The Funny Fox and the Bold Badger, walking on the road To-No-Place-in-Particular, met the Happy Hare singing:
“I’m a Happy Hare, I do declare,
I go here, and there, and everywhere.”
The Funny Fox winked his eye and said,
“It is only a quarter after ten.
Come, visit me now in my den.”
The Bold Badger, though a great friend of the Funny Fox, remarked suddenly,
“I forgot something I had to borrow.
Goodbye ’till the day after tomorrow.”
He scampered off in the opposite direction. Now, the Happy Hare stood with her hand up to her face and looked foolish; then she said,
“Mother said, ‘if you talk to a stranger,
you may find yourself in danger.'”
The Funny Fox laughed loud and long, for he was well known by every animal in the woods. He remarked,
“I’ll tell you a story in my den.
You will be contented then.”
So they went clippety, clippety, clip till they came to the Funny Fox’s den, and in they went. The Funny Fox said,
“You are such a Happy Hare,
won’t you take the rocking chair?”
Then he sat down in the corner and began his story. He said, “Once upon a time, I met a Hopeless Hare. He had, by the way, ears just like you.”
The Happy Hare waved her ears nervously to and fro. “I gave the Hopeless Hare a fine breakfast and dinner and supper, and his eyes twinkled just like yours do.”
At this, the Happy Hare winked very hard.
The Funny Fox continued,
“She twitched her nose,
and I suppose why she did this goodness knows!”
The Happy Hare twitched her nose and waved her long ears suddenly. The Funny Fox continued,
“I got water hot in my little pot,
I thought I would roast her, like as not.
She would boil and boil
and never stop unless she went off hippety-hop.”
The Happy Hare gave one startled look around the den and, with a hop, skip, and bound, she was off and away! Off flew her hat and her shadow looked longer and orate in the sunlight.
The Funny Fox ran after her to his doorway and then he sat down and laughed loud and long, for he really meant no harm this time; he was only joking.
