Daffodil Hill

Dreams can come true in the strangest ways . . . even for a rabbit. When Sally the rabbit first goes to live with a family, she runs free inside the house and is fed and petted by the little girl with pigtails, who also sings to her. Sally’s happiness ends when she is banished to a wire cage in the backyard by the father who declares: “Rabbits are dangerous." Though still fed by the little girl, Sally is never held or petted. Her life gets worse as rain and cold ruin her food and muddy her water. Her beautiful coat becomes dirty, and her tail almost falls off. Brokenhearted, Sally despairs as winter comes. She digs a cave in the snow and hides there shivering, trying to get warm until she falls into a deep sleep. Sally wakes to the little girl’s petting, handfuls of fresh food, and a bright spring day. The girl tells Sally about a marvelous place called Daffodil Hill and together they set off. Nose twitching at the fresh smells, Sally is ecstatic to be out of the cage and back in glorious nature. The girl tells her more about Daffodil Hill, and Sally wishes they could both live there. Yellow sunshine, green grass, butterflies, honeybees, deer, plump carrots, sweet-tasting tulips, a rippling stream—Daffodil Hill is everything the little girl with pigtails promised. Her eyes sparkling with tears of joy, Sally runs through the emerald field, feeling freer than she ever has been in her entire life. The little girl weaves daffodils into her pigtails. After a while turns into a longer while, the girl stays at Daffodil Hill with Sally the rabbit. Of course, someone needs to help the farmer at Daffodil Hill plant the flowers and vegetables, and the girl decides that it would have to be her, because the Hill can never change. As long as the little girl lives, she needs the comfort of the hillside as much as Sally the rabbit.