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As Madeline took up her Easter basket and the Rabbit, Herbert, who was eating some of his candy eggs, called:

“Here come Dorothy and Dick over to show us their Easter baskets.”

“And I’m going to show Dorothy my Candy Rabbit!” cried Madeline.

Running to the window, Madeline held up the Rabbit, and he, looking out of his glass eyes, saw a sight that gladdened his heart. In Dorothy’s arms was the Sawdust Doll–the same Sawdust Doll who had lived in the store whence the Candy Rabbit had come.

As Dorothy and Dick came laughing into the room where Madeline and Herbert were, the children called to one another:

“Happy Easter! Happy Easter!”

CHAPTER III

THE BAD CAT

“What a pretty Candy Rabbit!” said Dorothy to Madeline. “Where did you get him?”

“He’s one of my Easter presents,” answered Madeline. “Herbert and I have just finished hunting for our baskets.”

“Did you find them all, and all the eggs?” inquired Dick. “Dorothy and I got up early to hunt for ours.”

“I think I found every one,” replied Herbert. “But last year, I remember, I missed one big candy egg, and I didn’t find it until a week later.”

The children showed each other their holiday presents, and the Candy Rabbit was much admired. Dorothy and Dick took him up in their hands so they might see him better.

“Goodness! I hope they don’t drop me,” thought the Rabbit. “There isn’t any rubber ball here for me to fall on, as there was in the store. I certainly hope they don’t drop me!”

But Dorothy and Dick were very careful, and, after they had looked at and admired the Rabbit, he was put down on a chair not far from Dorothy’s Sawdust Doll. The Candy Rabbit kept wishing that the children would go out of the room for a while, so he might talk to the Doll, whom he had not seen for a long time.

And, after a while, Madeline’s mother called the children to show them an Easter present which she had received. Out of the room trooped the four children, leaving the Candy Rabbit and the Sawdust Doll together, with no one to watch what they said or did.

“Now I have a chance to talk to you!” exclaimed the Sawdust Doll. “I’ve just been waiting to ask how all my friends are at the toy store. And how are you? How did you get here? Do you like living in a house with children more than in the store? Tell me all about it!”

“Goodness!” laughed the Candy Rabbit. “You talk as fast as a phonograph Doll when she has been wound up tight.”

“Well, we’ll have to talk fast if we want to tell each other anything before those children get back,” said the Sawdust Doll. “Now you tell me your adventures, and then I’ll tell you mine.”

The two toy friends talked for some time, the Candy Rabbit relating the latest news of the toy store, and the Sawdust Doll speaking of the nice home she had with Dorothy, and how kind Dick was to the White Rocking Horse.

Then the Rabbit wanted to know about the Lamb on Wheels and the Bold Tin Soldier, and, as the Sawdust Doll had heard from them lately, she told some of their adventures.

“I do wish I could see the Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick once more,” sighed the Sawdust Doll. “They were certainly the jolliest toys I ever knew.”

“Yes, they were,” agreed the Candy Rabbit. “And I don’t believe the Clown has yet found any one to answer his riddle about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate.”

“Hush! Here come the children!” exclaimed the Sawdust Doll in a low voice. Madeline and Herbert, Dorothy and Dick, having seen the present Madeline’s mother had received, had come back into the room again.

“What shall we do now?” asked Madeline.

“Let’s play with your Rabbit and my Doll,” suggested Dorothy.