                  THE HARE AND THE ELEPHANT 

   Once upon a time . . . in the Indian jungle, lived a young elephant whose 
playmate was a very large hare. In spite of the difference in size, they were 
great friends and had fun playing strange guessing games. One day, the hare 
said to his chum:
   "Which of us is bigger: you or me?" At that silly question, the little 
elephant nearly choked on his banana.
   "You must be joking!" he exclaimed. "Why, even on tiptoe, you re not as 
high as my knee!" But the hare went on:
   "That's what you think! Since I say that I'm bigger than you, we need a 
judge. Don't you agree?"
   "Oh, yes," said the elephant in surprise.
   "Well, let's go along to the village and see what the Humans have to say. 
They're the cleverest of all the animals, and the best judges!" As they 
reached the village, they met some of the villagers.
   "Look at that young elephant! Isn't he small?" folk remarked as the unusual
couple strolled by.
   "Yes, he is indeed! But he'll soon grow up," said others. Then somebody 
noticed the hare. 
   "What a huge hare!" they all cried. Now, the hare tried to keep in front of
 elephant and puffed out his chest. As he passed, all the villagers exclaimed:
   "Look at his paws! And those ears! That's the biggest hare we've ever 
seen!" When he heard this, the hare turned to his friend, saying, 
   "We can go home now! That's settled! I'm huge and you're tiny!" The 
elephant tossed his heavy head. At a loss for words, he knew the hare had won 
by low cunning. But back on the jungle path, he lifted his foot and said to 
the hare, walking ahead, "Get out of my way before a tiny elephant crushes a 
big hare like you!"
