"Nanabush and the Wild Roses" is a Canadian legend.

Once upon a time, the fields and hills, meadows and prairies were covered with wild roses. There among the roses, dandelions and berries, the bees and the hummingbirds buzzed from bush to bush, sucking sweet nectar from the flowers. The bees stored it in their honeycombs.

The bears and other animals ate the honey heartily, filling their stomachs, growing large and strong. But time passed, and the animals grew accustomed to all the gifts the Earth offered them. Some became greedy.

One day, a family of rabbits was hopping across a field when they came upon a big patch of rose bushes. They began to nibble the flowers, which tasted so good that they called all their friends to join them.

Soon every field where roses bloomed was crowded with rabbits. "These are delicious," they said as they nibbled.

"I was bored with grass," said one.

"But roses, they are marvelous," they all agreed.

The rabbits ate and ate, and by the end of summer, the rabbits had eaten nearly every rose. The deer soon caught on, and so did other animals, and before long not only were the flowers missing from the wild rose plants, but also their stems and leaves.

The bears were beginning to grumble; their honeycombs were not as plentiful as they used to be, and they complained to the hummingbirds.

"We can't help it," the hummingbirds hummed, "we're hungry, too. We find little nectar these days. The roses are gone!"

Now autumn came, followed by winter, and the bears bundled up and went into their dens to hibernate. "We'll have roses next spring," they said. Surely by springtime the hills would be bursting with clover and dandelions, berries and wild roses.

Springtime came, and though new roses bloomed, the rabbits were hungry again. Whenever they found roses, they ate and ate, and grew fatter and fatter.

"What is happening?" the bears grumbled, and that spring they called a meeting of all the wild creatures.

"We want to know where all of our honey has gone!" one bear began.

"Bbbbbbuttttt we don't know," the bees buzzed.

Then suddenly the bears looked at the rabbits and saw how fat their bellies looked. "It's you, isn't it? You're eating all our rose bushes!"

When the others heard this, they fell upon the rabbits and began to cuff them and pull at their ears.

Now, everyone knows about Nanabush — the trickster god of many names, son of a mortal woman and the west wind. And everyone knows the great creator, Gitchi Manitou, sent Nanabush to watch over the creatures of the Earth. Sometimes, of course, Nanabush played tricks, but always he did this in the spirit of love.

But the animals had not expected to hear the voice of Nanabush call out to them. "Stop," he thundered. "Stop hurting the rabbits and listen!"

The animals turned and said, "Nanabush, we've lost our roses. The rabbits have eaten every one."

"Not every one," Nanabush said. He led the animals to his garden, a secret, beautiful spot where every sort of flower, plant and tree bloomed. In the center grew wild roses.

"Go ahead, rabbits, eat the blossoms," Nanabush said, and the rabbits eagerly hopped toward the bushes.

"Don't let them do that!" the bears moaned, but Nanabush only smiled as the rabbits raced for the bushes, noses quivering, long ears flying.

"Roses, delicious roses," the rabbits exulted as they ran, and to the first roses and settled down to eat. But suddenly they screamed so loudly that the people in the faraway village them.

"What's this?" the rabbits cried, touching their noses where little drops of blood had suddenly appeared.

"Thorns!" Nanabush said, laughing. "I have given the roses thorns to protect them from your greed. And now, the roses will bloom in peace."

Ever since that day, wild roses have been covered with sharp, protective thorns, and rabbits' ears have grown long from being stretched. And everyone remembers Nanabush, the playful god, transformer and trickster, protector of everyone and everything on Earth.