何日か前に、娘が読んだ本。昔はウサギはしっぽが長くてふさふさしていたのだけど、ある雪の深い冬、ねこやなぎの木を見つけて登った。枝にはたくさんつぼみがあったので、たらふく食べたら眠くなり、そのまま春まで寝てしまった。目を覚ますと、あたりの雪はすっかり溶け、自分の寝ていた枝から地面まではとても遠い。こわごわ飛び降りたら、そのときしっぽが枝に引っかかってしまいチョキン。それからというものウサギは今のようにまん丸しっぽなのです...というお話。ねこやなぎを見たことがない娘は、今一度話がよくわからない。次の日、Sam’s Clubに買い物にいったらば、なんとこのねこやなぎを売っているではないの！ねこやなぎ自体、今までアメリカで見たことないし、だいたいSam'sがこんな植物を売るというのも聞いたことがないので、かなりびっくりしたけれど、「神様ありがとう！」と心にひとこと、さっそく買い求めて帰宅。学校から帰ってきた娘に見せたら、ポヨポヨして喜んでいました。My daughter read this book a few days ago. It's a story of a rabbit long time ago. Back then rabbits used to have a long fluffy tail. One day in winter, there was much snow on the ground. A rabbit jumped from the top of the snow onto one of the pussy willow branches. He ate lots of buds, got sleepy and fell a long sleep. When he woke up, it was spring. All the snow was gone. The ground was so far down. He finally managed to jump off the branch, but the jump was not perfect, and his tail got caught in the branches and was cut off. After that, rabbits have short round tails like they do now...... Well, my daughter has never seen pushy willow, so she just did not get it. I gave up explaining... Then next day, I went Sam's Club for shopping, and guess what! I found pussy willow!! I have never seen pussy willow in the US so far, and Sam's is one of the last places you'd think of when you go look for pussy willow.. A big surprise it was. I just exclaimed, "Thank you, Lord," and purchased it. I proudly presented it to my daughter when she came home from school. I guess I don't have to tell you how excited she was.
