ONCE upon a time there was a poor farmer who had three sons, and the sons’ names were Peter, Paul, and Philip. None of the three liked work very well, and instead of helping their father they spent most of their time sauntering about. At last Peter heard that the king wanted a keeper to watch his rabbits. So the youth told his father that he would go to the king’s palace and apply for the position.
“I doubt if you are fitted for just that sort of work,” said his father. “He who keeps the king’s rabbits needs to be light and quick, and no lazy-bones. You could not loiter when the rabbits began to skip and frisk, for if you dawdled as you do at home you would be discharged.”
But the father’s advice had no effect. Peter was determined to go, and after filling a bag with something to eat and drink and a few other necessaries, he took the bag on his back and started. He had not traveled many miles when he heard a voice calling for help. On going in the direction of the sound he found an old woman in a pit from which she was unable to climb out. “Don’t stand there staring,” said she sharply. “Reach me your hand and pull me up. I have been in this pit a whole year, and in all that time I have not had a morsel of food.”
“What!” exclaimed Peter, “a whole year, do you say? Then you must be a witch, or you could not fast so long, and I will have nothing to do with you.”
So off he marched. At length he arrived at the king’s palace and was engaged as the keeper of the rabbits. He was promised plenty of food and good pay and maybe the princess into the bargain, for the king had decreed that any keeper who took such good care of the rabbits that not one of them escaped should have the princess for his wife.
The next day Peter let the rabbits out to browse. As long as they were near the stables and in the adjacent open fields he kept them in one flock, but toward evening they got into a wood and began to scuttle about among the trees. Peter ran after them this way and that until he had no breath left for any more running. He could not get the rabbits together. They all disappeared, and he saw nothing more of them.
After resting a while he started to go back to the palace. As he went along he kept a sharp look-out, and he stopped to call his fugitive charges at every fence. But no rabbits came, and when he reached the palace there stood the king waiting for him. It was plain that Peter had failed, and for a punishment he was banished from the country.
The king presently got a new lot of rabbits, and then he let it be known that he wanted a keeper. Peter’s brother Paul heard of this, and nothing would do but he must try for the place. Away he went, and by and by he found the old woman in the pit just as Peter had, and he would not help her out. When he got to the palace he was promptly engaged as keeper of the rabbits, and the next day he let them out to feed. All went well until in the late afternoon they went from the fields into the woods. Then they skipped and hopped away, and though he rushed about and raced after them till he was ready to drop, they all escaped. So he returned to the palace without a rabbit, and the king ordered that he should leave the country.
More rabbits were obtained to replace those lost, and again word went forth that his Majesty wanted a keeper for them. Philip, the youngest of the three brothers, heard of this and concluded to apply for the job. “It will be just the right work for me,” he said to his father. “I would like nothing better than to spend my days in the fields and woodlands watching the rabbit flock, and I would be sure to have plenty of time to nap on the sunny hillsides.”
“I fear,” said the old farmer, “that you will fare no better than your two brothers. The person who keeps the king’s rabbits must not be like a fellow with leaden soles to his shoes, or like a fly in a tar-pot.”