Sammie turned back, the little rabbit girl kept on. Oh, I don't know how
far she went, but it was a good distance, I'm sure, but still she
couldn't seem to find that sky-blue-pink flower. She looked everywhere
for it, high and low, and even sideways, which is a very good place; but
she couldn't find it. And she kept on going, hoping every minute it
would happen to be behind a stump or under a bush. But no, it wasn't.

And then, all of a sudden, about as quick as you can shut your eyes and
open them again, if Susie wasn't lost! Yes, sir, lost in those woods all
alone. She looked all around, and she didn't know where she was. She'd
never been so far away from home before, and, oh, now frightened she
was! But she was a brave little rabbit girl, and she didn't cry, that
is, at first. No, she started to try to find her way back, but the more
she tried the more lost she became, until she was all turned around, you
know, like when they blindfold you and turn you around three times
before they let you try to pin the tail on the cloth donkey at a party.
Yes, that's how it was.

Well, then Susie began to cry, and I don't blame her a bit. I think I
would do the same myself. Yes, she sat right down and cried. Then she
felt hungry and she looked around for something to eat, and what should
she see, right there in the woods, but a carrot.

"Oh!" she cried, "how lucky! Now I shan't be hungry, anyhow." So she
picked up the carrot and started to eat it, when all at once that carrot
spoke to her. What's that? You don't see how a carrot could speak? Well,
it did all the same. But you just listen, please, and maybe you'll see
how it happened.

"Please don't eat me," the carrot said, in a squeaky voice.

"Why not?" asked Susie, who was very much surprised.

"Because I am a fairy carrot," it went on. Now do you see how it could
speak? Well, I guess! "Yes, I am a fairy carrot, Susie, and I can help
you. What do you want most?" it asked.

"I want to find my way home," said the little rabbit girl.

"Very well, my dear," went on the vegetable. "Place me on the ground in
front of you, stand on your hind legs, wiggle your left ear, and see
what happens."

So Susie did this, and would you believe me, for I'm not exaggerating
the least bit, if that fairy carrot didn't roll right along on the
ground in front of Susie.

"Follow, follow, follow me,
And you soon at home will be,"

the carrot said, in a sing-song voice, and it roll