He smoked and
whistled all the time he was working, and he talked to me in such a
jolly way that I sat perfectly still and allowed him to measure my
ears and my legs so that he could cut the fur into the proper form.
"'Why, I 've got your nose too long, Bunny,' he said once; and so he
snipped a little off the fur he was cutting, so that the toy rabbit's
nose should be like mine. And again he said, 'Good gracious! the ears
are too short entirely!' So he had to get a needle and thread and sew
on more fur to the ears, so that they might be the right size. But
after a time it was all finished, and then he stuffed the fur full of
sawdust and sewed it up neatly; after which he put in some glass eyes
that made the toy rabbit look wonderfully life-like. When it was all
done he put it on the table beside me, and at first I did n't know
whether I was the live rabbit or the toy rabbit, we were so much
alike.
"'It 's a very good job,' said Santa, nodding his head at us
pleasantly; 'and I shall have to make a lot of these rabbits, for the
little children are sure to be greatly pleased with them.'
"So he immediately began to make another, and this time he cut the fur
just the right size, so that it was even better than the first rabbit.
"'I must put a squeak in it,' said Santa.
"So he took a box of squeaks from a shelf and put one into the rabbit
before he sewed it up.
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