The Mad March Hare

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 637, 13 April 1929, Page 29

The Mad March Hare

A Creature of Many Adventures

In our own country the March Hare plays his pranks in early autumn, but this one lived where March comes in the spring. It was a March day and a wild and windy one. Days are often wild and windy in March, but this was the very wildest. The wind blew- seven different ways, and the rain rained and rained and rained. And tlie Mad March Hare hopped gaily up and down on the brown hillsides like an enormous grasshopper. The wind blew his long ears down across his eyes and the rain flattened his fur, but he didn’t care. He liked a March day, and he hopped away without a stop. A small and mischievous fairy sat on a willow branch and watched him and laughed. “That Mad March Hare is a funny thing,” she said to the pussy willows all around her. “Come out and watch him.” So the pussy willows, who had “been asleep, as they usually are, untucked their heads and their tails and their paws, and sat up on the willow twigs to see. They were all cunning tinysilver grey kittens, each one as big as your thumb! All along the branches they sat, the darling little baby cats, with their tiny tails curled around their tiny feet, looking at the Mad March Hare. And still the rain rained and the wind blew and nobody cared at all. Then three brown mice came by the place where the March Hare was “hopping. They were verv little and wet. and the pussy willows and the fairyhad to listen carefully to hear what they said to the Mad March Hare, because the rain splattered so loudly. “Have you seen our mother?” they said. They, sounded rather frightened. “Why, I don’t know,” said the March Hare. “I never notice mice!” “Oh!” said the three little mice, quite crushed by his haughtiness. He wasn’t really haughty; he simply felt like teasing, and he didn’t see that the little mice were scared. He went on hopping and having a good time, and the three mice went away through the brown grass. “Well,” said the fairy indignantly, “he wasn’t very kind to them!” Then in another minute the mother mouse came along the same path, crying. “Please, sir,” she said to the March Hare, “I’ve lost three children. Have ypu seen them?” “It’s very strange to me,” said the March Hare, who still felt like teasing, and was a little annoyed at being interrupted in his hopping again, “that people can’t look after their children.” “But they ran away before I knew it,” said the mouse. “You shouldn’t let them run away,” said the Mad March Hare, in a maddening voice. And he began to hop, higher and higher. “Oh, dear!” said the mouse. “Won’t you help me to find them?” “I’m much too busy-. But you might look down that way,” said the Mad March Hare carelessly, pointing down the path the little mice had taken. So the mother mouse went dpwn the path. “But I won’t know which turn to take,” she murmured in a worried voice. However, when she got round the corner, the fairy flew over and led her to her children, who were huddled under a bush and were very glad to see their mother again. “So they’re all right,” the small fairy said when she came back to the pussywillows. “But that Mad March Hare is too cheeky-. Let’s play a trick on him. I’ll tell you what we’ll do.” And she whispered to the pussy willows. She changed herself into a little old lady, with an alpaca dress and a white apron and a little white bonnet and a pair of bright blue eyes. Sire went down along the brook, and over to where the March Hare still danced on the hillside. “Will you take care of my pussywillows for me while I go to market?” she said. “Of course I can,” said the March Hare. “Do y-ou think you can?” said the little old lady-. “Of course I will,” said the March Hafe, hopping briskly. “You won't let them run away, will you?” said the little old lady anxiously-. “Let them run away?” said the March Hare, laughing scornfully. “Who ever heard of pussy willows running

“Well. I leave them t<* you. ' said the little old lady, “and if anything dots happen, it will be the worse for you! Very much the worse for you." she said, looking at him with her bright blue eyes. “If you lose my pussy willows, you’ll be sorry!” And with that —bing!—she vanished with a bang, just like a firecracker

“My goodness!' said the March Hare, looking a little worried. “She must have been a witch! But I don't care. 1 can take care of anything!"

The March Hare went over and walked around the pussy willows. They were such little bits of things that he feit like a giant. "That little old lady asked me if 1 thought I could look after them! Ho!" he said, and started away, through the wind and rain to his. hill. Just then a pussy willow fell oft its twig. The March Hare picked it up and put it back again. Then another pussy fell off. So the March Hare picked it up and put it back. And then another fell off!

Well, to be exact, forty-four pussy willows fell off, one after another, and blew away, and the March Hare picked each one up and put it back, until he felt quite cross and his back ached. But at last they stopped falling, and he went over to his hill to hop again.

After a while he looked back at the willows. There wasn’t a pussy willow in sight.

“What!” he said, blinking his eyes. “It must be raining too hard for me to see them.”

He ran over, but no, there wasn't a single pussy willow on any branch. He looked wildly all around and saw them all going up the hill in a line, like ants.

“ Hi, hi!” he called, hurrying after thejn. He hopped and hopped and at last he herded them back on their willow twigs. And they grinned little grins at him, and then tucked their heads down and went to sleep like good little cats.

The March Hare went to his hill, and hopped rather lazily. Then he yawned and looked back at the pussy willows again. They were all gone! They were running away down hill this time. So they had run quite far: and besides they had scattered all through the grass. But the March Hare hopped and hopped, wishing hard that he had never heard of pussy willows, and after a long time he had them all back in their places. Then they went to sleep; but first they giggled.

The March Hare went very slowly across to his hill, and there, instead of hopping, he sat down by a stone. His ears drooped down to his feet and he nodded sleepily. Then he looked back, and—those pussy willows were gone again! Then he teas a Mad March Hare! He stamped his feet and he hopped with rage and he ran down to the willows.

He looked up the hill and down the hill and there wasn’t a pussy willowin sight! “Where have they gone?” he said in a fright. “And what will that little old lady do if I’ve lost them?”

He looked north and east and south and west, and up and down, and along the brook. And there he saw them, in the brook. They had gone in swimming!

“Come out! Come out!” the Mod March Hare called, marching along the brookside and waving his ears. “Come out this minute!”

But the pussy willows only laughed. They were having a fine time, for they hadn’t known they could swim, and they turned somersaults and splashed. They weren’t cold because they were almost all fur.

“Come out!” said the Mad March Hare, madly. And the pussy willows laughed again and went on swimming. “Come in!” they said.

“I don’t think I can swim!” said the March Hare. Then he heard someone chuckle high up on the bank. He looked around and lie thought he sawmother mouse. But it w-as really the fairy looking like a mouse. “What did you say,” she said, “about not letting people run away?” “I said you shouldn’t let them run away,” said the March Hare, feeling embarrassed. “I didn’t know- what 1 was talking about. I beg your pardon.”

“All right,” said the mouse. “That's all I wanted. Here is a willow whistle. Just blow on it, and the pussy willows will run home.”

So the March Hare blew the whistle and the pussy willow-s all scrambled out of the brodk and ran home. The March Hare followed them, and sat down all out of breath.

“Well,” said the little old lady, appearing suddenly, “here are all my pussy willows safe and sound. It wasn’t any trouble, was it, taking care of them?”

The March Hare didn’t know whether she was laughing at him or not, but she gave him a large chocolate peppermint, and he liked that. So he went home to his little house and got all warm and dry. Then he laydown to rest and ate his chocolate peppermint while he listened to the rain drum on the roof. He enjoyed himself