After a mastery of the structure of the story through analysis, after a mastery of the thought, imagination, and feeling of the story, after a mastery of the form, and the exact words of the author in the description of details embodied in that form, the story is possessed as the teller’s own, ready to be given, not only to bestow pleasure, as in this case, but often to transmit a message of worth and to preserve a classic form.

The Foolish Timid Rabbit, a Jataka tale, might be prepared for telling by this same re-creative method of story-telling.  It must be remembered—­and because of its importance it will bear repetition,—­that the separation of the story-structure into parts for separate telling should always be in harmony with the divisions of the plot so that there may be no departure from the author’s original mode of thinking, and no break in the natural movement of sequence.  A separation of the tale into parts for re-telling would result in the following analysis:—­

(1) Rabbit asleep under a palm tree ... to his meeting
hundreds of Rabbits.

(2) Rabbits met a Deer ... to when the Elephant joined them.

(3) Lion saw the animals running ... to when he came to
the Rabbit who first had said the earth was all breaking up.

(4) Lion asked the Foolish Rabbit, ’Is it true the earth is
all breaking up,’ ... to end of the story, ’And they all
stopped running.’

After the re-telling of these parts, each part should be filled in with the exact details so that in the final re-telling practically the whole tale is reproduced.  This is a very good tale to tell by this method because the theme is attractive, the plot is simple, the sequence a very evident movement, the characters distinctive, the setting pleasing and rather prominent, and the details sufficiently few and separate to be grasped completely.  The final re-telling therefore may be accomplished readily as a perfected result of this method of telling a tale.

During the telling, the charm here is in preserving the typical bits of dialogue, giving to the Lion’s words that force and strength and sagacity which rank him the King of the Beasts.  One must feel clearly the message and make this message enter into every part of the telling:  That the Lion showed his superior wisdom by making a stand and asking for facts, by accepting only what he tested; while the Rabbit showed his credulity by foolishly accepting what he heard without testing it.

Adaptation of the fairy tale.  Sometimes, in telling a story one cannot tell it exactly as it is.  This may be the case when the story is too long for a purpose, or if it contains matter which had better be omitted, or if it needs to be amplified.  In any case one must follow these general rules:—­

     (1) Preserve the essential story from a single point of view.

     (2) Preserve a clear sequence with a distinct climax.