The Velveteen Rabbit
“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 often happen 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 Marjorie Williams
June 29th, 2006 at 10:36 pm
aw.
June 30th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Woah, I had an book on tape of that when I was about four that I listened to constantly.
July 2nd, 2006 at 8:54 am
i forgot about that book. my mom use to read it to me all the time when i was little. i loved it. beautiful memories.
July 2nd, 2006 at 12:04 pm
i think we still have a copy in the basement. next to “mcelligot’s pool” and “harold and the purple crayon”