d sent him away without paying him anything.

At last the rabbit applied for the position. The tiger laughed at him
and said, "Why, little rabbit, you are too small to do the work. The
monkey, the goat, and the armadillo have all failed to give
satisfaction. Of course a little beast like you will fail too."

However, there were no other beasts who applied for the position so
the tiger sent for the rabbit and told him that he would try him for a
little while.

The rabbit worked faithfully and well, and soon he had cleared a
large portion of the ground. The next day he worked just as well. The
tiger thought that he had been very lucky to hire the rabbit. He got
tired staying around to watch the rabbit work. The rabbit seemed to
know just how to do the work anyway, without orders, so the tiger
decided to go away on a hunting trip. He left his son to watch the
rabbit.

After the tiger had gone away the rabbit said to the tiger's son, "The
ox which your father is going to give me is marked with a white spot
on his left ear and another on his right side, isn't he?"

"O, no," replied the tiger's son. "He is red all over with just a tiny
white spot on his right ear."

The rabbit worked for a while longer and then he said, "The ox which
your father is going to give me is kept by the river, isn't he?"

"Yes," replied the tiger's son.

The rabbit had made a plan to go and get the ox without waiting to
finish his work. Just as he started off he saw the tiger returning.
The tiger noticed that the rabbit had not worked so well when he was
away. After that he stayed and watched the rabbit until the whole farm
was cleared. Then the tiger gave the rabbit the ox as he had promised.

"You must kill this ox," he said to the rabbit, "in a place where
there are neither flies nor mosquitoes."

The rabbit went away with the ox. After he had gone for some distance
he thought he would kill him. He heard a cock, however, crowing in
the distance and he knew that there must be a farm yard near. There
would be flies of course. He went on farther and again he thought that
he would kill the ox. The ground looked moist and damp and so did the
leaves on the bushes. Since the rabbit thought there would be
mosquitoes there he decided not to kill the ox. He went on and on and
finally he came to a high place where there was a strong breeze
blowing. "There are no mosquitoes here," he said to himself. "The
place is so far removed from any habitati