The Hare and the Hedgehog

This story, my dear young friends, might sound like a lie, but it is really true. My grandfather, who told it to me, always said happily, "It must be true, my son, or else no one could tell it to you." The story goes like this.

One Sunday morning around harvest time, just as the buckwheat was blooming, the sun was shining brightly in the sky, a warm east wind blew over the stubble fields, the larks were singing in the air, the bees were buzzing among the buckwheat, the people were all going to church in their Sunday clothes, and all creatures were happy. The hedgehog was happy too.

The hedgehog was standing by his door with his hands on his hips, enjoying the morning breeze, and slowly humming a little song to himself. It was neither better nor worse than the songs hedgehogs usually sing on a blessed Sunday morning.

While he was half-singing to himself, it suddenly occurred to him that, while his wife was washing and drying the children, he could take a walk into the field and see how his turnips were doing.

The turnips were right next to his house, and he and his family ate them, so he thought of them as his own. No sooner said than done. The hedgehog shut the house door behind him and took the path to the field.

He hadn't gone very far from home and was just turning around the blackthorn bush that stands outside the field to go up into the turnip field when he saw the hare, who had gone out on the same kind of business: to visit his cabbages.

When the hedgehog spotted the hare, he gave him a friendly good morning. But the hare, who was a distinguished gentleman in his own way and terribly proud, did not return the hedgehog's greeting. Instead, he said in a very contemptuous manner, "How come you are running around here in the field so early in the morning?" "I'm taking a walk," said the hedgehog.

"A walk!" said the hare with a smile. "It seems to me you could use your legs for something better." This answer made the hedgehog furiously angry, because he can't stand anyone mocking his legs, since they are naturally crooked.

So the hedgehog said to the hare, "You seem to think that you can do more with your legs than I can with mine." "That's exactly what I think," said the hare. "We can put that to the test," said the hedgehog.

"I bet that if we run a race, I will beat you." "That's ridiculous! You with your short legs!" said the hare. "But I'm willing if you really want to. What shall we bet?" "A gold coin and a bottle of brandy," said the hedgehog. "Done," said the hare.

"Shake on it, and we can start right away." "No," said the hedgehog, "there's no such hurry! I haven't eaten yet. I'll go home first and have a little breakfast. In half an hour I'll be back here."

With that, the hedgehog left, and the hare was satisfied. On the way home, the hedgehog thought, "The hare relies on his long legs, but I'll find a way to beat him. He may be a great man, but he's very foolish, and he'll pay for what he said." So when the hedgehog got home, he said to his wife, "Wife, get dressed quickly, you must come out to the field with me." "What's going on?" she asked.

"I made a bet with the hare for a gold coin and a bottle of brandy. I'm going to run a race with him, and you have to be there." "Good heavens, husband," cried his wife, "have you lost your mind?

What makes you want to run a race with the hare?" "Hold your tongue, woman," said the hedgehog. "That's my business. Don't argue about things that are for men. Go, get dressed, and come with me." What could the hedgehog's wife do? She had to obey, whether she liked it or not.

So when they set off together, the hedgehog said to his wife, "Now listen to what I'm going to say. Look, I'll make the long field our racecourse. The hare will run in one furrow, and I in another. We'll start from the top. All you have to do is stand down here in the furrow, and when the hare gets to the end of the furrow on the other side of you, you must call out to him, 'I am here already!'"

Then they reached the field, and the hedgehog showed his wife her place. Then he walked up the field. When he got to the top, the hare was already there. "Shall we start?" said the hare. "Certainly," said the hedgehog.

"Then both at once." So saying, each took his place in his own furrow. The hare counted, "Once, twice, three times, and go!" and shot off like a whirlwind down the field. But the hedgehog only ran about three steps, then he crouched down in the furrow and stayed still.

So when the hare arrived at full speed at the lower end of the field, the hedgehog's wife met him with the cry, "I am here already!" The hare was shocked and very surprised. He thought it was the hedgehog himself calling to him, because the hedgehog's wife looked just like her husband.

But the hare thought to himself, "That wasn't fair," and cried, "Let's run again, we must have another race." And once more he went off like the wind in a storm, so fast he seemed to fly. But the hedgehog's wife stayed quietly in her place.

So when the hare reached the top of the field, the hedgehog himself called out to him, "I am here already!" The hare, beside himself with anger, cried, "We have to run again, we must do it again!" "All right," answered the hedgehog, "I'm happy to run as many times as you like." So the hare ran seventy-three more times, and the hedgehog always held out.

Every time the hare reached either the top or the bottom, the hedgehog or his wife said, "I am here already."

But at the seventy-fourth time, the hare could no longer reach the end. In the middle of the field he collapsed, blood poured from his mouth, and he lay dead on the spot. The hedgehog took the gold coin he had won and the bottle of brandy, called his wife out of the furrow, and they went home together in great delight. And if they are not dead, they are still living there.

That is how it happened that the hedgehog made the hare run races with him on the Buxtehude Heath until he died, and since then no hare has ever wanted to run races with a Buxtehude hedgehog.

The moral of this story is, first, that no one, no matter how great, should make fun of someone beneath them, even if they are only a hedgehog. And second, it teaches that when a man marries, he should choose a wife of his own standing, who looks just like him. So whoever is a hedgehog should make sure his wife is also a hedgehog, and so on.