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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT
-Margery Williams
"What is
REAL?"
asked the Rabbit.
"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 - but when you are
Real
you don't mind being hurt.
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, 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.
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."
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