But the Candy Rabbit was not made ill.  The lady stopped turning him around and around and said to the girl clerk: 

“This Rabbit seems to be just what I want for an Easter present.  I’ll take him.”

“Shall I send it or will you take it with you?” asked the clerk.

“Ill take it,” the lady answered.  “A Candy Rabbit is not very hard to carry.”

She handed him back to the clerk, but something happened.  Whether the clerk did not take a good hold of the Candy Rabbit, or whether the lady let go of him too soon, I don’t know.  But, all of a sudden, the Candy Rabbit slipped from the lady’s hand and began falling.  Straight toward the floor he fell!

“Oh!” he thought, “if I fall to the hard floor I shall certainly be smashed, and then I shall be of no use as an Easter present.  All I’ll be good for will be to be eaten, like any other piece of candy!  Oh, dear, this is dreadful!”

Faster and faster, nearer and nearer to the floor fell the Candy Rabbit, and, while the customer and the clerk looked, it seemed certain that he must be broken all to bits.

But listen!

The toy counter was not far away from the one where the Candy Rabbit and other Easter novelties were displayed.  And on the counter were the Calico Clown and the Monkey on a Stick, besides a Jumping Jack.

Now whether one of these toys pushed it off the counter I cannot say; all I know is that a big, soft, rubber ball suddenly fell to the floor from the toy counter, rolled along and came to a stop just at the very place where the Candy Rabbit was falling.

And what did the Candy Rabbit do but fall on the soft, rubber ball!  Right down on the squidgy-squdgy ball toppled the sweet chap, and it was like falling on a feather bed.  The Candy Rabbit was not hurt a bit, but just bounced straight up, almost as far as he had fallen down, and the girl clerk caught him in her hands.

“Oh, I’m so glad he wasn’t broken!” she exclaimed.

“So am I!” said the lady.  “How remarkable!  The rubber ball rolled along just in time.  If every time any one or anything fell a rubber ball would happen along it would be very nice, wouldn’t it?”

“Indeed it would,” answered the girl clerk.

And, mind you, I’m not saying that the Calico Clown or the Monkey on a Stick pushed the rubber ball off the toy counter so that it rolled over in time for the Candy Rabbit to fall on it.  I am not saying that for sure, but it might have happened.

“I’d better wrap this Rabbit up before anything else happens to him,” said the clerk, with a laugh.

“Please do,” begged the lady.

As for the Candy Rabbit, his little sugar heart was beating very fast because of the fright he had got when he thought he was going to be broken to bits.  But of course neither the lady nor the girl knew this.  They just thought he was made of sugar, and nothing else.