There was once an old woman who had so many rabbits that she hardly knew
what to do. They ate her out of house and home, and kept the cupboard so
bare she often had to go to bed hungry. But none of the rabbits suffered
this way. They all had their supper, and their breakfast, too, even if
there wasn't a crust left in the old woman's cupboard.
There were big rabbits and little rabbits; lean ones and fat ones; comical
little youngsters who played pranks upon their elders, and staid, serious
old ones who never laughed or smiled the livelong day; boy rabbits and
girl rabbits, mother rabbits and father rabbits, and goodness knows how
many aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, second cousins and distant
relatives-in-law! They all lived under one big roof in the backyard of the
good old woman who kept them, and they had such jolly times together that
it seemed a shame to separate them.
But once every day the old woman chose several of her pets, and carried
them away in a basket to a certain street corner of the city where she
offered them for sale. She was dreadfully poor, and often when she
returned home at night, counting her money, she would murmur: "It's a
cabbage for them or a loaf of bread for myself. I can't get both."
She didn't always get the loaf of bread, but the rabbits always had their
cabbage. They were all pink-eyed, white rabbits, and people were willing
to pay good prices for them. But the whitest and pinkest-eyed of them all
was Bumper, a tiny rabbit when he was born, and not very big when the old
woman took him away on his first trip to the street corner. Bumper had
never seen so many people before, and he was a little shy and frightened
at first; but Jimsy and Wheedles, his brothers, laughed at his fears, and
told him not to mind.
After that he plucked up courage, and when a little girl suddenly ran out
of the crowd and picked him up in her arms, he tried not to be afraid.
"Oh, you sweet little thing!" the girl exclaimed, pinching his ears
softly. "Where did you come from, and where did you get those pink eyes
and those long, fluffy ears?"
Then the girl kissed Bumper and rubbed his nose against her soft, fresh
young cheek; but when the old lady approached, all smiles, and said, "Want
him, dear?" she put him down in the basket again.
"Want him? Of course, I want him!" she replied a little scornfully. "But I
can't buy him to-day. I spent all my birthday money on candies and cakes.
Take him now before I steal him and run away."
She was a pretty girl, with red hair, a dimple in her chin, and one big
freckle on the end of her nose; but her eyes were blue, and they made
Bumper think of the sky which he could see through a hole in the roof of
his house. I suppose it was because he had pink eyes that he thought blue
was so becoming to little girls.
That night when he got home, Bumper was bursting with excitement. The
day's experience was enough to cause this, but the words of the little
girl who had spent all of her birthday money for candies and cakes were
fresh in his mind. The first thing he did when he got in his box was to
pester his mother with so many questions that she had hard work answering
them.
"A little girl asked me where I came from, mother, and I couldn't answer
her. Where did I come from?"
"Why, dear, from a snowball, of course. How else could you be so white?"
"And have I pink eyes?" That was the little girl's second question.
"What color did you think they were?" asked Bumper's mother, smiling.
"Look at the eyes of your brothers and sisters."
Bumper looked in Jimsy's and Wheedle's eyes, and saw they were pink, but
he was still doubtful. "But mine," he added, "are you sure they're pink?
They might be green or yellow--"
Mother rabbit laughed and hopped over to a basin of water which the good
old woman kept filled for her pets. "Look in that," she said, "and then
tell me what you see."
Trembling with excitement, Bumper plunged both front paws in the basin,
and the water rippled in little waves so that he could see nothing. He was
terribly disappointed at first, for the water was a little dirty, and he
was afraid the black specks floating in it might be the reflection of his
eyes. Then the water cleared as the dirt settled at the bottom, and
straight up from the depths there glowed two tiny pink spots. Bumper
watched them in silence until his mother asked: "What do you see, dear?"
"Two pink stars!" he murmured.
Mother rabbit, like all fond mothers, smiled and leaned over to kiss the
wet nose of her little one. Jimsy and Wheedles and all the other rabbits
were anxious to see the two pink stars in the water, and they crowded
around the basin to get a look. They held their breath in amazement, for
wonder of wonders! instead of two, there were a dozen tiny pink stars!
They twinkled and flashed, and when they bobbed their heads up the stars
faded away or disappeared entirely.
Mother rabbit, who was very fond of her little ones, smiled proudly, and
said:
"All my children have pink eyes!"
"But don't all rabbits have pink eyes?" asked Bumper, whose little brain
was still bursting with questions.
"No, dear, they do not--only those rabbits that come from snowballs have
pink eyes."
"Oh!" exclaimed one and all, and particularly Bumper, who had started all
this probing into the family history.
Then the last question of the little girl popped up into his head, and
without waiting to catch his breath, or to give his mother time to think
up a suitable answer, he blurted it out.
"Where did I get these long, fluffy ears, mother? The little girl said
they were long and fluffy."
Just to make sure he had not been deceived, he pulled them right down
between his two front paws, and looked at them. They were, indeed, long,
silky and fluffy, and as white as snow.
Mother rabbit shook her head slowly just as if she intended to scold, and
then said in the softest, gentlest of voices:
"I'm afraid that little girl has been putting vain ideas into your head,
dear. You must be careful, and not let compliments about your eyes and
ears spoil you. If you do people won't like you."
Bumper promised not to be spoilt by listening to what little girls said,
and then eagerly repeated his question.
"Why, that is simple enough," Mother rabbit answered, having had time to
think. "When you were only a little snowball, we had to hang you up to
dry, and that pulled your ears out."
That was an answer good enough for any rabbit, and Bumper should have been
satisfied, but he had a very inquisitive mind.
"But why didn't I melt when I was hung up to dry?" he asked quickly.
"Snowballs melt in the sun, don't they?"
"Yes," gravely, "so they do, dear, if you leave them in the sun too long.
But it was mother's business to see that you didn't melt. It's like baking
bread or cake. If you leave the dough in the oven too long it burns up,
and then it isn't either bread or cake. It's very hard to know just when
it's done, and it's harder"--sighing aloud--"for mothers to know just when
a snowball is turning into a white rabbit, and when it's beginning to melt
away into nothing. Now don't ask me any more questions to-night. It's bed
time, and little rabbits with pink eyes should be fast asleep."
Which was true, but Bumper went to sleep dreaming of a million questions
he would ask his mother in the morning.