Rosa’s uncle and her father told her it was wrong to have taken another little girl’s toy without asking, and she was sorry when she understood that, but she was happy with her new plaything.

In the afternoon Mirabell and Dorothy went home with Madeline.

“I want to show you my Candy Rabbit again,” Madeline said to her little girl chums.

And when Mirabell and Dorothy had looked at the Rabbit, seeing the speck of green paint on one ear and the other ear that was a little bent from the heat, Madeline said: 

“I’m going to wash him!”

Without saying anything to her mother about it, Madeline took her Candy Rabbit, and, with her two little friends, went up to the bathroom.  She drew the tub full of water, and while she was doing this she set the Rabbit on a glass shelf near the towel rack.

“Are you going to let him swim in the bathtub?” asked Dorothy.

“Goodness me, I hope not!” thought the Candy Rabbit, who heard this question.  “I can’t swim!  I’ll surely drown if she puts me in the bathtub!”

And he was glad when he heard Madeline say: 

“No, I’m not going to put him in the tub.  But I want plenty of water, for I must get him nice and clean.  I’m going to have a party, and I want my Candy Rabbit to look pretty.  I’ll dip my nail brush in the bathtub and scrub him.”

“And we’ll help you,” said Dorothy and Mirabell.

“There, I guess I have water enough,” said Madeline, as she turned off the tub faucet.  There were some drops of water on her hands, and she reached for a towel to dry them.

How it happened none of the little girls knew, but the towel on the rack must have caught on the Candy Rabbit, sitting on the glass shelf.  And when Madeline pulled the towel she pulled her Easter toy off the shelf and into the bathtub of water.

“Splish!  Splash!” went the Candy Rabbit into the water.

“Oh, I’m going to drown!  I know I’m going to drown!” thought the poor sweet chap, as the water closed over his ears.

CHAPTER VIII

IN A WHEELBARROW

Madeline screamed, Mirabell screamed, and Dorothy screamed.  The three little girls screamed together when they saw the Candy Rabbit fall into the bathtub.  And, even under water as his ears were, the Candy Rabbit heard them.

“Well, I hope they do something more than yell,” thought the poor, sugary chap.  “If they don’t pull me out pretty soon I’ll melt, as well as drown, and I dare not try to swim when they’re looking at me!”

You know what the rule is in Make-Believe Toyland—­none of the things dare move when human eyes look at them.  And the three little girls were surely looking at the Candy Rabbit now, as he bobbed about in the bathtub.

“Oh, look what happened!” cried Dorothy, pointing to the toy.

“Your Candy Rabbit is in the bathtub!” screamed Mirabell.