Once upon a time there was a man who had found a lost rabbit, and taken her home. He was an old man, so he knew he had to find someone else to take care of her when he was gone. He thought, "If only someone would come and take my bunny home with them, where she would be loved and taken care of."
A few days later, a sleek, handsome fox appeared at his house. "I heard you were looking for someone to look after a rabbit," he said. "My home is very lonely right now, and I would take very good care of your friend." The old man saw nothing but sincerity in the fox's smile, so he agreed to let him meet the rabbit.
She did not like him, though she couldn't have said why. He frightened her, but she was a rabbit, and easily frightened. She knew she did not trust him, but tried not to let it show, since the kind old man was certain the fox would take care of her.
"You have never seen my home," the fox said to the bunny one afternoon. "I would like you to live there someday, so it would be good if you would come to visit me."
The bunny, trying to find an excuse, said, "I do not know where your home is, and I'm sure a silly thing like me would get lost, trying to find it."
The fox said, "But so many of my friends would like to meet you. I will leave a trail of colorful marbles to guide you, so you will not get lost."
Trapped by her own excuse, the bunny agreed to go out to the fox's house the next evening. She came to the beginning of the dark, spooky forest, and thought, "Why am I doing this at night? There are all sorts of things that eat rabbits in there, and most of them come out at night." Deciding to trust her instincts, she turned back. "The dark scared me," she told the old man, who was understanding. "I will go out another day, during the day. I am a rabbit; surely he will not be angry with me."
The fox did seem very sympathetic when she explained her decision the next day, but there was a glint in his eye she did not like at all. "Oh, of course. I am so sorry," he said. "I should have thought of that myself. I would be crushed if anything happened to you." The glint worried the bunny, and she watched him warily from that moment on.
A week or so later, he extended his invitation again, this time assuring the bunny that she could reach his home before the sun went down. "The path of marbles is still laid for you to find it. I would take you myself, but I must fetch the food and drink for you and my friends."
The day of the party, the rabbit was again unusually nervous, but she felt ashamed of her previous cowardice, moreso because the fox had seemed so understanding, but disappointed at the same time. "Really, you're just being silly," she told herself firmly. "Why would he go through this charade just to hurt you?"
She reached the fox's home while the sun was still high, and cautiously tapped on the door. Instead of hearing the fox's voice, she thought she heard a whisper, as if from a ghost:
"Silly little thing, foolish little bunny
Trusting a fox, oh how very funny!"
Looking around, the bunny saw nothing and no one. "Hello? Who is that?" she called out in a shaky voice. "What are you talking about?"
"Silly little thing, foolish little bunny
Trusting a fox, oh how very funny!"
came the reply. "If that's all you can say, you're not being very helpful," the rabbit said, becoming cross. "I know he's a fox, thank you." Of course, hearing it out loud made her realize how strange it really did sound. Entering the house, she saw a note lying on the table.
"Dearest Bunny,
Welcome to my home! If you are reading this, then I am not there. Please make yourself at home, with one exception: Do not open the door at the top of the stairs. That room holds a surprise which I would not like you to spoil.
Yours affectionately,
Fox"
Now, anyone who knows rabbits should know how foolish that would be to say to one. At the very moment of reading those words, our bunny felt the most dangerous curiousity coming over her, to do exactly what the note said not to. But she realized that if the fox caught her where he told her not to go, he would be angry with her, and she did not want him to be angry. So she amused herself by looking over the gardens instead. The mysterious voice kept nagging at her, but since it only said the one thing, she put it out of her mind as well as she could.
By this point, she was quite sure the house was empty, so it made her jump when a real voice said, "What's this? Who are you?" Whirling around, she saw a mole in the garden. No need to ask where he'd come from; the hole behind him answered that right enough.
"I was invited here by the fox," she replied. Moles were nothing to be afraid of, she knew. They ate worms and grubs and underground things. Besides, he was barely as big as she was, though his claws were rather alarming. Seeing him squint at her, she added helpfully, "I'm the bunny who's coming to live here eventually."
"Which one?" the mole asked sardonically. "There have been several rabbits around here in the past few months. Can't say as I've ever smelled any of 'em more than once, though. You might want to talk to the fox about that before you make any sudden changes in your living situation."
The bunny gaped at him in surprise. "I didn't know there were any others! That is worrying; what should I do?" He turned around and started tunneling again. "Oh, wait! What do I do?"
"Ask the fox." Sensing her despair at his cavalier response, the mole added, "You have to get out of this yourself, missie. You got yourself into it."
The rabbit watched, downcast, as he hopped back into his hole. She said to herself, "Everyone here keeps saying how odd it is that I'm coming to live with the fox. Maybe it is odd." Of course, rabbits do not have very much common sense. If they did, they would be eaten far less often. Even so, our particular rabbit was starting to get suspicious. "Perhaps I should ask the fox. But what proof do I have, besides strange voices and subterranean intruders?"
On this occasion, it seemed the fox's friends were unable to attend the party. "They so wanted to meet you, but they all have things to do during the day." The bunny and the fox enjoyed a cheerful lunch, and the fox saw the bunny safely on her way home.
"There, see?" she told herself. "Nothing to worry about." Some of the marbles had rolled away from the path, but she made it out of the forest with no trouble, and the old man was delighted to hear how well the afternoon had gone.
That night, however, the little rabbit slept badly. She kept dreaming of that stupid voice and the mole, both of them calling her silly for trusting a fox. And, in her dreams, she saw ghost rabbits, who circled her and chanted that doggerel in a sing-song:
"Silly little thing, foolish little bunny
Trusting a fox, oh how very funny!"
The next morning, possibly because she was still disturbed from her dreams, the bunny came right out and asked the fox about the others the mole had mentioned. His perky red ears drooped, and a tear came into his eye. "There is a wolf in the forest, though she usually doesn't come near my home. She ate them."
The bunny immediately felt guilty for asking, and let the subject drop. "Your gardens are very fine," she said instead, and the fox perked back up and the rest of the conversation was pleasant indeed.
The dreams still came. The rabbit didn't think she was getting more than half of her usual sleep, at best. Her dreams also included the door at the top of the stairs, opening slowly. Sometimes the bunny was excited to see what was inside, but most of the time she was terrified. Both the curiosity and the fear grew inside her, night by night.
One month before the bunny was due to start moving her things to the fox's house, she woke up fully, in the middle of the night. The moon shone bright in her window, and she suddenly felt very awake, and daring. "I will go to the fox's house. If he's not there, maybe I can see what's behind the door! If he is, what a surprise it will be!" As quick as that thought, the rabbit slipped out her window and headed for the forest.
Remembering how the marbles had rolled around, she brought some flat, shining stones, to mark her own path. These she spread alongside the path to the fox's house. The moon reflected off them, making the path seem almost as light as day. The forest was silent, and the bunny wondered where all the night creatures were. She didn't wonder too hard, because most of them were of a type that ate rabbits.
She came up to the fox's house, and all was dark and still. Even the mocking voice from her last trip seemed to be away. Sneaking into the unlocked house, she listened, long ears twitching. She heard nothing. She crept up the stairs, wondering if perhaps the fox slept up here, and she was about to be caught. That thought was much more unpleasant here in the dark than it had been in daylight a few days ago. She eased her way to the door, and gently tried the knob. It was unlocked, but the bunny couldn't see too well in the dark. She searched around her for a candle, but then she saw light under the front door. Instead of jumping out to surprise the fox, she wanted to hide, so hide she did, behind a shelf in the hall.
She heard laughing and talking, and realized the fox had brought his friends home. For some reason, this frightened her even more, and she shrank back further. But they seemed to be coming UP the stairs!
Thanking her lucky stars that she had remembered to close the door, the bunny watched as the shadowy figures came upstairs. A bear, the fox himself, and an owl! It was all the bunny could do to keep from squeaking aloud. They went into the room, and the bunny saw what was behind the door. She could have fainted. She may have. The remains of the fox's past victims were in there, fur and paws and bones! And she could tell they had another poor creature with them. It was a small deer, and it was terrified. The bunny covered her eyes, but heard the sounds of it being devoured. Afterwards, the other animals went home, and the fox went downstairs to sleep off his gluttony.
She almost couldn't bring herself to go inside the blood-spattered room, but she had to have proof, or the fox would just say she dreamed the whole thing. Trembling, she picked up a paw that looked almost like her own. Then she ran. The fox had kicked all the marbles aside, but had ignored the bunny's shining stones, so the path home was still clear. She ran all the way home, and didn't slow down until she was in the old man's house again.
The next morning, she showed the paw to the old man, and told him her story. Of course, he was horrified, and he thought up a plan to get the fox what he deserved. It would require the bunny to be very brave one more time. Naturally, she agreed; she didn't want anyone else to suffer the same fate as that poor deer. Putting their heads together, they plotted.
A week later, the fox was invited to a party at the old man's house. There seemed to be a fair number of people there, but he didn't seem nervous. After a fine dinner, the guests started telling stories. When it came to the bunny's turn, she turned shy at first, only starting her tale when the fox insisted.
"I will tell you about a dream I had," she said at last. "I was walking in the forest at night, when I came to a house. Creeping into the house, I thought I heard a voice:
'Silly little thing, foolish little bunny
Trusting a fox, oh how very funny!'
it said. This was only a dream, of course! I thought that was an odd thing for a voice to say... but I tried to erase it from my mind. I looked out the window. The house was surrounded by lovely gardens, not unlike yours, Fox. Of course it was only a dream. I went up the stairs and saw a door. But before I could open the door, I heard voices. I dashed to hide behind a shelf, and I heard the voices come up the stairs. Predators, every one of them. They had a small deer with them, that they were going to eat, right there! I had to cover my eyes, but I heard all of it. This was only a dream! Afterwards, they all went to sleep, and I crept in and found a paw, not so different from this paw!"
And she held up the pathetic thing, and said, her eyes filling with tears, "You said the wolf ate them, but you lied. I went into that room, I saw the skins and paws and bones! You were going to eat me, too!
The fox had no chance to make his defense, if indeed he had one, because a huntsman, who had been creeping up behind him the whole time the bunny had been talking, hit him over the head and killed him with one blow.
"Being a predator is one thing," the huntsman said grimly. "But fooling an old man and an innocent into believing you're not, that's something else altogether. I'll hang this fur up on me door to remind others not to do the same!"
In time, the bunny recovered from her nasty experience. The mole agreed to keep an eye on her, and she cleared out the fox's old house and moved in anyway. She also acquired a good deal of common sense, the hard way. She lived a long and happy life, but never again would she trust a fox.