pony, the
gardener saw something gleaming in the sunshine amid the green stems.

"Hello! what's this?" cried Patrick, leaning over to take a better look.
"What's this in my grass? Can it be a glass bottle? If it is it's a good
thing I didn't give it to the pony, or he might have cut himself on it."

Patrick took the shining object from the midst of the grass. In an
instant he saw what it was.

"A Candy Rabbit! Madeline's Candy Rabbit!" cried the gardener. He knew
it very well, just as he knew the Sawdust Doll, the Lamb on Wheels, and
the Bold Tin Soldier. Madeline had often showed Patrick her Candy
Rabbit.

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