"Something you did in a previous existence, perhaps," I answered. "You
see then you may have hunted other creatures so cruelly that at last
your turn came to suffer what you had made them suffer. I often think
that because of what we have done before we men are also really being
hunted by something we cannot see."

"Ah!" exclaimed the Hare, "I never thought of that. I hope it is true,
for it makes things seem juster and less wicked. But I say, friend
Mahatma, what am I doing here now, where you tell me poor creatures with
four feet never, or hardly ever come?"

"I don't know, Hare. I am not wise, to whom it is only granted to visit
the Road occasionally to search for some one."

"I understand, Mahatma, but still you must know a great deal or you
would not be allowed in such a place before your time, or at any rate
you must be able to guess a great deal. So tell me, why do you think
that I am here?"

"I can't say, Hare, I can't indeed. Perhaps after the Gates are open and
your Guardian has given you to drink of the Cup, you will go to sleep
and wake up again as something else."

"To drink of the cup, Mahatma? I don't drink; at least I didn't, though
I can't tell what may happen here. But what do you mean about waking up
as something else? Please be more plain. As what else?"

"Oh! who can know? Possibly as you are on the human Road you might even
become a man some day, though I should not advise you to build on such a
hope as that."