'You have saved us and our people

[uggbootsbx]

"You have saved us and our people! And we shall pay for your kindness with kindness. Wait for us. We'll come to visit you and bring you living water. You'll wash in it and will become immortal too." The Tofalar jumped back across the bog and went back to his valley and told his people about the little men. And the Tofalars began to wait for their guests, the immortal little men. They waited one day, two days, three days, many, many days. But the guests did not come, and the Tofalars forgot about them and their promise. Winter came. Everything around was frozen. And the bog was covered with a coat of ice. One day the village women went to the woods to gather firewood. Suddenly they saw a little herd of rabbits galloping their way. They looked again, and saw that every rabbit was saddled, and in every saddle sat a tiny man with a little pitcher in his hands. The women burst out laughing at the sight. "Look, look!" they cried to one another. "They are riding on rabbits!" "And look at the little men, how funny!" "Oh, what a joke!" "Oh, I'll die laughing!" Now, the immortal people were a proud race. They took offense at this reception. The one in front, with white hair and a long beard, shouted something to the others, and all of them spilled out the contents of their pitchers onto the ground. Then the rabbits turned and hopped away so fast that you could only see their white tails flicker. And so the Tofalars never got the living water. It went instead to the pine, the cedar, and the fir. And this is why they are fresh and green all through the year. Their needles never die.

[LaLou]