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 thought to himself:
"Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet
fever!"
But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look
at the child who had first helped him to be Real.