"That looks very serious to me," said he, putting on his glasses and looking at Mr. Bear's injured feet. "I'll have to get a saw and cut off your foot." And then Mr. Bear gave a dreadful howl. "Oh, please don't saw off my foot. It's sore enough already."
"I didn't mean to saw off your foot," said Dr. Duck. "Did I say that? I mean to saw off the splinter and then put on a poultice and draw out the pain."
Well, it took a long time to do all that, and the poor Bear cried several times, for it hurt the splinter dreadfully, you know, to be sawed off that way. But by and by the poultice began to draw, and pretty soon out came the splinter, and Mr. Bear felt ever so much better. That is, until the doctor said, "It will cost you a million dollars, for that was a very serious operation."
"I've never even seen a million dollars," said the Bear. "Nor even a million cents. You'll have to mail me a corrected bill," and then he jumped into the automobile and asked Uncle Lucky to drive away.
"Stop, stop!" cried the Duck Doctor, but Uncle Lucky paid no attention to him, any more than the Bear paid the bill. "You send a corrected bill to my friend," said the old gentleman rabbit. "And, mind you, you had better correct it three times and a half if you ever want it paid."
And in the next story you shall hear of an exciting adventure which the two little rabbits had with a fretful porcupine.
STORY XXIII.
BUNNY AND THE FRETFUL PORCUPINE.
Oh, never tease a porcupine,
For reasons I'll relate,
He's like a cushion full of pins
That stand out stiff and straight.
And if you stand too close I know
He'll stick one in your little toe.
Well, that's just what Uncle Lucky did, and of course he got stuck with one of those prickly, stickery porcupine needles and it was an awful bother to get it out.