The little boy saw the big Maltese cat lying on the strawberry bed, and the little boy went up close to the cat and blew his tin whistle at the cat. The big Maltese cat did not like to hear the whistle so close to his ears; it made his ears hurt, so he said “Meow!” and started to walk away, and the naughty little boy laughed, and blew the whistle with all his might. Then the farmer’s wife said: “Do not tease the kitty, Donald!”
But Donald had not been taught to do as he was told, so he blew the whistle again and again and chased the Maltese cat across the lettuce bed, and over two rows of radishes.
The farmer’s wife shouted, “Donald! Donald!” but Donald kept blowing the tin whistle and following the Maltese cat, but the next thing he knew the farmer’s wife took his tin whistle away from him.
Donald was so angry that he jumped right up and down on the celery plants, and the farmer’s wife said, “Look here! Young man!” and shook Donald until he looked like a jumping jack, and Donald was so surprised to think that anyone would dare shake him that he stopped right where he was, and then the farmer’s wife said to him:
“Now, young man! You may as well know at the very start that if you want to be a bad little boy you will have a tough row to hoe, but if you want to mend your ways and be a nice little boy, things will be different! I thought I might as well make that plain to you now as later!”
Then Donald wiped his eyes on the farmer’s wife’s apron, and helped her weed two whole rows of carrots, and the big Maltese cat went to sleep under the gooseberry bush, and Robert Robin flew back to the woods and told Mrs. Robin that the farmer had a new cat and that the farmer’s wife had a new baby that didn’t like cats.