“He’s going home to his father and mother,” said Mrs. Bunny. “But he said his father and mother were Belgian hares.” “Belgian fiddlesticks!” said his mother. “I’ll teach him to be ashamed of his family!” So she took him home by the ear. He’s quite a different bunny now, and works hard to support his old father and mother, as all good rabbits should. E. Nesbit. [32] [32] April Showers. April Showers. TOMMY was a terrible tease, and poor little Mamie came in for most of the teasing. Tommy wasn’t really an unkind little boy, but he was very thoughtless, and very often he led Mamie into all sorts of scrapes. One day he persuaded her to play at Indians with him; he screwed up her hair into tight knots, made her shut her eyes and then blacked her face. When the little girl looked in the mirror over the mantelpiece and saw how ugly she was, she ran out of the room, meaning to go to Nurse to be washed clean again; but Tommy ran after her, and, just as she was passing the drawing-room door, he gave her a push, and in she went, right into the middle of[33] a group of ladies who were visiting her Mamma. Oh! how angry Mamma was, for she thought Mamie had done it on purpose. [33] But what hurt Mamie’s feelings the most was the way in which Tommy treated her dolls. He didn’t like dolls himself, and he couldn’t understand how his sister could love a silly wax thing. But she did. She thought Rosalind was the sweetest and loveliest of babies. One day Tommy bought a penny squirt. He played for a long time at storms at sea with it, sailing his boat on a big pan of water that stood out in the garden, and squirting at it until it sank. But he grew tired of this, and then he began to squirt Rosalind, as she lay cuddled up in Mamie’s arms. Poor Rosalind! Mamie tried hard to protect her, but in vain. “It’s only an April shower,” said Tommy, laughing. “It won’t hurt her.” But dolly was soon wet through, and the last remaining bit of pink on her cheeks came off when Mamie dried her. The next day
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