A brave rabbit

2014年01月28日

A brave rabbit

Grateful Crane
Long long ago, as you know, a rabbit and a tortoise had a race to the top of a hill.
Everyone thought a rabbit should get there much faster than a tortoise, but it was so careless of him to fall asleep on the way.
When he woke up, it was too late.
The tortoise had already stood on the hill when he reached the goal.
The rabbits in his mountain got very angry and said to him,
“You brought disgrace to us. You are no more one of our families. Get out of this village at once.”
He left his village and started a new life by himself in another mountain.
One day, he happened to hear the birds over a tree talking about his village.
“They say there seems to be a serious problem in the rabbit-village.
A dreadful wolf is demanding three young female rabbits to him.
If they rejected the demand, he would attack the village and kill all the rabbits.”

He ran back to his village and shouted to the villagers,
“I hear you are in serious trouble. I’ll go to the wolf and have a fight with him.
If I succeeded in defeating him, would you allow me to live here again?”
“Of course, we would.” cried the villagers.
He climbed up the mountain and got to a cliff where the wolf lived.
“Mr. Wolf. I took three young female rabbits to you.
But they say they are so afraid of seeing your face that they can’t come here.
Would you please turn your face toward the valley on an edge of the cliff while I took them here?”
“No problem. Bring them to me at once.”
The wolf sat on the edge of the cliff with his face toward the valley as he was told by the rabbit.
The rabbit came near the wolf from behind secretly and pushed him into the valley with all his strength.
The wolf fell into the valley and lost his life.
The brave rabbit returned to his village and became a new hero.
He had a happy life again in his village.

The end