Atondido Stories
"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 hoppety-
lop 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 rab-
bit 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.
398