Legacy

Nibble’s was a little bunny rabbit who lived with his mother and lots of other rabbits on Farmer Brown’s farm.  They were wild rabbits and roamed freely.  Farmer Brown enjoyed watching the rabbits, so out the kindness of his heart he   planted them a garden full of carrots, lettuce, clover and other good things rabbits liked.

Farmer Brown also planted a garden for himself and placed a small, fine mesh fence around it so the rabbits would know the difference between his garden and their garden. The only difference between the gardens was the rabbits had clover and Farmer Brown’s had none.  Farmer Brown’s garden had flowers and the rabbits had none because rabbits didn’t eat flowers and Farmer Brown didn’t eat clover.  This was a good arrangement and Farmer Brown and the rabbits were all happy.   They respected each other’s things.

Well, Nibble’s  had noticed the flowers for some time and asked his mother why they didn’t have flowers also.  She told him it was because rabbits didn’t eat flowers.  Nibble’s said, “So what!  We should have some anyway.” Talk about an ungrateful attitude, Nibbles sure had one.

Nibble’s was hopping around close to the fence when a bright yellow little sneaky snake slithered through a hole in the fence.  He slithered right up to Nibbles and said, “I see you noticed those flowers. Why don’t you have any?  It doesn’t seem right to me.”  Nibbles agreed, “It sure isn’t fair.  I wish I could do something about it.”

That sneaky little snake said, “There is something you can do about it.   Just crawl through the hole I came through and chew those flowers down. Then Farmer Brown won’t have any either and that would be fair.”

Nibble’s said, “That’s a good idea.  I’ll just fix that old Farmer Brown.” So he crawled through the hole and chewed all the flowers down, just to be mean–he didn’t eat them.

Farmer Brown came out, looked at his garden, and was heart-broken.  He knew rabbits didn’t eat flowers and that it was an act of meanness.  Farmer Brown grabbed little Nibble’s, threw him in a cage, and hauled him many, many miles away.  Then he released little Nibbles, and now little Nibble,s would have to grow up without his mother’s help. He would have to find whatever he could to eat, and watch out for things that wanted to eat him, or go bump in the night.  Brrrr!   It sends a chill up my spine just to think about the fate of naughty little Nibble’s.

Farmer Brown went back home and killed the evil snake. Of course, Nibbles poor innocent mother was heart-broken and this made Farmer Brown sad.  He loved the mother rabbit.

So Farmer Brown relented and sent Osgood the Wise Owl after Norton to show him the way back home to the safety of the garden.  It was a hard long trip, during which Nibbles had much time to think about his mistake. When Nibbles arrived there was much joy among the rabbits and Farmer Brown, for Nibbles had come home.