The Story of a Candy Rabbit | Page 5

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!"
CHAPTER III
THE BAD CAT
"What a pretty Candy Rabbit!" said Dorothy to Madeline. "Where did you get him?"
"He's one of my Easter presents," answered Madeline. "Herbert and I have just finished hunting for our baskets."
"Did you find them all, and all the eggs?" inquired Dick. "Dorothy and I got up early to hunt for ours."
"I think I found every one," replied Herbert. "But last year, I remember, I missed one big candy egg, and I didn't find it until a week later."
The children showed each other their holiday presents, and the Candy Rabbit was much admired. Dorothy and Dick took him up in their hands so they might see him better.
"Goodness! I hope they don't drop me," thought the Rabbit. "There isn't any rubber ball here for me to fall on, as there was in the store. I certainly hope they don't drop me!"
But Dorothy and Dick were very careful, and, after they had looked at and admired the Rabbit, he was put down on a chair not far from Dorothy's Sawdust Doll. The Candy Rabbit kept wishing that the children would go out of the