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THE LITTLE RABBIT WHO WANTED RED WINGS
Retold By
Carolyn Sherwin Bailey
Once upon a time there was a little White Rabbit
with two beautiful long pink ears and two bright
red eyes and four soft little feet — such a pretty
little White Rabbit, but he wasn’t happy.
Just think, this little White Rabbit wanted to be
somebody else instead of the nice little rabbit that
he was.
When Mr. Bushy Tail, the gray squirrel, went by,
the little White Rabbit would say to his Mammy:
“0h, Mammy, I wish I had a long gray tail like
Mr. Bushy Tail’s.”
And when Mr. Porcupine went by, the little White
Rabbit would say to his Mammy:
“0h, Mammy, I wish I had a back full of bristles
like Mr. Porcupine’s/’
And when Miss Puddle-Duck went by in her two
little red rubbers, the little White Rabbit would say:
“0h. Mammy, I wish I had a pair of red rubbers
like Miss Puddle-Duck’s.”
So he went on and on wishing until his Mammy
was clean tired out with his wishing and Old Mr.
Ground Hog heard him one day.
Old Mr. Ground Hog is very wise indeed, so he
said to the little White Rabbit:
“Why don’t you-all go down to Wishing Pond,
and if you look in the water at yourself and turn
around three times in a circle, you-all will get your
wish.”
So the little White Rabbit trotted off, all alone
by himself, through the woods until he came to a
little pool of green water lying in
a low tree stump, and that was
the Wishing Pond. There was a
little, little bird, all red, sitting
on the edge of the Wishing Pond
to get a drink, and as soon as the
little White Rabbit saw him he began to wish again:
“Oh, I wish I had a pair of little red wings!’* he
said. Just then he looked in the Wishing Pond and
he saw his little white face. Then he turned around
three times and something happened. He began to
have a queer feeling in his shoulders, like that he felt in
his mouth when he was cutting his teeth. It was his
wings coming through. So he sat all day in the
woods by the Wishing Pond waiting for them to
grow, and, by and by, when it was almost sundown,
he started home to see his Mammy and show her, be-
cause he had a beautiful pair of long, trailing red wings.
But by the time he reached home it was getting
dark, and when he went in the hole at the foot of a
big tree where he lived, his Mammy didn’t know him.
No, she really and truly did not know him, because, you
see, she had never seen a rabbit with red wings in all
her life. And so the little White Rabbit had to go
out again, because his Mammy wouldn’t let him get
into his own bed. He had to go out and look for
some place to sleep all night.
He went and went until he came to Mr. Bushy
Tail’s house, and he rapped on the door and said:
“Please, kind Mr. Bushy Tail, may I sleep in your
house all night?”
But Mr. Bushy Tail opened his door a crack and
then he slammed it tight shut again. You see he
had never seen a rabbit with red wings in all his life.
So the little White Rabbit went and went until he
came to Miss Puddle-Duck’s nest down by the marsh
and he said:
“Please, kind Miss Puddle-Duck, may I sleep in
your nest all night?”
But Miss Puddle- Duck poked her head up out of
her nest just a little way and then she shut her eyes
and stretched her wings out so far that she covered
her whole nest.
You see she had never seen a rabbit with red wings
in all her life.
So the little White Rabbit went and went until he
came to Old Mr. Ground Hog’s hole, and Old Mr.
Ground Hog let him sleep with him all night, but
the hole had beech nuts spread all over it. Old Mr.
Ground Hog liked to sleep on them, but they hurt
the little White Rabbit’s feet and made him very
uncomfortable before morning.
When it came morning, the little White Rabbit de-
cided to try his wings and fly a little, so he climbed up on
a hill and spread his wings and sailed off, but he landed
in a low bush all full of prickles, and his four feet
got mixed up with the twigs so he couldn’t get down.
“Mammy, Mammy, Mammy, come and help me!’*
he called.
His Mammy didn’t hear him, but Old Mr. Ground
Hog did, and he came and helped the little White
Rabbit out of the prickly bush.
“Don’t you-all want your red wings?*’ Mr. Ground
Hog asked.
“No, no!-‘ said the little White Rabbit.
“Well,” said the Old Ground Hog, ‘Vhy don’t you-
all go down to the Wishing Pond and wish them o again?”
So the little White Rabbit went down to the Wish-
ing Pond and he saw his face in it. Then he turned
around three times, and, sure enough, his red wings
were gone. Then he went home to
his Mammy, who knew him right
away and was so glad to see him,
and he never, never, wished to be
something different from what he
really was again.
