Part 21 (1/2)

”The Earth is falling in, is it?” said the old brother Hare, in a tone of much astonishment; and he repeated this to _his_ brother hare, and _he_ to _his_ brother hare, and he to his brother hare, until at last there were a hundred thousand brother hares, all shouting: ”The Earth is falling in” Now presently the bigger anian to take the cry up

First the deer, and then the sheep, and then the wild boar, and then the buffalo, and then the caer, and then the elephant

Now the wise Lion heard all this noise and wondered at it ”There are no signs,” he said, ”of the Earth falling in They ” And then he stopped the?”

And the Elephant said: ”I re in”

”How do you know this?” asked the Lion

”Why, now I coer that reer said: ”I had it from the Camel,” and the Camel said: ”I had it from the Buffalo” And the buffalo from the wild boar, and the wild boar from the sheep, and the sheep from the deer, and the deer from the hares, and the Hares said: ”Oh! _we_ heard it from _that_ little Hare”

And the Lion said: ”Little Hare, _what_in?”

And the little Hare said: ”I _saw_ it”

”You saw it?” said the Lion ”Where?”

”Yonder, by that tree”

”Well,” said the Lion, ”come with me and I will show you how---”

”No, no,” said the Hare, ”I would not go near that tree for anything, I' to take you on ed the animals to stay where they were until they returned Then he showed the little Hare how the fruit had fallen upon the leaf, htened her, and she said: ”Yes, I see--the Earth is _not_ falling in” and the Lion said: ”Shall we go back and tell the other animals?” And they went back The little Hare stood before the ani in” And all the aniradually, and you heard the wordsin,” etc, etc, etc, until the sound died away altogether

From ”EASTERN STORIES AND LEGENDS”

[NOTE:--This story I have told in e I have foundchildren]

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF A FESTIVAL DAY

And it came to pass that the Buddha was born a Hare and lived in a wood; on one side was the foot of a mountain, on another a river, on the third side a border village

And with him lived three friends: a Monkey, a Jackal and an Otter; each of these creatures got food on his own hunting ground In the evening they ht his cos: that the iven to the poor, and that holy days should be kept

One day the Buddha said: ”To-iving food from your own table” They all consented

The next day the Otter went down to the bank of the Ganges to seek his prey Now a fisherman had landed seven red fish and had buried them in the sand on the river's bank while he went down the strea up the sand till he came upon them, and he called aloud: ”Does any one own these fish?”

And, not seeing the owner, he laid the fish in the jungle where he dwelt, intending to eat the how virtuous he was

The Jackal also went off in search of food, and found in the hut of a field watcher a lizard, two spits, and a pot ofaloud, ”To who an owner, he put on his neck the rope for lifting the pot, and grasping the spits and lizard with his teeth, he laid the, ”In due season I will devour the how virtuous he had been

But the Hare (as the Buddha-to-be) in due tirass ”It is iars who may chance to coar coive hi of the Gods, heard this thing, he deteruise of a Brah to eat, I would perforive you food Seven red fish have I safely brought to land froes Eat thy fill, O Brahmin, and stay in this wood”