PAGE 11
The Story Of A Candy Rabbit
by
“It is no stranger to see a Cat full of burnt matches than it is to see a Candy Rabbit with pink glass eyes,” was the answer.
“I suppose not,” agreed the Candy Bunny.
Then the Rabbit and the Cat became good friends and told each other stories there in the dark closet.
“My! you certainly have had some adventures,” mewed the Cat, when she had heard about the Bunny’s trip on the tail of a kite.
“Did nothing exciting ever happen to you?” the Rabbit wanted to know.
“Yes, once,” replied the Cat. “I am hollow, as you see, and I am generally filled with burnt wooden matches.
“Well, one day, somebody put a blazing match in me by mistake, and, in an instant, all the partly burnt matches were on fire. There I was, all burning up inside.”
“Oh, that must have been dreadful!” cried the Candy Rabbit.
“It was, until Madeline’s mother threw a glass of water over me and put out the fire,” said the Cat. “Then I was all right, except for being blackened and smoked. Of course it doesn’t show in the dark, but it’s there all the same.”
The Candy Rabbit stayed in the closet with the Porcelain Cat all night, and the two were company for one another. The next day Madeline took her Easter toy for a ride in the doll carriage, and Dorothy had her Sawdust pet with her. The little girls talked about the party.
“Wouldn’t it have been dreadful if Tom had eaten your Rabbit?” asked Dorothy.
“Terribly dreadful!” said Madeline. “I am glad it didn’t happen.”
“And I’m glad, too,” thought the Candy Rabbit. “I hope my adventures are over now.”
But they were not, though I have no room to tell you any more. I will just mention a few. Once Herbert and Dick took the Candy Rabbit and gave him a ride in Herbert’s toy train of cars. But the engine went so fast that the train ran off the track. The Candy Rabbit was thrown off, and a little piece of sugar was chipped off one of his paws. But that did not hurt very much.
And, another time, the Candy Rabbit was almost run over by Dick, who was gliding around on roller skates. Only that Patrick, the gardener, caught the Bunny out of the way just in time, the sweet chap would have been crushed.
One day Herbert called to Madeline and said:
“Daddy is going to bring me a present from the store to-day.”
“Is he? What kind?” asked Madeline. “Is it going to be a Jumping Jack?”
“That, or something just as funny,” Herbert answered. “I want something that moves and jumps. Candy Rabbits are very nice, but I want something livelier.”
“Will you let me see it when you get it?” asked his sister.
“Yes,” promised Herbert. And what fun he had with his toy will be told to you in the next book, to be called: “The Story of a Monkey on a Stick.”
As for the Candy Rabbit, I might add that he grew sweeter and sweeter each day, and he and Madeline lived happily forever after. Though one of his ears was bent, and a piece chipped off one paw, that did not matter. Madeline loved her Bunny very much.