Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16

| head with two big ears on 1t, larger than
the ears of any donkey that ever saw or
even the mayor. l held my spear In front
OF me and said. Surrender in the name of
the law but the head did not reply, The
ears stood up sitter and straghter than
ever, and ! began to retreat. Then the
whole creature came into view. 1t did not
walk or run as other animals do but Ii
hoped with wonderful hops. So l ran
away"
Aha" said the schoolmaster. opening his
great book on natural history. Your de-
scription shows me clearly what kind of an
animal this Is. The long ears point uuer-
ringly to lynx wild cat. which is the
most ferocious beast in the world"
But the lynx does not hop does t?'
asked the sexton
True" said the schoolmaster, turning
the pages of his book. The fact that 1t
! hoped seems to point TO its being a kan
| ing to the beadle, that you did not see
garoo?''
Il object said the shoemaker ito the
schooimaster asking leading questions.
The beadle is just the kind of man who
would say yes to anything.
L am sure that 1t was only one beast"
said the beadle. 1T was brownish in color
and once when looked back at ii, it seem
ed to be standing or squatting on its hind
| legs gazing after me-
'Hai' said the schoolmaster again open-
Ing his book. Now We have IT, A bear
does that
AT these words all the women began to
scream, and they gathered up their chill
dren and ran to their houses The men
barred the gates, and then all hurried to
the market place to be as far as possible
away from the walls
The Easter morning came The COWS
We're unfed, and the geese were getting
puffy for the want of exercise and the pro-
visions were running low and the people
We're not a bit in the mood to celebrate
Easter when there came a Shrek from a
woman whose windows gave her an out
look beyond the wall
"Oh, the poor little boy" she cried He
will be killed by the terrible monster"
The people hurried 10 the wall and saw
a little boy who walking through the
fields unconscious of his danger. All at
once there was roar of horror from all
Dubbetown, for an animal broke through
the hedge and ran straight toward him.
"oh, see its terrible long ears" cried one
woman.
Yes, and see how it hops" said an
other.
Now, the boy will be eaten"' said a
third.
But instead of that the terrible monster
hoped up to the boy and he stopped and
licked 1t up, and the people heard him say:
Dear, dear bunny I've found you at
asst while he stroked it and cuddled in
his arms without biting him at ALL
Then the mayor called out to the boy;
Say what kind of monster Is that?"
1T isn't monster at ALL" said the boy.
It's my own teeny darling bunny rabbit
! IIldI ran away from our mouse IN Bmkey-
vile last week.
Rabbit? Rabbit?' said the schoomas-
ter, as he hunted through his big natural
history book with puzzled frown. oh! l
can see it all now!' he said, suddenly. at
is very simple. The page with rabbits in
it is torn out. But you will notice that the
accuracy of science is such that despite all
this we came very close to it,
Il object said the shoemaker.
1T would be terrible If any
found out about this" said the mayor We
| must do something clever now to save our
selves from being laughed at
Immediately all the people of Dubbletown
began to think of something clever, and al
last they put up a tablet a the gate on
which they engraved these words:
This tablet is put up to certify that the
schoolmaster's natural history had a page
torn out of it. otherwise would not have
been frightened by a bunny Easter rabbit"
And if you ever go to Dubbletown, the
tablet is on the right-hand side of the gate
as you go in, and the schoolmaster and the
beadle will be almost sure to be standing
under it, reading it out loud to themselves.