The Story of a Candy Rabbit | Page 8

a bell. The Candy Rabbit
did that, and that's what made me look around."
"Wouldn't it have been funny if the Rabbit had made the bowl tinkle all
by himself?" asked Dorothy, with a laugh.
"Yes. But he couldn't," said Madeline.
And, now I come to think of it, maybe the Candy Rabbit did topple
over by himself, to strike against the bowl and so cause Dorothy and
Madeline to turn around in time to stop the bad cat from getting the
goldfish. Mind you, I am not saying for sure that this happened. The
cat's tail certainly brushed against the Candy Rabbit, but the sweet chap
may have tinkled against the glass globe himself. He surely wanted to
save the fish from being eaten.
During the rest of Easter Sunday the children played quietly with their
toys. Mirabell and Arnold, the other little boy and girl, came over to
Madeline's house with their gifts and every one had a happy time.
The Candy Rabbit was looked at over and over again, but, though he

liked this and was glad and happy he had come to live with Madeline,
yet he could not help worrying about what the cat had said.
"I wonder if a cat can do anything to me," thought the sweet chap, over
and over again. "I must be on the watch. He may try to sneak in again."
But, as the days passed and nothing happened, the Candy Rabbit did
not worry so much, nor think so much about it. He saw nothing more of
the cat.
Madeline took very good care of her Candy Rabbit. She got a piece of
pink ribbon and tied it around her Easter toy's neck, making him look
very pretty.
"Now I am as stylish as Dorothy's Sawdust Doll, who has a blue ribbon
on her hair," thought the Candy Rabbit.
And because of that very same pink ribbon something dreadful
happened a few days later. I will tell you about it. After Easter the
weather gradually became warmer and sunnier. Doors and windows
could be left open, and the flowers in the yard began to blossom.
One day the Candy Rabbit was placed by Madeline on a chair in the
dining room, near the bowl of goldfish on their little round table. The
Sawdust Doll was not in the room, for Dorothy had her toy out in her
own yard playing. The Candy Rabbit was lonesome, for he did not
know how to talk to the goldfish.
All of a sudden, in through the open window, jumped the same bad cat
that had been there before. His tail was lashing to and fro, and his
whiskers were wiggling up and down.
"Meow!" said the cat.
"Oh, dear, here he is again!" said the Candy Rabbit, and, being able, as
all toys are, to speak and understand animal language, the Candy
Rabbit went on:

"Have you come to try to catch a goldfish, Mr. Tom?"
[Illustration: "It Was Not My Fault," Said Candy Rabbit. Page 43]
"Not now!" was the snarling answer. "I came to pay you back, as I said
I would! 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