The Easter Tale Of The Fox And The Three Little Rabbits

Once, a long time ago, in the middle of a green forest by the edge of a clear, sparkling blue stream, there lived three little white rabbits in a small cottage and a fox, who lived nearby, was always trying to catch them for his supper but, every time, they managed to run back to the safety of their little house.

One Easter, however, the fox had a cunning idea of how to get into their cottage. Being quite an educated fox, he’d been reading all about the ancient Trojans and how the wily Greeks had built a wooden horse to enter their walled city of Troy.

And, out of clay, the fox made a big egg shell and painted it white with bright pink and blue spots and tied it with a yellow ribbon the colour of daffodils then, leaving it outside the house of the three rabbits with a note saying “An Easter gift”, the fox climbed inside the egg and waited.

When the three rabbits came out of their house and saw the egg and read the fox’s note they were all very happy.

“Oh, what a very pretty Easter surprise”, said one and the others agreed.

And, inside the egg, the fox chuckled to himself,

“Just wait till you get it inside”, he said, “Then you’ll really get a surprise”.

And, sure enough, before long the fox felt the egg being picked up by the three rabbits and carried inside their house.

But then, startled and horrified, the fox heard a loud plop and then a clang as if the egg had been put into a pot of water and a lid placed on top and then he heard one of the rabbits say,

“How delicious that egg will be when we boil it”.

“Boil it?!”, thought the fox, panicking.

Then the fox heard the sound of a match striking and a flame being lit and, frightened that he might get cooked by the three rabbits, he banged on the side of the cooking pot shouting, “Let me out! Let me out! Please!”.

Hearing the cries of the fox, the three rabbits immediately recognized him but they weren’t about to let the fox out because they knew he would just eat them.

They didn’t want to cook the fox, however, because they weren’t cruel or vengeful so, instead, keeping the lid on the pot, they carried it to the top of a nearby hill and then one of the rabbits said,

“I think this egg might be a rotten egg”.

Then another replied,

“Well how do we test it?”.

Then the third said,

“Well, rotten eggs don’t roll downhill”.

Then all three of the rabbits tipped the cooking pot over so that the egg, with the poor fox still inside, went rolling down hill and, when the egg landed at the bottom of the hill and broke into pieces; the three rabbits, seeing a dazed fox stumble from the wreckage shouted, laughing, “Look! It was a rotten egg after all”.

Angrily, the fox tried to chase after the rabbits but they all ran back to the safety of their little cottage where they all had a very happy Easter.