Laura Lee Hope - The Story of a Candy Rabbit
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Story of a Candy Rabbit
[Illustration: Candy Rabbit Looks Into the Large Egg.
_Frontispiece_--(_Page_ 2)]
_MAKE BELIEVE STORIES_
(Trademark Registered)
THE STORY OF A
CANDY
RABBIT
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL," "THE
STORY OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS
SERIES," "THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES," "THE SIX LITTLE
BUNKERS SERIES," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
=BOOKS BY LAURA LEE HOPE=
Durably bound. Illustrated.
=MAKE BELIEVE STORIES=
THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL
THE STORY OF A WHITE ROCKING HORSE
THE STORY OF A LAMB ON WHEELS
THE STORY OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER
THE STORY OF A CANDY RABBIT
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
THE STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN
=THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES=
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
=THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES=
=THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES=
=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES=
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP
THE STORY OF A CANDY RABBIT
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I IS HE IN FAIRYLAND? 1
II THE RABBIT'S NEW HOME 13
III THE BAD CAT 27
IV UP IN THE AIR 38
V THE ORGAN GRINDER 50
VI THE PEDDLER'S BASKET 65
VII IN THE BATHTUB 74
VIII IN A WHEELBARROW 84
IX AT THE PARTY 94
X IN A BOY'S POCKET 107
THE STORY OF
A CANDY RABBIT
CHAPTER I
IS HE IN FAIRYLAND?
The Candy Rabbit sat up on his hind legs and looked around. Then he
rubbed his pink glass eyes with his front paws. He rubbed his eyes once,
he rubbed them twice, he rubbed them three times.
"No, I am not asleep! I am not dreaming," said the Candy Rabbit,
speaking to himself in a low voice. "I am wide awake, but what strange
things I see! I wonder what it all means!"
On one side of the Candy Rabbit was a large egg. It was larger than any
egg the Candy Rabbit had ever seen, and there was a little glass window
in one end of the egg.
"This is very strange," said the sweet chap, rubbing his eyes again.
"Who ever heard of an egg with a window in it? I wonder if any one lives
in that egg? It is not large enough for a house, of course; but still,
some very little folk might stay in it. I'll take a look through that
window."
The Candy Rabbit gave three hops and stood closer to the large egg. It
glittered and sparkled in the light as newly fallen snow glitters under
the moon. The Candy Rabbit looked in through the glass window, and what
he saw inside the egg made him wonder more and more.
For he saw a church and some houses, a path leading over a little brook
of water, and on the bank of the brook stood a little boy fishing.
"Well, I do declare!" exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. "Think of all those
things inside an egg--a church, a house and a little boy! I wonder what
has happened to me! Yesterday I was on the toy counter, with the Calico
Clown and the Monkey on a Stick, and to-day I seem to be in Fairyland. I
wonder if this really is Fairyland? I guess I'd better look around some
more."
He glanced again through the little glass window in the egg, and he
thought he saw the little boy on the bank of the brook smiling at him.
And the Candy Rabbit smiled back. Then the Bunny turned around and he
saw, near him, a big chocolate egg. It was covered with twists and
curlicues of sugar and candy, and in the end of this egg, also, was a
glass window.
"Well, this certainly is surprising!" exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. "I
wonder what I can see through that window!"
He looked and saw a little duck and a little chicken inside the
chocolate egg. The little chicken was on one end of a small seesaw, and
the little duck was on the other end. And as the Candy Rabbit looked
through the glass window, he saw the seesaw begin to go up and down.
The Candy Rabbit shook his head. Once more he rubbed his paws over his
pink glass eyes.
"I have heard of many strange things," he said to himself. "The Sawdust
Doll told some of her queer adventures, and so did the White Rocking
Horse and the Bold Tin Soldier. But never, in all my life, did I ever
see a chocolate egg with a glass window and a little chicken and a duck
inside seesawing and teeter-tautering! I think I had better go to the
doctor's, something must be the matter with me!"
"What's the matter with you?" suddenly asked a voice behind the Candy
Rabbit. The sweet chap turned so quickly that he almost cracked one of
his sugary ears. He saw, just back of him, a real fuzzy, furry rabbit.
At least the rabbit seemed real, for his ears slowly moved backward and
forward, his head turned from side to side, and, every now and then, he
would rise on his hind legs and then crouch down again.
"What's the matter with you?" asked this Fuzzy Bunny of the Candy
Rabbit.
"I--I really don't know what is the matter," was the answer.
"You seem to be all right," went on the other rabbit, as he slowly
turned his head and bobbed up and down.
"Yes, I seem to be," said the Candy Rabbit, feeling his head and body
as far as he could reach, as if to make sure no part of him was broken,
or lost, or out of place. "But can you tell me this?" he asked. "A
little while ago I was on the toy counter of this store with the Calico
Clown and the Monkey on a Stick. And now I seem to be in Fairyland. Tell
me, am I dreaming, or is this really Fairyland, where eggs have windows
in them and hold little chickens and ducks who seesaw?"
The other Rabbit smiled, and kept on bobbing up and down, waving his
ears and turning his head from side to side.
"Oh, please stop that and answer me if you can," begged the Candy
Rabbit, in rather a sharp voice. "Why do you do that?"
"I have to," was the answer. "I have to keep on doing this until I run
down."
"Run down where?" asked the Candy Rabbit.
"I mean until the clock-work inside me runs down," explained the Fuzzy
Rabbit. "You see, I am wound up, and when I am wound I have to rise up
and stoop down on my hind legs. I have to twist my head and wiggle my
ears. I'll go on this way for half an hour more. But don't let that
bother you. I can still talk, and I'm glad you're here. You're some
company. These eggs never say anything," and with his ears he pointed to
the chocolate one and the glittery one, each of which had glass windows.
"Ask him how he likes it here," suggested a voice on the other side of
the Candy Rabbit. Turning, he saw a big chocolate chap, almost like
himself, except that this Rabbit was very dark in color.
The Chocolate Rabbit waved his ears in a kind way at the Candy Bunny,
and went on:
"How do you like it here?"
The Candy Rabbit gave another look around, and the more he looked the
more certain he was that he was in Fairyland. Over at one end of what
seemed to be a table he saw a little chicken harnessed to a tiny wagon,
made from what appeared to be an egg shell, and a little doll sat in the
egg-shell carriage, driving the chicken with little silk ribbon horse
reins.
Turning around, so that he might not miss anything, the sweet fellow saw
a large basket of flowers, and, nestled in among the blossoms, were some
Candy Rabbits like himself, only smaller. Over in one corner were piled
some cards, with pretty pictures on them, and near them was a small
basket, filled with what seemed to be green grass, in which were hidden
many small candy eggs.
"Yes, this surely must be Fairyland, and I know I shall like it here,"
said the Candy Rabbit, speaking half aloud. "But how did I get here, and
where are the Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick?"
"Oh, they are not so far away," answered the Fuzzy Rabbit. "And you are
not really in Fairyland, though this does seem like it, I suppose," and
his eyes roved over the gay and pretty scene.
"Then where am I?" asked the Candy Rabbit again. "If this isn't
Fairyland, where am I?"
The Chocolate Rabbit grinned.
"You are on the Easter Novelty Counter," was the Fuzzy Rabbit's answer.
"Where in the world is that?" asked the Candy Rabbit. "Is it anywhere
near the North Pole Workshop of Santa Claus?"
The Chocolate Rabbit gave a loud laugh.
"He doesn't even know his own store," said this dark-complexioned chap.
"Why, my dear fellow," he went on, "the Easter Novelty Counter is just
around the corner from the toy section, where you have lived so long.
The Calico Clown, the Monkey on a Stick and the other friends you speak
of are there. You are not very far away from them."
"That's good," said the Candy Rabbit. "But why am I on the Easter
Novelty Counter, and how did I get here?"
"You were put here because this is Easter time," answered the Chocolate
Rabbit.
"But I don't remember coming here," said the Candy Rabbit.
"No," said the Fuzzy Rabbit with the clock-work inside him, which made
him turn about and bow, "I dare say not. You were asleep when one of the
girl clerks from your counter brought you over here. But we are glad to
have you among us."
Just then it began to get light, for all this talk had taken place in
the night, when only a dim light burned in the toy store. And with the
coming of morning the clerks arrived, and also the customers to buy
Easter novelties and other things.
The Fuzzy Rabbit stopped waving his ears and became quiet. The Candy
Rabbit no longer talked to the Chocolate Bunny. A girl clerk led a lady,
in a warm fur coat, over toward the counter.
"Here are some fine Easter presents," said the girl. "We have rabbits of
all kinds."
"I want a large one for a little girl," said the lady. "I promised to
send Madeline a nice Bunny." And then the Candy Rabbit felt himself
being picked up and looked at.
"Oh, I wonder what is going to happen?" he thought.
The lady in the fur cloak turned the Candy Rabbit around and around, and
even upside down, looking carefully at him.
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!"
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 room for a while, so he might talk to the Doll, whom
he had not seen for a long time.
And, after a while, Madeline's mother called the children to show them
an Easter present which she had received. Out of the room trooped the
four children, leaving the Candy Rabbit and the Sawdust Doll together,
with no one to watch what they said or did.
"Now I have a chance to talk to you!" exclaimed the Sawdust Doll. "I've
just been waiting to ask how all my friends are at the toy store. And
how are you? How did you get here? Do you like living in a house with
children more than in the store? Tell me all about it!"
"Goodness!" laughed the Candy Rabbit. "You talk as fast as a phonograph
Doll when she has been wound up tight."
"Well, we'll have to talk fast if we want to tell each other anything
before those children get back," said the Sawdust Doll. "Now you tell me
your adventures, and then I'll tell you mine."
The two toy friends talked for some time, the Candy Rabbit relating the
latest news of the toy store, and the Sawdust Doll speaking of the nice
home she had with Dorothy, and how kind Dick was to the White Rocking
Horse.
Then the Rabbit wanted to know about the Lamb on Wheels and the Bold Tin
Soldier, and, as the Sawdust Doll had heard from them lately, she told
some of their adventures.
"I do wish I could see the Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick once
more," sighed the Sawdust Doll. "They were certainly the jolliest toys I
ever knew."
"Yes, they were," agreed the Candy Rabbit. "And I don't believe the
Clown has yet found any one to answer his riddle about what makes more
noise than a pig under a gate."
"Hush! Here come the children!" exclaimed the Sawdust Doll in a low
voice. Madeline and Herbert, Dorothy and Dick, having seen the present
Madeline's mother had received, had come back into the room again.
"What shall we do now?" asked Madeline.
"Let's play with your Rabbit and my Doll," suggested Dorothy.
Madeline thought this would be nice, but as Dick did not care much about
such fun he said he and Herbert would go back home and get out his
Rocking Horse.
"And I'll get Arnold and his Tin Soldiers and we'll have some fun," he
added. "Come on, Herb."
"If you see Mirabell, send her over here to play with us," called
Dorothy to her brother, and Dick said he would do so. "Tell her to bring
her Lamb on Wheels," she added.
The two little girls had good times playing with the Sawdust Doll and
the Candy Rabbit, and, after a while, Madeline's mother brought in a
plate of cookies for the little girls to eat.
"We'll have a play party," said Madeline. "I'll set my Candy Rabbit up
here on the goldfish stand where he can watch us, for he can't eat
anything, you know."
"And I'll set my Sawdust Doll over in this chair where she can see us,"
said Dorothy. "My Doll can eat make-believe things when I have a play
party, but we won't pretend that now. We'll just eat the cookies
ourselves."
"Yes," agreed Madeline. So she put her Candy Rabbit on the goldfish
stand.
This was a round table on which stood a bowl of real, live goldfish. The
fish swam around in the water, and now and then they stopped swimming to
look out through the glass with their big, round eyes. The top of the
goldfish globe was open, and sometimes Madeline was allowed to feed the
fish when her mother stood by. The fish ate tiny bits of biscuit bought
for them at the fish, bird and dog store.