WISE OLD HARE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 59, 2 December 1933, Page 23

WISE OLD HARE

WHEN THE BOOK WAS LOST As 'the days went by Wise Old Hare grew fatter and lazier, and still he sat all day by the gorse bush on the top of the hill with his spectacles on his nose, pretending to read his Book. He never went to search for food at all now, for the animals were always coming up the hill to ask him questions and bringing him dandelion leaves to eat. One day as Hare sat chatting to his friends in the sunshine, he heard the sound of human voices, so he dropped his 'book quickly and ran behind the gorse bush with the other animals to hide. He saw two boys come over the hill, and one of them picked up his Book. “Look at this funny old book,” he said. “It must' have 'been lying out here for ages.” . “What is it?” asked the other. “Nothing. It’s only an empty exercise book. There’s nothing written in it at all.” Then poor Hare knew that he was found out, and that.now the animals would know that he could not' really read. They were all very angry. They thought of the. dandelion leaves they had picked for lazy Hare, and were angrier still. They remembered how they had believed everything Hare said, and they al! rose up together and chased Hare over the hill. When evening came Hare did not dare to go home, and next.day he still did not dare, and day after day he roamed miserably through the fields and felt very lonely, i As time went on the animals began to wish that Hare had not gone away. There was no one to tell the birds how to.build their nests, and no one to say where the best food was to be found. “After all,” said. Hen Pheasant, “it wasn’t Hare’s fault that there was nothing written in the Book, and it was just as wise to make up the answers himself.” “Wiser,” said Black Rabbit. So one day they sent Little Red Fox over the fields to look for Hare. Now Hare sits again by the gorse bush on the top of the hill; but he does not wear his spectacles and he has given his Book to the thrushes to line their nests. The animals still come up the hill to ask him questions and bring him dandelion leaves, and he is beginning to grow fat again. He likes to sit nodding in the sunshine and hear them whisper: “How clever is Hare! How lucky we are to know such a Wise Old Hare!”