The Foolish Mr. Hare

In a land far, far away there was once a sleepy rabbit named Mr. Hare.

Mr. Hare had a forest-known reputation for being the sleepiest rabbit in all the land. Mr. Hare was so tired that instead of returning home to his rabbit abode, he decided to take a nap under a red oak tree. Mr. Hare had been asleep for so long that he missed carrot time. He was napping so peacefully when suddenly..

CRASH! Down came an acorn!

While Mr. Hare was sleeping under the red oak tree, an acorn had fallen loose and landed near his napping area.

"THE WORLD IS ENDING!" exclaimed Mr. Hare as he ran for his life.

Mr. Hare ran away, never once looking back out of fear that the world he had grown to love would be washing away behind him.

On his sprint to safety, Mr. Hare continued to shout, "The world is ending! Join me to safety!" Mr. Hare was a well-known rabbit in the town of Holland Lop, and his word was considered to be the ultimate truth. When the other rabbits heard these cries, they quickly followed him and did not once think to investigate the loud crash that Mr. Hare heard. Before they knew it, there were hundreds of rabbits running for their lives.

The rabbits continued to run away from the noise, leaving their town in the path of what they were sure was utter destruction. The rabbits motioned for others to join them on their route to safety, and so others joined. The first to join them was a deer. Then down the road, a fox too heard their pleas and joined them. Finally, an elephant joined them. As all of these animals were running, they caught the attention of the brave and feared King of Beasts.

The King of Beasts is said to be feared more than fear itself. The animals began to tremble as he approached, and some had even claimed to have never laid eyes on the King of Beasts until this very moment. It was then, that they discovered the King of Beasts was a fearsome lion.

The lion approached the group and spoke with Mr. Hare. It was not long before the lion requested Mr. Hare to accompany him back to the town of Holland Lop to investigate "Ground Zero" for the end of the world.

Mr. Hare jumped on the King of Beasts' back and together they returned to town. Upon their arrival, Mr. Hare quickly guided the lion to his initial napping place. It was then that the King of Beasts discovered the pine cone. After quick trial and error, the King was able to recreate the sound of the acorn dropping. Mr. Hare confirmed that this was in fact the same noise that had startled him awake and the lion became frustrated.

"YOU ARE SO FOOLISH!" shouted the lion as he departed the town.

The lion returned to the group of animals and explained the confusion. The animals were relieved that their homes were not destroyed and returned with no hesitation. Mr. Hare apologized to the animals and thanked the King of Beasts for investigating. If it were not for the King of Beasts, the animals would still be running for their lives.

Author's Note:

For this story, I decided to give the rabbit of the The Foolish, Timid Rabbit a background and develop his character more. To me, a great story begins with a great character, which is why I felt that character development was necessary. I thought that using what I know about rabbits would be clever. When I was deciding on what to name the original rabbit character, the traits of a rabbit came into play and I did do extra research on breeds of rabbits and synonyms for rabbit. This is how I decided to name the main character Mr.Hare. Deciding to name the main character Mr. Hare was a play on another word for rabbit and the town he is from, Holland Lop, is a breed of rabbit. I also built more of a background on the lion because lions are typically the number one predator, and I felt that the lion should have a background reflecting the stereotypes associated with lions. I did keep the ending similar but did put my own spin on it with having Mr. Hare issue an apology to the group of animals. I feel that having him issue an apology did give him that redemption factor to try and remedy his foolish mistake.

Bibliography:

"The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt.

Illustration By:

Soyeon Kim