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The hare and the hedgehog (Hungarian folk tale)

Author: I'll tell you

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Once upon a time, on a beautiful summer day, a jackrabbit met a hedgehog in a field. The hares started to annoy the hedgehog. He said to the hedgehog:

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- You hedgehog, with those hooked legs, how dare you move, how can you walk?

The hedgehog did not let up, he retaliated with words:

- I can run better with these hooked legs than you can with those straight ones!

Says the rabbit:

- I don't think so.

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- Well, if you don't believe it, let's bet on it.

He was quickly caught. The two of them made a big bet. When the bet was made, the rabbit asked the hedgehog:

- So, when are we running?

Says the hedgehog:

- Tomorrow morning, when the eight o'clock train leaves.

Says the rabbit:

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- Why not now?

- Because I have to go home to eat. Tomorrow morning at eight o'clock we'll both be at this exact spot.

Well, the hedgehog went home. At home, his wife was waiting with the food. After they had eaten, he told his wife what had happened.

- Ni te, I bet the rabbit that I could run better than him.

His wife tells him:

- Don't be silly, how can you run better than a rabbit?

- You leave it, we'll figure it out!

The next morning they got up, had breakfast and went out into the fields. But they did not go to the end of the field where they were to meet the hare, but to the other end; there the hedgehog had set his wife in one of the furrows. He said to her:

- When the rabbit comes down the other furrow, you shout well in advance "I'm already here!"

Then the hedgehog went to the other side of the land and met the rabbit.

- Hello, rabbit man!

- Hello, hedgehog man!

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- You came?

- I'm here!

- So, shall we run?

- We run.

- But how do we run to make it better? - asked the rabbit.

The hedgehog said:

- I run in one groove and you run in the other, so as not to hinder each other's running.

- Good, good.

The hare stopped in one groove, the hedgehog in the other. Then the hedgehog said to the hare:

- I count one, two, three, and when I say three, I kick myself.

And the hedgehog read:

- One, two, three.

Then they both jumped at him, but the hedgehog only jumped two, and he jumped down into the groove (he shows). But the other hedgehog was at the other end of the ground, and when the hare came to him, he called out:

- I'm already here!

Then the rabbit says:

- It was not good, we will run again!

Then they turned back and started to run back, but the hedgehog only jumped two times and ran off. The rabbit ran as fast as he could, as fast as he had ever run before. When he came to the end of the ground, the other hedgehog called out:

- I'm already here!

- Not well, we'll run again!

They also ran backwards. The porcupine hopped down and the hare ran as fast as he could. When he reached the other end of the land, the other hedgehog also called out:

- I'm already here!

- "He's not well," says the rabbit, "we'll run again, for the fourth time.

But in the big run, the rabbit's legs got shaky and he fell in the middle of the ground, unable to go on. And the hedgehogs chewed the rabbit up, and they won. They went home laughing and are still alive today, if they are not dead.

(Ágnes Kovács: Folk tales for kindergarten children)

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