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Show 78 The Southern Utes prairie dogs that I have died." After the coyote had rolled around in the mud, the skunk decided to cover the coyote's face with timothy hay, making the coyote look like an animal who had been dead a long time. The skunk went to the prairie dog colony and said to the prairie dogs, "Come quickly and see the coyote, he is dead near the mud hole. Don't you want to go see him?" The prairie dogs followed the skunk until they came to an arroyo near the mud hole where the coyote was stretched out. The skunk said, "Look, he is dead!" He then got a big stick and hit the coyote very hard. The little prairie dogs said, "Yes, he surely is dead." The coyote made sure he didn't move a muscle wrhen the skunk hit him very hard. He did not like what the skunk did and thought to himself that this certainly was not part of their plan. After the prairie dogs looked over the supposedly dead coyote they decided to leave. It was then that the coyote jumped up very quickly and seized about eight prairie dogs of different sizes. The skunk and the coyote decided the only fair way to divide their catch was to have a race, and the winner would take all the prarie dogs. In the meantime, they built a big bonfire and started to cook their catch. They dressed the prairie dogs and put them under the coals to bake. As the skunk and the coyote got ready for the race, the coyote thought to himself, I can beat this puny skunk any day. The coyote got a strip of bark from a cedar tree and tied it to his tail. He was to set fire to this strip of bark to start the race. He lit the bark and the race was on. The coyote ran so fast that he was a good distance in front of the skunk, and soon all the skunk could see was the smoke from the lighted bark as it whipped in the air. The skunk had decided from the start that he wasn't going to run very fast, so he didn't hurry. When the skunk noticed that the coyote was out of sight he turned back to the bonfire where the prairie dogs were cooking. He thought the coyote was probably nearing the hill which had been designated as the finish line, so be worked very fast to fetch the biggest, juiciest prairie dogs out of the bonfire. When he got them out he took them a short distance away and sat on a large rock. From this point he could see the smoke from the bark which was still tied to the coyote's tail. Meanwhile the coyote's only thoughts were on how fast he had run and the delicious meal which he didn't have to share with the skunk. What the coyote didn't know was that the skunk had already eaten the biggest prairie dogs and had left the smaller ones in the fire. |
