ano