有声英语儿童童话故事 绒布兔子 第16章

That night the Boy slept in adifferent bedroom, and he had a new bunny to sleep with him. It was a splendidbunny, all white plush with real glass eyes, but the Boy was too excited tocare very much about it. For to-morrow he was going to the seaside, and that initself was such a wonderful thing that he could think of nothing else.

And while the Boy wasasleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little Rabbit lay among the oldpicture-books in the corner behind the fowl-house, and he felt very lonely. Thesack had been left untied, and so by wriggling a bit he was able to get hishead through the opening and look out. He was shivering a little, for he hadalways been used to sleeping in a proper bed, and by this time his coat hadworn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it was no longer any protectionto him. Near by he could see the thicket of raspberry canes, growing tall andclose like a tropical jungle, in whose shadow he had played with the Boy onbygone mornings. He thought of these long sunlight t hours in the garden–howhappy they were–and a great sadness came over him. He seemed to see them allpass before him, each more beautiful than the other, the fairy huts in theflower-bed, the quiet evenings in the wood when he lay in the bracken and thelittle ants ran over his paws; the wonderful day when he first knew that he wasReal. He thought of the Skin Horse, so wise and gentle, and all that he hadtold him. Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s beauty and become Realif it all ended like this? And a tear, a real tear, trickled down his littleshabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.