The next day Doctor Rabbit was called to see O. Possum, who was sick. Mandy Possum came over in a great hurry and said O. Possum was having a severe pain in his stomach. Doctor Rabbit got his medicine case and went over to the Possums’ house with Mandy Possum as fast as he could.
Mandy said they would go in the nearest way, which was through the kitchen. She asked Doctor Rabbit to excuse her kitchen, as she had not had time to clean it up. Then as they went through the parlor, she told him to excuse that too, as she hadn’t had time to clean that up. As they passed through two other rooms, she said to excuse them; she knew they were pretty dirty, but she had not had time to clean them up. But Doctor Rabbit didn’t say anything, because no matter what time of day he came to Mandy Possum’s house, she always asked him to excuse the dirt, and always said she hadn’t had time to clean it up. Man doctors sometimes find it that way, too.
Well, they finally came to O. Possum, who was off in a corner bedroom. He lay in bed with some turpentine and a hot stove lid on his stomach. He began to groan terribly when Doctor Rabbit came in. “Oh my, oh my,” he groaned, “I know I’m going to die! Yes, I can feel it, and my wife wants me to die; she’s got turpentine and a hot stove lid on my stomach, and I’m roasting alive. Oh dear! Oh dear!”
DOCTORING O. POSSUM AND STUBBY WOODCHUCK
As soon as he looked at O. Possum Doctor Rabbit knew positively that he was not seriously sick, for he had seen him like that several times before. Doctor Rabbit said, “Let me see your tongue,” and O. Possum grunted and put his tongue out. It was badly coated. “I see!” said Doctor Rabbit, wisely. Then he examined his patient by thumping his chest and his stomach and his back, and finally said, “Friend Possum, what have you eaten lately?”
“Oh, I haven’t eaten anything to speak of,” O. Possum groaned. “Only a little piece of chicken.”
“Was that all?” asked Doctor Rabbit.
“Well, maybe I did eat two little pieces,” O. Possum groaned again. “But that was all.”