IN DESPERATION over the hard times they had on account of their many
enemies, the Hares came together and, after rehearsing their situation,
came to the sad conclusion that nothing was left to them but to drown
themselves as the most miserable and unfortunate of creatures. They
repaired to a pond to throw themselves off a rock into the water and
thus make an end of their troubles. A shoal of frogs were sitting
around the edge of the pond, and at the approach of the Hares they
were startled, and with the greatest confusion jumped into the water.
Whereupon the foremost of the Hares said to his fellows: “Nay, then,
friends, our case may not be as desperate as we thought. Here are other
creatures more faint-hearted than are we.”