The Tale of Mark the Bunny | Page 4

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
will, too."
Jonathan stopped and turned to face the other bunnies. He sat up on his
hind legs and said, "Look! Look what we did!"
"It's not so bad," Lenny said.
"Not so bad?" Jonathan said. "Not so bad? It's wonderful. We're only
bunnies, and we did this. We made this great big hole, which isn't just a
hole, it's the start of a new river. Instead of just sitting around and being
scared and hungry, we did something about it! I'm going to tell
everybody!"
*
The next morning there were forty eager bunnies at the trench, and still
more showed up as the day went on. Sophie and Lenny had to stop
frequently to answer questions and explain Sophie's idea over and over.

But with forty bunnies digging and laughing and having fun, the work
went much faster than it had the day before.
In the afternoon Jane Bunny came to the edge of the ditch and asked if
she could talk to Sophie. Sophie hopped out and said, "What can I do
for you?"
"No, it's me," Jane said. "I want to do something for you. But I can't
dig." She held up her left front leg, which had never worked right, even
when she was a baby.
"There is something you can do," Sophie said. "If you really want to."
Sophie explained her ideas to Jane, who actually had some ideas of her
own. For instance, she thought of making trees that had grown up in the
old riverbed into islands, so the bunnies wouldn't have to dig them up
or move to higher ground to get around them. Jane was able to hop up
and down along the trench and answer questions and carry messages
back and forth between the other workers.
On the third day, even more bunnies showed up. One of them was
Albertus, though he hadn't come to work. He sat on a hill and watched
for long enough that everyone could see him, and see that he was
unhappy, before he hopped slowly away.
*
That evening the Reverend Billy Bunny called a meeting in the village
square. "What you're doing," he said, "just isn't natural."
"Bunnies dig," Maria said. "What's unnatural about that?"
"You're changing things," the Reverend Billy said.
"We're just putting the river back where it used to be," Jane said.
"We're not hurting any other animals."
"Only the Easter Bunny," the Reverend Billy said, "is supposed to
change the shape of the land."

This was a very difficult idea and everyone got very quiet to think
about it. It was a hot night, with stars almost as bright as the Moon, and
crickets sang all around them.
Suddenly a voice spoke up from the back of the crowd.
"Eggs," little Ralph said.
The Reverend Billy seemed startled. "What did you say?"
"I said, 'eggs,'" Ralph told him. "I thought the Easter Bunny was just in
charge of Easter eggs."
"Well, er, um..."
"Yeah," said Lenny, who seemed to be much less afraid than he used to
be. "Who said the Easter bunny was in charge of rivers?"
"Yeah," said Annie. "You're always telling us the Easter Bunny helps
those who help themselves. If this isn't helping ourselves, what is?"
"But, er, well..."
The bunnies, one and two at a time, began to slowly hop away from the
square. "We're tired," Jonathan said as he left. "Let's do this some other
time."
"If you want to help us dig," Maria said, "we'd be happy to see you
tomorrow."
*
The Reverend Billy Bunny didn't show up to dig the next day, or any of
the days after. However, he didn't call any more meetings either, which
many of the bunnies thought almost made up for his not working.
Soon the hole went right up to the edge of the village. Some of the
bunnies wanted to quit right then and there and let the water into the
ditch, but Jane spoke up. "You've seen how water gets bad if it doesn't

keep moving. We need to finish the job, just like Sophie said."
Other bunnies had ideas, too. Little Ralph surprised