“Oh, look!” cried Madeline!  “There he is—­my Candy Rabbit!  How did he get in the basket?  Oh, Mother, my Candy Rabbit has come home to me!”

Madeline’s mother was just as astonished as was the little girl; and Peddler Joe was surprised also.

“How did my little girl’s Candy Rabbit get in your basket?” asked Madeline’s mother.

“I don’t know,” Joe answered.  “I did not know he was here.  He is a surprise to me.  If he is yours, take him.”

He handed the Candy Rabbit to Madeline, who was overjoyed to get her Easter toy back again.  Eagerly she looked at him, to make sure he was not hurt or damaged.

“Are you sure he is the same Rabbit—­your Candy Rabbit?” asked Mother.

“Oh, yes, very sure,” answered Madeline.  “Look, here is the green spot on his ear, where he fell in the grass the day the boys tied him to the kite tail.  And, see! one ear is bent a little.  It happened when he was too near the heat, the day I was eating chocolate from the cake dishes.  He’s my Candy Rabbit, all right!”

“Then I am glad you have him back, little girl,” said Peddler Joe.  “Rosa must have take him by mistook, you know—­she pick him up when she go around with the organ.”

Then he told how his little niece had found the Rabbit, and, thinking the toy belonged to no one, had brought it home.

“I buy her another Rabbit so she not be feeling bad,” said Joe, with a smile.  “She did not mean to take yours, little girl.  And now maybe you want some needles or pins?” he said to Madeline’s mother.

“Yes, I think I will buy a few, because you were so good as to bring back my little girl’s Easter present that was given her by her aunt,” Mother said.  And Joe was glad because he had sold something from his basket.

Madeline was glad to get back her Candy Rabbit, and she stayed so long looking at him that her mother said: 

“You had better run on, or your little friends will grow impatient waiting for you, my dear.  Put your Rabbit away, and hurry along now.”

So Madeline put her Rabbit on a shelf in the playroom, and went out to play, and her mother gave Joe money for pins, needles and some court-plaster.

“Maybe I have good luck and make a lot of money to-day, and then I buy Rosa a nice Candy Rabbit for herself,” the peddler said to himself, as he went down the street.

And, while I am about it, I might as well tell you that Joe did buy Rosa a nice Rabbit for herself.  He took it home to her that night, lifting it out of his basket and putting it into her hands.

When the organ grinder’s little girl awakened and found that her peddler uncle had gone, taking his basket and the Rabbit she had put to sleep in it without his knowledge, Rosa felt very bad.  She was sad as she gathered pennies for her father that day.

But at night, when Uncle Joe came back with a new Candy Rabbit, Rosa was happy again.  And Madeline was happy with her own Easter toy.