Atondido Stories
"You've got to go back to him another time," they said. "It
will never do for people to get the idea that devils are such
fools."
"But I tell you I won't dare him to another wrestling match,"
the young devil said, "nor to a foot race, either."
"Try whistling this time," his comrades told him. "You ought
to be able to beat him whistling. Now have your wits about you
and don't let him fool you again."
So the devil went back to earth and said to the farmer:
"We've got to have another contest for that bag of money.
This time let's try whistling."
"Very well," the farmer said. "We'll have a whistling match."
They went off into the forest and the farmer told the devil to
whistle first.
The devil whistled and all the leaves on the trees shook and
trembled. He whistled again and the twigs began to crackle and
break. He whistled a third time and big branches snapped off
and fell to the ground.
"There!" the devil exclaimed, "Can you beat that?"
"My poor boy," the farmer said. (Oh, but that farmer was a
tricky one!) "Is that the best you can do? Why, when I whistle, if
you don't cover up your ears you'll be deafened! And as likely as
not a tree will fall on you and kill you! Now shall I begin? "
"Wait a minute!" the devil begged. "Won't you please tie up
my ears before you begin because I don't want to be deafened."
This was just what the farmer was hoping the devil would
say. So he took out a big kerchief and put it over the devil's ears
and also over his eyes and tied it behind in a hard knot.
"Now then!" he shouted. "Take care!"
With that he began to whistle and as he whistled he picked
up a big branch off the ground and gave the devil an awful crack
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