Week 13 Story: Mistress Rabbit's Wedding Day

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You can find the latest version of this story at my Portfolio:

Chain Tale Anthology

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The day of Mistress Rabbit's wedding had arrived! She was wearing a beautiful white wedding gown and running as fast as she could to get to the church.

But when she got to the bridge that led to the church, there was a camel lying in the way.

"Oh Mister Camel," said the rabbit, "please get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

The camel slowly turned his head towards her and said, "Mistress Rabbit, I am tired and thirsty from my long journey. I cannot get up and out of your way unless you bring me some water from that well over there."

"Alright," said the rabbit. "I will bring you some water from the well."

And the rabbit ran as fast as she could to the well.

"Oh Mister Well," said the rabbit, "please give me some water to take to the camel so he will get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

"Mistress Rabbit," said the well, "I am glad to give you some water, but you will need to go get a bucket from the dog in the barn."

"Alright," said the rabbit. "I will go get a bucket from the dog in the barn."

And the rabbit ran as fast as she could to the barn.

"Oh Mister Dog," said the rabbit, "please give me a bucket for water from the well that I can take to the camel so he will get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

The dog smiled at her and said, "Mistress Rabbit, I am glad to give you the bucket, but you will need to bring me some dog biscuits."

"Where are the dog biscuits?" asked the rabbit.

"Ask the little boy in the house," said the dog.

"Alright," said the rabbit. "I will go get some dog biscuits from the boy in the house."

The rabbit ran as fast as she could to the house, and when she knocked, a little boy opened the door.

"Help me please," said the rabbit. "I need some dog biscuits to give to the dog for a bucket to hold water from the well that I can take to the camel so he will get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

"Mistress Rabbit," said the boy, "I am glad to give you the dog biscuits, but you will need to bring me a milkshake."

"Where am I going to get you a milkshake?" asked the rabbit.

"From the Braum's at the top of the hill," the little boy replied.

So the rabbit ran as fast as she could up the hill and went into the Braum's.

"Help me please," said the rabbit. "I need a milkshake to give to the boy to get dog biscuits for the dog who will give me a bucket for water from the well that I can take to the camel so he will get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

The waitress looked at her and said, "Mistress Rabbit, I am glad to give you a milkshake, but you will have to bring me some milk."

"But this is a Braum's!" shouted the rabbit. "What do you mean I have to bring you some milk?"

The waitress shrugged and said, "We're out. But you can go get some milk from that cow over there," and she pointed through the window at a cow.

So the rabbit ran out of the Braum's and yelled to the cow, "Oh Mistress Cow, please give me some milk for a milkshake to give to the boy who will give me dog biscuits for the dog who will give me a bucket for water from the well that I can take to the camel so he will get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

The cow smiled and said, "I will give you the milk if you will just fetch me some clover from the bottom of the hill."

So the rabbit took a deep breath and ran back down the hill to a field full of clover.

"Oh Clover," she said, "I need to take you to the cow so she will give me some milk to use for a milkshake to give to the boy who will give me some dog biscuits to give to the dog who will give me a bucket for water from the well that I can take to the camel so he will get out of the way and let me cross over the bridge. I am going to the church to get married!"

"Of course!" said the clover. "You can take as much as you like."

So Mistress Rabbit gathered up all the clover she could carry
and ran back up the hill to the cow,
who gave her some milk,
which she took to the waitress,
who gave her a milkshake,
which she took to the boy,
who gave her some dog biscuits,
which she took to the dog,
who gave her a bucket,
which she took to the well,
who gave her some water,
which she took to the camel,
who drank and and drank and drank until the water was all gone.

"Thank you, Mistress Rabbit," he said. "I am ready to continue my journey." He then slowly got to his feet and ambled away.

Now the rabbit took off running over the bridge as fast as she could (she was wearing her wedding dress, remember?), shouting as she ran, "Don't start without me! I'm coming! I'm coming!" ... and she got to the church just in time!

Author's Note.

I wrote this story with my own characters based on the most classic of all chain tales, ATU 2030. The Old Woman and her Pig. That story shows up in the English Fairy Tales unit for this week, but it is a story that you can find all over the world. Just in the UnTextbook for this class, you will find several different examples of this type: The Old Woman and Her Pig from England (that's the one in the English Fairy Tales unit), Munachar and Manachar from Ireland (that's in the Celtic Fairy Tales unit for this week), plus The Liver from Turkey and  Judgment of Baboon from South Africa that you might have read in the Middle East and Africa weeks earlier this semester.

Even though the "type" is the same, these stories are often very different from each other. Sometimes, the chain is based on threats, like in The Old Woman and Her Pig, where the pig won't go, so the woman tells the dog to bite the pig; the dog won't bite the pig, so she tells the stick to beat the dog, and so on. In my story, I had a series of exchanges instead, which is the same kind of pattern you see in The Liver, where a stork steals a piece of liver and demands barley from the farmer; in exchange for the barley, the farmer demands rain, and so on.

I had fun including Braum's in this story. If I were writing the story for a general audience, I might have made it a Dairy Queen, but hey, for an OU class, of course I had to make it be Braum's!

Bibliography.

A classic form of this type of chain tale is "The Old Woman and Her Pig" as found in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs.

Image Information.

Rabbit toy from AliExpress.
PublicDomainPictures camel.
Braum's sign from MeSoHungry.
PublicDomainPictures clover.
Rabbits from Sylvanian Families.