THIMBALLINA BLUE: The tale of a bunny

It was finally spring again. The snow had all melted away and new leaves were coming out on the trees. In the orchard the apple trees were beginning to blossom out and the grass was greening up. The brook that flowed beside the orchard was singing a happy tune, happy to be free from the ice and snow of winter. It was a time of new beginnings and new life. Oh what a joyful time spring is in Adam’s Orchard.

The Bunny family lived here at Adam’s Orchard in their home beneath the stump by the old stone wall where the blueberry bushes grew. Momma Bunny had just given birth to five new babies; Bertram, called Bertie; Christopher, called Topher by his mother and grandmother ; Pearl, Belle and little Thimballina. Thimballina was the tiniest baby Bunny of them all, no bigger than your grandmother’s sewing thimble. In fact, she would have probably fit quite comfortably into one.

Another odd thing about Thimballina was that unlike the pale pink color of her brothers and sister when they were born, Thimballina was blue, a beautiful bright blue, as blue as a new spring sky. Mother Bunny cuddled her close thinking Thimballina might be cold but even after Mother Bunny was quite sure Thimballina was warm as could be, Thimballina was still blue.

Another odd thing about Thimballina, once the baby bunnies could open their eyes, Mother Bunny discovered that instead of having cherry blossom pink eyes like her brothers and sisters, Thimballina had eyes the color of spring violets, the soft purple kind like those that grow along the edge of the brook.

“How odd,” said Grandmother Bunny?

“How very odd,” said the other Bunny families living in Adam’s Orchard when they hopped by to see Mother Bunny’s new babies? “How very odd indeed.” They had never seen a blue bunny before and wondered what was wrong with Thimballina but of course they were much too polite to ask. They all raved and cooed over the other four babies but they only stared at Thimballina Blue, which is what folks had begun calling her, Thimballina Blue. It seemed appropriate under the circumstances, considering her coloring and that no one and I mean no one had ever seen a blue bunny before.

Mr. and Mrs. Robin thought Thimballina was quite lovely; perfect in fact, exactly the color of the eggs in their nest in the apple tree. Of course now and then Thimballina would give Mrs. Robin a terrible fright, those times when Thimballina was hiding in the grass beneath the boughs of the apple tree. Mrs. Robin would look down from the nest she was sitting on and become quite alarmed thinking one of her precious eggs holding her own babies had somehow fallen from the nest.

Mr. Robin would fly down to the ground to check and find Thimballina hiding in the grass. “Go home, Thimballina. Please don’t hide here in the grass. You are scaring the life out of Mrs. Robin.” He would look up at Mrs. Robin and tell her, “Count the eggs, just count the eggs. It is Thimballina again, playing hide and seek in the grass.”

Mother Robin counted the eggs; “one, two, three.” They were all there and she would sigh and settle down on her nest again happy that her three babies were all safe in the nest inside their bright blue eggs, eggs just the color of a new spring sky or a very odd blue bunny named Thimballina.

One evening Oliver Owl dropped by to get a closer look at the new bunnies. Mrs. Bunny immediately rounded up her babies and hurried them into the house and safety. Oliver could be a wise and pleasant chap but he was also known for his appetite for fresh young bunnies as a midnight snack.

Thimballina was so tiny she couldn’t run as fast as the other bunnies and before she could make it through the doorway of their home Oliver hopped off the stump and landed directly in front of her.

Poor Mrs. Bunny nearly fainted with fright. “Please, please Mr. Owl, don’t eat my baby,” she cried.

“Well aren’t you a hoot and a half,” Oliver hooted with laughter as he stared down at tiny Thimballina. “A blue bunny! Don’t worry Mrs. Bunny; I won’t eat your baby. I am quite certain I could not eat anything that blue,” and off he flew into the night still hooting with laughter over the sight of a blue baby bunny.

It was several weeks later when the bunnies were all playing hip-hop-tag- your-it beneath the apple trees in Adam’s Orchard when Wiley Fox jumped out from behind the biggest apple tree. He grab Belle and was about to carry her off to his den when Thimballina hopped up and came right down on Wiley Foxe’s nose. She rolled right off and landed in a bunch of buttercups stirring up such a cloud of pollen that Wiley Fox dropped Belle and began sneezing so hard tears rolled from his eyes.
Through his tears all he could see was a shimmer of sky blue and he was certain he had been hit on the head by a piece of the sky falling down.

“The sky is falling down,” howled the old fox, “run for your life. The sky is falling down.” Wiley Fox ran as fast as a fox can run into the forest beyond the orchard and was never seen in Adam’s Orchard again.

The little bunnies laughed and laughed and they all danced joyfully around Thimballina and then ran home to tell Mother Bunny and the others what had happened and how Thimballina had saved them from the old fox.

From that day to this no one ever called Thimballina odd or teased her again about being too tiny or too slow or about being the wrong color. Whether you are a bunny or a person, your color is not as important as what you are inside and how you treat other people or other bunnies in this case and Thimballina was a very good little bunny.