"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 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.
Dedicated to Amber, Danielle and Ally Pooh for making me REAL!
Excerpt from
The Velveteen Rabbit
or
How Toys Become Real
by
Margery Williams
Illustration at top by
Michael Green
Copyright 1989 Running Press
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