一只不想做国王的兔子（上）

Nothing stirred on the African plains. The sun glared down and Hare crept inside the cool hollow of a baobab tree for his afternoon nap.

 

Suddenly he was wide awake. There was a boom, boom, booming in his ears. And it was getting closer. Hare peeped out from the tree nervously¹. Across the clearing the bushes snapped and parted, and out loomed² a huge gray shape.

 

"Oh it's you!" said Hare irritably³. "How can a fellow sleep with all your racket?"

 

The rhinoceros⁵（犀牛） squinted⁶ down at him short-sightedly.

 

"Greetings!" he bellowed⁷ in his slow way. "Tembo the elephant has sent me to fetch you to the waterhole. He's going to tell us who our new king will be. All the animals have voted."

 

"Oh fiddlesticks（胡说）!" cried Hare rudely. "What do I want with a new king? He'll bully⁸ us from morning till night and make our lives miserable⁹."

 

"Don't you want to see who's been chosen? asked Rhino⁴.

 

"I know already," snapped Hare. "It will be that sly（狡猾的） old lion, Kali. He has bribed¹⁰ all the other animals and promised not to eat their children if only they will vote for him."

 

Rhino didn't seem to believe Hare, and in the end Hare said,

 

"Oh very well, I'll come. But you'll see I'm right."

 

The sun was setting as Hare and Rhino reached the water-hole. All the animals had gathered there - giraffes, hippos, antelope¹¹, buffalo¹², warthogs, zebras, aardvarks, hyenas¹³, mongooses, storks¹⁴ and weaver¹⁵ birds. When Tembo the elephant saw that everyone was there, he threw up his trunk and trumpeted¹⁶. "Animals of the plains, I am proud to tell you that Kali the lion will be our new king. It is a wise choice, my friends."

 

The animals cheered. But Hare only sighed. "They'll soon see what a horrible mistake they've made."

 

Out on a rocky ledge¹⁷ above the water-hole strode Kali. He stared down at all his subjects and there was a wicked glint in his eye.

 

"You've made me your king," he growled¹⁸, "and so now you'll serve me!" And then he roared until the animals trembled.

 

"My first decree is that you must build a palace to shade my royal fur from the hot sun," said Kali. "I want it here beside the water-hole and I want it by sunset tomorrow.

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