“I will go to see CAT,” he said, very loud. He ran out, over the damp moss in the wet, wet wood, and, oh, dear me! up the path to the door of MAN and CAT. The door was open. CAT sat by the fire in a box. She was most sad, for once she had two baby cats in that box, and now they were gone. She did not purr. She did not eat. She did not wash her soft fur. She just sat by the fire and was sad. By and by she was so sad with no baby cat to love that she said very low and deep: “Mew! Mew!” Tiny Hare was so wet and so weak he just had to lie down on the step. Then CAT saw him.
How fast she did jump out of the box, and run to the door! Tiny Hare saw her long tail, and her big wild eyes. He shut his eyes; and how he did wish he was at home! But CAT did not eat him. She took him in her soft lips, and laid him in the box by the fire.
“Now she will eat me,” said Tiny Hare; and how he did wish he was at home!
Then MAN and DOG came in. MAN was wet, and had much mud on him. He took the box away from the fire to put fresh hay in it, and then he saw Tiny Hare. Then MAN went near the fire to get warm and dry, and DOG ran to CAT to look at her baby cat. When he saw Tiny Hare he gave a loud bark, “Bow-wow-wow-wow!” and his tail did not wag any more. But just as he was to JUMP on Tiny Hare, CAT put a claw on his nose.
“Wow!” said DOG, and MAN made DOG lie down, and he came once more to look at CAT in her box. “Well, well,” said he, “a hare for a baby cat! Do you mean to eat it, Puss?”
“Purr, purr, purr,” said CAT, and Tiny Hare did not like to hear her purr, and he said: “She will eat me now”; and how he did wish he was at home!
CAT did not want to eat Tiny Hare, but she did want to wash him, and play that he was her own baby cat. And she did wash him, oh, so hard, and so much, from head to feet, and from feet to head, over and over and over. She gave him a wee bite now and then when she felt a knot in his wet fur.
“Wee! Wee! Wee!” said Tiny Hare, very loud and high, when she hurt him too much, but CAT did not care, and did not stop.
By and by when Tiny Hare was warm and dry, and his fur was like silk, MAN and DOG went out to tea; and CAT saw that the eyes of Tiny Hare were shut, so she went out to tea. When CAT was gone, oh, how fast did Tiny Hare jump out of the box, and run out of the door, and skip up the long road, and leap past the wet wood, home to his Mama. The rain was over, and the sun was warm, so he was now dry, and his fur was like silk.