"Let 's get the fire. Let 's get it," they all yelled, and started after him with all the speed of their long legs.
They soon overtook him, and as they snatched for the fire, Lizard dropped the coal. In a twinkling the dry grass was ablaze. Lizard speeded for his life. The burning grass followed him in great waves of flame.
Bat saw the fire approaching and rubbed her eyes to see what the matter was. Then her eyes began to pain her. She heard Lizard running in and called: "Oh, Lizard, Lizard! My eyes will be burned out with this great blaze. Please put some pitch over them to keep out the strong light."
"All right," said Lizard. He spread the pitch on, but he was trembling so that he got it on too thick. Bat could not see at all.
"Oh, now I 'm blind indeed," she cried. She jumped this way and that. She fluttered against a tree and fell to the ground. Her feathers caught fire and were all singed off. She lifted herself and flew towards the west. "O, West Wind," she sobbed, "blow on my aching eyes."
The wind heard her and laid its cool fingers upon her. It could not get all the pitch off, and so Bat's eyes have always been covered since. Her feathers,
