有声英语儿童童话故事 绒布兔子 第9章

Near the house where they livedthere was a wood, and in the long June evenings the Boy liked to go there aftertea to play. He took the Velveteen Rabbit with him, and before he wandered offto pick flowers, or play at brigands among the trees, he always made the Rabbita little nest somewhere among the bracken, where he would be quite cosy, for hewas a kind-hearted little boy and he liked Bunny to be comfortable. Oneevening, while the Rabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran toand fro between his velvet paws in the grass, he saw two strange beings creepout of the tall bracken near him.

They were rabbits like himself,but quite furry and brand-new. They must have been very well made, for theirseams didn’t show at all, and they changed shape in a queer way when theymoved; one minute they were long and thin and the next minute fat and bunchy,instead of always staying the same like he did. Their feet padded softly on theground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses, while theRabbit stared hard to see which side the clockwork stuck out, for he knew thatpeople who jump generally have something to wind them up. But he couldn’t seeit. They were evidently a new kind of rabbit altogether.