"No, but he almost did. Dorothy came over with her Sawdust Doll just as the cat was dipping his paw down into the bowl, and what do you think Dorothy did?" asked Madeline.

"I don't know. What did she do?" asked Herbert.

"I just threw my Sawdust Doll at the cat!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I knew it couldn't hurt her, 'cause she's stuffed with sawdust."

"Did you hit him?" d.i.c.k asked.

"I almost did," answered Dorothy. "Anyhow, I scared him away, and he didn't get any goldfish."

"That's good," said Arnold.

"I wish I'd been there!" said d.i.c.k.

Just then Madeline looked up and saw something dangling on the end of the kite tail.

"Why, Herbert!" she cried, "what have you there? Oh, you have my Candy Rabbit on your kite! I was looking all over for him. Where'd you get him?"

"I found him here in the field where you dropped him," answered her brother.

"I didn't drop my Candy Rabbit here," went on Madeline. "I wouldn't do such a thing. I left him in the house, and then I couldn't find him, and I was coming to ask if you had seen him. I thought maybe Carlo had carried him off as he carried Dorothy's doll once."

"Well, if you didn't take your Candy Rabbit out and leave him here in the field, maybe Carlo did," said Herbert. "Anyhow, we didn't hurt him and you can have him back again. We can tie a bunch of weeds on the kite tail. They'll be just as good as the Rabbit."

"Oh, the idea of saying my Candy Rabbit is like a bunch of weeds!" cried Madeline. "Give him right back to me this minute, Herbert!" and she shook her finger at her brother.

"All right," Herbert answered. "Pull the kite down, fellows."

"All right."

Down came the kite when the string was wound up, and slowly the Candy Rabbit floated back to earth. Madeline stood under the tail with her dress held out to catch the Bunny in it. And down he came, not being hurt a bit. Quickly Madeline loosened her Easter toy from the kite tail, and she nestled him in her arms.

"You poor little Bunny!" she murmured. "I guess he was scared half to death away up there in the air."

She and the other girls looked at the toy. He did not seem to be harmed in the least.

"But he's got a green gra.s.s stain on one ear," said Mirabell.

"That only makes him look more stylish," said Dorothy.

"And green goes well with the pink color of his ribbon," added Madeline.

"Oh, I'm so glad to get my Rabbit back."

Madeline took her Candy Rabbit back to the house. There she and the girls had some fun, and the boys kept on flying the kite. They used a bunch of weeds as a weight on the tail, instead of the Rabbit, as they had done at first.

And of course neither Madeline nor any of the others knew that the cat had carried the Bunny away and had dropped him in the gra.s.sy field. They all thought Carlo had done it, but of course there was no way of finding out for sure, except by reading this book. In this the true story of the Candy Rabbit is told for the first time.

Madeline tried to get the green gra.s.s-stain off her Rabbit's ear, but it would not come out.

"Why don't you sc.r.a.pe it off?" asked Herbert.

"Why, I might sc.r.a.pe off half his ear! No, indeed!" Madeline said.

"Well, wash it off," suggested d.i.c.k, who had come over to play with Herbert. "Take him up to the bathroom and wash his ear. My mother washes my ears."

"Pooh! your ears aren't made of candy," said Madeline.

"No. And I'm glad they're not, or the fellows would be biting pieces off all the while," laughed d.i.c.k.

"Well, I guess I won't wash my Candy Rabbit--at least not just yet,"

said Madeline. "I'll wait until he gets a few more stains on him."

Several days pa.s.sed. The bad cat did not again try to catch the goldfish. He seemed to have been frightened away when Dorothy threw the Sawdust Doll at him. And, I am glad to say, the Doll was not hurt in the least. In fact, she rather liked scaring cats.

One day Madeline took her Candy Rabbit out into the kitchen where the cook was making a cake. She had just put the cake into the oven to bake, and there were several dishes on the table--dishes in which were dabs of sweet, sugary icing and cake batter.

"Oh, may I please clean out some of the cake dishes?" asked Madeline.

"Yes," answered the cook kindly.

This was one of the pleasures Madeline and Herbert enjoyed on baking day, but Herbert was not on hand then, so Madeline had all the dishes to herself. She set her Candy Rabbit on a shelf, got a spoon, and began to clean the icing dish. Of course you know that means she sc.r.a.ped the dish with the spoon and ate the icing she sc.r.a.ped up. Yes, and I think she even licked the spoon. After she had finished the white icing dish there was a chocolate one to start on.

"Oh, I'm going to have a dandy time!" laughed the little girl.

She forgot all about her Candy Rabbit. There he sat on a shelf near the gas stove, and as the cakes in the oven began to bake, the fire grew hotter and hotter and the Candy Rabbit began to feel very strange.

"Dear me, I am afraid I am going to melt!" he said to himself, not daring to speak aloud when Madeline and the cook were there.

The kitchen grew warmer and warmer, the stove became hotter and hotter, and, on the shelf where the Candy Rabbit sat, it was like a summer day in the blazing sun.

"This is worse than anything that ever happened to me before," said the Candy Rabbit. "I think I'll just melt down into a lump of sugar! That would be dreadful!"

Of course it would, and Madeline would have been very sorry if anything like that had happened. One of the ears of the Rabbit was just getting soft and drooping over a little to one side, when the cook happened to look toward the shelf.

"Oh, Madeline, my dear!" she cried. "Your Candy Rabbit!"

"What's the matter?" asked the little girl, looking up from the dish she was sc.r.a.ping clean with a spoon, in order to eat the last of the chocolate inside.

"He will melt if you leave him on that shelf near the hot stove," went on the cook. "Look, one of his ears is drooping!"

"Oh, dear!" screamed Madeline, and, dropping the spoon, she caught her Easter toy from the shelf.

It was only just in time, too, for the poor Rabbit was just beginning to melt. In fact, one of his ears did soften and twist over to one side a little. But Madeline quickly took him out on the cool porch, and the Rabbit felt better. However, that queer twist, or droop, stayed in one ear--not the one with the gra.s.s-stain on, but the other.

"I don't care," Madeline said, when her toy was cool and all right again. "It makes him look different from the other Candy Rabbits to have a twisted ear. It's so funny!"

Happy days followed for the Bunny. The children played sometimes in one house and sometimes in another, taking their toys with them, and sometimes the Rabbit had a chance to talk to the Sawdust Doll, the Bold Tin Soldier, the White Rocking Horse or the Lamb on Wheels, for the children would often leave their toys together, as the boys and girls went out to play in the yards or on the verandas.

"I wonder how the Calico Clown is getting along," said the Candy Rabbit to the Sawdust Doll on one of the days when they were together. They were on the porch of Madeline's house, and Madeline, Mirabell and Dorothy were around in the back yard playing in a sand pile.