"Can I," he said, striking his forehead with his hand—"can I have been dreaming?"
He rushed to the garden gate, passed through, and shut it with such a slam that the poor sleepy Pear fell at once to the ground.
A very short time after, the sun came laughing up from behind the horizon, the birds began to sing, smoke danced merrily out of the kitchen chimney, the church-bells rang out a merry peal, and all to celebrate Joey's return to his home!
That afternoon there was a grand feast in the old white house, to which all the fruit and vegetables were invited.
"What a very strange story, Papa!" exclaimed Clement.
"It is a very nice one," said Lucy; "only I suppose it isn't quite true."
"I wish I had got Joey's soft white rabbit," murmured George.
No words fell from little Nelly's lips, for she had fallen fast asleep on her mother's lap.