Dogeared Page: The Velveteen Rabbit

Monday, November 18, 2013


The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"


"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."


"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.


"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."


"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"


"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. 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 the 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."




- The Velveteen Rabbit by Magery Williams

5 comments

  1. Thanks for making me cry Kristian.

    I shouldn't have read it. It always makes me cry.

    bisous
    Suzanne

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    Replies
    1. But good tears, right? Velveteen Rabbit is always Good Tears.

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  2. I remember my mama reading this book to me as a kid! Such a classic!

    Xo, Hannah

    sweetsweetnoir.net

    Reply Delete
  3. Ahh, I just love this book! :)

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  4. This is too great.Just love this book.I would definitely recommend you http://www.apparelnbags.com/rabbit-skins/index.htm

    Reply Delete

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