And just then there was a scratching sound outside the stump.
"Hark! What's that?" whispered the rabbit. "That must be the alligator coming back to get me! And I can't even get up to throw some cherry pie at him. Oh, if the red monkey or the black beetle would only come!"
Then the scratching noise sounded some more, and Uncle Wiggily was getting so frightened that he didn't know what to do. And then, all of a sudden, he saw something white at the top hole of the stump, and a voice exclaimed:
"Well, if there isn't my dear old Uncle Wiggily! And you are ill, I know you are. I can tell by the way your nose twinkles."
"Indeed, I am ill," said the poor rabbit, "but who are you?" For you know he couldn't see well, as his glasses had fallen off.
"Oh, I am Kittie Kat," said the voice, and there, surely enough, was the little pussy girl. She had been away on her summer vacation, and was just coming back to get ready for school when she happened to walk through the woods. There she heard a voice in the stump, and, going to look, she saw Uncle Wiggily.
"Oh, how glad I am to see you, Kittie Kat," said the rabbit.
"And how sorry I am to see you ill," said the pussy girl. "But don't worry. I'm going to make you well. Just keep quiet."
Then that brave little pussy girl scurried around, and gathered some leaves from a plant called catnip.
"For," said Kittie, "if catnip is good for cats, it must be good for rabbits." So she made some hot catnip tea, and gave it to Uncle Wiggily, and in an hour he was all better and could sit up. Then Kittie made him some toast with some slices of yellow carrots on it, and he felt better still, and by noon he was as good as ever.