The Beaver and the Hare

For this project we had to write a fable. A fable is a short story that uses animals as characters with the intent of teaching the reader a lesson. The reason why anthropomorphism or personified animals are used is to establish traits of the character without stating it in the story. In developing my fable, I first picked the moral of the story. I chose the beaver as one of the characters because of the patient and hard working traits and I choose a hare because of their trait of being impatient. Next I thought up my conflict, setting, mood and tone of the story. After I made the first draft, I had someone review it I used the feed back in this final draft.


The Beaver and the Hare

One foggy Monday morning a determined Beaver crawls out from his den and starts to collect
wood for his new home. The friendly, outgoing Hare walks up to the Beaver and asks, “What are
you doing?” The Beaver replied uninterested “Making the dam.” The Hare keeps trying to get the
Beaver’s attention said, “Want help?” The Beaver is ecstatic that someone wants help so the
Beaver replies, “Yes, that would be great!” So the two associates came to an agreement. They
agreed that Beaver would do the construction of the dam and the gathering of the materials.
Hare would help with moving the materials to the river, keeping anyone else from getting in the
way.

From then on the Hare did everything he could to hold up his end of the agreement. He helped
with moving twigs and branches from the forest that the beaver collected. He helped collect the
mud and rocks from the river bank. When body guarding the area he was ruthless, the Hare
chased off anyone he could see. The materials were finally collected and moved to the nearby
riverbed for the beaver to start on the construction.

As the day drags on the Hare is getting bored watching the Beaver slowly build the dam. Beaver
refused any help with construction by telling the Hare to “go back to guarding,” or “to get more
mud,” never giving the Hare a chance to help. The Hare watches the beaver gingerly place every
branch in place as if he is playing Jenga. The Hare starts to go out of his way to talk to any
passersby forgetting his duty of guarding the work site. As time drags on, Hare starts to get
weary. Hare gets up and goes to the river to splash water into his face so he won’t fall asleep.
“Hey, Beaver do you need a break?” No response. “Beaver do you need more materials?” No
response. Starting a conversation with the Beaver ends up being like talking to a brick wall.

Hare has scared away all the other animals with his threats and generally demeanor of being
rude. Now there is no one around for him to pass the time away. Although the Hare had no
other responsibilities with the construction of the dam, Hare feels he has to be there even if
he is wasting his time. The Hare becomes more and more fed up and agitated with the hours
of waiting around, he finally asks the Beaver “Can I leave?” Now the Hare was expecting the
Beaver to get mad at him for not holding up his end of the agreement. But instead the Beaver
understands that the Hare is now disinterested in the project and says, “Leave, you have no
reason to be here you have held up your end of the bargain. I appreciated the help and the
company, but I don't want to waste your time.”

So the Hare, feeling free of his responsibilities, he wishes the Beaver good luck and leaves.





Moral: Be honest with yourself and others so you don’t waste your time.