CHAPTER II. THE RABBIT'S NEW HOME
"Goodness me!" said the sweet chap to himself, as the lady swung him to one side so she might look at his eyes better. "This is worse than being on a merry-go-round! I am feeling quite dizzy! I hope I am not going to be seasick, as the Lamb on Wheels thought she was going to be when the sailor bought her." But the Candy Rabbit was not made ill. The lady stopped turning him around and around and said to the girl clerk:
"This Rabbit seems to be just what I want for an Easter present. I'll take him." "Shall I send it or will you take it with you?" asked the clerk.
"Ill take it," the lady answered. "A Candy Rabbit is not very hard to carry." She handed him back to the clerk, but something happened. Whether the clerk did not take a good hold of the Candy Rabbit, or whether the lady let go of him too soon, I don't know. But, all of a sudden, the Candy Rabbit slipped from the lady's hand and began falling. Straight toward the floor he fell!
"Oh!" he thought, "if I fall to the hard floor I shall certainly be smashed, and then I shall be of no use as an Easter present. All I'll be good for will be to be eaten, like any other piece of candy! Oh, dear, this is dreadful!" Faster and faster, nearer and nearer to the floor fell the Candy Rabbit, and, while the customer and the clerk looked, it seemed certain that he must be broken all to bits.
But listen!
The toy counter was not far away from the one where the Candy Rabbit and other Easter novelties were displayed. And on the counter were the Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick, besides a Jumping Jack.
Now whether one of these toys pushed it off the counter I cannot say; all I know is that a big, soft, rubber ball suddenly fell to the floor from the toy counter, rolled along and came to a stop just at the very place where the Candy Rabbit was falling.
And what did the Candy Rabbit do but fall on the soft, rubber ball! Right down on the squidgy-squdgy ball toppled the sweet chap, and it was like falling on a feather bed. The Candy Rabbit was not hurt a bit, but just bounced straight up, almost as far as he had fallen down, and the girl clerk caught him in her hands.
"Oh, I'm so glad he wasn't broken!" she exclaimed.
"So am I!" said the lady. "How remarkable! The rubber ball rolled along just in time. If every time any one or anything fell a rubber ball would happen along it would be very nice, wouldn't it?" "Indeed it would," answered the girl clerk. And, mind you, I'm not saying that the Calico Clown or the Monkey on a Stick pushed the rubber ball off the toy counter so that it rolled over in time for the Candy Rabbit to fall on it. I am not saying that for sure, but it might have happened.
"I'd better wrap this Rabbit up before anything else happens to him," said the clerk, with a laugh. "Please do," begged the lady. As for the Candy Rabbit, his little sugar heart was beating very fast because of the fright he had got when he thought he was going to be broken to bits. But of course neither the lady nor the girl knew this. They just thought he was made of sugar, and nothing else.
The girl quickly wrapped the Rabbit up in some sheets of soft tissue paper, and some padding made of curled wood, called excelsior. Some of the curled wood got in the Rabbit's ear and tickled him and made him smile. "Well, now I am going on a journey," said the Candy Rabbit to himself, as he felt the lady carrying him out of the store. "I wish I had time to say good-bye to my new friends on the Easter counter, and to the Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick. But perhaps I shall see them again, and maybe I shall meet the Sawdust Doll or the Bold Tin Soldier." Just what happened, while he was wrapped in the store bundle, of course the Candy Rabbit did not know, but he felt that he was being taken on quite a journey.
And indeed he was, for the lady who had bought him for an Easter present rode home with him in an automobile, and once, in the street, the fire engines came along and the automobile had to hurry to get out of the way. All that the Candy Rabbit could hear was a great noise, a rumble, a clang, a ringing of bells, and much shouting. Then the automobile went on again, and soon stopped.
The Candy Rabbit felt himself being lifted from the seat of the automobile, and, still in his bundle, he was carried toward a house. He did not know it at the time, but it was to be a new home for him.
Mirabell's mother, who was Madeline's Aunt Emma, was the lady who had bought the Candy Rabbit. "Here is Madeline's Easter present that I promised her," said Mirabell's mother, handing the wrapped-up Bunny to Madeline's mother. "And there are some eggs in a basket for Herbert. Hide them away from the children until to-morrow." "I will," said Madeline's mother, and then she carried the bundles into the house, while Mirabell's mother went on home in her automobile. "Oh, Mother! What have you?" cried the voice of a little girl, as the lady entered the house with the bundle in which the Candy Rabbit was wrapped.
"Is it something good to eat?" asked a boy's voice. "Now, Herbert and Madeline, you must not ask too many questions," said their mother, with a laugh. "This isn't exactly Christmas, you know, but it will soon be Easter, and——" "Oh, I know what it is!" cried the little girl, whose name was Madeline. "It's the eggs and baskets we have to hunt for on Easter morning, Herbert! Oh, what fun!" "Hurray!" cried Herbert. "I wish it were Easter now." "It soon will be," said his mother, and then she put away the Candy Rabbit where the children could not find him. And the place where she put him was in a closet in her room. She took the curled wood and the paper wrappings from the Rabbit, and set him on a shelf.
At first it was so dark in the closet that the Candy Rabbit could see nothing. But he knew he would soon get used to this. Then, as his eyes began to see better and better in the dark, as all rabbits can, he smelled something he liked very much.
"It's just like the perfume counter in the store," said the Rabbit, speaking out loud, which he could do now, as there were no human eyes to see him. "It's just like perfume!" "It is perfume!" a voice suddenly said, and the Candy Rabbit was very much surprised.
"Who are you?" he asked.
And then he saw, standing on the shelf near him, what seemed to be a little doll made of glass. On her head was a funny little cap, ending in a point, like the cap a dunce wears in school in the story books, and as the Candy Rabbit hopped nearer this Glass Doll the sweet smell of perfume became stronger.
"Where is all the nice smell?" asked the Candy Rabbit.
"I am it," answered the Glass Doll. "I am made hollow, and inside I am filled with perfume. There is a hole in the top of my head and up through my pointed cap, and whenever the lady stands me on my head and jiggles me up and down some perfume spills out on her handkerchief." "Stands you on your head!" cried the Candy Rabbit. "I shouldn't think you would like that!" "Oh, well, I'm used to it by this time," said the Glass Doll. "But tell me, who are you, and what are you doing here?" "I am a Candy Rabbit, and I guess I am going to be an Easter present," was the answer. And, surely enough, he was.
Later that night Madeline's mother opened the closet door. The Candy Rabbit saw her take down the Glass Doll, tip her upside down and sprinkle a little perfume on her fingers, which she rubbed on her hair.
"And now we shall hide the Easter baskets, so Madeline and Herbert may hunt for them and find them to-morrow morning," said the lady. "I must hide this Rabbit extra well, so Madeline will have a lot of fun searching for him." "Put him behind the piano," said a man. He was the children's father. "I will," said Mother, and that is where the Candy Rabbit was hidden. Near him was placed a little basket filled with Easter eggs. Some of them were made of candy, and others were like those in the store—filled with pretty scenes.
"Those are the places I thought were Fairyland," said the Candy Rabbit to himself, as he looked at the basket of eggs. "I wish some Chicken or Duck were here for me to talk to. Eggs can't say very much." And of course that was true. Not until an egg turns into a chicken can it move about and say things by cackling—or crowing, if it's a rooster instead of a hen. "I suppose I might hop around the room and find some one to talk to," thought the Candy Rabbit to himself, when he noticed that he was left alone behind the piano with the basket of eggs. "But perhaps it would be better to wait, since I am a stranger here." So the Candy Rabbit kept very still and quiet all night, and in the morning it was Easter Sunday.
Herbert and Madeline were up early, for it was one of the joys of their lives to hunt for Easter eggs. Eagerly they ran about the rooms, looking under chairs, on mantels, behind the phonograph and beneath the sofa.
"Oh, I've found one basket!" cried Herbert, as he saw a large one, filled with green curled wood and eggs, under the library table.
"And I've found another!" shouted Madeline, as, after rather a long search, she looked behind the piano. "I've found a basket and—and—Oh, Herbert! look what a lovely Candy Rabbit. Oh, I'm so glad!" and the little girl picked up the Candy Rabbit and fairly hugged him. The Candy Rabbit was very happy. He had now found some one to love him—some one to whom he could belong, as the Sawdust Doll belonged to the little girl Dorothy.
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!"
