CHAPTER VII. IN THE BATHTUB
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 her father 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 Easter toy 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, and her 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 happy again. 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, went up 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.
