"That will be great fun," said she. "I am the strongest animal, so I
will make the platform for the wrestlers;" and she set to work with
a will to dig up the earth and to pat it into shape.

"All right," said Kintaro, "I will look on while you all wrestle
with each other. I shall give a prize to the one who wins in each
round."

"What fun! we shall all try to get the prize," said the bear.

The deer, the monkey and the hare set to work to help the bear raise
the platform on which they were all to wrestle. When this was
finished, Kintaro cried out:

"Now begin! the monkey and the hare shall open the sports and the
deer shall be umpire. Now, Mr. Deer, you are to be umpire!"

"He, he!" answered the deer. "I will be umpire. Now, Mr. Monkey and
Mr. Hare, if you are both ready, please walk out and take your
places on the platform."

Then the monkey and the hare both hopped out, quickly and nimbly, to
the wrestling platform. The deer, as umpire, stood between the two
and called out:

"Red-back! Red-back!" (this to the monkey, who has a red back in
Japan). "Are you ready?"

Then he turned to the hare: