In the morning the old lady said: "Some rascally animal has been at my garden. I must set a trap to catch him."
The next night the raccoon came again, and he saw the trap. "Ah!" cried he, "here is a trap set for me. But I will play a trick on them. I will jump over it." So he jumped over it and ate all the corn and watermelons he wanted.
When the old lady found the trap untouched and her corn and melons gone, she said, "I will set traps all around the garden."
But the raccoon was not afraid of any of the traps. He jumped over them all as easily as could be and had as much supper as he could eat.
The next morning the old lady said, "Well, if I cannot catch the rascal in a trap, I will some other way." So she made a man-of-tar and put it in the garden.
That night the raccoon looked around for the traps, but there were none to be seen. "Why," he said, "they must be tired of trying to catch me."
Then he saw the man-of-tar and said: "What is this? Oh, how do you do, gentleman?"
The man-of-tar did not answer.
"Why don't you speak to me? Don't you think I am good enough to speak to a gentleman like you?"
