cutting-off of heads—thinking, perhaps, with wisdom, that these good
ladies saw enough of carnage in their every-day life without introducing
it into their catechism.

But Singing Stream knew the story of "Sharper," or "Bladder," as he is
called by some of the people, because he is round and his grotesquely fat
figure resembles a bladder blown to bursting. Bladder’s province it is to
make a fool of himself, diving into water after plums he sees reflected
there from the branches of the trees. He dives again and again in his
pursuit of folly, even tying stones to his wrists and ankles to keep
himself down while he gathers the reflected fruit. After his rescue, which
he fights against valiantly, as he lies gasping on the bank of the stream,
he sees the fruit on the branches above his head. It is this same Bladder
who is one of the _dramatis personæ_ in the moon myth, and that is told to
women as safely without the limits of that little learning that is a
dangerous thing. Bladder met Rabbit hunting; and Bladder kept throwing his
eye up into the tree-tops to look for game. The Rabbit watched him
enviously, thinking what a saving of effort it would be if he could do the
same thing. Wherefore Bladder promised to instruct him, telling him to
change eyes after using one four times, but Rabbit did not think that the
first time counted, as that was but a trial. So he lost his eye after
throwing it up the fifth time. And the eye of the rabbit is the moon, and
the face seen in the full moon is the reflection of the rabbit seen in his
own eye as we see ourselves reflected in the eye of a friend if we look
closely. The little girl was wonderfully impressed. She put her hand to
her own eyes, but they were in tight, too tight to throw up to the
tree-tops.

Singing Stream also told little Judith that the Great Mystery had shown
truths, hid to man, to the trees, the streams, the hills; and the clouds