"What are you?" one of them asked, wrinkling his nose.
"Why, I'm a rabbit, just like you!" said the velveteen rabbit.
"Then why don't you play with us?" asked the other rabbit, hopping around. "You're not real."
"But i am real. The boy told me so," said the velveteen rabbit. But the rabbits just giggled and hopped away.
After a long time, the velveteen rabbit's fur had worn away from being hugged so much by the boy. Most of his fuzzy nose had been kissed away and his satiny ears had lost their shine. But the rabbit was happy because he knew how much the boy loved him.
One day, though, the boy became sick. He didn't want any of his toys anymore, not even the velveteen rabbit.
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