Public-domain ebook
Doctor Rabbit and Tom Wildcat
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In: Children & Young Adult Reading·Humour·Adventure
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #57469.
The opening · free to read
An Unwelcome Caller
Rap! rap! rap! It was past midnight and some one was knocking on Doctor Rabbit’s door. Doctor Rabbit growled a little, for he did not like to be wakened that time of night even if he was a doctor. But he got up anyway and opened the upstairs window in his big tree.
The big round moon was shining very bright. It shone quite clear on the one who was knocking at the door. Now, who do you suppose it was? Well, it was some one Doctor Rabbit didn’t want to see. I should say he didn’t! For it was Tom Wildcat knocking! And he was about the worst enemy Doctor Rabbit had in the Big Green Woods. So it was a mighty good thing he didn’t go down and open his front door.
“What do you want at my house this time o’ night?” Doctor Rabbit called down sharply.
Tom Wildcat jumped back a little, he was so surprised to hear some one talking above him. “Oh!” he exclaimed, looking up. “How do you do, Doctor Rabbit? I just came over to have you put some salve on my hind foot. I hurt it pretty bad a while ago.”
Now Doctor Rabbit didn’t believe old Tom. So he said, “Well, that doesn’t interest me, but how did you hurt it?”
“Well,” said Tom Wildcat, “I stepped on something in the dark--a sticker or something. Then all of a sudden I found my foot bleeding and mighty sore.”
Doctor Rabbit knew very well how very cunning Tom was, so he spoke right up and said, “If you don’t tell me the real truth I won’t look at your foot at all.”
That was pretty plain and Tom Wildcat saw there was no other way but to tell the truth. “Well,” he said, “the fact is I was borrowing a hen from Farmer Roe’s chicken house, and his big dog and I had a little trouble before I could get away.”
“Aha, I see,” said Doctor Rabbit, peering slyly down at Tom and looking very wise. “Well, I’ll just shut my window and you can come up. You’ll find a small hole under the window. Put your foot through it and I’ll look at it.” Then Doctor Rabbit shut the window, locked it, and sat down to wait.
Tom grumbled more than a little about having to climb the tree with his sore foot, but as there was no other way he began pulling and clawing into the bark, and up he went. Every now and then he hurt his foot against the tree and would have to stop. This made him pretty mad. But by and by he got up to the window and there he stopped to rest a bit and get his breath.
Then he looked at the hole under the window and called out, “What are you going to do with my foot?”
“Why, how can I tell till I see it?” Doctor Rabbit called back. And all the while he was chuckling so much he was afraid Tom might hear.
After thinking it over Tom had decided that perhaps he could put his foot through the hole and at the same time look through the window and see what Doctor Rabbit was doing. But there was no way he could do this. So he turned round with his head down and held on to the bark of the tree while he put his foot through the hole under the window.
Doctor Rabbit saw right away that Tom Wildcat’s foot really was sore, but it wasn’t very bad. So chuckling more than ever, he went to his medicine closet and got out a box of salve. It was what Doctor Rabbit called his hot medicine, and it certainly was hot. It would cure a sore foot all right, but Doctor Rabbit didn’t use it very often. He kept it only for some one like his present patient.
“Hurry up!” Tom called out most impatiently.
Doctor Rabbit was all ready, so he called back, “All right there, Tom; hold right still!” and slapped a lot of that hot salve right on the sore foot, just where it hurt the most.
Old Tom gave a yell loud enough to be heard all over the Big Green Woods, and down the tree he went.
Doctor Rabbit Discovers a Secret
When Tom Wildcat reached the ground he was pretty mad. Doctor Rabbit opened his window again and called down to him. “That salve is pretty hot, I’m afraid, but I’m quite sure it’ll cure your foot. Yes, sir, it’s pretty hot, but it’s just the right kind of salve for a wildcat!”
“Well, maybe it is,” growled Tom Wildcat between his teeth. Then, thinking perhaps the salve would cure his foot and that by and by he might deceive Doctor Rabbit, he added, in a very pleasant tone, “I’m very much obliged to you, Doctor Rabbit. Good night!”
“Good night to you, Tom,” Doctor Rabbit said, still chuckling to himself as he closed his window and locked it.
Doctor Rabbit was wide awake now and did not care to go back to bed. So he put on his light coat and soft slippers and sat down in his big rocking chair. Then he had a good laugh when he thought of the way Tom Wildcat yelped as he went down the tree.
But pretty soon Doctor Rabbit stopped rocking and sat up very straight and listened. Yes, sir! There was some one mumbling in the little thicket near his back door. Doctor Rabbit got up and quietly slipped down his stairway. He crept close to his kitchen door and listened. It was just as he thought. Tom Wildcat was out there, talking and laughing to himself.
He was saying, “My foot surely does burn but I know it’s going to be better.” After a minute he went on, “I believe I’ll rest here a little. I might just as well. Ha, ha, ha! That fat old Doctor Rabbit is in bed sleeping his head off. He thinks he’s pretty cunning, but he’s not half as cunning as I am. Ha! ha! ha! I should say not. Yes, I’ll just rest here for a bit and think about the really, truly dinner I’m going to have. Jack Rabbit surely will make a fine one. Indeed he will!”
Doctor Rabbit Keeps Still and Listens
When Doctor Rabbit heard Tom Wildcat say he was going to have his friend Jack Rabbit for dinner, he listened with all his ears to hear, if possible, how Tom expected to catch poor innocent Jack Rabbit. The wily Tom, thinking Doctor Rabbit was asleep, kept right on talking.
“It’s mighty lucky,” he said, “that I found where Jack Rabbit takes his nap. Ha! ha! ha! Right under the big sycamore tree. It will be as easy as anything to catch him. Along about noon he’ll be asleep there, and I’ll just creep up behind that big tree. Then I’ll slip up into the tree and walk out on that long limb, right over him; and then, kerplunk! I’ll pounce down on him. Yum! yum! yum! I can almost taste him now! I’ll hurry home this minute and see that Kit Wildcat has the water boiling and everything ready. By dinner time I’ll be as hungry as a bear!”
“Ouch!” Tom Wildcat suddenly cried out, and then he said, “Whew!” softly. You see, he had licked his sore foot and the salve burned his tongue. “That salve is certainly hot,” he said; but as he was thinking about fat Jack Rabbit he didn’t even complain. He was feeling pretty good again, and he went slipping along through the moonlit woods toward his home. Every now and then a twig or a vine brushed against his long whiskers and he turned aside quickly. Tom Wildcat’s whiskers help him a great deal after dark. They often protect his eyes from sticks and briars and tell him when a hole is big enough to go through.
When slinky Tom had got a little distance away, Doctor Rabbit opened the door just enough so that he could peek out. Tom Wildcat would creep along a little distance, then stop and listen and look all around. Once he crawled close to the ground and made a sudden spring. Jack Rabbit gave a great jump and came very near being caught, but he darted away just in the nick of time. Tom stood for a moment jerking his tail from side to side and muttering his disappointment; then trotted out of sight among the shadows.
Doctor Rabbit closed the door and went back to his big rocking chair. He could scarcely wait until daylight to run over and warn his friend Jack Rabbit. Doctor Rabbit knew well enough that there was a nice sunny spot under the big sycamore tree at the edge of the Big Green Woods, and he knew Jack Rabbit often stretched out to sun himself there after he had eaten some of the tender blue grass. The fact was, Doctor Rabbit himself had stretched out there a number of times.
Doctor Rabbit didn’t even wait to get breakfast. Just as soon as it began to be daylight he started through the woods to see Jack Rabbit, out on the Wide Prairie. “I certainly hope I shall find Friend Jack at home,” Doctor Rabbit said as he hurried along.
Doctor Rabbit Speaks to Jack Rabbit
It was a pretty long distance from Doctor Rabbit’s home in the big tree to Jack Rabbit’s home out in the Wide Prairie. As Doctor Rabbit went along through the Big Green Woods, he moved watchful-like, because he thought Tom Wildcat might be prowling around almost anywhere. When there was a nice open glade in the woods, Doctor Rabbit went hoppity, hoppity, hoppity, as fast as his legs would carry him, and he held his ears flat to his head, too, for that’s the way Doctor Rabbit and all other rabbits hold their ears when they run very fast. Then he would stop and prick up his ears and listen for the least sound.
Presently he met Blue Jay.
“Good morning, Doctor Rabbit!” Blue Jay cried out, a great deal louder than Doctor Rabbit wished him to.
Doctor Rabbit said softly, “Sh! Good morning, Blue Jay. But not so loud! Tom Wildcat might--”
“Where is he?” Blue Jay asked, and his voice trembled with fear and anger.
“Sh!” Doctor Rabbit warned again. “I don’t know just exactly where he is now but he was prowling around my house last night, and--”
“And yesterday,” poor Blue Jay interrupted, “he was prowling around my house. I came home just in time to hear Jenny Jay screaming her loudest because he had nearly caught her. And then what do you suppose he did? He ate every egg we had in our nest! We wanted to peck his eyes out, but we didn’t dare to get close enough. We’re building a new nest in another tree now, and I’m watching for Tom Wildcat every minute. I just want to tell him what I think of him!”
“Don’t talk so loud, please, Blue Jay,” Doctor Rabbit said again, in a low voice. “He might be around close, and I don’t want him to see me, especially just at this time. I’m on my way to see Jack Rabbit on very important business. Now, Blue Jay, slip around as quick as you can and tell Stubby Woodchuck and Cheepy Chipmunk, and our other friends, that Tom Wildcat is in the Big Green Woods again, and very hungry, too. I have thought of a way to get rid of him, perhaps; but first I shall have to see whether my plan works out.” And without taking time to say another word, Doctor Rabbit hurried away through the woods toward Jack Rabbit’s home.
Blue Jay flew straight to the stump where Stubby Woodchuck lived and told him to look out for Tom Wildcat; then he went around and told Cheepy Chipmunk, and Robin-the-Red, and Chatty Red Squirrel. They told their neighbors, so that in a little time they all were talking and thinking about Tom Wildcat. You see, all the little creatures of the Big Green Woods are dreadfully afraid of old Tom Wildcat, because not only can he spring quickly on the ground, but he can climb trees very swiftly.
Tom Wildcat lived in a very large cottonwood tree over by the Deep River. He prowled around over there, eating whatever he could find. Sometimes he caught a fish at the edge of Deep River, and now and then he caught a hen that wandered down along the bank. He was satisfied with such things for a time, but every now and then he slipped into the Big Green Woods. All the little woods creatures said they surely hoped that plan of Doctor Rabbit’s, whatever it was, would get rid of Tom Wildcat, for they both feared and hated him.
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