Doctor Rabbit looked with a wise glance over his glasses at Mandy Possum, and said, “Give him a tablespoonful of the medicine every hour until he has taken five doses; and he must not eat a thing for two whole days.”
“Now, that’s pretty tough,” sighed O. Possum. He was already thinking about a big fat hen that Mandy Possum was going to cook that very day. But O. Possum said he realized he would have to do what the doctor ordered, and that ended it.
Just then there was a knock at the door. Sophy Woodchuck was there to say that Doctor Rabbit was wanted at her house at once, for Stubby Woodchuck was feeling pretty poorly.
Well, when Doctor Rabbit got over to the Woodchucks’ he found poor old Stubby in bed, and groaning just about the way O. Possum had been doing. And presently Doctor Rabbit found out Stubby’s trouble was about the same as O. Possum’s. He had gorged himself with too many nuts and other things he liked, until he had acute indigestion. In fact, Doctor Rabbit had found out long before that most of the sickness among the little creatures of the Big Green Woods was due to the fact that they ate too much.
So Stubby Woodchuck had to take a bottle of terribly bitter medicine, and he too had to go two whole days without eating a bite. He said he felt better after he had taken the first dose of medicine; and Doctor Rabbit said that he would have to be going. First, however, he took three bottles of medicine from his case, mixed them all together, and put them in one bottle. When it was mixed that way the medicine was terribly bitter, and Doctor Rabbit chuckled all the time. “I’m getting ready to throw this medicine right into Tom Wildcat’s mouth if he gets after me,” Doctor Rabbit explained, and then he slipped out of the door and went hoppity, hoppity, hoppity, as fast as he could go, toward home.
Now and then as he ran, Doctor Rabbit would stop and sit up and look and listen. He knew that every minute he must be watching out for Tom Wildcat.
STUBBY WOODCHUCK’S EXCITING ADVENTURE
In a few days O. Possum and Stubby Woodchuck were around again as usual, and one fine, bright morning Stubby went out for something to eat. Before he started, however, he got up on his stump and looked in every direction. He did not see anyone to be afraid of, so he concluded the first thing he would do would be to slip down to the Murmuring Brook for a nice fresh drink.