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"Not now!" was the snarling answer. "I came to pay you back, as I said I would! Only for your toppling over and making the gla.s.s globe tinkle, I would have had a goldfish before this. It's all your fault, and I'm going to pay you back!"

"It was not my fault!" said the Rabbit. "You knocked me over yourself with your switching tail. But if I could have stopped you in any other way from getting a goldfish, I would have done it."

"Ha! So that's the way you feel about it, is it?" growled the cat.

"Well, I'm going to fix you!"

"How?" asked the Candy Rabbit, wondering what was going to happen. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to carry you off to the fields and lose you in the tall gra.s.s," was the answer. "Then the next time I want to catch a goldfish you will not give the alarm."

"Oh, please don't take me away!" begged the Candy Rabbit.

"Yes, I will!" said the cat. "I'll carry you away by that pink ribbon around your neck."

All of a sudden, before the Candy Rabbit could hop out of the way, the bad cat sprang across the room and caught in his teeth the end of the pink ribbon that was around the neck of the Candy Easter toy.

"Stop it! Stop! Please let me go!" cried the Candy Rabbit.

"I'll fix you!" was all the cat answered. Then, carrying the Candy Rabbit in his mouth by means of the ribbon, the bad cat sprang out of the window again and was soon trotting through the tall gra.s.s of the lots near the house where Madeline lived.

The gra.s.s swished and swashed against the legs and ears of the Candy Rabbit as the cat carried him along. The Rabbit was not hurt any, because the ribbon was not tied very tightly about his neck. And of course the cat's teeth did not touch him. But, for all that, the Candy Rabbit was very angry and somewhat alarmed.

"What are you going to do with me?" he asked the cat.

"You'll see!" was the answer. "I'm going to fix you for spoiling my chance of getting a goldfish dinner! I'm going to lose you, and then I'll go back and get a fish."

Carrying the Candy Rabbit a little way farther into the tall gra.s.s, the cat suddenly let go of the ribbon. The Rabbit fell down, but as the gra.s.s was soft, like a cushion, he was not hurt. He gave a little grunt as he fell down.

"Now you stay here a while and see how you like it," said the bad cat, and away he trotted, hoping to get a meal of goldfish this time. And there came to the poor Candy Rabbit from the distance the sound of the Cat's voice as he laughed, "Ha-ha," and snarled, "I've fixed _you_ all right! Ha-ha!"

"Dear me!" thought the poor Candy Rabbit, "I wonder what will happen to me. I must try to get out of here. I can hop, as long as no human eyes see me. Maybe I can get back in time to warn the goldfish of their danger."

The Rabbit tried to hop, but, being made of candy as he was, with rather stiff legs that were not very long, he could not go very fast. And when he had made a few hops he was very tired.

"Dear me! I shall have to stay here forever, perhaps," he sighed. "And, if it rains and I get wet, I'll melt and there will be nothing left of me! Oh, what trouble I am in!"

The Candy Rabbit crouched down in the gra.s.s, and pretty soon he heard some voices talking. He knew they were the voices of boys, and, in a little while, he heard one say:

"Now, Herbert, you hold the kite and I'll run with it."

"All right, d.i.c.k," said some one else. "I hope it flies away up high in the air."

"I'll keep the tail clear of the weeds," said another boy.

"That's the way, d.i.c.k," said the first boy.

The Candy Rabbit, down in the gra.s.s, heard this.

"They must be d.i.c.k, Herbert and Arnold," he thought. "They have come here to fly their kite. I hope they find me and take me home in time to save the goldfish from the cat."

There was more talk and laughter among the boys, but the Candy Rabbit could not see what they were doing. All at once, though, one boy said.

"The tail of the kite is not heavy enough. We've got to tie something to it. And, oh, here is the very thing!" he went on. "We'll give him a ride up in the air!"

"Give who a ride?" asked d.i.c.k, for it was Herbert who had spoken.

"Give Madeline's Candy Rabbit a ride on the end of the kite tail," went on Herbert. "Here's her Rabbit down in the gra.s.s."

"How did he get here?" asked Arnold.

"I don't know. Maybe my sister carried him over the fields to show to some girl and dropped him. But we'll give the Candy Rabbit a ride in the air. He will be just heavy enough for the kite tail. I'll tie him on."

And then, before the Candy Rabbit could hop away, even if he had been allowed to do so (which he was not) Herbert began tying him on the end of the kite tail by means of the pink ribbon.

A moment later the Rabbit felt himself sailing through the air.

CHAPTER V

THE ORGAN GRINDER

Since the Candy Rabbit had left the toy store, after having been put on the Easter novelty counter, so many things had happened that he was beginning to get used to them. But sailing through the air on the tail of a kite was something he had never done before.

Up he went, higher and higher, as the wind blew the kite. The Candy Rabbit looked down toward the ground. It seemed a long way off--very far from him.

"If I should fall now, as I fell when the lady dropped me in the toy store," thought the Candy Rabbit, "I think it would be the end of me.

There is no soft rubber ball here on which to land."

d.i.c.k, Arnold and Herbert, the three boys who had been flying their kite when they found the Candy Rabbit in the gra.s.s, were laughing and shouting as they saw the tail switching to and fro, with the Easter Bunny tied on the end.

"That Rabbit was just the thing needed to make our kite go up," said d.i.c.k.

"Yes," agreed Arnold. "But it's funny the Rabbit was out in the gra.s.s here, wasn't it?"

"Oh, I guess my sister must have dropped him," remarked Herbert. "When we get through flying the kite I'll take the Rabbit off the tail and carry him back to Madeline."

Up and up, and to and fro, switched the Candy Rabbit on the kite tail.

Of course a bunch of gra.s.s, a wad of paper, or even a stone would have been just as well for the boys to have used as a weight. But they had happened to see the Candy Rabbit, and had taken him. Boys are sometimes like that, you know.

How long Herbert, d.i.c.k and Arnold might have let the Candy Rabbit sail about on the end of the kite tail I cannot say, but when the three chums had been having this fun for about half an hour, all of a sudden Madeline and her two friends, Mirabell and Dorothy, came running across the field.

"Oh, Herbert! what do you think?" cried Madeline, when she saw her brother. "That bad old cat came into our house again, and tried to catch one of our goldfish!"

"Did he get any?" asked Herbert.