old ones who never laughed or smiled the livelong day; boy rabbits and
girl rabbits, mother rabbits and father rabbits, and goodness knows how
many aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, cousins, second cousins and distant
relatives-in-law! They all lived under one big roof in the backyard of the
good old woman who kept them, and they had such jolly times together that
it seemed a shame to separate them.

But once every day the old woman chose several of her pets, and carried
them away in a basket to a certain street corner of the city where she
offered them for sale. She was dreadfully poor, and often when she
returned home at night, counting her money, she would murmur: "It's a
cabbage for them or a loaf of bread for myself. I can't get both."

She didn't always get the loaf of bread, but the rabbits always had their
cabbage. They were all pink-eyed, white rabbits, and people were willing
to pay good prices for them. But the whitest and pinkest-eyed of them all
was Bumper, a tiny rabbit when he was born, and not very big when the old
woman took him away on his first trip to the street corner. Bumper had
never seen so many people before, and he was a little shy and frightened
at first; but Jimsy and Wheedles, his brothers, laughed at his fears, and
told him not to mind.

After that he plucked up courage, and when a little girl suddenly ran out
of the crowd and picked him up in her arms, he tried not to be afraid.
"Oh, you sweet little thing!" the girl exclaimed, pinching his ears
softly. "Where did you come from, and where did you get those pink eyes
and those long, fluffy ears?"

Then the girl kissed Bumper and rubbed his nose against her soft, fresh
young cheek; but when the old lady approached, all smiles, and said, "Want