I
PLACE: A farmer's cabbage field.
TIME: A fine morning in spring.
(The hedgehog is standing by his door looking at the cabbage field which he thinks is his own.)
HEDGEHOG: Wife, have you dressed the children yet?
WIFE: Just through, my dear.
HEDGEHOG: Well, come out here and let us look at our cabbage patch.
(Wife comes out.)
HEDGEHOG: Fine crop, isn't it? We should be happy.
WIFE: The cabbage is fine enough, but I can't see why we should be so happy.
HEDGEHOG: Why, my dear, there are tears in your voice. What is the matter?
WIFE: I suppose I ought not to mind it, but those dreadful hares nearly worry the life out of me.
HEDGEHOG: What are they doing now?
WIFE: Doing? What are they not doing? Why, yesterday I brought my pretty babies out here to get some cabbage leaves. We were eating as well-behaved hedgehogs always eat, and those horrid hares almost made us cry.
HEDGEHOG: What did they do?
WIFE: They came to our cabbage patch and they giggled and said, "Oh, see the little duck-legged things! Aren't they funny?" Then one jumped over a cabbage just to hurt our feelings.
HEDGEHOG: Well, they are mean, I know, but we won't notice them. I'll get even with them one of these days. Ah, there comes one of them now.
WIFE: Yes, and he laughed at me yesterday. He said, "Good-morning, Madam Shortlegs." I won't speak to him. I'll hide till he goes by.
(Wife hides behind a cabbage.)
HEDGEHOG: Good-morning, sir.
HARE: Are you speaking to me?
HEDGEHOG: Certainly; do you see any one else around?
HARE: How dare you speak to me?
HEDGEHOG: Oh, just to be neighborly.
HARE: I shall ask you not to speak to me hereafter. I think myself too good to notice hedgehogs.
HEDGEHOG: Now, that is strange.
HARE: What is strange?
HEDGEHOG: Why, I have just said to my wife that we wouldn't notice you.
HARE: Wouldn't notice me, indeed, you silly, short-legged, duck-legged thing!
HEDGEHOG: Well, my legs are quite as good as yours, sir.
HARE: As good as mine! Who ever heard of such a thing? Why, you can do little more than crawl.
HEDGEHOG: That may be as you say, but I'll run a race with you any day.
HARE: Ha, ha, ha! Ho, ho, ho! A race with a hedgehog! Well, well, well!
HEDGEHOG: Are you afraid to run with me?
HARE: Of course not. It will be no race at all, but I'll run just to show you how silly you are.
HEDGEHOG: Good! You run in that furrow; I will run in this. We shall see who gets to the fence first. Let's start from the far end of the furrow.
HARE: I will run to the brook and back while you are getting there. Go ahead.
HEDGEHOG: I wouldn't stay too long if I were you.
HARE: Oh, I'll be back before you reach the end of the furrow.
(The hare runs off to the brook.)