Ìdámẹwàá May meji ẹgbẹrun o le mẹtadilogun

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I was thinking about a story my grandfather used to tell me. Or was it my grandmother? I still refuse to call them Green Sleeve and White Feather, for my name is not Nanuk. I am not an Eskimo boy. Or am I?

This is the story of the hare who lost his spectacles.

A hare with spectacles, I hear you ask. Do hares need to wear spectacles at all? Don't they eat carrots all day long with lots of beta carotene in them? And doesn't that give them a most excellent eye-sight? Well, I am not an expert in these fields.

So, this is the story of the hare who lost his spectacles.

Owl loved to rest quietly whilst no one was watching.

Sitting on a fence one day, he was surprised when suddenly a kangaroo ran close by.

Now this may not seem strange, but when Owl overheard Kangaroo whisper to no one in particular,

"The hare has lost his spectacles," well, he began to wonder.

Presently, the moon appeared from behind a cloud and there, lying on the grass was Hare.

In the stream that flowed by the grass a newt.

And sitting astride a twig of a bush a bee.

Ostensibly motionless, the hare was trembling with excitement, for without his spectacles he was completely helpless.

Where were his spectacles?

Could someone have stolen them?

Had he mislaid them?

What was he to do?

Bee wanted to help, and thinking he had the answer began: "You probably ate them thinking they were a carrot."

"No!" interrupted Owl, who was wise.

"I have good eye-sight, insight, and foresight. How could an intelligent hare make such a silly mistake?"

But all this time, Owl had been sitting on the fence, scowling!

Kangaroo were hopping mad at this sort of talk.

She thought herself far superior in intelligence to the others.

She was their leader, their guru.

She had the answer: "Hare, you must go in search of the optician."

But then she realized that Hare was completely helpless without his spectacles.

And so, Kangaroo loudly proclaimed, "I can't send Hare in search of anything!"

"You can guru, you can!" shouted Newt. "You can send him with Owl."

But Owl had gone to sleep.

Newt knew too much to be stopped by so small a problem, "You can take him in your pouch."

But alas, Hare was much too big to fit into Kangaroo's pouch.

All this time, it had been quite plain to Hare that the others knew nothing about spectacles.

As for all their tempting ideas, well Hare didn't care.

The lost spectacles were his own affair.

And after all, Hare did have a spare a-pair. A-pair.

Strange creatures they are, aren't they?

Curious creatures and where to find them.

But isn't Man the most curious creature of them all?

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