CHAPTER V. THE ORGAN GRINDER
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. Of course 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 came over 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 this minute, 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. He seemed 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. Of course 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 the cook. "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 one house 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 a man 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 a doll 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.
