The Velveteen Rabbit | Page 5

him, each more beautiful than the
other, the fairy huts in the flower-bed, the quiet evenings in the wood
when he lay in the bracken and the little ants ran over his paws; the
wonderful day when he first knew that he was Real. He thought of the
Skin Horse, so wise and gentle, and all that he had told him. Of what
use was it to be loved and lose one's beauty and become Real if it all
ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his little shabby
velvet nose and fell to the ground.
And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a
flower grew out of the ground, a mysterious flower, not at all like any
that grew in the garden. It had slender green leaves the colour of
emeralds, and in the centre of the leaves a blossom like a golden cup. It
was so beautiful that the little Rabbit forgot to cry, and just lay there
watching it. And presently the blossom opened, and out of it there
stepped a fairy.
She was quite the loveliest fairy in the whole world. Her dress was of

pearl and dew-drops, and there were flowers round her neck and in her
hair, and her face was like the most perfect flower of all. And she came
close to the little Rabbit and gathered him up in her arms and kissed
him on his velveteen nose that was all damp from crying.
"Little Rabbit," she said, "don't you know who I am?"
The Rabbit looked up at her, and it seemed to him that he had seen her
face before, but he couldn't think where.
"I am the nursery magic Fairy," she said. "I take care of all the
playthings that the children have loved. When they are old and worn
out and the children don't need them any more, then I come and take
them away with me and turn them into Real."
"Wasn't I Real before?" asked the little Rabbit.
"You were Real to the Boy," the Fairy said, "because he loved you.
Now you shall be Real to every one."
The Fairy Flower
And she held the little Rabbit close in her arms and flew with him into
the wood.
It was light now, for the moon had risen. All the forest was beautiful,
and the fronds of the bracken shone like frosted silver. In the open
glade between the tree-trunks the wild rabbits danced with their
shadows on the velvet grass, but when they saw the Fairy they all
stopped dancing and stood round in a ring to stare at her.
"I've brought you a new playfellow," the Fairy said. "You must be very
kind to him and teach him all he needs to know in Rabbit-land, for he is
going to live with you for ever and ever!"
And she kissed the little Rabbit again and put him down on the grass.
"Run and play, little Rabbit!" she said.

But the little Rabbit sat quite still for a moment and never moved. For
when he saw all the wild rabbits dancing around him he suddenly
remembered about his hind legs, and he didn't want them to see that he
was made all in one piece. He did not know that when the Fairy kissed
him that last time she had changed him altogether. And he might have
sat there a long time, too shy to move, if just then something hadn't
tickled his nose, and before he thought what he was doing he lifted his
hind toe to scratch it.
And he found that he actually had hind legs! Instead of dingy velveteen
he had brown fur, soft and shiny, his ears twitched by themselves, and
his whiskers were so long that they brushed the grass. He gave one leap
and the joy of using those hind legs was so great that he went springing
about the turf on them, jumping sideways and whirling round as the
others did, and he grew so excited that when at last he did stop to look
for the Fairy she had gone.
He was a Real Rabbit at last, at home with the other rabbits.
At Last! At Last!
Autumn passed and Winter, and in the Spring, when the days grew
warm and sunny, the Boy went out to play in the wood behind the
house. And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the
bracken and peeped at him. One of them was brown all over, but the
other had strange markings under his fur, as though long ago he had
been spotted, and the spots still showed through. And about his little
soft nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that
the Boy