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Standing with his forepaws on the edge of the glass bowl, Tom dipped one paw down toward the water to get a fish. His tail kept on switching to and fro, and, all at once, it switched against the Candy Rabbit and tilted the Bunny over toward the glass bowl.

“Tinkle-tinkle! Tink!” went the hard ears of the Candy Rabbit against the glass, making a noise like the ringing of a little bell.

“What’s that?” suddenly cried Madeline, turning from the table where she sat with Dorothy eating cookies.

Dorothy also turned and looked. The two little girls saw Tom up on the goldfish table.

“Oh, you bad cat, get down from there!” cried Madeline, and she looked for something to throw at Tom. “Get away from our fish!” she cried.

The cat paused a moment, and then, seeing he would be caught if he tried to get a fish, down he jumped, with a last, angry switch of his tail at the Candy Rabbit.

“That was all your fault!” hissed the cat to the Bunny in a whisper. “If you hadn’t made a noise they wouldn’t have seen me. I’ll fix you for that, Mr. Candy Rabbit!”

CHAPTER IV

UP IN THE AIR

Madeline and Dorothy were so surprised at first at seeing the bad cat in the room that they did not know what to do, except that Madeline called “Scat!” to him.

But when the cat jumped down and started to run out of the room, the little girls began to talk very fast.

“Oh, wasn’t he a bold thing!” cried Madeline.

“Did he get any of your goldfish?” Dorothy asked.

She and Madeline hurried over to the bowl and counted the swimming fishes.

“No, there are five there, and that’s all we had,” said Madeline. “The naughty cat didn’t get any.”

“What do you suppose made that noise like the ringing of a bell?” asked Dorothy.

“It was the Candy Rabbit,” answered Madeline. “Look! He fell over against the glass bowl, and, lots of times, when I’ve been feeding the fish and have struck the bowl, it has rung like a bell. The Candy Rabbit did that, and that’s what made me look around.”

“Wouldn’t it have been funny if the Rabbit had made the bowl tinkle all by himself?” asked Dorothy, with a laugh.

“Yes. But he couldn’t,” said Madeline.

And, now I come to think of it, maybe the Candy Rabbit did topple over by himself, to strike against the bowl and so cause Dorothy and Madeline to turn around in time to stop the bad cat from getting the goldfish. Mind you, I am not saying for sure that this happened. The cat’s tail certainly brushed against the Candy Rabbit, but the sweet chap may have tinkled against the glass globe himself. He surely wanted to save the fish from being eaten.

During the rest of Easter Sunday the children played quietly with their toys. Mirabell and Arnold, the other little boy and girl, came over to Madeline’s house with their gifts and every one had a happy time.

The Candy Rabbit was looked at over and over again, but, though he liked this and was glad and happy he had come to live with Madeline, yet he could not help worrying about what the cat had said.

“I wonder if a cat can do anything to me,” thought the sweet chap, over and over again. “I must be on the watch. He may try to sneak in again.”

But, as the days passed and nothing happened, the Candy Rabbit did not worry so much, nor think so much about it. He saw nothing more of the cat.

Madeline took very good care of her Candy Rabbit. She got a piece of pink ribbon and tied it around her Easter toy’s neck, making him look very pretty.

“Now I am as stylish as Dorothy’s Sawdust Doll, who has a blue ribbon on her hair,” thought the Candy Rabbit.

And because of that very same pink ribbon something dreadful happened a few days later. I will tell you about it. After Easter the weather gradually became warmer and sunnier. Doors and windows could be left open, and the flowers in the yard began to blossom.