《The velveteen rabbit》(绒布小兔子)

THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really splendid. He was

fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real

thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he

sat wedged in the top of the Boy's stocking, with a sprig of holly between his paws, the

effect was charming.

There were other things in the stocking, nuts and oranges and a toy engine, and chocolate

almonds and a clockwork mouse, but the Rabbit was quite the best of all. For at least two

hours the Boy loved him, and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner

, and there was a great

rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the excitement of looking at all

the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten.

For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor

, and no one thought

very much about him. He was naturally shy, and being only made of velveteen, some of the

more

expensive

toys

quite

snubbed

him.

The

mechanical

toys

were

very

superior

,

and

looked down upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended they

were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and lost most of his paint,

caught the tone from them and never missed an opportunity of referring to his rigging in

technical terms. The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn't know

that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he

understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern

circles. Even Timothy, the jointed wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and

should

have

had

broader

views,

put

on

airs

and

pretended

he

was

connected

with

Government.

Between

them

all

the

poor

little

Rabbit

was

made

to

feel

himself

very

insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who was kind to him at all was the

Skin Horse.

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that

his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the

hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen

a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger

, and by-and-by break

their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never

turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those

playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about

it.

nursery fender

, before Nana came to tidy the room.

inside you and a stick-out handle?

a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you

become Real.

don't mind being hurt.

That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or

who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has

been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby.

But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to

people who don't understand.

thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.

The

Rabbit

sighed.

He

thought

it

would

be

a

long

time

before

this

magic

called

Real

happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of

growing shabby and losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could

become it without these uncomfortable things happening to him.

There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of

the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no reason whatever

, she went swooping

about like a great wind and hustled them away in cupboards. She called this

and the playthings all hated it, especially the tin ones. The Rabbit didn't mind it so much,

for wherever he was thrown he came down soft.

One evening, when the Boy was going to bed, he couldn't find the china dog that always

slept with him. Nana was in

hurry, and it was too much trouble to hunt for china dogs at

bedtime, so she simply looked about her

, and seeing that the toy cupboard stood open, she

made a swoop.

Rabbit out by one ear

, and put him into the Boy's arms.

That night, and for many nights after

, the Velveteen Rabbit slept in the Boy's bed. At first

he found it uncomfortable, for the Boy hugged him very tight, and sometimes he rolled

over on him, and sometimes he pushed him so far under the pillow that the Rabbit could

scarcely breathe. And he missed, too, those long moonlight hours in the nursery, when all

the house was silent, and his talks with the Skin Horse. But very soon he grew to like it, for

the Boy used to talk to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he

said were like the burrow the real rabbits lived in. And they had splendid games together

, in

whispers, when Nana had gone away to her supper and left the night-light burning on the

mantelpiece. And when the Boy dropped off to sleep, the Rabbit would snuggle down close

under his little warm chin and dream, with the Boy's hands clasped close round him all

night long.

And

so

time

went

on,

and

the

little

Rabbit

was

very

happy

--

so

happy

that

he

never

noticed

how

his beautiful

velveteen

fur

was

getting

shabbier

and

shabbier

, and

his

tail

becoming unsewn, and all the pink rubbed off his nose where the Boy had kissed

Spring came, and they had long days in the garden, for wherever the Boy went the Rabbit

went too. He had rides in the wheelbarrow, and picnics on the grass, and lovely fairy huts

built for him under the raspberry canes behind the flower border

. And once, when the Boy

was called away suddenly to go to tea, the Rabbit was left out on the lawn until long after

dusk, and Nana had to come and look for him with the candle because the Boy couldn't go

to sleep unless he was there. He was wet through with the dew and quite earthy from

diving into the burrows the Boy had made for him in the flower bed, and Nana grumbled as

she rubbed him off with a corner of her apron.

When the little Rabbit heard that he was happy, for he knew what the Skin Horse had said

was true at last. The nursery magic had happened to him, and he was a toy no longer

. He

was Real. The Boy himself had said it.

That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in his little sawdust

heart that it almost burst. And into his boot-button eyes, that had long ago lost their polish,

there came a look of wisdom and beauty, so that even Nana noticed it next morning when

she

picked

him

up,

and

said,

declare

if

that

old

Bunny

hasn't

got

quite

a

knowing

expression!

That was a wonderful Summer!

Near the house where they lived there was a woods, and in the long June evening the Boy

liked to go there after tea to play. He took the Velveteen Rabbit with him, and before he

wandered off to pick flowers, or play at brigands among the trees, he always made the

Rabbit a little nest somewhere among the bracken, where he would be quite cosy, for he

was a kind-hearted little boy and he liked Bunny to be comfortable. One evening, while the

Rabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro between his velvet paws

in the grass, he saw two strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near him.

They were rabbits like himself, but quite furry and brand-new. They must have been very

well made, for their seams didn't show at all, and they changed shape in a queer way when

they moved; one minute they were long and thin and the next minute fat and bunchy,

instead of always staying the same like he did. Their feet padded softly on the ground, and

they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses, while the Rabbit stared hard to see

which side the clockwork stuck out, for he knew that people who jump generally have

something to wind them up. But he couldn't see it. They were evidently a new kind of

rabbit altogether

.

They stared at him, and the little Rabbit stared back. And all the time their noses twitched.

stood on his hind legs.

threw him, but of course he didn't want to say so.

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 rabbit wouldn't notice.

But the wild rabbits have very sharp eyes. And this one stretched out his neck and looked.

began to laugh.

around and dance, till the little Rabbit got quite dizzy.

But all the while he was longing to dance, for a funny new tickly feeling ran through him,