One afternoon, shortly after the rain had stopped to fall, Billy went out to play.He brought out his colouring books, crayons and even his
building blocks and lined them 
up across the front porch to pass away his time before lunch.
All of a sudden something caught his attention. He heard a small cry coming from the river not far from his house.
From the porch he could see the river, and he could see the smallest boat he had ever seen stranded
among the rocks.
Billy could not believe what he saw next as he got closer to the spot where the little boat had landed. He saw a rabbit who was not that much smaller than he, standing on his hind legs, in the
small gondola, with a crown of twigs, golden leaves and ruby-red berries on his head.
The boy thought he was dreaming and rubbed his eyes. But when he opened
them the little rabbit with the crown of twigs, golden leaves and ruby-red berries was still standing there.
"Please help me," the little rabbit cried. "I was sailing when suddenly a terrible
storm came, and it rained so hard. I could no longer see."
"The next moment, my gondola crashed into the rocks!" The little rabbit said as he pointed to the large white stones.
The little rabbit looked cold and wet and shivered. Then he said to the little boy, "My name is Prince Hoppert, what is your name?" Billy realized that it was
starting to make sense. The crown, the gondola and the way the young rabbit carried himself. He was a prince after all.
"My name is Billy," the young boy said. He smiled widely and said to the young
prince, "You look cold and wet and you probably haven't eaten anything. Why don't you come home with me?"
Prince Hoppert nodded, shaking his long droopy ears and put out his hand for
the little boy to help him out of his gondola.
Once at home, the boy snuck Prince Hoppert upstairs. He knew that his mother would think Prince Hoppert were a wild rabbit and would not let him in the
house. If only he could convince the Rabbit to speak to his mother but the little prince had never been away from his home before and was very frightened.
Billy helped dry the young prince off with a towel. As the rabbit's fur dried he realized how shiny it was. And that he was beige all over except for his fluffy tail. It was as white as vanilla ice cream.
Billy helped Prince Hoppert get into bed because he complained of a sore throat. The boy promised to take him up his dinner. "Oh, I'm terribly hungry," said
Prince Hoppert. The prince also asked Billy to take him up some tea "with a drop of lemon in it."
Billy ate dinner with his parents then he disappeared into the kitchen where he
scooped some of the left-overs onto Prince Hoppert's plate. He also waited for his mother to prepare some tea for father, and when she wasn't looking he
poured some tea into a cup for the Rabbit. And squeezed a drop of lemon into it as he promised.
Prince Hoppert ate dinner so quickly that the boy worried the rabbit would get a
sore stomach. He passed the prince his tea with lemon, hoping that it would warm him up and soothe his stomach.
It began to get dark and Prince Hoppert looked tired so Billy turned out the light
and climbed into the bed next to him.
All of a sudden Billy heard Prince Hoppert sobbing into his pillow. "Oh, I miss my mother and father," he cried. "While you were eating dinner, I wrote a letter
to my parents letting them know I was here.
Then I snuck outside the window and went back to the river where I dropped my letter on the great big waves. Do you think it will make its way back to my
parents?" Prince Hoppert asked. "Maybe," said the boy. Billy was not all sure if it would make its way safely back to them.
The rabbit cried some more, and as he cried large tear-drops fell into his fur. And
they shone as brightly as the golden leaves and the ruby-red berries on his crown. The boy crawled into the rabbit's bed and put his head into the rabbit's soft
beige fur and hugged him. The rabbit stopped crying and fell asleep.
Prince Hoppert tossed and turned all night. Finally he woke up because he thought he heard a familiar sound. The sound of hooves. And the sound of
someone calling his name. He scrambled to the window and saw a horse drawn carriage and his mother and father inside it. "Mother, Mother," he cried. He
started to make his way down the stairs. "They have come, they have come," he kept saying to himself.
Then he remembered the boy and hopped back up the stairs. He ran to the boy's
side, and planted a kiss on his cheek. Then he removed his crown of twigs, and golden leaves and ruby-red berries and placed it at the foot of the boy's bed.
Afterward, he hurried as quickly down the stairs as he could, and swung open the front door where his mother stood. The Queen Rabbit, with her large brown
eyes and ivory white fur, scooped him up in her arms and hugged him. Then she sat him beside her in the ivory horse drawn carriage, and he took one last look at the house through the window.
The next morning the boy woke up and realized that he couldn't find Prince Hoppert anywhere no matter how hard he looked. He sat down on the bed, with a tear welling in his eye, thinking it was all a dream.
Suddenly he looked down at the foot of the bed and saw the crown of twigs, and golden leaves and ruby-red berries that the prince had worn. He smiled so hard
that his round, red cheeks hurt. Prince Hoppert had left something for him. The boy placed the crown on his head but realized that it was even too small for him.
The golden leaves and ruby-red berries shone so brightly that the boy knew the crown had been fit for a prince.
