The Tale of Mark the Bunny | Page 6

in farewell.
*
"Oh no!" Sophie cried, and she began to run after Albertus. So did all
the other bunnies, but the new river was much, much faster than they
were and they couldn't begin to catch up.
The bunnies, all of whom had been working very hard for many days,
simply ran out of strength before they even got to the village. Sophie
dropped to the ground panting, and Lenny fell down beside her.
"I didn't want this to happen," she said. "I was mad at him because he
never wanted to share his food, but I didn't want this. It's all my fault."
"What's all your fault?" asked a deep voice.
All the bunnies looked up from where they were sprawled on the dry
grass.
"Albertus!" Sophie said. "Are you all right?"
"Apparently someone left a tree across the new river," Albertus said. "I
was able to hold on and pull myself out."
"That was little Ralph," Lenny said proudly.

Albertus nodded at him grandly. "Thank you, young bunny," he said.
"If you wish, you may call me 'Big Al.'"
*
The bunnies wanted to call it "Sophie's River," but Sophie said they
should name it after Mark. They all nodded and pretended to agree with
her, but went on calling it Sophie's River anyway.
The grass and the clover and the nettles began to bloom again almost
immediately, and even the old hawthorn bush in the middle of the
village square started to perk up. As soon as it did, though, a very
strange thing happened. One night someone nibbled and worked at the
bush until it came to look exactly like Mark the Bunny, whose ideas
had inspired Sophie to save the village.
For several days afterwards Lenny had a bad stomach ache, and when
anyone asked him if he'd made the art in the village square he would
only say that the question made his head hurt.

© 1999 by Lewis Shiner. First published on LewisShiner.com,
September, 1999. Some rights reserved.

A free ebook from http://www.dertz.in/