Wessex Tales: "The Infant and the Hare" (Story 1)

“The Infant and the Hare” is the first, earliest story in Fripp’s new collection, “Wessex Tales: eight thousand years in the life of an English village.” Stone Age hunters make camp on Okeford Hill. As dawn breaks the men go hunting while a woman gives birth. And the end? In an age when human beliefs were much different than ours, the end is mystical.In her youth Brenda found the family home at the foot of the Adelaide Hills stiflingly quiet. She fled to the coast and city life. Now, much older, she relishes the quiet life and shares the rambling family home with her elderly mother. Both women are widows and their constant companion is a little West Highland terrier dog called Diddum. While Brenda’s mother is away for a few days, Brenda spends a quiet day at home. During the course of the day, both at home and out walking the dog, Brenda experiences a range of distinct weather conditions: a crisp early morning frost; clear blue skies and warm sunshine; swirling windswept autumn leaves; flowers in bloom and a brewing storm at the end of the day. She remembers various poignant moments from her life, from the summers of childhood through to the loss of her husband to cancer during a long, cold winter.