When Rosie took a bath, she wore her sweater in the
bathtub to get it extra clean. She
was the only rabbit who wore shoes because she wanted to keep her paws out of
the dirt. And she had never made a
mud pie in her life.
Rosie liked to be clean.
So when her mother told her to eat her carrots, Rosie
said, “NO!”
“Why not?” her mother asked.
“Because carrots come out of the ground, so they must
be dirty,” said Rosie.
“Carrots are good for rabbits,” said Rosie’s mother.
“They help you hop better.”
“I just cannot eat those dirty carrots,” answered
Rosie.
And so, Rosie never ate a carrot. She never even
tasted one.
One day Rosie went to a birthday party. She played pin-the-tail-on-the-rabbit,
leaped the highest in two jumping contests, and danced to the new ‘Rocking
Rabbit’ song. All of that hopping and dancing made her hungry.
After all the games were played, there was a huge
birthday cake with thick white frosting for all the bunnies to eat. It was beautiful.
When Rosie got her first slice, she noticed the inside
was golden brown with tiny specks of orange. Just looking at it made her lick her whiskers and twitch her
nose. She put her fork into it and found it was soft and fluffy.
Then Rosie took her first bite of the beautiful
cake. It filled her mouth with the
taste of cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar. Delicious!
But as she chewed, she noticed a new taste; something
crunchy and a little bit sweet. It tasted so good that she wanted more—lots
more!
When she went to get a second slice, Rosie asked her
friend what kind of cake it was.
“Oh, that’s my favorite too,” said her friend. “It’s carrot cake—filled with lots and
lots of carrots.”
Rosie could not believe her ears.
“C-carrot cake?” asked Rosie. “You mean with real carrots in it?”
“Yes, real carrots,’ said Rosie’s friend.
“But that cake was the best thing ever. And it’s made
out of carrots that came out of the ground!” cried Rosie. “What if I get sick from eating
dirt? What if there are germs on
that carrot?”
“Well, we do wash the carrots,” said Rosie’s friend.
“Oh,” said Rosie. “I never thought of that.”
Rosie hopped home as quickly as she could. There, on
the kitchen table was a bunch of carrots.
She poked one of the carrots, and no mud came off. She touched the whole
thing with her paw, and her fur was still clean. She sniffed at the carrots,
and could not smell any dirt.
Finally, she licked a little tiny bit of the carrot and it did not taste yucky.
She remembered the white birthday cake and knew that
the carrot must taste good, but she had to be sure. So she took the carrot upstairs, made herself a bath, and
cleaned that carrot from top to bottom.
Rosie closed her eyes and nibbled at the tip of the
carrot. It was wonderful. She took
another bite and it was sweet, crunchy and even a little bit juicy. Then she leaned back in the bathtub,
and munched the entire carrot down to the green nub.
Rosie couldn’t wait to eat another one. But next time, she was just going to
wash it in the kitchen sink.
“Maybe,” thought Rosie, “Mother and I can make carrot
soup and carrot salad and carrot bread for dinner. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll try other things that come from
the ground, like radishes and turnips and beets.”
Mmmm!
Life just got a whole lot yummier for Rosie.
