“Hasn’t it occurred to you that your tail is somewhat like a Cow’s?” Mr. Crow went on.
Mistah Mule was puzzled. He even seemed alarmed.
“This here is my own tail!” he cried. “Can’t nobody say I stole it.”
“Certainly not!” Mr. Crow agreed. “I’ll explain more carefully. There’s a Cow on this farm that everybody calls ‘the Muley Cow.’ Just to tease her, I want you to pretend you’re her cousin and that your two tails are a good deal alike.”
“But I isn’t got two tails!” bellowed Mistah Mule. And again he turned his head, as if to make sure that another tail hadn’t crept up behind him, when he wasn’t looking.
“My goodness!” Mr. Crow muttered. “It’s hard to talk with this person.”
XIII
MISTAH MULE LAUGHS
Old Mr. Crow, at his very first meeting with Mistah Mule, decided that he was somewhat stupid. When Mr. Crow spoke of the Muley Cow, and said to Mistah Mule, “I want you to pretend that your two tails are alike,” Mistah Mule actually didn’t know what the old gentleman was talking about. He actually looked around to make sure he hadn’t two tails of his own!
“Of course you haven’t two tails,” Mr. Crow told him. “I mean, yours and hers.”
“Yes’m—yes, sah!” said Mistah Mule. “But how is I a-goin’ to pretend that? If a fly lights on my back, does you ’spect the Muley Cow a-goin’ to swish it off with her tail?”