THE WHITE RABBIT

There once lived a white rabbit on a small island. One day, when he was on the beach, he saw a large island in the distance.

"There must be a lot of good fresh grass on that island. But how can I go to it without boat?" While he was thinking about what to do a big shark swam close to the beach. The rabbit saw the shark and called to him. "Hello, Mr.Shark, you look a clever fellow. Do you think there are more shark than rabbits in this world?" 

"We would have to count them to find that out," answered the shark.

"Well," said the rabbit, "You line up your sharks between this island and that one and I'll count them."

"Very well," said the shark, and he called to all of his friends to come and float side by side between the two islands. When they were ready, the rabbit jumped from one shark to the next counting them. "One, two, three......" He had almost reached the other island when he laughed and said without thinking, "You stupid sharks! What is the use of counting you?

I only wanted to cross over to this island."

At once, the sharks were very angry because they did not like being cheated. They began to bite the white rabbit who asked them to forgive him. Finally they let him go but all of his lovely white fur was torn of. His skin was bare.

He sat down and cried. Soon three men came along and asked him why he was crying. The rabbit told them what had happened. The man looked at each other and then one of them said "the best thing you can do is to wash yourself in the sea and then let the sun dry you. Your wounds will heal and your white fur will grow again."

The rabbit ran back into the sea and then sat in the sun. But his skin was only more painful. It began to hurt so badly that he cried out, "who will save my life? Help! Help!"

A young  man, who was coming along the road, stopped when he heard the rabbit crying. "What has happened to you, Rabbit?" he asked. He felt sorry to the rabbit. The poor creature could not stop crying and told his story as the tears ran down his face.  The young man was annoyed when he heard how the rabbit had been treated. "The three men did not give you good advice. Please forgive them. I'll help you. Now, go and wash your body in fresh river water and I'll get a bed ready for you."

The rabbit did as he was told and returned to rest on the soft grass bed which the young man had made ready for him. The poor rabbit rested and was warm and comfortable. His white fur grew again. He was so happy that he did not try to cheat anyone again.