Storytelling
The Hares and the Frogs illustration by Milo Winter
The Hares and the Frogs
As you may know, Hares are very easily frightened. They see the tiniest glimpse of a shadow, and they are jumping out of their fur and darting into the nearest hole. They hear the slightest of a sound and scurry off as fast as they can. As you can imagine, it is extremely hard to go a few seconds at all without seeing a shadow or hearing a sound. Therefore the Hares spend most of their day running away from noises and shadows. They can not enjoy their lives when they are constantly wasting the day in hiding spot after hiding spot.
One day, the group of Hares had had it. They could not stand living in fear anymore, and needed to come up with a solution to end their misery. Finally, they came together and all concluded that dying a quick death would be better for them than living such a nervous and skittish life. They discussed the ways they could die that would be quick and not put them into too much pain. One Hare said "We could all jump of a cliff. It would be fast and easy." Another stated, "We could run straight into a pack of wolves to be eaten immediately. It would be painful, but very short lived."
As they were pondering, they heard a slight brush in the bushes nearby. Being Hares, they hurried off as fast as they could to the burrow. While running to the burrow, they stumbled across a pond where Frogs were peacefully enjoying the day on a nice log. The Frogs got scared when they heard the Hares scurrying by. Immediately, the Frogs jumped right into the water for they felt safe there.
"Wow," said a Hare, "we thought things were bad for us, but here we find creatures who are actually afraid of us, only Hares!"
Authors Note: "The Hares and the Frogs" can be found in The AESOP for Children. It is originally a story about how Hares are scared and easily frightened so they decided they would rather die than live that way. They eventually realize that something is actually scared of them and that makes them feel better and they decide not to die. I did not change too much about the story, but just elaborated more on certain parts.
Author: Aesop
Year Published: 1919
Web Source: Aesop for Children
I liked your retelling and I thought the image you selected was very nice! I was a little confused as to what the moral of the fable was supposed to be – there will always be someone worse off than you? Other than that, I enjoyed reading this post. I was unfamiliar with this particular fable, so this post served as an introduction for me.
ReplyDeleteI am unfamiliar with the story, so I am not sure how much you elaborated. However, I found it entertaining. I appreciated that at the beginning of your story you gave some information about Hares and how they are afraid of their own shadows. This really helped me understand what the rest of the story was portraying. Overall, I think you did a very nice job.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the original story, but knowing how Aesop's Fables are generally structures I can see where you elaborated. I always appreciate elaboration in stories. The more information there is available to me, the easier it is for me to really get into the story and picture it in my head. I am a very visual person so if I can picture it in my mind, it must be pretty good! I look forward to reading more of your stories in the future!
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