"THE VELVETEEN CABBIT"
There once was a velveteen cabbit, and in the beginning she was really splendid. She was as bushy and kawaii as a cabbit should be; her coat was a perfect brown, with front paws as white as snow. On her head was a splendid red jewel made of paste, just like other cabbits. She had real whiskers, and her ears were lined with silk and pink satin. It was Christmas morning when she sat wedged in the top of the boy's stocking, with sprig of Jurdain tree between her paws, the effect was charming. There were other things in the stockings -- nuts and little exotic fruits from Namigi, a toy space tree, chocolate almonds, and a clockwork guardian log, but the cabbit was quite the best of all. For at least two hours, the little boy played with her, smashing her through walls of blocks...
"You're a real cabbit, look at you fly..." The cabbit very much enjoyed herself as she played with the boy, even if he was a little bit rough on her brand new velveteen fur.
"Kagato! Your aunts and uncles are here!"
There was a great rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels as new visitors trounced though the door, and in the excitement of new presents the velveteen cabbit was forgotten.
For a long time she lived in the toy cupboard on the nursery floor, and no one thought very much about her. She was naturally a very shy and plain toy, made of velvet and cloth, so some of the more expensive toys quite snubbed her. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down upon everyone else. They were full of modern ideas, and pretended they were real. The model Tsunami treeship, with her foldable wings, had lived through two seasons and lost most of her paint. She caught the tone from them and never missed a moment to put the Velveteen cabbit down.
"It's not as though you can fly! Hah, you can't even move. Now watch for my light-hawk wings as I transform!" scoffed Tsunami.
The cabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for she didn't know that real cabbits existed; she thought they were all stuffed with cotton just like herself. She understood that cotton was quite commonplace stuff, and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
Between them all, the poor little cabbit was made to feel very insignificant and inferior, and the only one who was kind to her at all was the Washu Horse.
The Washu Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. She was so old that her brown coat was bald in patches and showed the little seams underneath, and most of the red flaming hairs in her tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. She was wise, for she had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger. But eventually their wings would come off and they would never learn, for she knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else.
For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, especially on the planet of Jurai, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Washu Horse understand all about it.
"What is real?" asked the cabbit one day, when they were lying side by side on the nursery shelf, before Mihoshi came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things move and do motion that let you transform? Is it what's inside of me?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Washu Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, and not just to play with and smash through blocks, but when he really loves you, then you become real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the inquisitive cabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Washu Horse, for she was always truthful. "But when you are real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," she asked, "or does it happen bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Washu Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. It's not a magical girl transformation. That's why it doesn't happen often to toys who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept."
The both of them watched the innocent Kagato, with his light blue pig-tailed hair, smash two treeships into each other, their wings breaking and flying apart. The velveteen cabbit shuddered.
The old Washu Horse continued. "Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
"I suppose you're real?" said the cabbit. And then she wished she had not said it, for she thought the Washu Horse might be a tad sensitive, not having much red hair anymore. But the Washu Horse only smiled as she rocked back and forth.
"Kagato's Uncle made me real," she said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are real you can't become unreal again. It lasts forever."
The cabbit sighed. She thought it would be a long time before this magic called real happened to her. She longed to become real, to know what it felt like.
And yet the idea of growing shabby and losing her eyes and whiskers was rather sad. The cabbit wished that she could become it without these uncomfortable things happening to her. She didn't want to turn out like Washu Horse, all worn out with no hair...
And so, the days continued. There was a person called Mihoshi who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she took no notice of the playthings lying about. "Oh dear, this place is a mess! What am I going to do?"
Swooping about like a great wind, the bubby blonde would gather all the playthings in her arms, hustling them away into cupboards. She called this "tidying up," and the playthings all hated it, especially the metal mechanical ones. The cabbit didn't mind it so much, for wherever she was thrown she came down nice and soft.
One evening, when little Kagato was going to bed, she couldn't find the plushie Genius that he always slept with. Mihoshi was in a hurry, and it was too much trouble to find Genius for Kagato at bedtime, so she simply looked about her, and seeing that the toy cupboard stood open, she made a swoop.
"Here," she said, "Take your kawaii cabbit! You can sleep with her!" And she dragged the cabbit out by one scruffy ear, and put her into Kagato's arms.
That night, and for many nights after, the velveteen cabbit slept in Kagato's bed. At first, she found it uncomfortable, for Kagato hugged her very tight, and sometimes he rolled over on her, and sometimes he pushed her so far under the pillow that the cabbit could scarcely breathe. And most of all, little Kagato would talk in his sleep. "Where is my Genius, I want to hug her..." And the cabbit immediately missed, those long moonlight hours in the nursery, when all the house was silent, and her nightly talks with the Washu Horse.
But very soon she grew to like it, for Kagato started to talk to her, and made nice tunnels for her under the bedclothes that he said were like the burrows real cabbits lived in. And they had splendid games together, in whispers, when Mihoshi had gone away to her dinner and left them together.
"What fun games we play," said little Kagato, "when we take down Tsunami! We will surely take over the whole universe tomorrow!" And when Kagato dropped off to sleep, the cabbit would snuggle down close under his little warm chin and dream, with Kagato's hands clasped close round her all night long.
And so time went on, and the little cabbit was very happy--so happy that she never noticed how her beautiful velveteen fur was getting shabbier and shabbier, and her little bushy brown tail had become unsown, and all the pink rubbed off her nose where Kagato had kissed her after his great imaginary victories.
Spring came, and they had long days in the garden, for wherever Kagato went the cabbit went as well. She had rides in the wheelbarrow as they pretended to fly in space, picnics on the grass, and lovely subspace labs built for her under the raspberry canes behind the flower border.
And once, when little Kagato was called away suddenly to go to tea, the cabbit was left out on the lawn until long after dusk, and Mihoshi had to come and look for him because Kagato couldn't go to sleep unless she was there. She was wet through and through with dew and quite earthy from diving into the burrows Kagato had made for her in the flowerbeds. Mihoshi grumbled as she rubbed the cabbit off with a corner of her apron.
"You have to have your old cabbit!" she said. " Stop crying over some stuffed plushie!"
"Give me my cabbit!" he said. "You mustn't say that. She isn't a toy. She a fighting cabbit! She's REAL!"
When the little cabbit heard that, she was happy, for she knew what the Washu Horse said was true at last. The nursery magic had happened to her, and she was a toy no longer. She was real. She was a real cabbit. Kagato himself had said it.
That night she was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred in her little cotton heart that it almost burst. And into her pearly-white eyes, that had long ago lost their polish, there came a look of wisdom and beauty, so that even Mihoshi noticed it next morning when she picked her up and said, "Gee, this cabbit looks like it knows something important!"
And what a wonderful summer it was!
Near the house where they lived there was a forest, and in the long June evenings little Kagato liked to go there after lunch to play. He took the velveteen cabbit with him, and before he wandered off to pick wild carrots for his cabbit, Kagato always made her a little nest somewhere among the bushes, where she would be quite cozy and able to ambush the enemy.
One evening, while the cabbit was lying there alone, watching the ants that ran to and fro between her velvet paws, she saw two strange beings creep out of the tall grasses near her. They were cabbits like herself, but quite furry and brand new. They must have been very well made, for their seams didn't show at all, and they changed shape in a queer way when they moved. One minute they were long and thin and the next minute fat and bunchy instead of always staying the same like she did. Their feet padded softly on the ground, and they crept quite close to her, twitching their noses.
Meanwhile, she looked hard to see which side the battery cover was, for she knew that the moving cabbits generally have something to keep them fed. But she couldn't see it. These were evidently a new kind of cabbit altogether.
They stared at her, and the little cabbit stared back. And all this time, their noses twitched.
"I'm Mazoku-ohki, the kawaii evil one. That's Tux-ohki over there. Why don't you get up and play with us?" he asked. "We love to cause mischief."
"I don't feel like it," said the cabbit, for she didn't want to explain that she had no batteries and was only made of cotton on the inside.
"Ho!" said the furry cabbit. "It's as easy as anything," as he gave a big hop sideways and stood on his hind legs.
"I don't believe you can!" exclaimed Tux-ohki.
"I can!" said the little cabbit. "I can jump higher than anything." She meant when little Kagato threw her into the air, but of course she didn't want to say so.
"Can you hop on your hind legs?" asked Mazoku-ohki.
That was a dreadful question, for the velveteen cabbit had no hind legs at all! The back of her was made all in one piece, almost like a pincushion. She sat still in the straw burrow, and hoped that the other cabbit wouldn't notice.
"I don't want to!" she said again.
But wild cabbits have very sharp eyes. And Tux-ohki stretched out his neck and looked.
"She hasn't got any hind legs," he called out. "Fancy a cabbit without any hind legs!" And he began to laugh.
"I have!" cried the little cabbit, quite flustered at the moment. "I have got hind legs! I am sitting on them."
"Then show me, like this!" said Mazoku-ohki. And he began to whirl around and dance, till the little plushie cabbit got quite dizzy.
"I don't like dancing," she said. "I'd rather sit still!"
But all the time she was longing to dance, for a funny new tickly feeling ran through her, she felt she would give anything in the world to be able to jump about like these wild cabbits did.
The strange cabbit stopped dancing, and came quite close. Mazoku-ohki came so close this time that his long whiskers brushed the velveteen cabbit's ear, and then he wrinkled his nose suddenly and flattened his ears and jumped backwards.
"She doesn't smell right!" he exclaimed. "She isn't a cabbit at all! She isn't real!"
"I am real!" said the little cabbit. "I am real! Kagato said so!" And she nearly began to cry.
"I don't know, Mazoku-ohki." Tux-ohki had a sorry look on his furry face. "She just doesn't seem very real to me. And no, she doesn't look like she's carrying cabbitkins...speaking of which..."
Just then, there was a sound of footsteps as Kagato ran past near them. With a stamp of their paws and a flash of their white tails the two strange cabbits disappeared.
"Come back and play with me!" called the little cabbit. "Please come back! I know I am real!"
But there was no answer; the two wild cabbits were gone. The velveteen cabbit was all alone.
She thought, "Why did they run away like that? Why couldn't they stop and talk to me?"
For a long time she lay very still, hoping that the other cabbits would come back. But they never returned as the sun sank lower. By the time the little white moths fluttered out, little Kagato had come and carried her home.
Weeks passed, and the little cabbit grew very old and shabby, but Kagato loved her just as much. He loved her so hard that he loved all her whiskers off, and the pink lining to her ears turned gray, and her paws were no longer as white as freshly fallen snow. She even began to lose her shape, turning all puffy like a used marshmallow.
She scarcely looked like a cabbit any more, except to little Kagato. To him, she was always his companion on their imaginary attack runs, and that was all that the little cabbit cared about. He didn't mind how she looked to other people, because the magic had made her real, and when you are real, looks don't matter.
And then, one day, little Kagato fell ill.
Strange people came and went in the nursery, and lights were on all night. Through it all the little velveteen cabbit lay there, hidden from sight under the bedclothes. She never stirred, for she was afraid that if they found her, some onesomeone might take her away, and she knew that Kagato needed her.
It was a long weary time, for little Kagato was too ill to play, and the little cabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long. But she snuggled down patiently, and looked forward to the time when Kagato would be well again, and they would go out in the garden and play pirate like they used to. All sorts of delightful things she planned. While Kagato lay dizzy and feverish and half asleep, she crept up close to his pillow and whispered plans and strategies into his ear.
And the fever turned for the better. Little Kagato was able to sit up in bed and look at his picture books, while the little cabbit cuddled close to his side. And one day, they let him get up and get out of his room.
It was a bright sunny morning, and the windows stood wide open. Mihoshi had carried Kagato out on the balcony, wrapped in a blanket, and the little cabbit lay tangled up among the bedclothes, thinking.
Kagato was going to the seaside planet tomorrow. Everything was arranged, and now it only remained to carry out the doctor's orders. They talked about it while the little cabbit lay under the bedclothes, with just her head peeping out while she listened. The room was to be disinfected, and all the books and toys that Kagato had played with in bed must be disintegrated.
"Hurrah!" thought the cabbit. "Tomorrow we shall go to Mirani, the seaside planet!" For Kagato had often talked of Mirani, and he wanted very much to see the beaches, with its big waves and tiny crabs that Kagato would track down and crush with sticks, and the sand castles that he would pretend were ancient ruins and destroy.
Just then, Mihoshi caught sight of her. "How about his old cabbit?" she asked.
"That?" said Dr. Clay. "Why, it's a mass of Romulask germs! Disintegrate it at once."
"What? He'll be crushed!"
"Nonsense! Get him a new one. He mustn't have that any more!"
And so the little cabbit was put into a sack with the old picture books and a lot of rubbish, and carried out to the end of the garden behind the house. It was a fine place to put it, for Tenchi the gardener was too busy just then to take to sacks to the disintegration center on the other side of the city. He had the carrots to dig and Jurdain trees to prune, but next morning he promised to come early and ship out the whole lot.
That night, Kagato slept in a different bedroom, and he had a new cabbit to sleep with him. It was a splendid cabbit, all white plush with real glass eyes, but Kagato was too excited to care very much about it. For tomorrow he was going to the seaside planet, and that in itself was such a wonderful thing that he could think of nothing else.
And while Kagato was asleep, dreaming of Mirani and its wonderful beaches, the little cabbit lay among the old picture books in the corner outside the house feeling very lonely. The sack had been left untied, and so by wiggling a bit, she was able to get her head through the opening and look out. Shivering, for she had always been used to sleeping in a comfy bed, and by this time her coat had worn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it no longer offered her any protection.
Nearby she could see the bushes of raspberry canes, growing tall and close like a tropical jungle, in whose shadows she had played with Kagato on previous mornings. She thought of those long sunlit hours in the garden and how happy they were, and a great sadness came over her.
The memories seemed to pass right before her eyes, of the quiet evenings in the wood when she lay hiding and playing, letting the little ants ran over her paws.
She thought of Washu Horse, so wise and gentle, and all that she had told her. But what use was it to be loved and lose one's beauty and become real if it all ended like this?
And a tear as real as it could be trickled down her little scruffy velvety nose and fell to the ground softly.
Then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen, a miniature tree grew out of the ground, with a mysterious flower on the top, unlike any in the garden. It had delicate and slender green leaves the color of emeralds, and in the center of the leaves was a blossom like a golden cup. It was so beautiful that the little cabbit could dare not say a word, for she just watched it blossoming before her eyes. As it opened, it released a fairy.
She was quite the loveliest of fairies in the whole universe. Her dress was of galaxies strung together like pearls, there were leaves round her neck and in her hair, and her face was like the most perfect flower of all. And she came close to the little cabbit and gathered her up into her arms and kissed her on her velveteen nose that was all damp from tearing.
"Little cabbit," she said, "don't you know who I am?" Her blue within blue eyes sparkled.
The velveteen cabbit looked up at her, and it seemed that she had seen her before, but she couldn't think where.
"I am the nursery magic fairy, Tokimi," she said. "I take care of all the playthings that children have loved. When they are old and worn out, and the children don't need them any more, then I come and take them away with me and turn them into real."
"Wasn't I real before?" asked the little cabbit.
"You were real to Kagato, that mischievous boy," Tokimi said, "because he loved you. Now you shall be real to every one."
And she held the little cabbit close in her arms and flew with her deep into the woods.
It was light now, for the glorious full moon had risen. All the forest was beautiful, and the still lakes reflected the glowing moonlight like magic mirrors.
And in the open field between the trees, wild cabbits danced with their shadows on the velvet grass around a campfire, huddling around their pick of carrots from the previous day. But when they saw the Fairy Tokimi, they all stopped dancing and stood around in a ring to greet her.
"I've brought you a new friend tonight," Tokimi said. "You must be very kind to her and teach her all she needs to know to be a wild cabbit, for she is going to live with you!"
And she kissed the little cabbit again and put her down on the grass.
"Run and play, little cabbit!" she said.
But the little cabbit sat quite still for a moment and never moved. For when she saw all the wild cabbits dancing around her, she suddenly remembered about her hind legs, and she didn't want them to see that she was made all in one piece. What she didn't know was that when Tokimi kissed her that last time, she had changed her altogether.
And she might have sat there a long time too shy to move, if just then something hadn't tickled her nose. Before she thought what she was doing, she lifted her hind toe to scratch it.
And she found that she actually had hind legs! Instead of dingy velveteen, she had brown fur, soft and shiny, her ears twitched by themselves as they plopped naturally, and her whiskers were so long that they brushed the grass. And her forehead jewel! It was real!
She gave one leap and the joy of using those hind legs was so great that she went springing about the grass with them, jumping sideways and whirling round as the others did, and she grew so excited that when at last she did stop to look back for Tokimi, she was gone.
"Hey!" exclaimed Mazoku-ohki, "you're a cabbit! Look at you go!"
She was a real cabbit at last, at home with the other cabbits.
Autumn passed as well as winter. And in the spring, when the days grew warm and sunny, Kagato went out to play in the woods behind the house. While he was playing, two cabbits crept out from the woods to peak a look at him.
One of them was black all over, but the other had a familiar pattern to her fur, with the most perfect snowy white paws. And that little soft nose and round back eyes were so familiar that Kagato thought to himself, "Why, she looks just like my old cabbit plushie that was lost when I had Romulask fever!"
But Kagato never knew that it really was his own cabbit, coming back to look at the child who had first helped her to be real.
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