Gossiping about the wrongdoings of others is in itself wrong.
When we slander another excessively,
we too will suffer harm and great misfortune.
It had been snowing for weeks, and snow families appeared all over the countryside. Mr. and Mrs. SnowJones were very lucky for they had two sons, Harry and Elmer. Like their father, they wore blue and yellow knit hats, and had carrot noses. Their mother, like her mother, wore a scarf and had a potato nose.
Harry and Elmer loved following their father as he walked up and down the hills. He praised his sons for joining him in greeting the neighbors. Because their father praised them for their politeness, Harry and Elmer tried even harder to keep up with him so that he’d be even prouder of them.
One day, before the SnowJones were awake, Harry felt something pulling on his nose. He opened his eyes and found himself staring into another pair of eyes. Big pink ones! Then he saw a pair of gigantic floppy ears and a nose as pink as the eyes. It was a rabbit! And while looking at the rabbit’s nose, he realized with horror that the rabbit had its teeth sunk into his carrot nose and was tugging on it!
Harry cried out. He grabbed his nose and pulled as hard as he could, but the rabbit was too strong. Before his family could come to Harry’s aid, the rabbit pulled the carrot out of Harry’s hands and bounded away with it. With one leap, the rabbit cleared the fence in the SnowJones’ yard and was gone.
And so was Harry’s nose.
Harry ran over to the fence and began pounding on it, yelling for the rabbit to return his nose. Realizing his nose was probably gone forever, he sat down and began to cry.
His parents tried to console him, saying they’d get him a new nose, but Harry knew that carrots were hard to find since they had all been used up by the snow people.
Snow families from around the neighborhood came running to see what the commotion was. By now, Harry had stopped crying and was getting angry. “He was a mean old rabbit!”
The neighbors agreed in sympathy.
“He was fat and ugly!” Harry continued.
A neighbor agreed, “He sure was one fat rabbit.”
“It’s amazing he could even jump the fence,” added another.
“He’s a thief!” Harry was really getting angry now.
“Can you imagine stealing a kid’s nose?” piped someone from the back of the crowd. “I never did like those dumb rabbits,” mumbled a snow woman near him.
“He should be caught and fined. We should take away all his carrots and see how he likes it!” Harry blurted out.
Feeling that things were getting a little out of hand, Mr. SnowJones motioned for everyone to calm down. He turned to Harry. “Now son, we know how badly you feel. But the rabbit taking your nose is no reason for you to say untrue things.”
Mrs. SnowJones added, “We don’t know all the facts. Maybe he’s hungry. Maybe his brothers and sisters, or his elderly parents are. We don’t know why he did it. But whatever the reason, we shouldn’t make up things.”
Then a hush fell over the crowd. An enormous carrot appeared at the top of the fence. It was held by a rope. And at the other end of the rope was a rabbit! He slowly lowered the carrot to the ground then jumped down next to it. He dragged the carrot over to the SnowJones, looked up at Harry’s parents, and swallowed hard.
“I heard what you said. I didn’t take the carrot for my brothers or sisters. I don’t have any. I don’t have any parents either. I never had anyone teach me what was wrong. But what you told Harry sounded like good advice. I ate his carrot while listening to you, so it’s gone. But here’s another one. It’s much bigger, so maybe you can cut it down for Harry to use.”
Then the rabbit turned to Harry. “I’m sorry I took your nose.”
“I’m sorry I made up stories about you,” replied Harry. “And I’m sorry you don’t have a family. Maybe you can live with us.” Harry turned to his parents.
“Mom? Dad?” His parents smiled in agreement.
And for the rest of the winter, the rabbit happily had a family.
Kind, truthful words build friendships;
lies destroy them.
September 21, 2009