Dling, the Arctic Hare, drifted on his iceberg for days and days. It was always light.He was happy tucked alone into his icy alcove, watching the world drift past, but thought too much about what happiness really was and that made him less happy than when he had started thinking about it. The iceberg became caught on the rocky bottom and so Dling got off. The beach was long and rocky. Pieces of ice lined the sand. He sat in the sun, thinking, and the whole issue of happiness came up again, and so he ran up the steep sandy slopes to get his head to shut up. He scurried up through the  Arctic Willow and Bearberry. He climbed and ran around the boulders and darted through a long line of oil barrels that went and found himself face to face with a wobbly looking old woman. “Hello, little bunny.” Dling shrunk himself down.

“You’re a funny bunny. A funny bunny! Don’t be scared, funny bunny. I’m your friend.. My name’s Maggie. What’s yours?”

“What you got there?” A scratchy squeaky voice asked behind her.

“It’s a bunny! A funny bunny.”

“Get him in here.”

“He’s scared.” She turned back to Dling. “Aren’t you?”

“It’s okay, funny bunny. You can come join us when you like. You can have some nice warm willow soup.”

Dling didn’t move. He didn’t even like willow soup. Maggie’s big face vanished. But Dling could still hear her whisper. “He’s scared.”

“Of course he’s scared, Margaret. He’s a rabbit. He knows we’re going to eat him.”

“Shh. You have to be quiet, Abraham.”

“I am being quiet.”

Dling backed straight slowly away and then realized he was trapped. The oil barrels were everywhere.