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| "What is REAL?" |
| asked the Rabbit one day |
| when they were lying side by side. |
| "Does it mean |
| having things that buzz inside you |
| and a stick-out handle?" |
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| "Real isn't how you're 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 is 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. |
| 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. |
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| 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." |
|
| from The Velveteen Rabbit, |
| by Margery Williams Bianco, et al. |
| © February 6, 1958 |
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