“I passed the time of day with him as he came up, but kept further away from him than he could jump. He seemed very much surprised to see me, and said it was pretty bad weather for such little chaps to be out; but I told him I had on pretty thick underwear, and besides that I had just taken a hot bath in the hogshead.
“‘I’m both cold and dirty,’ says he, smelling around the hogshead, ‘and I need a bath. I’ve been asleep in the woods yonder, and I’m right stiff with cold. But that water is bubbling around in there mightily.’
“‘I’ve just flung some rocks in,’ says I.
“‘How do you get in?’ says he.
“‘Back in,’ says I.
“Brother Lion walked around the hogshead once or twice, as if to satisfy himself that there was no trap, and then he squatted and began to crawl into the hogshead backwards. By the time his hind leg touched the water, he pulled it out with a howl, and tried to jump away, but, somehow, his foot slipped off the rim of the hogshead, and he soused into the water—kerchug!—up to his shoulders.”
Mr. Rabbit paused, shut his eyes, and chuckled to himself.
YOU NEVER HEARD SUCH HOWLING SINCE YOU WERE BORN
“Well, you never heard such howling since you were born. Brother Lion scrambled out quicker than a cat can wink her left eye, and rolled on the ground, and scratched around, and tore up the earth considerably. I thought at first he was putting on and pretending; but the water must have been mighty hot, for while Brother Lion was scuffling around, all the wool on his body came off up to his shoulders, and if you were to see him to-day you’d find him just that way.