How Rabbit Fooled Wolf
(unknown)
Two pretty girls lived not far from Rabbit and Wolf. One day Rabbit called
upon Wolf and said,
When they got to the girls' house, they were invited in, but both girls took
a great liking to Wolf and paid all their attention to him while Rabbit had
to sit by and look on. Rabbit of course was not pleased by this, and he soon
said,
"Let's wait a while longer," Wolf replied, and they remained until late in
the day. Before they left, Rabbit found a chance to speak to one of the
girls so that Wolf could not overhear and he said,
"I think you are lying," the girl replied. "No, I am not. You shall see me ride him up here tomorrow." "If we see you ride him up here," the girl said with a laugh, "we'll believe he's only your old horse." When the two left the house, the girls said, "Well, call again."
Next morning Wolf was up early, knocking on Rabbit's door.
Rabbit groaned.
Wolf kept urging him, and finally Rabbit said,
Wolf agreed to carry him astride of his back. But then Rabbit said, Although Wolf objected at first to being bridled, he gave in when Rabbit said he did not think he could hold on and manage to get as far as the girls' house without a bridle. Finally Rabbit wanted to put on spurs. "I am too ticklish," Wolf protested. "I will not spur you with them," Rabbit promised. "I will hold them away from you, but it would be nicer to have them on."
At last Wolf agreed to this, but he repeated: "When we get near the girls' house," Rabbit said, "we will take everything off you and walk the rest of the way." And so they started up the road, Rabbit proudly riding upon Wolf's back. When they were nearly in sight of the house, Rabbit raked his spurs into Wolf's sides and Wolf galloped full speed right by the house. "Those girls have seen you now," Rabbit said. "I will tie you here and go up to see them and try to explain everything. I'll come back after a while and get you."
And so Rabbit went back to the house and said to the girls: "Yes," they answered, and he sat down and had a good time with them.
After a while Rabbit thought he ought to untie Wolf, and he started back to
the place where he was fastened. He knew that Wolf must be very angry with
him by this time, and he thought up a way to untie him and get rid of him
without any danger to himself.
Wolf was very much frightened of soldiers.
Rabbit was purposely slow in untying him and had barely freed him when Wolf
broke away and ran as fast as he could into the woods.
Near the girls' house was a large peach orchard, and one day they asked
Rabbit to shake the peaches off the tree for them. They went to the orchard
together and he climbed up into a tree to shake the peaches off.
Rabbit raised his head and pretended to be looking at some people off in the
distance. Then he shouted from the treetop: Some time after this, Rabbit was resting against a tree-trunk that leaned toward the ground. When he saw Wolf coming along toward him, he stood up so that the bent tree-trunk pressed against his shoulder.
"I have you now," said Wolf, but Rabbit quickly replied:
Wolf's greed was excited by this, and he said he was willing to hold up the
tree. He squeezed in beside Rabbit, who said,
After that, Wolf hunted for Rabbit every day until he found him lying in a
nice grassy place. He was about to spring upon him when Rabbit said, "All right," Wolf said, and he followed Rabbit out to the road where a pony was lying asleep. "I'm not strong enough to move the pony by myself," said Rabbit, "so I'll tie its tail to yours and help you by pushing." Rabbit tied their tails together carefully so as not to awaken the pony. Then he grabbed the pony by the ears as if he were going to lift it up. The pony woke up, jumped to its feet, and ran away, dragging Wolf behind. Wolf struggled frantically to free his tail, but all he could do was scratch on the ground with his claws. "Pull with all your might," Rabbit shouted after him. "How can I pull with all my might," Wolf cried, "when I'm not standing on the ground?"
By and by, however, Wolf got loose, and then Rabbit had to go into hiding
for a long, long time.
- Source : ~BamaRiver~
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