Once upon a time, in the little town of Le'Oiseau Bleu, lived a hardworking bricklayer named Robert LeMaçon. Now, Robert, being very a very busy bricklayer, decided to plant a vegetable garden out of necessity to his family and a fascination for the way things grew.
So it was in the smallish field behind his smallish home in the smallish town of Le'Oiseau Bleu that, after work he removed the grass and rocks, and tilled the soil until it would become fine and soft. He built even rows of black soil mounds, and sowed the few seeds he bought with his meager pay to grow a smallish garden. He watered the soil diligently everyday. He eagerly waited for the greens to pop through the well tilled soil.
His lazy neighbor, Monsieur Cheval Ane laughed, as Robert LeMaçon, the bricklayer had attempted a garden of this sort before.
Now, it came to pass with the sun gently beginning to warm the Earth that through the soft ground came sprouts of green in neat little rows on top the soft, black soil that Robert LeMaçon had created.
He pointed to the little sprouts with great excitement and exclaimed to the family du LeMaçon, "Nous aurons les haricots, les carottes, le chou frisé et le chou. Ne voyez-vous?"
La femme du LeMaçon smiled at her husband and went about her business tending to everything else that Robert did not obsess himself with.
One day after working in the hot sun, Monsieur LeMaçon came home to see a tiny rabbit belonging to Monsieur Cheval Ane in his garden. Robert was enraged to find that Lapin had eaten the top green leaves off of his bean plants, his carrots, his kale and his cabbage.
He stomped forward with his angry feet, and then he yelled, "Sortir de mon jardin, bébé lapin stupide!"
The rabbit, Lapin, quickly took to foot and ran through holes in Robert's old wired fence. And as Lapin took to the path behind Robert's house, with his belly full of delicious greens, he laughed and laughed.
That evening, skipping his evening meal with much protest from his wife, Robert went to task repairing his fence and building a stone wall, all the while smoke poured from his nostrils in anger.
When he finished, he stood rubbing his sore and calloused hands together, and noticed that Lapin had fortunately not eaten all of his plantings and he was no longer angry. His plants would surely be safe and grow well.
The next day, Robert awoke and looked out at his garden as the sun rose. And in the corner of his proud little garden, hiding behind the remains of green tops of his beans stood Lapin, only the rabbit had grown twice its original size.
Enraged, Robert sent out Chien.
“Tuer ce lapin stupide!”
Chien beared its sharp yellow teeth, and quickly ran towards Lapin. But Lapin was very smart indeed and found a spot in the stone wall through which to escape. Chien, with all of her speed hit the wall. Defeated, she howled and whimpered back to Robert.
Robert set to task repairing any holes in his stone wall. He dug a deep trench surrounding the garden and poured water into it, hoping that Lapin could not swim.
Robert’s neighbor, Monsieur Cheval Ane yelled angrily at him for making such noise and for trying to keep Lapin out of his garden.
“Mon Lapin devraient être autorisés à être dans votre jardin! Quelle injustice!”
Lapin belonged to the lazy Monsieur Cheval Ane, who never worked. His property was overrun with weeds and pieces of his house had fallen. The house smelled of fetid fat. And Monsieur Cheval Ane refused responsibility for Lapin.
“Lapin est le vôtre. Pourquoi devrais-je nourrir Lapin? Lapin est de votre responsabilité!”
Monsieur Cheval Ane raised a fat fist at Robert and went back into his house.
Monsieur LeMaçon considered his neighbor and no longer wondered why Lapin would rather stay elsewhere.
Robert was covered with mud. His back, legs and arms were sore, and his yard had become significantly smaller and made filthy by flattened green grass because of the moat he had constructed; however, his remaining vegetables were now free to grow. And he smiled.
But that night, the very clever Lapin, had gotten into the garden as Robert slept. Lapin ate his beans, carrots, kale and cabbage to his heart’s content and with his stomach full, fell into a deep sleep on the very soft soil.
Robert awoke early that morning for work. The sun had yet to show its face and the lights in his neighborhood were still dark. He put on his boots and walked out the door. He looked over to his garden, and saw the black silhouette of Lapin sleeping on the soft soil where once stood the efforts of his garden.
Lapin had grown two times three times four times his original size. He had become a very fat rabbit indeed.
Robert slowly walked up to Lapin, so as to not scare him away. But Lapin, full of vegetables that did not belong to him, could not awaken. Robert, the bricklayer, quickly built a wall of mortar and stone around Lapin, and topped it off with an enormous capstone with two large points on top to keep Lapin from ever escaping.
“Si vous ne pouvez pas empêcher de ne pouvez pas entrer le lapin, je le garderai dans”
As the sun slowly rose to greet the town, the capstone with two large points, cast a shadow on Monsiuer Cheval Ane’s property that looked like Lapin.
And like the shadow moves across the land and disappears – so too will Lapin.
-Fin-
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