And he found that he actually had hind legs!
Instead of dingy velveteen
he had brown fur, soft and shiny, his ears twitched by themsleves, and his whisters 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 around 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, coming back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.
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