It's winter. The night shines over a fairy tale world: sugar-coated trees, crystal field, mirror-like pond. And throughout the wide surface, the lights in the sky's huge chandelier are turned on one by one, as in an immense dance room. The wild animals of the forest simply let themselves get carried away by this charm: birds fly around as if it were daylight; the wolf lies on its paws in the thicket and watches motionless; the fox stands by its lair and doesn't have the heart to go hunting; the squirrel bends down branch after branch, wandering off gaily through the whole wood. And the rabbit scampered away to play. He slowly and stealthily got out of the clearing, listening cautiously and looking all around; when he reached the edge and saw the shiny stretch of snow before him, he started to jump up and down for joy. "Maybe I'll meet another friend," said the rabbit to himself. And his thought answered: "Maybe you'll meet another friend." And the rabbit goes on hopping merrily around. "And maybe I'll meet a she-friend." And his thought replied: "Maybe you'll meet a she-friend." While hopping around, the rabbit keeps talking to his thought: "Look at all this light, and the moon is not even up yet." "…And the moon is not even up yet." "But it will be up." "…It will be up." As he was hopping near the edge of a dale, the rabbit stopped for a moment's rest. Just then, the icy-white moon came up behind him. The stars' light faded; the wood, the trees, and the bushes suddenly cast their shadows. The little rabbit grew petrified with fear: the shape of a creature with two big horns was stretching on the ground right next to him. After a moment of terror, the rabbit unwound himself like a cord and scampered away, tumbled down the valley like a snowball, got up and rolled over again, all the way down; then he ran straight across the field. He didn't stop until he reached the reed plot on the pond. There he ducked down, barely breathing, with his eyes closed… so that he wouldn't see his shadow anymore! from The World of Dumb Animals, 1910
by Emil Gârleanu (1878-1914)
