have had 'em before, and the
stroke afterwards--against the leg of the table. Anyway they finished me
between them, thanks to that little beast."

Then it was that I saw a very strange thing, a hare in a rage. It seemed
to go mad, of course I mean spiritually mad. Its eyes flashed fire; it
opened its mouth and shut it after the fashion of a suffocating fish. At
last it spoke in its own way--I cannot stop to explain in further detail
the exact manner of speech or rather of its equivalent upon the Road.

"Man, Man," it exclaimed, "you say that I finished you. But what did you
do to me? You shot me. Look at the marks upon my back. You coursed me
with your running dogs. You hunted me with your hounds. You dragged me
out of the sea into which I swam to escape you by death, and threw me
living to the pack," and the Hare stopped exhausted by its own fury.

"Well," replied the Man coolly, "and suppose I, or my people, did, what
of it? Why shouldn't I? You were a beast, I was a man with dominion over
you. You can read all about that in the Book of Genesis."

"I never heard of the Book of Genesis," said the Hare, "but what does
dominion mean? Does this Book of Genesis say that it means the right to
torment that which is weaker than the tormentor?"

"All you animals were made for us to eat," commented the Man, avoiding
an answer to the direct question.

"Very good," answered the Hare, "let us suppose that we _were_ given
you to eat. Was it in order to eat me that you came out against me with
guns, then with dogs that run by sight, and then with dogs that run by
smell?"

"If you were to be killed and eaten, why should you not be killed in one
of these ways, Hare?"

"Why should I be killed in those ways, Man, when others more merciful
were to your hand? Indeed, why should I be killed at all? Moreover, if
you wished to satisfy your hunger with my body, why at the last was I
thrown to the dogs to devour?"

"I don't quite know, Hare. Never looked at the matter in that light
before. But--ah! I've got you now," he added triumphantly. "If it hadn't
been for me you never would have lived. You see _I_ gave you the gift of
life. Therefore, instead of grumbling, you should be very much obliged
to me. Don't you understand? I preserved hares, so that without me you
would never have been a hare. Isn't that right, Mr.-- Mr.--I am sorry I
have forgotten your name," he added, turning towards me.

"Mahatma," I said.

"Oh! yes, I remembe