LAURA LEE HOPE

HARRY L. SMITH

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 [Pg 2]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.

[Pg 3]

"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!"[Pg 4] 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 doc[Pg 5]tor'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[Pg 6] 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."

[Pg 7]

"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.

[Pg 8]

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 [Pg 9]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 [Pg 10]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.

[Pg 11]

"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."

[Pg 12]

"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.

[Pg 13]

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."

[Pg 14]

"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 [Pg 15]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 [Pg 16]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.

[Pg 17]

"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 [Pg 18]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 [Pg 19]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.

[Pg 20]

"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 [Pg 21]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.

[Pg 22]

"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 [Pg 23]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 [Pg 24]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 [Pg 25]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:

[Pg 26]"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!"

[Pg 27]

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 [Pg 28]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, leav[Pg 29]ing the Candy Rabbit and the Sawdust Doll together, with no one to watch what they said or did.