Home

The Hare Who Was Afraid of Nothing

One day a small hare was born in the forest and the poor little creature was afraid of everything. If a dry twig cracked, or a bird flapped its wings, or some snow fell from the branch of a tree when the wing blew-his heart would sink down to his very paws. The other hares called him Long-Tail, because his tail was longer than other hares’ tails.
Each day passed in terror for Long-Tail, and the next one, and the next, and then a week and then a year, until at last he grew up into a big hare. Then one day, quite suddenly, he decided that he had had enough of being frightened.
”I’m afraid of nothing!” he shouted out, so loud that the whole forest could hear him. “I’m not the tiniest bit afraid; so there!”
All the old hares and the young hares came running to hear the hare they called Long-Tail boast that he was afraid of nothing. They listened to him and couldn’t believe their ears. No hare had ever said before that it was not afraid.
”Long-Tail, aren’t you afraid of the wolf?”
”I’m not afraid of the wolf, or the fox, or the bear either, far that matter!” he decided.
Now that was quite funny. The young hares giggled, hiding their noses behind their paws; and the older ones smiled, for they had just escaped the fox’s grip many a time and knew only too well the snap of a wolf’s teeth behind them. What a funny hare Long-Tail was to be sure! They were quite entertained by his boasting and began to leap about and play games.
The young hare, now quite overcome with his own bravery, announced:
”Why, if a wolf was to appear at this very moment, I would eat him up myself.”
They realized he was young and foolish, but they laughed all the same.
Now as it happened the wolf was close by. He had been wandering about in the forest on his wolfish business, had grown hungry, and had thought to himself: “Oh, if only a hare would come by!” And just then he heard the hares shouting and laughing and talking about the wolf, so he stopped and began to creep up to them. He heard their jokes and the boast of little Long-Tail.
”You wait and see, my boy, I’ll make short work of you!” the wolf thought to himself as he tried to make out which of the hares was pretending to be so brave. The hares had no idea he was there and went on playing and laughing together.
Soon Long-Tail climbed on to the stump of a tree, at down on his hind legs, and said:
”Listen, you cowards! Listen and watch me. I’ll show you a trick, I’ll…I’ll…” And at this moment the tongue froze in his mouth. He suddenly caught sight of the wolf looking at him. The others didn’t see the wolf, but he did and his heart stopped beating.
Then something very strange happened. Long-Tail gave one leap, sprang into the air like a ball, and in his terror fell straight on to the wolf’s head, rolled down his back, turned another somersault in the air, and then ran so fast that you would have thought all the foxes and wolves in the forest were after him.
He ran and he ran, the wretched little hare, until he had no more strength left at all. He kept thinking all the time that the wolf was right behind him and he could almost feel his teeth on his flesh. At least, completely exhausted, he collapsed, shut his eyes, and rolled under a brush.
Meanwhile the wolf was running in the opposite direction.
When the hare had fallen crack, on to the wolf’s head, it seemed to the wolf like the shot from a gun. And he started to run, too, saying to himself that the forest was full of hares and why should he bother about this crazy little one…
The other hares took a long time recover their calm. Some had hidden behind bushes, some behind tree trunks, some had dived into holes.
At last they grew hungry and the braver one peeped out of their hiding-places.
”Long-Tail sacred the wolf away all right,” they decided: “If it hadn’t been for him, we wouldn’t be alive at this moment!”
They started looking for him. They searched and they searched-he was nowhere to be found.  Perhaps another wolf had eaten him up? Then at last, they discovered him in a hole under a bush, half-dead with terror.
”You’re a hero, Long-Tail,” they all cried. “You’re a marvel! You scared the wolf away, you really did! Thank you, ohm thank you! And we thought you were only boasting!”
The brave hare pulled himself together, crawled of the hole, shook himself, half-closed is eyes and murmured:
”Boasting, indeed! Oh what coward you are!”
And, from that day on, the brave began himself to believe that he was afraid of nothing.

Copyright © 2006 Russian Fairy Tales