"What is REAL?"

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

(The Girl's been playing with "Dad Teddy" lately. DT was purchased as a duplicate when we realized she was becoming quite attached to "Mom Teddy." The idea was that we'd have a stand-in for washday or if - heaven forbid - the original got lost. Well, The Girl let us know right away that there was Only One Mom Teddy, and so the duplicate became DT and has spent most of his time relegated to Level 2 Importance. So we've got a little before and after here - the one on right equals the one on the left plus eight years of solid lovin'.)