Atondido Stories
Rabbit and the Grain Buyers
Once long ago when the Indians lived in Canada before the
white men came, Rabbit was very lazy. He had worked long for
Glooskap, the great ruler of the people, as a forest guide, but his
toil was not appreciated or rewarded. He saw all the other ani-
mals idling their time away, taking their ease all day long, and
doing nothing but filling their bellies with food, and sleeping all
the afternoon in the hot sunshine. And he said, "Why should I
work for other people when nobody works for me? I will take
mine ease like all the other animals." So he sulked in his little
house for a long time and could not be coaxed or driven to do
any work. But as he was a lonely fellow who always lived by
himself with very few friends in the world except little children,
he soon got tired of this lazy life. For by nature he was industri-
ous and energetic and he always liked to be doing something or
prowling alone in the forest. So he said, "I must find some work
to do or I shall surely lose my wits. But it must be labour that
brings profit to myself and not to other people."
For a long time Rabbit puzzled his brains thinking on a busi-
ness or a profession to follow. But nothing seemed to be to his
liking. At last one day he saw some Indians trading skins and
knives. One was selling and others were buying and they
seemed to be making a great deal of money without doing very
much work. Rabbit thought that here indeed was an easy way to
make a living. Then he saw Duck coming along carrying a bas-
ket of eggs. He said to Duck, "How do you get along in the
world? You seem to do nothing but eat and cackle and swim in
the pond. You never seem to work." And Duck said, "I lay eggs
and sell them in exchange for corn. Why don't you lay eggs? It is
all very easy." But Rabbit knew that Duck was only laughing at
him, and that he was not meant to make a living in that way.
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