The pony was soon fed, and then, with the Candy Rabbit in his pocket and slowly wheeling the empty barrow, Patrick made his way to Madeline’s house.  He knocked at the back door, and the cook, with a dab of flour on her nose, answered.

“What have you been doing to yourself, Cook?” asked the gardener, with a laugh.

“Why?  Is anything wrong?” she asked, rather surprised.

“Your nose is dabbed with flour,” went on Patrick.

“Oh, that!” laughed the cook.  “You see, Madeline is going to have a party, and I’m so busy making cookies and cakes that it’s a wonder flour isn’t all over my face as well as on my nose.  But what have you there?” she asked, seeing the Bunny in Patrick’s hand.

“Madeline’s Candy Rabbit,” answered the gardener.  “I don’t know how it got in my barrow of grass, but I brought him back.  Is Madeline in?”

“Yes, I’ll call her,” said the cook.

And when the little girl came running out and saw her Bunny, she was much surprised.

“Why!  Why!  How did you get him, Patrick?” she asked.  “I left him up on the bathroom window sill to dry, after he fell into the bathtub.”

“Ah, that accounts for it then!” laughed the gardener.  “The wind must have blown him out of the window, and he fell into my barrow just as I set it down to rest.  Well, it’s lucky I had grass in the barrow instead of stones.  If your rabbit had fallen on them he might have broken off his ears.”

“That would have been dreadful!” exclaimed Madeline.  “Oh, thank you, so much, Patrick, for bringing my Bunny back to me.”

“Well, keep him safe, now you have him,” advised Patrick.

Then he went off whistling and trundling his empty wheelbarrow, and once more the Candy Rabbit was back with Madeline, where he belonged, and thankful to be there.

“You are nice and dry now,” said the little girl, as she looked over her Easter toy.  “And you didn’t get any more grass stains on you when you fell out of the window.  Your ear it still a little bent, but that only makes you look more stylish.

“Now I am going to put a new pink ribbon on your neck, ’cause the one I took off when I was going to wash you is all soiled.  I’ll put a new ribbon on you and then you may come to the party to-morrow.”

Madeline told her mother how the Rabbit had fallen out of the window.  Then the little girl got a pretty pink ribbon, and, after tying it on his neck, she again showed her Easter present to Mirabell and Dorothy.

“He looks as good as new,” said Mirabell.

“Yes,” agreed Dorothy.  “I guess falling into the bathtub and the wheelbarrow of grass did him good.”

“And we’ll have lots of fun at the party,” said Madeline.  “Now I will put my Rabbit away, and we’ll get ready for a good time.”

The Rabbit was set on a shelf in a dark closet.

“Well, goodness knows I am glad to be by myself for a while and keep quiet,” thought the sugary chap, as he sat down on the shelf in the dark.  “I have had enough of adventures for a day or two.  I wonder if there is any one here to whom I can talk.  I wish the Sawdust Doll or the Bold Tin Soldier or the Calico Clown were here.  They would love to hear me tell of what has happened.”