The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1895-12-04
ANSELM'S RABBIT.


lioI III Il Iue lie, is precisely
that it is useless. A lie is its own rev nd,
lts own pleasure. What usel AS though
Anselm-Cousin Anselm, you know-had
Deen influenced by any motive the day he
benevolantly invited lis to help cat his
famous rabbit. You of course remember
Anselm's rabbitP'
10 tell the truth, ] did not remember 1t
at all. My interlocutor was a southerncr
from the far south, u liar from excess of
imagination n skeptical rs all liars are.
for they believe only in their W lies. He
Is an agreeable talker, however, and his
fancy gallops SO gayly along that his
tongue has difficulty to keep pace with 1t.
He begins u story, furgets it and sud
denly replaces 1t with another. So without
occupying my mind any further with the
subject on which we started | prepared to
listen to the adventures of Cousin Anselm
and his rabbit:
"You don't seem to recall it. Well,
never mind. 1t was one day last year. l
had risen early, as is the habit of all our
shopkeepers, and sold nothing. | was
standing on the doorstep with you OF some
one else deciding about the weather when
Anselm went by and said, How do you
like rabbit cookcdf'
Mon Dicu! Potted, with a great deal
of thyme and wild thyme l replied, and
l think | said u bit of orange peel rs big
as the nail.
Good! 1t just happens that l WAS
looking for you 10 ask you to eat some pot
ted rabbit with me at the Bastion.'
Plotted rabbit at tho Bastionl
Those words alone made my mouth
water. One is so comfortable there, far
from ones wife, for the meekost of men in
our town would defend this peaceful refuge
with Mohainncdan ferocity against an In
yasion of tho other sex. Tho only room
serves as both dining room and kitchen,
and can sit and watch his breakfast
simmer, and the Goals In tho oven glow,
dim and die out with n last hot fame,
while outside in the scraggy pines of the
! slope II few parched grasshoppers croak
despairingly.
"'When shall we eat our ported rabbit
tomorrow
What hastei Testing aside, yester-
day l visited the rabbit hutch, and there is
a mother who will rave her little ones III
I'VE days. 1t Is o preoocious breed, and we
will date the breakfast for five weeks from
now
"'Wcll, in five weeks, said 1, a trifle
set back. During these five weeks l did
not find leisure to forget the rabbit.
1.-The next morning Anselm came to
bring the latest news.
six superb little rabbits had arrived
one especially, all gray with a pink nose,
already moved his cars like his father and
mother at the sight of a cabbage stalk.
He was the II we would eat.
1.-Two days later it was another matter.
The male, in a jealous fury, had dcvoured
/ hta HI~u Ill III
under II basket with II heavy stone on it.
Three little rabbits had fallen victims
to this modern Saturn, but by a miracu-
lous chance the gray one with the pink
nose had been spared.
"Ille next week Anselm came with u
sad expression and said that three such
strong and healthy little ones exhausted
the mother, and he should have to sacrifice
two of them.
"He felt bad over it, but the last would
profit the more thereby.
From this time the remaining rabbit
filled our lives. At the cafe or on our
promeDadcs Ansclm talked only of him,
melting ovor his infantile graces, relating
his oaprices, noting his progress.
More than once at the hour of depar-
turo for the pastures, when the silent
streets We're awakened by tinkling goat
bells, Anselm knocked on my window, cry
ing, While you are lying snug in your bed
l shall be gathering the herbs our rabbit
Is fondest of-groundsel and birdweed,
n on leaving, to prove his zeal, Il shall
spread the herbs out In the sunshine a
minute, for you know dew Is deadly to the
rabbit.
"In the vapors OF my interrupted sleep
this rabbit appeared gigantic to me.
lone morning the rabbit escaped, and
Anselm, still much perturbed, came to
tell me about it. After some hard running
he had succeeded In recapturing him.
Sat last Anselm announced that the
rabbit would be just right In a week. The
feast was set for Sunday. For the remain
ing time the rabbit was to have a dry re-
gime, no more herbs. no greens, none of
those water soaked plants that make the
flesh of rabbits so soft and insipid-noth-
ing but lavender and marjoram should he
eat. an odorous diet gathered expressly for
him on the mountain by Anselm. For
nothing In the world would Anselm have
charged another with this duty.
Sunday came.
"Anselm wished to depart the first of
all at dawn and dispatch the victim with
a blow on the head classically, then clean
him and put him in the pot.
II was to come later at my ease with
two friends, who would help me to carry
the wine and other provisions"
WAS the rabbit good?'
"Alas, my friend, this rare rabbit, SO
fat, SO round, SO sweet smelling and dain-
tily fed, never existed except In Anselm's
imagination.
II arose very early that Sunday morn
ing, and by accident 1 surprised Anselm
In the act of buying a rabbit of the meat