"It Was Not My Fault," Said Candy Rabbit.
"It Was Not My Fault," Said Candy Rabbit.Page43
"Not now!" was the snarling answer. "I came to pay you back, as I said Iwould! Only for your toppling over and making the glass globe tinkle, I would have had a goldfish before this. It's all your fault, and I'm going to pay you back!"
"It was not my fault!" said the Rabbit. "You knocked me over yourself with your switching tail. But if I could have stopped you in any other way from getting a goldfish, I would have done it."
"Ha! So that's the way you feel about it, is it?" growled the cat. "Well, I'm going to fix you!"
"How?" asked the Candy Rabbit, wondering what was going to happen. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to carry you off to the fields and lose you in the tall grass," was the answer. "Then the next time I want to catch a goldfish you will not give the alarm."
"Oh, please don't take me away!" begged the Candy Rabbit.
"Yes, I will!" said the cat. "I'll carry you away by that pink ribbon around your neck."
All of a sudden, before the Candy Rabbit could hop out of the way, the bad cat sprang across the room and caught in his teeth the end of the pink ribbon that was around the neck of the Candy Easter toy.
"Stop it! Stop! Please let me go!" cried the Candy Rabbit.
"I'll fix you!" was all the cat answered. Then, carrying the Candy Rabbit in his mouth by means of the ribbon, the bad cat sprang out of the window again and was soon trotting through the tall grass of the lots near the house where Madeline lived.
The grass swished and swashed against the legs and ears of the Candy Rabbit as the cat carried him along. The Rabbitwas not hurt any, because the ribbon was not tied very tightly about his neck. And of course the cat's teeth did not touch him. But, for all that, the Candy Rabbit was very angry and somewhat alarmed.
"What are you going to do with me?" he asked the cat.
"You'll see!" was the answer. "I'm going to fix you for spoiling my chance of getting a goldfish dinner! I'm going to lose you, and then I'll go back and get a fish."
Carrying the Candy Rabbit a little way farther into the tall grass, the cat suddenly let go of the ribbon. The Rabbit fell down, but as the grass was soft, like a cushion, he was not hurt. He gave a little grunt as he fell down.
"Now you stay here a while and see how you like it," said the bad cat, and away he trotted, hoping to get a meal ofgoldfish this time. And there came to the poor Candy Rabbit from the distance the sound of the Cat's voice as he laughed, "Ha-ha," and snarled, "I've fixedyouall right! Ha-ha!"
"Dear me!" thought the poor Candy Rabbit, "I wonder what will happen to me. I must try to get out of here. I can hop, as long as no human eyes see me. Maybe I can get back in time to warn the goldfish of their danger."
The Rabbit tried to hop, but, being made of candy as he was, with rather stiff legs that were not very long, he could not go very fast. And when he had made a few hops he was very tired.
"Dear me! I shall have to stay here forever, perhaps," he sighed. "And, if it rains and I get wet, I'll melt and there will be nothing left of me! Oh, what trouble I am in!"
The Candy Rabbit crouched down in the grass, and pretty soon he heard some voices talking. He knew they were the voices of boys, and, in a little while, he heard one say:
"Now, Herbert, you hold the kite and I'll run with it."
"All right, Dick," said some one else. "I hope it flies away up high in the air."
"I'll keep the tail clear of the weeds," said another boy.
"That's the way, Dick," said the first boy.
The Candy Rabbit, down in the grass, heard this.
"They must be Dick, Herbert and Arnold," he thought. "They have come here to fly their kite. I hope they find me and take me home in time to save the goldfish from the cat."
There was more talk and laughteramong the boys, but the Candy Rabbit could not see what they were doing. All at once, though, one boy said.
"The tail of the kite is not heavy enough. We've got to tie something to it. And, oh, here is the very thing!" he went on. "We'll give him a ride up in the air!"
"Give who a ride?" asked Dick, for it was Herbert who had spoken.
"Give Madeline's Candy Rabbit a ride on the end of the kite tail," went on Herbert. "Here's her Rabbit down in the grass."
"How did he get here?" asked Arnold.
"I don't know. Maybe my sister carried him over the fields to show to some girl and dropped him. But we'll give the Candy Rabbit a ride in the air. He will be just heavy enough for the kite tail. I'll tie him on."
And then, before the Candy Rabbitcould hop away, even if he had been allowed to do so (which he was not) Herbert began tying him on the end of the kite tail by means of the pink ribbon.
A moment later the Rabbit felt himself sailing through the air.
Since the Candy Rabbit had left the toy store, after having been put on the Easter novelty counter, so many things had happened that he was beginning to get used to them. But sailing through the air on the tail of a kite was something he had never done before.
Up he went, higher and higher, as the wind blew the kite. The Candy Rabbit looked down toward the ground. It seemed a long way off—very far from him.
"If I should fall now, as I fell when the lady dropped me in the toy store,"thought the Candy Rabbit, "I think it would be the end of me. There is no soft rubber ball here on which to land."
Dick, Arnold and Herbert, the three boys who had been flying their kite when they found the Candy Rabbit in the grass, were laughing and shouting as they saw the tail switching to and fro, with the Easter Bunny tied on the end.
"That Rabbit was just the thing needed to make our kite go up," said Dick.
"Yes," agreed Arnold. "But it's funny the Rabbit was out in the grass here, wasn't it?"
"Oh, I guess my sister must have dropped him," remarked Herbert. "When we get through flying the kite I'll take the Rabbit off the tail and carry him back to Madeline."
Up and up, and to and fro, switched the Candy Rabbit on the kite tail. Ofcourse a bunch of grass, a wad of paper, or even a stone would have been just as well for the boys to have used as a weight. But they had happened to see the Candy Rabbit, and had taken him. Boys are sometimes like that, you know.
How long Herbert, Dick and Arnold might have let the Candy Rabbit sail about on the end of the kite tail I cannot say, but when the three chums had been having this fun for about half an hour, all of a sudden Madeline and her two friends, Mirabell and Dorothy, came running across the field.
"Oh, Herbert! what do you think?" cried Madeline, when she saw her brother. "That bad old cat came into our house again, and tried to catch one of our goldfish!"
"Did he get any?" asked Herbert.
"No, but he almost did. Dorothy cameover with her Sawdust Doll just as the cat was dipping his paw down into the bowl, and what do you think Dorothy did?" asked Madeline.
"I don't know. What did she do?" asked Herbert.
"I just threw my Sawdust Doll at the cat!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I knew it couldn't hurt her, 'cause she's stuffed with sawdust."
"Did you hit him?" Dick asked.
"I almost did," answered Dorothy. "Anyhow, I scared him away, and he didn't get any goldfish."
"That's good," said Arnold.
"I wish I'd been there!" said Dick.
Just then Madeline looked up and saw something dangling on the end of the kite tail.
"Why, Herbert!" she cried, "what have you there? Oh, you have my Candy Rabbit on your kite! I was looking all over for him. Where'd you get him?"
"I found him here in the field where you dropped him," answered her brother.
"I didn't drop my Candy Rabbit here," went on Madeline. "I wouldn't do such a thing. I left him in the house, and then I couldn't find him, and I was coming to ask if you had seen him. I thought maybe Carlo had carried him off as he carried Dorothy's doll once."
"Well, if you didn't take your Candy Rabbit out and leave him here in the field, maybe Carlo did," said Herbert. "Anyhow, we didn't hurt him and you can have him back again. We can tie a bunch of weeds on the kite tail. They'll be just as good as the Rabbit."
"Oh, the idea of saying my Candy Rabbit is like a bunch of weeds!" cried Madeline. "Give him right back to me thisminute, Herbert!" and she shook her finger at her brother.
"All right," Herbert answered. "Pull the kite down, fellows."
"All right."
Down came the kite when the string was wound up, and slowly the Candy Rabbit floated back to earth. Madeline stood under the tail with her dress held out to catch the Bunny in it. And down he came, not being hurt a bit. Quickly Madeline loosened her Easter toy from the kite tail, and she nestled him in her arms.
"You poor little Bunny!" she murmured. "I guess he was scared half to death away up there in the air."
She and the other girls looked at the toy. He did not seem to be harmed in the least.
"But he's got a green grass stain on one ear," said Mirabell.
"That only makes him look more stylish," said Dorothy.
"And green goes well with the pink color of his ribbon," added Madeline. "Oh, I'm so glad to get my Rabbit back."
Madeline took her Candy Rabbit back to the house. There she and the girls had some fun, and the boys kept on flying the kite. They used a bunch of weeds as a weight on the tail, instead of the Rabbit, as they had done at first.
And of course neither Madeline nor any of the others knew that the cat had carried the Bunny away and had dropped him in the grassy field. They all thought Carlo had done it, but of course there was no way of finding out for sure, except by reading this book. In this the true story of the Candy Rabbit is told for the first time.
Madeline tried to get the green grass-stain off her Rabbit's ear, but it would not come out.
"Why don't you scrape it off?" asked Herbert.
"Why, I might scrape off half his ear! No, indeed!" Madeline said.
"Well, wash it off," suggested Dick, who had come over to play with Herbert. "Take him up to the bathroom and wash his ear. My mother washes my ears."
"Pooh! your ears aren't made of candy," said Madeline.
"No. And I'm glad they're not, or the fellows would be biting pieces off all the while," laughed Dick.
"Well, I guess I won't wash my Candy Rabbit—at least not just yet," said Madeline. "I'll wait until he gets a few more stains on him."
Several days passed. The bad cat did not again try to catch the goldfish. Heseemed to have been frightened away when Dorothy threw the Sawdust Doll at him. And, I am glad to say, the Doll was not hurt in the least. In fact, she rather liked scaring cats.
One day Madeline took her Candy Rabbit out into the kitchen where the cook was making a cake. She had just put the cake into the oven to bake, and there were several dishes on the table—dishes in which were dabs of sweet, sugary icing and cake batter.
"Oh, may I please clean out some of the cake dishes?" asked Madeline.
"Yes," answered the cook kindly.
This was one of the pleasures Madeline and Herbert enjoyed on baking day, but Herbert was not on hand then, so Madeline had all the dishes to herself. She set her Candy Rabbit on a shelf, got a spoon, and began to clean the icing dish. Ofcourse you know that means she scraped the dish with the spoon and ate the icing she scraped up. Yes, and I think she even licked the spoon. After she had finished the white icing dish there was a chocolate one to start on.
"Oh, I'm going to have a dandy time!" laughed the little girl.
She forgot all about her Candy Rabbit. There he sat on a shelf near the gas stove, and as the cakes in the oven began to bake, the fire grew hotter and hotter and the Candy Rabbit began to feel very strange.
"Dear me, I am afraid I am going to melt!" he said to himself, not daring to speak aloud when Madeline and the cook were there.
The kitchen grew warmer and warmer, the stove became hotter and hotter, and, on the shelf where the Candy Rabbit sat,it was like a summer day in the blazing sun.
"This is worse than anything that ever happened to me before," said the Candy Rabbit. "I think I'll just melt down into a lump of sugar! That would be dreadful!"
Of course it would, and Madeline would have been very sorry if anything like that had happened. One of the ears of the Rabbit was just getting soft and drooping over a little to one side, when the cook happened to look toward the shelf.
"Oh, Madeline, my dear!" she cried. "Your Candy Rabbit!"
"What's the matter?" asked the little girl, looking up from the dish she was scraping clean with a spoon, in order to eat the last of the chocolate inside.
"He will melt if you leave him on that shelf near the hot stove," went on thecook. "Look, one of his ears is drooping!"
"Oh, dear!" screamed Madeline, and, dropping the spoon, she caught her Easter toy from the shelf.
It was only just in time, too, for the poor Rabbit was just beginning to melt. In fact, one of his ears did soften and twist over to one side a little. But Madeline quickly took him out on the cool porch, and the Rabbit felt better. However, that queer twist, or droop, stayed in one ear—not the one with the grass-stain on, but the other.
"I don't care," Madeline said, when her toy was cool and all right again. "It makes him look different from the other Candy Rabbits to have a twisted ear. It's so funny!"
Happy days followed for the Bunny. The children played sometimes in onehouse and sometimes in another, taking their toys with them, and sometimes the Rabbit had a chance to talk to the Sawdust Doll, the Bold Tin Soldier, the White Rocking Horse or the Lamb on Wheels, for the children would often leave their toys together, as the boys and girls went out to play in the yards or on the verandas.
"I wonder how the Calico Clown is getting along," said the Candy Rabbit to the Sawdust Doll on one of the days when they were together. They were on the porch of Madeline's house, and Madeline, Mirabell and Dorothy were around in the back yard playing in a sand pile.
"I should like to see him, and also the Monkey on a Stick," said the Doll. "Hark! What's that?" she suddenly asked, as strains of music were heard.
"It's a hand organ, and here comes aman playing it," said the Candy Rabbit.
"Has he a monkey with him to gather pennies in his hat?" asked the Sawdust Doll.
"No. But he has a little girl with him. She has a basket. I guess she gathers pennies in that. Maybe the organ man had a monkey but it ran away," suggested the Rabbit.
"Maybe," agreed the Doll. "Oh, isn't that nice music!" she cried. "It makes me feel like dancing!"
The hand-organ man was, indeed, playing a nice tune. The girl who was with him came into the yard and up the steps, holding out her basket ready for pennies. The little girls being in the back yard, no one was near the front of the house.
"Ah, a Candy Rabbit and a Sawdust Doll!" exclaimed the organ man's girl. "Nobody seems to want them. I have adoll of my own, but I have no Candy Rabbit. I think I will take this one. I would rather have him than pennies!"
And, looking quickly here and there to see if any one was going to toss her a penny, but seeing no one, the hand-organ man's little girl picked up the Candy Rabbit, tucked it under her apron, and quickly went down the steps again.
"Well, of all things!" thought the Candy Rabbit, as he felt himself being taken away in this fashion. "Of all things! What is this hand-organ girl going to do with me?"
And that is something we must find out.
Slowly down the street walked the organ grinder, turning the crank and making music. His little girl, an Italian child, after putting the Candy Rabbit under her apron, looked around the house where Madeline lived to see if any one might be coming out with pennies. But no one came.
Madeline and Dorothy and Mirabell were in the back yard where they had gone to play in the sand pile, after leaving the Sawdust Doll and the Candy Rabbit on the front veranda. Madeline's mother was not at home, and the cook wastoo busy in the kitchen to bother with giving pennies to organ grinders, though she might have done so if she had had time and had had plenty of pennies.
As for Madeline and Dorothy and Mirabell, they had given one look down the street when they heard the hand-organ music. Then, as they saw he had no monkey with him, Madeline said:
"Oh, a hand-organ isn't any fun unless it has a monkey. We don't want to bother waiting to see this one. Come on and play."
So, as I have told you, they were in the back yard, leaving the Doll and the Rabbit on the veranda. And then the hand-organ man's little girl had come along and taken the Rabbit.
"I'll take him home with me. Nobody wants him," she said to herself as she went down off the veranda with the candychap under her apron. And she really thought the Rabbit had been put out because no one wanted him. She slipped the Bunny into a large pocket in the skirt of her dress and hurried on after her father, who had walked down the street grinding out his tunes.
The organ grinder's little girl did not tell her father about the Candy Rabbit until that night when they reached their home after their day's travel.
With the organ man lived his brother, who was a peddler. He had a big basket in which he carried pins, needles, pin cushions, little looking glasses, court plaster and odds and ends, called "notions." This peddler man went about from house to house selling notions to such as wanted to buy them.
He, too, had been about all day, peddling with his basket, and he reachedhome about the same time as did his brother, the organ grinder, and the little girl.
The family had supper, and, after that, Rosa brought out the Candy Rabbit. All the while the Bunny had been in her pocket, and the sweet chap did not like it very much.
"I want to be out where I can see things," murmured the Rabbit. "I want to see what is happening. It is dreadful to be kidnapped like this and carried away from home!"
For that is what really had happened—the Candy Rabbit had been kidnapped by Rosa, the organ girl, though, really, she did not mean to do wrong in taking him.
But when the Bunny was taken out of Rosa's pocket and set on the supper table in the light, he looked around him. It was quite a different home from Madeline's—not nearly so nice, the Candy Rabbit thought, but of course he dared say nothing.
"Ah, what a fine Rabbit! Where did you get him?" asked Rosa's father.
"He was thrown away on a veranda of a house where I got no pennies," she answered. "No one wanted him, so I took him."
"He is a fine Candy Rabbit," said Joe, the peddler, looking at the Bunny. "He is almost new. I guess he came from an Easter novelty counter. Once I sold Easter toys, but now I sell only pins and needles. Yes, he is a fine Rabbit, Rosa. Are you going to eat him? He is made of candy."
"Eat him! Oh, no! I am going to keep him, always!" said the little girl, hugging the Rabbit in her arms.
The Bunny liked to be hugged andpetted, and, though he would rather have been in Madeline's house, still he was glad the little organ girl liked him.
"Nobody wanted the Rabbit, so I took him," said Rosa, and she really thought this was so.
But of course Madeline wanted her Candy Rabbit very much. And when she and Dorothy and Mirabell came back to the veranda after their play in the sand pile and found the Sawdust Doll there and the Bunny gone, poor Madeline felt very bad indeed. She cried, and she looked all over for her Easter toy, but he was not to be found.
At first Madeline thought perhaps her brother or one of the other boys had taken the Bunny to tie to the kite again, but Herbert said that he and his chums had not seen the toy.
Then Madeline thought perhaps Carlo,the little dog, had carried the Bunny away, as once he carried off the Sawdust Doll, but this could not have happened, as Carlo had been kept chained in his kennel all that day.
"Well, my Candy Rabbit is gone, and I wish I could find him, and I'm awful lonesome without him," sobbed Madeline, and she was not happy even when her mother said she or Aunt Emma would buy her another.
And all the while the organ grinder's little girl had the Candy Rabbit. And that night, when the time came for Rosa to go to bed, she looked for a safe place to put the Easter toy. The little girl saw the big basket of the peddler in a corner of the room.
"I'll put the Candy Rabbit on one of the pin cushions in Uncle Joe's basket," said Rosa to herself. "He can sleep thereall night. To-morrow I will make a little nest for him."
And the Candy Rabbit was so tired after all the adventures he had met with that day that he fell asleep almost at once, and passed a very pleasant night in the basket on the pin cushion, which was stuffed with sawdust, just like Dorothy's doll.
Peddler Joe was up early the next morning. He was up before either his brother, Tony, or the little girl, Rosa. Joe cooked himself some breakfast on an old oil stove, and then, taking his basket, he went out. He did not even turn back the oilcloth cover to see that his pins, needles, cushions and other notions were all in place. He felt sure that they were. And of course he did not know the Candy Rabbit was in his basket.
But there the Candy Rabbit was, in the peddler's basket, on the cushion.
"Dear me! what is happening now?" thought the Candy Rabbit, as he was suddenly awakened by being jiggled and joggled about in the basket. "Am I at sea? Have I been taken on a ship, and am I crossing the ocean?" For that is what the motion was like—just the same as the Lamb of Wheels felt when she was on the raft.
And Joe, the peddler, not knowing the Bunny was in the basket, carried the sweet chap farther and farther away.
We must now see what happened to him.
Joe, the peddler, stopped at several houses with his big basket of notions.
"Any pins? Any needles? Any court-plaster? Any pin cushions needed to-day?" he would ask, as he went to door after door. He would lift back half of the oilcloth cover of his basket to show his wares.
"No, nothing to-day! We have all the pins we need," was all the answer he received in many places.
"Well, I do not seem to be going to have very good luck to-day," thought Joe, as he tramped on. "I hope Rosa and herfather do better with the hand organ. I have sold nothing yet."
And, all this while, Joe didn't know anything of the Candy Rabbit in his basket. But the Rabbit was there, just the same.
He had awakened when Peddler Joe picked up the basket. The Candy Rabbit found himself lying on the new pin cushion, where Rosa had placed him. But as the basket was lifted up and swung on Joe's shoulder by means of a strap, it was so tilted that the Candy Rabbit slipped off the cushion and fell down in among a pile of papers of pins.
"Oh, dear!" thought the sugary chap. "Now I'll be all stuck up!"
But he was not, I am glad to say. The pins were fastened on papers, which were then folded together, so that the points did not stick out, and the candy fellow was not even scratched.
Up and down the street went Joe the peddler, trying to sell his notions. Finally he came to the very house where Madeline lived, and where Rosa had taken the Candy Rabbit from the veranda the day before.
"Maybe I shall sell something here," thought Joe. He went up the steps and rang the bell. As it happened, Madeline's mother was in the hall and she opened the door. Madeline was also in the hall, just getting ready to go to see some little friends.
"Any pins? Any needles? Any notions to-day?" asked Joe, as he held his basket out for Madeline's mother to see. And this time, and for the first time that morning, Joe pulled back the oilcloth cover from the other side. That was the reason he had not yet seen the Rabbit.
But now, as the oilcloth was rolled back,the sweet chap, lying on his side among the papers of pins, was shown. Madeline's mother was just going to say she did not care for any needles or sticking-plaster when the little girl, looking into the basket, spied the Bunny.
"Oh, look!" cried Madeline! "There he is—my Candy Rabbit! How did he get in the basket? Oh, Mother, my Candy Rabbit has come home to me!"
Madeline's mother was just as astonished as was the little girl; and Peddler Joe was surprised also.
"How did my little girl's Candy Rabbit get in your basket?" asked Madeline's mother.
"I don't know," Joe answered. "I did not know he was here. He is a surprise to me. If he is yours, take him."
He handed the Candy Rabbit to Madeline, who was overjoyed to get her Eastertoy back again. Eagerly she looked at him, to make sure he was not hurt or damaged.
"Are you sure he is the same Rabbit—your Candy Rabbit?" asked Mother.
"Oh, yes, very sure," answered Madeline. "Look, here is the green spot on his ear, where he fell in the grass the day the boys tied him to the kite tail. And, see! one ear is bent a little. It happened when he was too near the heat, the day I was eating chocolate from the cake dishes. He's my Candy Rabbit, all right!"
"Then I am glad you have him back, little girl," said Peddler Joe. "Rosa must have take him by mistook, you know—she pick him up when she go around with the organ."
Then he told how his little niece had found the Rabbit, and, thinking the toy belonged to no one, had brought it home.
"I buy her another Rabbit so she not be feeling bad," said Joe, with a smile. "She did not mean to take yours, little girl. And now maybe you want some needles or pins?" he said to Madeline's mother.
"Yes, I think I will buy a few, because you were so good as to bring back my little girl's Easter present that was given her by her aunt," Mother said. And Joe was glad because he had sold something from his basket.
Madeline was glad to get back her Candy Rabbit, and she stayed so long looking at him that her mother said:
"You had better run on, or your little friends will grow impatient waiting for you, my dear. Put your Rabbit away, and hurry along now."
So Madeline put her Rabbit on a shelf in the playroom, and went out to play, andher mother gave Joe money for pins, needles and some court-plaster.
"Maybe I have good luck and make a lot of money to-day, and then I buy Rosa a nice Candy Rabbit for herself," the peddler said to himself, as he went down the street.
And, while I am about it, I might as well tell you that Joe did buy Rosa a nice Rabbit for herself. He took it home to her that night, lifting it out of his basket and putting it into her hands.
When the organ grinder's little girl awakened and found that her peddler uncle had gone, taking his basket and the Rabbit she had put to sleep in it without his knowledge, Rosa felt very bad. She was sad as she gathered pennies for her father that day.
But at night, when Uncle Joe came back with a new Candy Rabbit, Rosa was happyagain. And Madeline was happy with her own Easter toy.
Rosa's uncle and her father told her it was wrong to have taken another little girl's toy without asking, and she was sorry when she understood that, but she was happy with her new plaything.
In the afternoon Mirabell and Dorothy went home with Madeline.
"I want to show you my Candy Rabbit again," Madeline said to her little girl chums.
And when Mirabell and Dorothy had looked at the Rabbit, seeing the speck of green paint on one ear and the other ear that was a little bent from the heat, Madeline said:
"I'm going to wash him!"
Without saying anything to her mother about it, Madeline took her Candy Rabbit, and, with her two little friends, wentup to the bathroom. She drew the tub full of water, and while she was doing this she set the Rabbit on a glass shelf near the towel rack.
"Are you going to let him swim in the bathtub?" asked Dorothy.
"Goodness me, I hope not!" thought the Candy Rabbit, who heard this question. "I can't swim! I'll surely drown if she puts me in the bathtub!"
And he was glad when he heard Madeline say:
"No, I'm not going to put him in the tub. But I want plenty of water, for I must get him nice and clean. I'm going to have a party, and I want my Candy Rabbit to look pretty. I'll dip my nail brush in the bathtub and scrub him."
"And we'll help you," said Dorothy and Mirabell.
"There, I guess I have water enough,"said Madeline, as she turned off the tub faucet. There were some drops of water on her hands, and she reached for a towel to dry them.
How it happened none of the little girls knew, but the towel on the rack must have caught on the Candy Rabbit, sitting on the glass shelf. And when Madeline pulled the towel she pulled her Easter toy off the shelf and into the bathtub of water.
"Splish! Splash!" went the Candy Rabbit into the water.
"Oh, I'm going to drown! I know I'm going to drown!" thought the poor sweet chap, as the water closed over his ears.
Madeline screamed, Mirabell screamed, and Dorothy screamed. The three little girls screamed together when they saw the Candy Rabbit fall into the bathtub. And, even under water as his ears were, the Candy Rabbit heard them.
"Well, I hope they do something more than yell," thought the poor, sugary chap. "If they don't pull me out pretty soon I'll melt, as well as drown, and I dare not try to swim when they're looking at me!"
You know what the rule is in Make-Believe Toyland—none of the things dare move when human eyes look at them. Andthe three little girls were surely looking at the Candy Rabbit now, as he bobbed about in the bathtub.
"Oh, look what happened!" cried Dorothy, pointing to the toy.
"Your Candy Rabbit is in the bathtub!" screamed Mirabell.
"Yes, and I'm going to get him out!" exclaimed Madeline.
She quickly stooped down, grasped the Candy Rabbit by his ears, and lifted him, dripping wet, out of the bathtub of water.
"Oh, he's soaked through, poor thing!" murmured Dorothy.
"Do you s'pose he's spoiled?" asked Mirabell.
"I—I hope not," said Madeline with a catch in her voice, as if she were going to cry. "I guess I got him out in time."
"I think so, too."
Madeline's mother, hearing the screamsof the little girls in the bathroom, ran to see what the matter was.
"Has anything happened, children?" she asked.
"My Candy Rabbit got caught on the towel and I pulled him into the bathtub of water," Madeline explained. "Will he come all to pieces, Mother?"
Mother looked at the Candy Rabbit carefully. He did not seem to be harmed much. Inside of him his heart was beating very fast, because of his adventure, but no one knew that.
"I think he is not much damaged, Madeline," said her mother, with a smile. "He is made of very hard sugar—is your Candy Rabbit. It would take more of a soaking than he got to melt him. What were you doing with him in the bathroom?"
"I was going to wash him, Mother,'cause maybe he got soiled in the peddler's basket."
"Well, he has had his bath all right," said Mother, with a laugh. "And I think he is pretty clean. He does not seem to be melting any, but it would be well to let him dry. Here, I'll set him on the window sill and open the window. The breeze will dry him off better than if you wiped him with a towel. Then you will not wipe off any of his sugar."
"Oh, I'm so glad he is all right," said Madeline. "I thought he would melt and run down the drain pipe from the bathtub."
"Drain pipe!" The Rabbit shivered.
Mother set the Candy Rabbit, which was quite wet, on a clean cloth on the bathroom window sill, leaving the sash open.
"The cloth will soak up some of the water, and the gentle wind will blow therest off and dry him," said Madeline's mother.
The three little girls looked at the Candy Rabbit sitting on the sill of the open window in the bathroom.
"Doesn't he look cute?" cried Madeline.
"Too sweet for anything!" said Dorothy.
"Of course he lookssweet!" said Mirabell. "He's made of sugar, you know!"
Then the three little girls laughed and went downstairs to play with Dorothy's Sawdust Doll and Mirabell's Lamb on Wheels.
Left to himself on the window sill, the Candy Rabbit took a long breath.
"That was a narrow escape I had," he said. "I was very nearly drowned and melted in the water. I had better keep very still and quiet until I am quite dryagain, or I may come apart like the Jack in the Box who jumped off his spring. Yes, I will sit here very quietly until I am dry. I do feel so wet and sticky!"
The Candy Rabbit looked around the bathroom. There was no other toy there with whom he could play, even if he had felt like moving around just then, which he did not feel like doing.
"The Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick will think it quite wonderful when I tell them what has happened to me," said the Candy Rabbit to himself, as he sat there, drying. "I suppose they must have had some adventures, also, but I don't believe either of them ever fell into a bathtub of water."
Feeling rather lonesome, the Rabbit looked for some one to whom he might talk. He saw cakes of soap, towels, and wash cloths. There was also a largesponge in a wire basket hanging over the edge of the bathtub.
"I have heard that sponges are animals," said the Candy Rabbit. "I wonder if this one is alive and will speak to me. I'll try. Hello there, Mr. Sponge!" he called. "You must be quite a swimmer. Are you as good as a goldfish—one of those the bad cat tried to get?"
But the sponge said never a word. Maybe it was too dry to speak, for it had not been in the water since early morning.
The Candy Rabbit knew it was of no use to talk to a cake of soap or a wash cloth, so he became quiet and sat on the window sill, drying off.
"Hello There, Mr. Sponge!" Said Candy Rabbit.
"Hello There, Mr. Sponge!" Said Candy Rabbit.Page90
At first the wind, which came in through the open bathroom window, drying the Candy Rabbit, was a gentle breeze. Then it began to blow harder, so hard, in fact,that Herbert, Dick and Arnold got out their kites and began flying them.
"Dear me! this wind is blowing harder and harder," said the Candy Rabbit to himself. "I hope I do not take cold here."
Stronger and stronger the wind blew. Part of the time it blewinthrough the bathroom window, and part of the time it blewout. And then, all of a sudden, there came a hard gust, and it toppled the Candy Rabbit right off the sill.
"Dear me, I am falling!" exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. "Oh, I am falling out of the window!"
And this was true. He had fallenoutinstead of fallingin, and, in the end, this was a good thing for him. For if he had fallen inside the bathroom he would have toppled down on the hard, tiled floor, and have been broken to pieces. As it was,falling out of the window, he had a better chance.
Down, down, down, out of the window fell the Candy Rabbit. He fell so fast that his breath was taken away. He felt himself drying fast. The last drops of water, caused by his topple into the bathtub, were blown off by the breeze as he fell.
"Oh, when I hit the ground there is going to be a terrible smash!" thought the poor Candy Rabbit. "This, surely, is the last of me! Good-bye, everybody!"
But, as it happened, just then Patrick, the gardener, was passing along with a wheelbarrow full of freshly cut grass. He had cut the lawn in front of the house where Dorothy lived, and now Patrick was wheeling the loose grass across Madeline's yard to give to a pony in a stable in the house just beyond Madeline's.
And, all of a sudden, just as Patrick came along with the wheelbarrow full of grass, the Candy Rabbit fell out of the bathroom window. And, very, very luckily, the sweet chap, instead of hitting the ground, fell into the soft grass on the wheelbarrow.
For a moment he could not get his breath, and he was buried deep in the long, green spears and stems. And then, as he felt that he was not broken to bits, the Candy Rabbit murmured:
"I am saved!"
Patrick, the gardener, had set his wheelbarrow down to rest just as he came under the bathroom window of Madeline's house. And Patrick had his back turned, and was looking at Carlo, the little dog, chasing his tail just when the Candy Rabbit fell into the grass. So Patrick did not see what had happened.
"But I know what has happened," said the sweet chap to himself. "Only for the soft grass I would have broken all to pieces! I wish I dared call out and tell Patrick I am here. But I dare not. I must keep still and say nothing."
"Well, I must hurry along and give this grass to the pony," said the gardener, after he had seen Calico catch his tail. "The pony must be hungry."
Over across Madeline's yard, to the yard where the pony lived in a little stable, went Patrick with the wheelbarrow full of grass and the Candy Rabbit. Only, of course, Patrick did not know he had the sugary fellow.
"Well, how are you, little pony?" cried the jolly Patrick, when he reached the stable. The pony gave a soft little whinny in answer.
"I have some nice grass for you," went on Patrick. "Nice, sweet, green grass that I, myself, cut off the lawn. You shall eat it all up."
Once again the little horse talked in the only way he could make Patrick understand, which was by whinnying. Hemeant that he would be glad to eat the grass.
"But I hope he doesn't eat me!" thought the Candy Rabbit. "It is lucky I can speak and understand animal talk. When I get in the pony's stall I'll call out and ask him not to chew me up with the grass."
But the Candy Rabbit did not have to do this. For when Patrick began to take from the wheelbarrow the grass he had gathered for the pony, the gardener saw something gleaming in the sunshine amid the green stems.
"Hello! what's this?" cried Patrick, leaning over to take a better look. "What's this in my grass? Can it be a glass bottle? If it is it's a good thing I didn't give it to the pony, or he might have cut himself on it."
Patrick took the shining object from themidst of the grass. In an instant he saw what it was.
"A Candy Rabbit! Madeline's Candy Rabbit!" cried the gardener. He knew it very well, just as he knew the Sawdust Doll, the Lamb on Wheels, and the Bold Tin Soldier. Madeline had often showed Patrick her Candy Rabbit.
The pony was soon fed, and then, with the Candy Rabbit in his pocket and slowly wheeling the empty barrow, Patrick made his way to Madeline's house. He knocked at the back door, and the cook, with a dab of flour on her nose, answered.
"What have you been doing to yourself, Cook?" asked the gardener, with a laugh.
"Why? Is anything wrong?" she asked, rather surprised.
"Your nose is dabbed with flour," went on Patrick.
"Oh, that!" laughed the cook. "You see, Madeline is going to have a party, and I'm so busy making cookies and cakes that it's a wonder flour isn't all over my face as well as on my nose. But what have you there?" she asked, seeing the Bunny in Patrick's hand.
"Madeline's Candy Rabbit," answered the gardener. "I don't know how it got in my barrow of grass, but I brought him back. Is Madeline in?"
"Yes, I'll call her," said the cook.
And when the little girl came running out and saw her Bunny, she was much surprised.
"Why! Why! How did you get him, Patrick?" she asked. "I left him up on the bathroom window sill to dry, after he fell into the bathtub."
"Ah, that accounts for it then!" laughed the gardener. "The wind musthave blown him out of the window, and he fell into my barrow just as I set it down to rest. Well, it's lucky I had grass in the barrow instead of stones. If your rabbit had fallen onthemhe might have broken off his ears."
"That would have been dreadful!" exclaimed Madeline. "Oh, thank you, so much, Patrick, for bringing my Bunny back to me."
"Well, keep him safe, now you have him," advised Patrick.
Then he went off whistling and trundling his empty wheelbarrow, and once more the Candy Rabbit was back with Madeline, where he belonged, and thankful to be there.
"You are nice and dry now," said the little girl, as she looked over her Easter toy. "And you didn't get any more grass stains on you when you fell out of the window. Your ear it still a little bent, but that only makes you look more stylish.
"Now I am going to put a new pink ribbon on your neck, 'cause the one I took off when I was going to wash you is all soiled. I'll put a new ribbon on you and then you may come to the party to-morrow."
Madeline told her mother how the Rabbit had fallen out of the window. Then the little girl got a pretty pink ribbon, and, after tying it on his neck, she again showed her Easter present to Mirabell and Dorothy.
"He looks as good as new," said Mirabell.
"Yes," agreed Dorothy. "I guess falling into the bathtub and the wheelbarrow of grass did him good."
"And we'll have lots of fun at the party," said Madeline. "Now I will putmy Rabbit away, and we'll get ready for a good time."
The Rabbit was set on a shelf in a dark closet.
"Well, goodness knows I am glad to be by myself for a while and keep quiet," thought the sugary chap, as he sat down on the shelf in the dark. "I have had enough of adventures for a day or two. I wonder if there is any one here to whom I can talk. I wish the Sawdust Doll or the Bold Tin Soldier or the Calico Clown were here. They would love to hear me tell of what has happened."
Madeline and her girl friends spent the rest of that day and part of the next one getting ready for the party, and at last the time came to have it. Madeline was all dressed up, and she brought her Candy Rabbit out of the closet and smoothed the ribbon on his neck.
"Tinkle! Tinkle! Tinkle!" rang the door bell.
"Oh, here come Dorothy and Dick to the party!" cried Madeline, running to meet her friends.
She carried the Candy Rabbit with her. Dorothy had her Sawdust Doll, but the White Rocking Horse was too large for Dick to bring over.
One after another more children came to the party, among them Mirabell and Arnold. Mirabell did not bring her Lamb on Wheels for the same reason that Dick left his Horse at home—the Lamb was a little too large for a house party, though she would fit very well on the lawn.
But Arnold, who was Mirabell's brother, brought something to the party. It was the Bold Tin Soldier—the Captain of the Tin Soldiers, of whom Arnold had a whole box. And while the little girlswho had come to Madeline's party were smoothing out their dresses and looking at their dolls and talking to one another, Arnold walked off with Dick to a corner of the room.
"Look what I have!" whispered Arnold, showing the Bold Tin Soldier.
"Why did you bring him?" Dick wanted to know.
"So if we don't like the games the girls play we can go off in a room by ourselves and have fun with my Soldier," was the answer. "But maybe we'll have some fun, anyhow."
"Let me hold your Soldier for a while," begged Dick, and Arnold handed over the Captain.
After a while the little boys went back to where the other children were and all began to play games. Madeline set her Candy Rabbit on the table near Dorothy'sSawdust Doll, and the two toys looked at each other.
All sorts of games were played. One was "hide the thimble," and when it was Madeline's turn to hide it she put it right between the front legs of her Candy Rabbit as he sat on the table. Not one of the boys or girls thought of looking there for it, so they had to give up, and it was Madeline's turn to hide it again.
This time she put the thimble on top of the head of Dorothy's Sawdust Doll, who had on a new blue ribbon in honor of the party.
It was a gold thimble that the children were playing with, and the Sawdust Doll, catching sight of her reflection in the glass over one of the pictures in the room, noted this fact.
"That golden gleam against the blue of my ribbon is certainly very pretty and becoming," she thought. "I hope Dorothy will notice it and will get a gold ornament for my hair. I like to be a toy, but sometimes it is a great nuisance not to be able to tell your little girl and boy parents what you would like to have them do."
All this time the children were hunting for the thimble, and, though it was in plain sight, it was not until some time afterward that Mirabell saw it.
After the thimble game the children played "Blind Man's Buff," "Puss in the Corner" and "Going to Jerusalem."
Pretty soon it was time to eat ice cream and cake. That is one of the nicest times at a party, I think; and Dick, Arnold and Herbert, as well as the other boys and girls, thought the same thing, I am sure. While they were in another room, eating the good things, the Candy Rabbit and the Sawdust Doll were left to themselves.
"I have been wanting to talk to you for the longest time!" said the Sawdust Doll.
"And I have so many things to tell you," said the Candy Rabbit. "Such remarkable adventures!"
He started to hop across the table, to get nearer to the Sawdust Doll, but he did not see the thimble which the children had been playing with, and which had been left on the table. The Candy Rabbit jumped on the thimble, which rolled out from under his paws.
"Oh, look out! You're going to fall!" cried the Sawdust Doll.
And down fell the Candy Rabbit.