Part 2 (1/2)
”Good gracious! no”
”Or coursed, or hunted, or caught in a trap, or shot all over your back, or twisted up in nets and choked in snares? Or have you swum out to sea to die more easily, or seen your mate and mother and father killed?”
”No, no Please stop, Hare; your questions are very unpleasant”
”Not half so unpleasant as the things are themselves, I can assure you, Man I will tell you e for yourself But first, if you will, do you tell me why I am here Have you seen more hares about this place?”
”Never, nor any other ani”
The Hare looked about it anxiously
”A dog How horrible! What was it doing? Hunting? If there are no hares here what could it be hunting? A rabbit, or a pheasant with a broken wing, or perhaps a fox? I should nothares when they are asleep and eat theed to a little girl who died That broke its heart, so that it died also when they shut her up in a box Therefore it was allowed to accompany her here because it had loved so ether they went through those gates”
”If dogs love little girls why don't they love hares, at least as anything likes to be loved, for the dog didn't want to eat the little girl, did it? I see you can't answerinside ofthat I am to do so if you will listen; also that there is plenty of time, for I aates much quicker than you could”
”I should like it very much, Hare Once a prophet heard an ass speak in order to warn him But since then, except very, very rarely in dreams, no creature has talked to a man, so far as I know Perhaps you wish to warn h me, as the ass warned Balaam”
”Who is Balaam? I never heard of Balaam He wasn't the man who fetches dead pheasants in the donkey-cart, was he? If so, I've seen him make the ass talk--with a thick stick No? Well, never mind, I daresay I should not understand about him if you told me Now forits forepaws firmly in front of it, as these anian to pour the contents of its mind into ht transference, in a field of growing corn near to a big wood At least I suppose I was born there, though the first thing I re about in the wheat with two other little ones of my own size, a brother and a sister that were born withwhich I noas the ether and were very happy, till presentlyshe looked--and cuffed me with her paw because I had led the others away froreat hunt to find us That is the first thing I remember about my mother Afterwards she seemed sorry because she had hurtme have the most milk My mother always loved me the best of us, because I was such a fine leveret, with a pretty grey patch onanother hare calossy coat and big shi+ning eyes that always see, even when it was behind hi, and hustled mywood by which it is bordered
As we left the field I sao tall creatures that afterwards I ca round the field--you see I understand nohat all these things were, although of course I did not at the tiether
There was only a little gap left through which we could run Another young hare, or it led in it, and one of theit to death with a stick I remember that the sound of its screams madelike that before, and this was the first that I had seen of pain and death
The other h and ran at us with his stick My mother went first and escaped him Then came my sister, then I, then my brother My father was last of all Theside ofof h into the wood, except my father as behind
”There's the old buck!” cried one of the h at the ti tous alone they ran at him But my father was much too quick for them He rushed back into the corn and afterwards joined us in the wood, for he had seen wire before and kne to escape it Still he was terribly frightened and , not even allowing h pasture on its other side and lie up there
Also ere in trouble because reat deal of pain, so that he could not rest or sleep After a while, however, it mended up in a fashi+on, but he was never able to run as fast as we could, nor did he grow so big In the end the mother fox killed him, as I shall tell
My --for, you know, many animals can talk to each other in their oay, even if they are of different kinds He told her that they were protecting the wheat to prevent us frorily that haresones to nurse
My father replied thatones also I see now that my father was a philosophic hare
But are you tired of o on, please It is very interesting to hear things described from the aniroise and learned to understand”
”Ah,” answered the Hare ”I see what you mean And it is odd, but I do understand All has become clear to me I don't knohat happened when I died, but there cae, and I knew that I as but a beast always have been and still ah more helpless and hu as yourself, but how I began and how I shall end is dark to o on with my story”