In the whole wide world, there are not one, but five Easter Bunnies. They must be the kindest, the swiftest, and the wisest bunnies of all, for between sunset and dawn on Easter morning, they carry joy to children everywhere. When one grows too old to run, the wise and kind Grandfather Bunny who lives at the Palace of Easter Eggs calls for a replacement, and bunnies from far and wide dream of being chosen.
One day, a little country girl bunny with a brown skin and a little cotton-ball of a tail announced her own dream. “Some day I shall grow up to be an Easter Bunny,” she said. “You wait and see!” But the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses and the Jack Rabbits with their long, fast legs only laughed. They told her to go back to the country and eat a carrot, for such important work was meant for great big men bunnies, not a little Cottontail like her.
The little girl Cottontail grew up, and soon she had a loving husband and a cottage of her own. Then, much to her surprise, she found herself the mother of twenty-one Cottontail babies. The other rabbits laughed harder than ever, certain that her dream was now impossible. But as her children grew, she stopped thinking of her own ambitions and instead turned her home into a place of joyful purpose. She taught her babies everything, creating a perfectly happy and well-run household. Two were given brooms to sweep, two learned to make beds without a wrinkle, two became wonderful cooks, and two more made the glasses shine like crystal. Others tended the garden, washed the linens, or learned to sing and dance to keep everyone merry while they worked.
Years passed, until one day word spread through the woods: one of the five Easter Bunnies had grown too slow. Cottontail took her twenty-one children to the Palace of Easter Eggs, feeling sad that she could only be a spectator. She watched as the old Grandfather Bunny tested the swiftest and handsomest candidates. He was not impressed. “You are pretty and you are fast,” he told them, “but you have not shown me that you are either kind or wise.”
Then his kind old eyes fell upon the little country mother, standing with her happy children around her. He called her forward and she explained how her children were so well-trained that they did most of the work for her. He saw her wisdom and her kindness, but he doubted she could be swift. At that, Cottontail whispered to her children, who scattered across the lawn. With a flash of speed, she dashed after them, gathering every last one and returning them to the palace steps. The Grandfather Bunny was amazed, but had one last concern. “It is too bad that you cannot go,” he said, “because you will have to stay at home to take care of your children.”
But Cottontail simply smiled and called her children forward, two by two. “These are my sweepers,” she said. “These cook my dinner. These wash the dishes. These sing and these dance to keep us merry.” She presented each pair and their special task, proving that her home would be perfectly cared for in her absence. At last, the Grandfather Bunny beamed. “You have proved yourself to be not only wise, and kind, and swift, but also very clever,” he declared. “You shall be my fifth Easter Bunny.”
That evening, Cottontail worked alongside the other four bunnies, hopping across the world with baskets of glittering eggs. As the night wore on and she grew very tired, the Grandfather Bunny gave her the most difficult task of all. Far over two rivers and three mountains was a little boy who had been ill for a year but had never once complained. She was to take him the most beautiful egg of all.
The journey was long, and the final mountain was steep and slick with ice. Just as she neared the cottage at the peak, her foot slipped. She tumbled down, down, down the mountainside, crashing into a snowdrift with a great pain in her leg. The sky was growing pink with dawn, and she feared she had failed. Just then, the old, wise Grandfather Bunny appeared before her. “You are not only wise, and kind, and swift,” he said with a gentle smile, “but you are also the bravest of all the bunnies.”
He reached into his pocket and brought out a tiny pair of gold shoes. As he fastened them to her feet, all the pain vanished. She stood, picked up the precious egg, and took a single hop. She flew through the air, landing halfway up the mountain in one bound. With a second leap, she was at the cottage door. She slipped inside and placed the beautiful egg in the sleeping boy's hand just as the sun rose over the edge of the world.
When she finally returned to her own little cottage, she found the floors swept, the dishes washed, and two lovely new pictures hanging on the wall. Her twenty-one children were all sound asleep in their beds. And from that day on, her home could always be told from the others, because in a special place on the wall, hanging on a very special hook, was a pair of very tiny, very shiny little gold shoes.
