“What is REAL asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side-by-side near the nursery fender, before Nanna came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick out handle?” “Real isn’t how you are made”, said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” “Does it hurt?” “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,” 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 happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or 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 those things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you cant be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.” (Excerpt from “The Velveteen Rabbit”, by Margery Williams)