"Here!" she said. "Take a big bite!"
Jimmy did just as she told him to. And then he cried "Ouch!" again.
"Did it hurt?" she asked him.
"Yessum!" he said.
"I thought so!" Aunt Polly replied. And turning to Mrs. Rabbit, she said, "This boy has mumps."
"You don't say so!" Mrs. Rabbit exclaimed.
"I do, indeed!" Aunt Polly declared.[p. 108] "Give him a cup of catnip tea and put him to bed. And let him have a hot-water bottle at his feet. And if everything isn't all right, just send for me again." So she went away. And Jimmy went to bed.
He kept his mother busy for a few days, for he was always asking her to fill his hot-water bottle with hotter water. But she was glad to do that for him. And she was pleased to see that he was improving.
Then one day Mrs. Rabbit discovered that the hot-water bottle was full of small holes. The water ran out of it almost as fast as she poured it in.
Mrs. Rabbit was surprised. She was worried, too, for it was no easy matter to get a new hot-water bottle where she lived.