Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
"Neither have I any water, Brother Rabbit," said Brother Goat. "But I
have an idea! If you will go with me over yonder by the big poplar, we
will dig a well."
"No, Brother Goat," said Brother Rabbit, who hoped to revenge
himself—"no, I do not care to dig a well. At daybreak I drink the dew
from the cups of the flowers, and in the heat of the day I milk the
cows and drink the cream."
"Well and good," said Brother Goat. "Alone I will dig the well, and
alone I will drink out of it."
"Success to you, Brother Goat," said Brother Rabbit.
"Thank you kindly, Brother Rabbit."
Brother Goat then went to the foot of the big poplar and began to dig
his well. He dug with his forefeet and with his horns, and the well got
deeper and deeper. Soon the water began to bubble up and the well was
finished, and then Brother Goat made haste to quench his thirst. He
was in such a hurry that his beard got in the water, but he drank and
drank until he had his fill.
Brother Rabbit, who had followed him at a little distance, hid himself
behind a bush and laughed heartily. He said to himself: "What an
innocent creature you are!"
The next day, when Brother Goat, with his big beard and sharp horns,
returned to his well to get some water, he saw the tracks of Brother
Rabbit in the soft earth. This put him to thinking. He sat down, pulled
his beard, scratched his head, and tapped himself on the forehead.
"My friend," he exclaimed after a while, "I will catch you yet."
Then he ran and got his tools (for Brother Goat was something of a
carpenter in those days) and made a large doll out of laurel wood. When
the doll was finished, he spread tar on it here and there, on the
right and on the left, and up and down. He smeared it all over with the
sticky stuff, until it was as black as a Guinea negro.
This finished, Brother Goat waited quietly until evening. At sunset he
placed the tarred doll near the well, and ran and hid himself behind
the trees and bushes. The moon had just risen, and the heavens twinkled
with millions of little star-torches.
Brother Rabbit, who was waiting in his house, believed that the time
had come for him to get some water, so he took his bucket and went to
Brother Goat's well. On the way he was very much afraid that something
would catch him. He trembled when the wind shook the leaves of the
trees. He would go a little distance and then stop and listen; he hid
here behind a stone, and there behind a tuft of grass.
At last he arrived at the well, and there he saw the little negro. He
stopped and looked at it with astonishment. Then he drew back a little
way, advanced again, drew back, advanced a little, and stopped once
more.
"What can that be?" he said to himself. He listened, with his long ears
pointed forward, but the trees could not talk, and the bushes were
dumb. He winked his eyes and lowered his head:
"Hey, friend! who are you?" he asked.
The tar-doll didn't move. Brother Rabbit went up a little closer, and
asked again:
"Who are you?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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