Haida Legend How Cougar Stayed His Color Written and Illustrated by Sylvio Lin, Grade 4 IT Ý Ý ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Once there was a cougar who lived peacefully and happily in a forest named Peaceful Forest. Every animal in Peaceful Forest was very nice, until one day a rabbit came and gave everybody trouble.
ÝÝÝÝ Rabbit came to the big, golden cougar and said, ìCougar your fur is not supposed to be golden, it should be brown, red, blue, green or yellow"
ÝÝÝ The cougar said, "Why does my fur have to be those colors?"
ÝÝÝÝ Rabbit said, "Because cougars aren't supposed to be that black, silly looking color!" said rabbit.
ÝÝÝÝ Cougar said, "Then let's change it."
ÝÝÝÝ So that morning cougar and rabbit got working on their work.
ÝÝÝÝ Rabbit asked, "What color do you want to be? "
ÝÝÝÝ Cougar said, "I want to be green."
ÝÝÝ "All right," said rabbit. They continued working.
ÝÝÝÝ Rabbit and cougar dug a gigantic hole then cougar said to rabbit, "I'm really tired."
ÝÝÝÝ So rabbit said, "Then go somewhere to rest."
ÝÝÝÝ When cougar was gone rabbit didn't know that the he was spying on him. He thought that that cougar was resting.
ÝÝÝÝ He said to himself, "I'm going to trick that cougar so he'll get trapped."
ÝÝÝÝ Cougar heard all of this and he thought of something that he would do.
ÝÝÝÝ Rabbit started putting some prickles, green feathers and water in the gigantic hole and when he was ready he went and looked for cougar. When he found cougar he said in an excited voice, "It is time for you to turn green."
ÝÝÝÝ "Yahoo!" said cougar.
ÝÝÝÝÝÝ They went to where rabbit had dug the special hole.
ÝÝÝÝ Rabbit said, "I will stand right here."
ÝÝÝÝ Cougar spotted the hole and jumped over it. He landed on his paws and said, "This is a trap."
ÝÝÝ He walked to the rabbit and roared.
ÝÝÝ Rabbit said in a loud voice, "How did you know what was going on?"
ÝÝÝ "Because I was spying on you." Replied Cougar.
ÝÝÝ "Noooo!" said rabbit.
ÝÝÝÝÝ Cougar jumped over and ate rabbit up. Cougar and the forest animals had a great feast now that the tricky rabbit was gone. This is how cougar stayed his natural color.
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