Maurie Sween

     Once Grandmother told about grass lizards.  Charlie’s Rabbit had greeted a few but had never stopped to chat.  They were always polite yet seemed to keep mostly to themselves.  Now the rabbit wondered about them and listened carefully to everything Grandmother said.

 

Grandmother began, “When I was little, my grandmother told me about an old woman who couldn’t move very well.  Even so, she had to go to the mountainside to cut vegetables so that she would have something to eat.  One day she walked step by step up the mountain.  As she was getting ready to begin the hard job of cutting, she noticed many grass lizards had gathered in that place.

 

     They said,  ‘Old Grandmother, Old Grandmother. Good morning.  How are you?’

 

     When this woman saw these lizards, she was surprised.  They were wearing little hats made of grass.  The lizards were also wearing skirts made of grass, and they were dancing. 

 

     The old woman smiled and said, ‘Oh dear lizards, you are really good dancers.  You dance well.  What are you wearing on your head?  It looks pretty.  Your skirts are nice too.  You dance and sing good.’

 

     They said, ‘Grandmother, are you here to cut vegetables?’

 

     ‘Yes.’

     

     ‘Oh, sit down,’ they said.  ‘Let us help you.’

 

     The lizards were happy.  They helped her cut.  In a short while they cut a lot and piled it up.

 

     ‘Thank you, Grandchildren,’ said the woman. ‘You cut it well.  You respect elders.  You are so polite.  You picked good vegetables.’

 

     After getting this praise, they were so happy they said, ‘Old Grandmother, don’t you carry it.  We’ll help you carry it home.’

 

     It took several trips for those lizards to carry the vegetables to her house.  But in a very short time, the old woman’s storage space was full.  When they finished, the grass lizards went back to the mountain.

 

     The next day, the old woman’s neighbor, also an old woman, said, ‘How is it that in such a short amount of time you cut so many vegetables? Who helped you?’

 

     She told her neighbor what had happened. ‘Yesterday I was really lucky.  When I went to cut vegetables, I saw a whole group of pretty, very handsome, lizard children playing.  They helped me.  You go see if they won’t help you too.’

 

     The neighbor said, ‘What?  I want to go see them.  But how can lizards be pretty?  Aren’t lizards ugly?  How could they dance well?  I’ll go see.’

 

     She found them dancing and singing.  After an explosive guffaw, she chortled, ‘Don’t dance.  You’ll make me die of laughter.  What is that you are wearing?  Clothes?  You don’t look like people.  You don’t look like anything.  What are you wearing?  It’s grass.  Ha, ha, ha!’

 

     They were mad.  They threw dust at the woman.

 

     ‘Ah, don’t hit me, just help me cut vegetables.’

 

     ‘Why should we help you cut?’

 

     They cut grass and threw it on her. 

 

     ‘Carry it home yourself,’ they said.

 

     ‘Oh, oh, oh, don’t, don’t, don’t,” she said.

 

     She ran home.  Her clothes were dirty and she didn’t even have any vegetables.

   

     The first old woman asked, ‘Why do you look like that?”

 

     Her neighbor replied, ‘Those lizards, you said they were pretty.  You said they sang well and danced well.  They didn’t.  I laughed at them.  And they didn’t help me.  In fact they bullied me.  I won’t go there again.’

 

     The first old woman said, ‘Oh.  You were wrong.  To you they might seem strange and dance oddly, but you must remember they have their own ways to express what is in their hearts, their joy.’

 

     Her neighbor said, ‘You mean they needed to be encouraged, praised?’

 

     ‘Yes, of course,’ said the first woman.”

 

     Grandmother paused and said, “That woman should have respected the ways of the grass lizards.

 

     Tarususu, tapikipiki. 真是這樣的.“

 

#

 

     In his first months in Paradise Passage, Charlie’s Rabbit often thought about the old women and the grass lizards.  He met many new animals.  Some of their behavior seemed strange to him.  But he never laughed at anyone.  He addressed each in a polite way.  They, in turn, were nice to him.  In time, Charlie’s Rabbit made many friends.  But he was soon to learn that not all animals got along with each other.

 

 

 

CHAPTER FOUR

 

 

     One morning Charlie’s Rabbit woke to the sound of Cousin Harry and Kevin nervously pacing circles around the hutch.  Farramond watched from the wall. 

 

     "They are making me dizzy,” said the snail. 

 

     "It is times like this that I am grateful for birds,” said Cousin Harry waving his arms in the air.  "Normally I don't like them.  They are such gossips.  They fly around up there and watch what goes on down below, and when something embarrassing happens, they carry the news all over the woodland and soon everyone is laughing at you."

 

     "He's speaking from experience,” said Farramond. 

 

     "Don't you dare talk about what happened to me," shouted Cousin Harry, shaking his fist.

 

     "But birds embarrass snails too." said Farramond.  “Once my brother was sliding quickly down a path near our house.  My mother had told him to get home for dinner before dark, and he knew he'd be in trouble if he were late.  My uncle was walking in the opposite direction and…”

 

     Cousin Harry glared at Farramond and in a voice that was squeaky with impatience said, "We don't have time to sit here all day and listen to slow snail talk.  Birds are gossips.  Okay.  We all know that.  We have more important things to talk about."

 

     Farramond's left eye began to twitch.

 

     Kevin patted Cousin Harry on the shoulder, turned toward Charlie's Rabbit, and said, "A bird saw it.  This morning a bear and a leopard came down from the high pass into the valley."

 

     "The thing is," said Cousin Harry as he fretfully twirled his long fur, making it fuzz up all wild and crazy, "bears and leopards eat meat.  That means me, you, and," he narrowed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, "probably not Farramond.  He is too slimy."  

 

     Farramond's right eye began to twitch.