they stared at him, and the little rabbit stared back. and all the time their noses twitched.
"why don't you get up and play with us?" one of them asked.
"i don't feel like it," said the rabbit, for he didn't want to explain that he had no clockwork.
"ho!" said the furry rabbit. "it's as easy as anything," and he gave a big hop sideways and stood on his hind legs.
"i don't believe you can!" he said.
"i can!" said the little rabbit. "i can jump higher than anything!" he meant when the boy threw him, but of course he didn't want to say so.
"can you hop on your hind legs?" asked the furry rabbit.
that was a dreadful question, for the velveteen rabbit had no hind legs at all! the back of him was made all in one piece, like a pincushion. he sat still in the bracken, and hoped that the other rabbits wouldn't notice.
"i don't want to!" he said again.
but the wild rabbits have very sharp eyes. and this one stretched out his neck and looked.
"he hasn't got any hind legs!" he called out. "fancy a rabbit without any hind legs!" and he began to laugh.
"i have!" cried the little rabbit. "i have got hind legs! i am sitting on them!"
"then stretch them out and show me, like this!" said the wild rabbit. and he began to whirl round and dance, till the little rabbit got quite dizzy.
"i don't like dancing," he said. "i'd rather sit still!"
but all the while he was longing to dance, for a funny new tickly feeling ran through him, and he felt he would give anything in the world to be able to jump about like these rabbits did.
the strange rabbit stopped dancing, and came quite close. he came so close this time that his long whiskers brushed the velveteen rabbit's ear, and then he wrinkled his nose suddenly and flattened his ears and jumped backwards.
"he doesn't smell right!" he exclaimed. "he isn't a rabbit at all! he isn't real!"
"i am real!" said the little rabbit. "i am real! the boy said so!" and he nearly began to cry.
just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the boy ran past near them, and with a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails the two strange rabbits disappeared.
"come back and play with me!" called the little rabbit. "oh, do come back! i know i am real!"
but there was no answer, only the little ants ran to and fro, and the bracken swayed gently where the two strangers had passed. the velveteen rabbit was all alone.
"oh, dear!" he thought. "why did they run away like that? why couldn't they stop and talk to me?"
for a long time he lay very still, watching the bracken, and hoping that they would come back. but they never returned, and presently the sun sank lower and the little white moths fluttered out, and the boy came and carried him home.
weeks passed, and the little rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the boy loved him just as much. he loved him so hard that he loved all his whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his brown spots faded. he even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the boy. to him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little rabbit cared about. he didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him real, and when you are real shabbiness doesn't matter.
and then, one day, the boy was ill.
his face grew very flushed, and he talked in his sleep, and his little body was so hot that it burned the rabbit when he held him close. strange people came and went in the nursery, and a light burned all night and through it all the little velveteen rabbit lay there, hidden from sight under the bedclothes, and he never stirred, for he was afraid that if they found him some one might take him away, and he knew that the boy needed him.
it was a long weary time, for the boy was too ill to play, and the little rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long. but he snuggled down patiently, and looked forward to the time when the boy should be well again, and they would go out in the garden amongst the flowers and the butterflies and play splendid games in the raspberry thicket like they used to. all sorts of delightful things he planned, and while the boy lay half asleep he crept up close to the pillow and whispered them in his ear. and presently the fever turned, and the boy got better. he was able to sit up in bed and look at picture-books, while the little rabbit cuddled close at his side. and one day, they let him get up and dress.
it was a bright, sunny morning, and the windows stood wide open. they had carried the boy out on to the balcony, wrapped in a shawl, and the little rabbit lay tangled up among the bedclothes, thinking.
the boy was going to the seaside to-morrow. everything was arranged, and now it only remained to carry out the doctor's orders. they talked about it all, while the little rabbit lay under the bedclothes, with just his head peeping out, and listened. the room was to be disinfected, and all the books and toys that the boy had played with in bed must be burnt.
"hurrah!" thought the little rabbit. "to-morrow we shall go to the seaside!" for the boy had often talked of the seaside, and he wanted very much to see the big waves coming in, and the tiny crabs, and the sand castles.
just then nana caught sight of him.
"how about his old bunny?" she asked.
"that?" said the doctor. "why, it's a mass of scarlet fever germs!–burn it at once. what? nonsense! get him a new one. he mustn't have that any more!"
