Once upon a time . . . in the Indian jungle, lived a young elephant whose playmate was a very large hare. In spite of the difference in size, they were great friends and had fun playing strange guessing games. One day, the hare said to his chum: "Which of us is bigger: you or me?"
At that silly question, the little elephant nearly choked on his banana. "You must be joking!" he exclaimed, "Why, even on tiptoe, you re not as high as my knee!"
But the hare went on: "That's what you think! Since I say that I'm bigger than you, we need a judge. Don't you agree?"
"Oh, yes," said the elephant in surprise. "Well, let's go along to the village and see what the Humans have to say. They're the cleverest of all the animals, and the best judges!"
As they reached the village, they met some of the villagers. "Look at that young elephant! Isn't he small?" folk remarked as the unusual couple strolled by.
"Yes, he is indeed! But he'll soon grow up," said others.
Then somebody noticed the hare. "What a huge hare!" they all cried.
Now, the hare tried to keep in front of elephant and puffed out his chest. As he passed, all the villagers exclaimed: "Look at his paws! And those ears! That's the biggest hare we've ever seen!"
When he heard this, the hare turned to his friend, saying, "We can go home now! That's settled! I'm huge and you're tiny!"
The elephant tossed his heavy head. At a loss for words, he knew the hare had won by low cunning. But back on the jungle path, he lifted his foot and said to the hare, walking ahead, "Get out of my way before a tiny elephant crushes a big hare like you!" |
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