“I will cut down branches of trees with my sharp gnawing teeth,” said Flop Ear.
“And I will make them into a house,” said the monkey. “And since you like to live part of the time down under ground you may dig for yourself a hole in the middle of the house. We will call that a cellar.”
[“My, you certainly had quite a time,” said Mappo.]
“That will be fine!” cried Flop Ear.
So the two animal friends started to work together. By standing up on his hind legs, Flop Ear could reach the low branches of some evergreen trees. These he gnawed off almost as nicely as if they had been cut with a knife. And, as fast as the tree branches were cut off, Mappo, with his paws, which were like hands, stuck them in the ground, making a sort of green tent.
Then inside that tent Flop Ear dug for himself a hole under ground, for rabbits like to stay beneath the top of the earth part of the time. When the house and the cellar-hole were finished Mappo said:
“Now we are all right, except that we need something to eat.”