Название: I Love Animal Stories
Автор: Aesop
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Книги для детей: прочее
isbn: 4064066399108
isbn:
"I am the nursery magic Fairy," she said. "I take care of all the playthings that the children have loved. When they are old and worn out and the children don't need them any more, then I come and take them away with me and turn them into Real."
"Wasn't I Real before?" asked the little Rabbit.
"You were Real to the Boy," the Fairy said, "because he loved you. Now you shall be Real to every one."
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.
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.
Uncle Wiggily's Adventures & Other Tales
(Howard R. Garis):
Uncle Wiggily's Adventures
STORY I UNCLE WIGGILY STARTS OFF
STORY II UNCLE WIGGILY GOES FISHING
STORY III UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BLACK CROW
STORY IV UNCLE WIGGILY AND FIDO FLIP-FLOP
STORY V UNCLE WIGGILY DOES SOME TRICKS
STORY VI UNCLE WIGGILY AT THE PARTY
STORY VII UNCLE WIGGILY IN A PARADE
STORY VIII UNCLE WIGGILY IN THE FOUNTAIN
STORY IX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE DOG
STORY X UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MONKEY
STORY XI UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE BOYS
STORY XII UNCLE WIGGILY IN A BALLOON
STORY XIII UNCLE WIGGILY IN AN AUTO
STORY XIV UNCLE WIGGILY IN A BOAT
STORY XV UNCLE WIGGILY MAKES A PIE
STORY XVI UNCLE WIGGILY AND PERCIVAL
STORY XVII UNCLE WIGGILY IN A WELL
STORY XVIII UNCLE WIGGILY AND JENNIE CHIPMUNK
STORY XIX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE LANTERN
STORY XX UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE PAPER HOUSE
STORY XXI UNCLE WIGGILY IN A PAPER BOAT
STORY XXII UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE MUD PIE