This story, my dear young folks, seems to be false, but it really
is true, for my grandfather, from whom I have it, used always,
when relating it, to say, it must be true, my son, or else no
one could tell it to you. The story is as follows. One sunday
morning about harvest time, just as the buckwheat was in bloom,
the sun was shining brightly in heaven, the east wind was
blowing warmly over the stubble-fields, the larks were singing
in the air, the bees buzzing among the buckwheat, the people
in their sunday clothes were all going to church, and all creatures
were happy, and the hedgehog was happy too.
The hedgehog, however, was standing by his door with his arms
akimbo, enjoying the morning breezes, and slowly trilling a
little song to himself, which was neither better nor worse than
the songs which hedgehogs are in the habit of singing on a blessed
sunday morning. Whilst he was thus singing half aloud to himself,
it suddenly occurred to him that, while his wife was washing and
drying the children, he might very well take a walk into the field,
and see how his turnips were getting on. The turnips, in fact,
were close beside his house, and he and his family were accustomed
to eat them, for which reason he looked upon them as his own.
No sooner said than
done. The hedgehog shut the house-door behind him, and took the
path to the field. He had not gone very far from home, and
was just turning round the sloe-bush which stands there outside the
field, to go up into the turnip-field, when he observed the hare
who had gone out on business of the same kind, namely, to visit his
cabbages. When the hedgehog caught sight of the hare, he bade him
a friendly good morning. But the hare, who was in his own way a
distinguished gentleman, and frightfully haughty, did not return
the hedgehog's greeting, but said to him, assuming at the same
time a very contemptuous manner, how do you happen to be
running about here in the field so early in the morning. I am
taking a walk, said the hedgehog. A walk, said the hare, with
a smile. It seems to me that you might use your legs for a better
purpose. This answer made the hedgehog furiously angry, for he
can bear anything but a reference too his legs, just because they
are crooked by nature. So now the hedgehog said to the hare, you
seem to imagine that you can do more with your legs than I with
mine. That is just what I do think, said the hare. That can
be put to the test, said the hedgehog. I wager that if we run
a race, I will outstrip you. That is ridiculous. You with your
short legs, said the hare, but for my part I am willing, if you
have such a monstrous fancy for it. What shall we wager. A
golden louis-d'or and a bottle of brandy, said the hedgehog. Done,
said the hare. Shake hands on it, and then we may as well begin
at once. Nay, said the hedgehog, there is no such great hurry.
I am still fasting, I will go home first, and have a little
breakfast. In half-an-hour I will be back again at this
place.
Hereupon the hedgehog departed, for the hare was quite satisfied
with this. On his way the hedgehog thought to himself, the hare
relies on his long legs, but I will contrive to get the better
of him. He may be a great man, but he is a very silly fellow,
and he shall pay for what he has said. So when the hedgehog
reached home, he said to his wife, wife, dress yourself quickly,
you must go out to the field with me. What is going on, then,
said his wife. I have made a wager with the hare, for a gold
louis-d'or and a bottle of
brandy. I am to run a race with him, and you must be present.
Good heavens, husband, the wife now cried, are you not right in
your mind, have you completely lost your wits. What can make
you want to run a race with the hare. Hold your tongue, woman,
said the hedgehog, that is my affair. Don't begin to discuss
things which are matters for men. Be off, dress yourself, and
come with me. What could the hedgehog's wife do. She was forced
to obey him, whether she liked it or not.
So when they had set out on their way together, the hedgehog
said to his wife, now pay attention to what I am going to say.
Look you, I will make the long field our race-course. The hare
shall run in one furrow, and when the hare arrives at the end
of the furrow on the other side of you, you must cry out to him,
I am here already.
Then they reached the field, and the hedgehog showed his wife
her place, and then walked up the field. When he reached the
top, the hare was already there. Shall we start, said the
hare. Certainly, said the hedgehog. Then both at once. So
saying, each placed himself in his own furrow. The hare counted,
once, twice, thrice, and away, and went off like a whirlwind
down the field. The hedgehog, however, only ran about three
paces, and then he crouched down in the furrow, and stayed
quietly where he was.
When the hare therefore arrived at full speed at the lower end
of the field, the hedgehog's wife met him with the cry, I am
here already. The hare was shocked and wondered not a little,
he thought no other than that it was the hedgehog himself who was
calling to him, for the hedgehog's wife looked just like her
husband. The hare, however, thought to himself, that has not
been done fairly, and cried, it must be run again, let us have it
again. And once more he went off like the wind in a storm, so
that he seemed to fly. But the hedgehog's wife stayed quietly
in her place. So when the hare reached the top of the field, the
hedgehog himself cried out to him, I am here already. The
hare, however, quite beside himself
with anger, cried, it must be run again, we must have it again.
All right, answered the hedgehog, for my part we'll run as often
as you choose. So the hare ran seventy-three times more, and
the hedgehog always held out against him, and every time the
hare reached either the top or the bottom, either the hedgehog
or his wife said, I am here already.
At the seventy-fourth time, however, the hare could no longer
reach the end. In the middle of the field he fell to the
ground, blood streamed out of his mouth, and he lay dead on
the spot. But the hedgehog took the louis-d'or which he had
won and the bottle of brandy, called his wife out of the furrow,
and both went home together in great delight, and if they are not
dead, they are living there still.
This is how it happened that the hedgehog made the hare run races
with him on the heath of buxtehude - buxtehude is a village near
hamburg - till he died, and since that time no hare has ever
had any fancy for running races with a buxtehude hedgehog.
The moral of this story is, firstly, that no one, however great
he may be, should permit himself to jest at any one beneath him,
even if he be only a hedgehog. And, secondly, it teaches, that
when a man marries, he should take a wife in his own position,
who looks just as he himself looks. So whosoever is a
hedgehog let him see to it that his wife is a hedgehog also,
and so forth.
