Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
A Rabbit Tale -- Text
Once there was such a long spell of dry weather that there was no more water in the creeks
and springs, and the animals held a council to see what to do about it. They decided to
dig a well, and all agreed to help -- except Rabbit, who was lazy and said, "I don't need
to dig for water; it will soil my tiny paws. The dew on the grass is enough for me." The
other animals didn't like this, but they went to work without him and dug their well and
eventually found water.
Time passed, and Rabbit began to suffer and thirst. Having no right to the well, he was
thrown back upon his wits to procure water for himself. He determined the easiest thing
to do was steal from the public well.
By and by, the other animals noticed that Rabbit's fur was still beautiful -- sleek
and lively -- although the weather was still dry and the water was getting lower in the
well. They said, "That tricky Rabbit steals our water at night." So they made a wolf of
pine gum, tar and sticks and set it up by the well to scare the thief.
That night, Rabbit waited until all the animals were asleep before he went down to the well.
His plan -- as it had been every night -- was to steal enough water to last him all through
the next day. But when he saw the strange black thing by the well, he stopped and said,
"Who's there?" But the tar-wolf said nothing. Rabbit came closer, but the wolf didn't move,
so Rabbit grew more brave and said, "get out of my way or I'll hit you." Still, the wolf
didn't move, so Rabbit came up and hit it with his paw. But the gum and tar were sticky
and caught his paw and held it fast. Now Rabbit was angry and said, "Let me go or I'll kick
you." Still the tar-wolf said nothing. So Rabbit struck again, this time with his back
foot. He had kicked it so hard that his foot stuck in the tar and now he couldn't move
at all. He was caught fast and remained there; stuck to the tar wolf, all night long.
The next day, when the animals found Rabbit stuck to the tar-wolf, they held a meeting
to decide what to do with him. One proposed cutting off Rabbit's head, but Rabbit declared
that this would be useless, as it had often been tried before without hurting him. Another
suggested pulling off his feet, to which Rabbit replied, "That's okay with me. I can hop around
on my nubs." Wildcat wanted to make a fire to barbeque Rabbit -- but Rabbit said, "I
am so small; I would only make a mouthful for all of you." Bear offered to throw Rabbit
into a nearby briar-patch so that the thorns would tear his beautiful fur. Upon hearing
this, Rabbit acted very humble and pleaded desperately for his life, saying, "I don't
care what you do with me, just so long as you don't throw me in that briar-patch." Fox
said, "Maybe we can drown him." "Drown me just as deep as you please," said Rabbit,
"just don't throw me in that briar-patch." "There isn't any water nearby," said Bear,
"so I guess we'll have to skin you." "Skin me," said Rabbit, "*** out my eyeballs,
tear out my ears by the roots and cut off my legs, but please, please don't throw me
in that briar-patch!"
Of course, as the other animals were very mad at Rabbit and wanted him to suffer as
much as possible, they declared, "that's it! That's what we will do with this worthless
fellow!" Then Bear grabbed Rabbit by the rear legs and threw him deep into the middle of
the briar-patch.
There was considerable noise where Rabbit struck the bushes and the animals watched
carefully to see what was going to happen. By and by, they heard somebody call out. And
way up on the hill they saw Rabbit sitting cross-legged on a log, combing his beautiful
fur and shouting, "born and bred in a briar-patch, friends—born and bred in a briar-patch!"
And with that he hopped away, just as happy as could be.