Sarah Orne Jewett House

Rabbit

A gift from Jewett to Sally’s father, Charles E. Norton on the occasion of Rabbit Day—a traditional superstition mandating the utterance of the word “rabbit,” or “rabbit, rabbit, or “rabbit, rabbit, rabbit,” on waking the first day of the month to ensure good luck for the period ahead.

Charles E. Norton died in 1908, and Sally’s sister donated the sculpture to Historic New England in the 1930s.