Well, then Susie began to cry, and I don’t blame her a bit.  I think I would do the same myself.  Yes, she sat right down and cried.  Then she felt hungry and she looked around for something to eat, and what should she see, right there in the woods, but a carrot.

“Oh!” she cried, “how lucky!  Now I shan’t be hungry, anyhow.”  So she picked up the carrot and started to eat it, when all at once that carrot spoke to her.  What’s that?  You don’t see how a carrot could speak?  Well, it did all the same.  But you just listen, please, and maybe you’ll see how it happened.

“Please don’t eat me,” the carrot said, in a squeaky voice.

“Why not?” asked Susie, who was very much surprised.

“Because I am a fairy carrot,” it went on.  Now do you see how it could speak?  Well, I guess!  “Yes, I am a fairy carrot, Susie, and I can help you.  What do you want most?” it asked.

“I want to find my way home,” said the little rabbit girl.

“Very well, my dear,” went on the vegetable.  “Place me on the ground in front of you, stand on your hind legs, wiggle your left ear, and see what happens.”

So Susie did this, and would you believe me, for I’m not exaggerating the least bit, if that fairy carrot didn’t roll right along on the ground in front of Susie.

    “Follow, follow, follow me,
    And you soon at home will be,”

the carrot said, in a sing-song voice, and it rolled on, still more, and Susie followed.

First the carrot went through a deep, dark part of the woods, but Susie wasn’t at all afraid, for she believed in fairies.  Then, pretty soon, the carrot came to a great big hole.  It was too big to jump over, and too deep to crawl down into, and too wide to run around.

“Oh, dear!” cried Susie, “I don’t see how I’m going to get over this.”  But do you s’pose that carrot was bothered?  No, sir; not the least bit.  It stretched out, like a piece of rubber, and stuck itself across that hole until it was a regular little bridge, and Susie could walk safely over.  Then it became an ordinary fairy carrot again, and rolled on in front of her, showing her just which way to go.

After a while she came to a great big lake, one she had never seen before.

“Oh, how shall we get over this?” cried Susie.

“Don’t worry,” spoke the carrot.  Then what did it do but turn into a little boat, and Susie got into it, and sailed over that lake as nicely as you please.  Then it turned into an ordinary, garden, fairy carrot again, and rolled on, Susie following.  Pretty soon they came to a place where the woods and brush were all on fire.

“Oh, I know we shall never get over that place!” exclaimed Susie, for she was very much afraid of fire, because she once burned a hole in her apron.