The Tale of Mark the Bunny | Page 3

right now," Maria said. She was in fact a very thin bunny, going gray in many places.
There was a long silence.
"What if we..." Lenny swallowed hard. "What if everybody gave all they could and only took what they needed?"
All the other bunnies turned to look at him. "What?" Jonathan asked.
The Reverend Billy hopped over from the high place in the middle of the square and stared right into Lenny's eyes. "What are you?" he said, squinting. "Some kind of Markist?"
Lenny took a short hop backwards without really meaning to.
"That's not very nice," Sophie said.
"That sounds like name-calling," said little Ralphie.
"I'm only speaking the truth," said the Reverend.
"It might be only speaking the truth to say somebody was short and fat," said Sophie, "but it still wouldn't be very nice to say it in that tone of voice."
The Reverend Billy, who was in fact rather short and fat, wrinkled up his nose and said, "Hmmph."
"Look," Sophie said. "The problem is water, right? But there's all the water we would ever need over in Possum Creek."
"What are you saying, that we should move the village?" Jonathan asked. "I don't like it by the creek, with all those holly bushes. Besides, wolves live there. And it would take forever to make new burrows."
"No," Sophie said, "I wasn't thinking about moving the village. I was thinking--what if we made the water come to us?"
*
Apparently Sophie had been awake much of the night thinking, too. She knew that Possum Creek had once flowed right by the village, many, many years before Sophie's mother had been born. It had filled up with sand and after that the river had flowed away to other places.
But if there was one thing bunnies were good at, besides eating and having big families, it was digging. What if they dug out the old river bed and made part of Possum Creek--just a small part, not enough to hurt anyone downstream--come through their village again? Then after it came through the village it could go back and join back up with the main river.
After Sophie finished talking about her plan, the other bunnies found that their heads hurt just as much as Lenny's did. They all started to talk at once and it was almost an hour before it got quiet enough for Lenny to speak up.
"I've heard what everybody has to say," he said, "which mostly seems to be that they're afraid. Well, I can understand that. But we have to do something, or we won't have any food. I think everybody who wants to give what they can to this plan should meet us tomorrow down at Possum Creek."
*
Lenny and Sophie and Ralph all slept badly that night, but as soon as the first rays of sunshine trickled into their burrow they got up and went to Possum Creek. By the time the sun was fully up there were only five other bunnies there.
"Thank you all for coming," Lenny said, and looked up at the sky. "Boy, it looks like it's going to be another really hot day."
It looked like he shouldn't have said that, because as soon as he did, Jonathan made a little hop like he was going to try to sneak away.
"Good thing we're here by the river, then, isn't it?" said Sophie in a funny voice. "Where it's so cool and nice?"
"Uh, yeah!" Lenny said. "Sure is!"
"Right, Jonathan?" Sophie said.
Jonathan saw that all the bunnies were now looking at him. "I guess so," he said.
Sophie showed them what she'd been thinking, which was to start digging inland a little way from the river bank. That would leave a wall of dirt between the river and the ditch they were going to dig, so no water would get in the hole. Then, when they were all done, they could dig through the wall and let the water in.
"I figure we should start digging about here," Sophie said, scratching a line in the dirt with one paw.
"Well," Lenny said, "what are we waiting for? Let's make a river!"
They dug all day, and when they were done their paws were sore and their legs were tired, but they had a wide, deep channel about fifty feet long. In the last of the daylight they stood looking at it.
"This isn't going to work," Sophie said, very quietly, so nobody but Lenny could hear her. "It's just too much work and there aren't enough of us."
"It was a good idea, though," Lenny said.
"And you did your best," Sophie said. "You worked harder than anyone."
"So what happens now?"
"I don't know," Sophie said. "I'm all out of ideas."
Just then Jonathan started to hop slowly along the edges of the hole, looking at what they'd done. He seemed to be thinking very hard.
"This is it," Sophie whispered. "When Jonathan gives up, the others