有声英语儿童童话故事 绒布兔子 第4章

“Does it happen all at once, likebeing wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,”said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’thappen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to becarefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has beenloved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and veryshabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’tbe ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

“I suppose you are real?” saidthe Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the SkinHorse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

“The Boy’s Uncle made me Real,”he said. “That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can’tbecome unreal again. It last  foralways.”

The Rabbit sighed. He thought itwould be a long time before this magic called Real happened to him. He longedto become Real, to know what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabbyand losing his eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could becomeit without these uncomfortable things happening to him.