“Why, Tom!” exclaimed his mother.

“This Rabbit belongs to Madeline.  I saw it over at her house when I called there one day.  Did you take Madeline’s Rabbit when you were in her house at the party?  Oh, Tom, what a naughty boy!  I am so sorry!”

She reached over and took the Candy Rabbit just in time, for Tom had been going to break off the ears.

“Why did you take it?” asked Tom’s mother.

“Oh, er—­just—­because,” he answered, squirming around.  “Dick and Arnold had something, and I wanted something in my pocket.  So I took the Rabbit.”

“I must take it back and tell Madeline you are sorry, and you must tell her so yourself the next time you see her,” said Tom’s mother.

Tom’s mother took the Easter toy back to Madeline, who had just missed him, and she and all the boys and girls still left at the party were hunting for him.

“Please forgive Tom for being so naughty as to take your Candy Rabbit,” begged the boy’s mother, and Madeline said she would.

“Oh, I am so glad to have you back!” cried Madeline, hugging her Candy Rabbit.

“And I am glad to get back,” said the Rabbit, though of course he dared not speak aloud.

Madeline smoothed out the pink ribbon on the Bunny’s neck.  It had been crumpled in Tom’s pocket.  Then the little girl put her Rabbit away on a shelf in a closet while she helped her mother and the cook clear away the things after the party.

“Dear me, I wonder what will happen next,” said the Candy Rabbit, out loud, for he knew no one could hear him in there.

“Why, has anything happened to you?” asked a voice.

“I should say so!” exclaimed the Candy Rabbit.  “But who are you, if I may ask?”

“Oh, I’m a match-safe Cat,” was the answer, and then, his eyes having become used to the dark, the Candy Rabbit saw that he was sitting near a hollow porcelain Cat, used to hold burnt matches.

“Dear me, how strange!” murmured the Bunny.

“It is no stranger to see a Cat full of burnt matches than it is to see a Candy Rabbit with pink glass eyes,” was the answer.

“I suppose not,” agreed the Candy Bunny.

Then the Rabbit and the Cat became good friends and told each other stories there in the dark closet.

“My! you certainly have had some adventures,” mewed the Cat, when she had heard about the Bunny’s trip on the tail of a kite.

“Did nothing exciting ever happen to you?” the Rabbit wanted to know.

“Yes, once,” replied the Cat.  “I am hollow, as you see, and I am generally filled with burnt wooden matches.

“Well, one day, somebody put a blazing match in me by mistake, and, in an instant, all the partly burnt matches were on fire.  There I was, all burning up inside.”

“Oh, that must have been dreadful!” cried the Candy Rabbit.

“It was, until Madeline’s mother threw a glass of water over me and put out the fire,” said the Cat.  “Then I was all right, except for being blackened and smoked.  Of course it doesn’t show in the dark, but it’s there all the same.”