Canadian Fairy Tales — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Canadian Fairy Tales
John Stuart Mill · en
Then Glooskap sent the little birds all away to a warm country until
the rule of the Giant of the Frost from the Night-Night Land was over,
for it was winter in all the land and it was very cold. But in the
spring-time the little birds always come back from the Summer-Flower
Land. And they build their nests among the trees as close as they can
to their kindred, the leaves from which they came. And all day long
they sing among the leaves for little children. At day-break they wake
the children with their choir of dawn, and at twilight they lisp and
twitter to lull the children to sleep. And at night they hide among
the leaves from Wolf-Wind and are very still with never a twitter or a
song. For they do not forget that they are the children's gift from
Glooskap and that they came from the leaves stripped from the trees by
Wolf-Wind because the leaves saved the little children from the giant
long ago.
RABBIT AND THE GRAIN BUYERS
Once long ago when the Indians lived in Canada before the white men
came, Rabbit was very lazy. He had worked long for Glooskap, the great
ruler of the people, as a forest guide, but his toil was not
appreciated or rewarded. He saw all the other animals idling their
time away, taking their ease all day long, and doing nothing but
filling their bellies with food, and sleeping all the afternoon in the
hot sunshine. And he said, "Why should I work for other people when
nobody works for me? I will take mine ease like all the other
animals." So he sulked in his little house for a long time and could
not be coaxed or driven to do any work. But as he was a lonely fellow
who always lived by himself with very few friends in the world except
little children, he soon got tired of this lazy life. For by nature he
was industrious and energetic and he always liked to be doing
something or prowling alone in the forest. So he said, "I must find
some work to do or I shall surely lose my wits. But it must be labour
that brings profit to myself and not to other people."
For a long time Rabbit puzzled his brains thinking on a business or a
profession to follow. But nothing seemed to be to his liking. At last
one day he saw some Indians trading skins and knives. One was selling
and others were buying and they seemed to be making a great deal of
money without doing very much work. Rabbit thought that here indeed
was an easy way to make a living. Then he saw Duck coming along
carrying a basket of eggs. He said to Duck, "How do you get along in
the world? You seem to do nothing but eat and cackle and swim in the
pond. You never seem to work." And Duck said, "I lay eggs and sell
them in exchange for corn. Why don't you lay eggs? It is all very
easy." But Rabbit knew that Duck was only laughing at him, and that he
was not meant to make a living in that way.