Part 1

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Text in italics is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Emboldened text is surrounded by equals signs: =bold=.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

On page 9, there is a word missing between "truly" and "dinner." The transcriber was unable to ascertain what this word should be, thus the error is retained.

DOCTOR RABBIT AND TOM WILDCAT

_THE GREENWOODS SERIES_

DOCTOR RABBIT

_AND_

TOM WILDCAT

_By_

THOMAS CLARK HINKLE

RAND McNALLY & COMPANY

CHICAGO

_Copyright, 1918_

By RAND MCNALLY & COMPANY

=To all children= _who love the Big Green Woods and the little creatures who make their homes there_

THE CONTENTS

PAGE

AN UNWELCOME CALLER 1

DOCTOR RABBIT DISCOVERS A SECRET 7

DOCTOR RABBIT KEEPS STILL AND LISTENS 10

DOCTOR RABBIT SPEAKS TO JACK RABBIT 14

FOOLING TOM WILDCAT 19

TOM WILDCAT HAS AN ACCIDENT 24

A BIG SURPRISE 30

TOM WILDCAT INVITES DOCTOR RABBIT TO DINNER 34

O. POSSUM GETS SICK 38

DOCTORING O. POSSUM AND STUBBY WOODCHUCK 43

STUBBY WOODCHUCK’S EXCITING ADVENTURE 49

TOM WILDCAT GETS FRIGHTENED 54

TOM WILDCAT MAKES A DISCOVERY 59

DOCTOR RABBIT THINKS OF A NEW SCHEME 64

CHATTY RED SQUIRREL HAS AN ADVENTURE 69

O. POSSUM’S FUNNY MISTAKE 75

TOM WILDCAT DECIDES TO MAKE A VISIT 80

TOM WILDCAT IS GREATLY SURPRISED 83

TOM WILDCAT BECOMES FRIGHTENED 88

TOM WILDCAT MOVES HASTILY 92

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

“What do you want at my house this time o’ night?” 1

Mr. Jack Rabbit ... came very near being caught 12

Crash! he went right through ... into that deep hole! 24

“Mr. Possum, what have you eaten lately?” 44

“I have a plan, Mrs. Woodchuck” 64

All the little creatures hurried out to watch him 94

DOCTOR RABBIT AND TOM WILDCAT

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.

FOOLING TOM WILDCAT

Now it so happened that Jack Rabbit came over for an early breakfast of tender blue grass, and he met Doctor Rabbit just at the edge of the woods. Doctor Rabbit was certainly glad of this, because it was pretty dangerous for him to go far out on the Wide Prairie.

Of course Jack Rabbit was very much alarmed when Doctor Rabbit told him Tom Wildcat had planned to eat him.

“My goodness!” was all poor Jack Rabbit could say.

“Now listen!” Doctor Rabbit said. “I’ve a little scheme.” And then to make very sure that no one else heard, he went up close to Jack Rabbit and whispered in his ear for a time. Then they both laughed and danced a jig.

“Doctor Rabbit, you’re surely the smartest rabbit that ever was!” Jack Rabbit complimented his good friend.

Doctor Rabbit said they would have to hurry now, and they went straight to the big sycamore tree where Jack Rabbit generally lay down to sun himself.

There was a deep, wide hole under this tree, that Farmer Roe’s boy had dug for a playhouse a good while ago. Doctor Rabbit and his friend Jack Rabbit began gathering long, slim, dead sticks and laying them across this hole. All the time they kept laughing to themselves. The sticks were pretty rotten, and when they had a whole lot of them laid across the hole they covered them all over with dead leaves and grass. When they had finished, it looked as if there never had been any hole at all.

They then went to several rabbit nests Jack Rabbit knew about, and got a lot of rabbit fur. They took this fur and made it into a good-sized, long body. This done, they went up near Farmer Roe’s house and got a pair of jack rabbit’s ears that the farmer’s boy had thrown away. They belonged to a rabbit that had been unfortunate. They brought these ears down to the big tree and fixed them on the fur body they had made. Then Doctor Rabbit--because he was lighter than big Jack Rabbit--walked very, very carefully out on the leaves and sticks over the hole and laid down that make-believe jack rabbit.

Well, sir, you would have been surprised to see how much that _did_ look like the real Jack Rabbit lying there. Doctor Rabbit said he really had to look at Jack Rabbit to make sure it wasn’t he. Then they both laughed a great deal, they were so glad they had thought of this plan. But it was getting close to noon, and they hurried away and hid in a briar patch, where they could watch.

Doctor Rabbit and his friend Jack did not have to wait long. Suddenly Doctor Rabbit poked Jack Rabbit and told him to keep very still. They both looked. There was Tom Wildcat, creeping through the woods. He was coming very, very cautiously and looking straight toward the tree where Jack Rabbit took his nap. When he got a little closer he crouched down almost flat to the ground. He jerked his tail from side to side and began creeping up more cautiously than ever, because he thought he saw Jack Rabbit lying there sound asleep.

Well, it surely was funny to see how badly slinky Tom was being fooled, and Doctor Rabbit and cheery Jack Rabbit could scarcely keep from laughing; but of course they didn’t dare make a sound. Tom Wildcat would creep and crawl and stop and watch, then creep and crawl and stop and watch again, until finally he got right behind the tree. Then he crawled up the tree ever so carefully, from behind. Presently he was up to the long limb. Here he stopped and looked down and grinned, and looked as pleased as could be, and then he went crawling out on that limb, slowly and cautiously, until he was right over what he thought was Jack Rabbit.

TOM WILDCAT HAS AN ACCIDENT

When Tom Wildcat had crawled out on the limb and got to the place from which he thought it would be best to jump, he stood up and grinned ever so broadly at what he considered his good fortune. Then down he jumped, and crash! he went right through those rotten sticks and into that deep hole!

Then Doctor Rabbit and Jack Rabbit ran out of the briar patch, and shouted and laughed and laughed. By and by Doctor Rabbit crept up to the hole and looked down on Tom Wildcat.

“Why, how do you do, Friend Tom? You must be digging a well to-day!” Doctor Rabbit said, as if he meant it.

Then Jack Rabbit came up to the hole and looked down, and said, “Well, well, our friend, Tom Wildcat! This is a pleasant day, isn’t it, Tom? You seem to be making a dinner of rabbit fur; I notice you have a good deal down there!”

Tom ground his sharp teeth in anger and glared up at Doctor Rabbit and Jack Rabbit. Then suddenly he thought that if he acted pleasant, he might deceive them, and get out. He smiled up as politely as anybody, and said, “Oh, I can get out easily, if I want to, but I’ll always be the best of friends with you if you will just drop down that small log that I noticed up there by the tree. The fact is, I rather enjoy the joke; but now that we’ve had a good time, I know you won’t mind slipping that log down end first. Then we can fix this hole up again, and play a good joke on some of our other friends.” And Tom Wildcat smiled and looked so pleasant that it seemed as if he were as kind and good as anybody.

But Doctor Rabbit and Jack Rabbit just chuckled to themselves, and Doctor Rabbit said, “Oh, we won’t trouble ourselves with getting you the log, Smarty Wildcat. You can get out easily, if you _want_ to!”

Then Doctor Rabbit and jolly Jack Rabbit both laughed right out loud, and Jack Rabbit said cheerfully, “No, Tom, we won’t bother about that log, because you can get out so easily if you _want_ to!”

“Yes, of course he can!” laughed Doctor Rabbit. “Well, I hope you enjoy your juicy dinner of rabbit fur, Tom. You have a lot of it down there. Ha, ha, ha! Good day, Thomas!” And away went Doctor Rabbit and his friend Jack Rabbit to tell all their little woods neighbors about getting Tom Wildcat into a deep hole where he could not get out.

In a short time everyone knew what had happened, and that afternoon Tom Wildcat found out what all the little creatures of the Big Green Woods thought of him. When Blue Jay and Jenny Jay heard of it, they flew straight to the limb over Tom’s head and scolded him to their hearts’ content. “He’s a thief and a robber. He ate my eggs, and I hate him! I’ll peck his eyes out!” Jenny Jay shouted.

“I hate him, too!” Chatty Red Squirrel barked out angrily from a limb overhead. “He’s as mean as he can be! I hate him! I hate him!”

Cheepy Chipmunk frisked up to the hole and away again, because he was afraid even to look at Tom Wildcat. But all the time he was frisking back and forth, saucy Cheepy scolded as hard as he could. Stubby Woodchuck sat on a near-by stump and poured forth his scorn for Tom Wildcat. Jim Crow and Robin-the-Red threatened from the tree where they were perched, and all afternoon the little creatures of the Big Green Woods nagged old Tom and told him he was the ugliest and meanest person that ever lived.

After a while there were so many little creatures around the hole and in the tree over it, all scolding at the same time, that Tom Wildcat was about deafened with the noise. He put his paws over his ears and ground his teeth in rage. Now and then Stubby Woodchuck slipped up to the hole and pushed a clod in on Tom’s head, and then everyone shouted for joy. But once or twice Tom Wildcat jumped so high he nearly jumped out, and that scared everyone dreadfully.

After he sprang as high as he could and found he could not get out, he sat down in that hole and just growled and growled. The little creatures thought they had better be going then. For, even if Tom Wildcat _was_ down in that hole, he _might_ get out. And his growls! They were terrible; so they all scampered away.

A BIG SURPRISE

All the little creatures surely were glad that Tom Wildcat had fallen down into the deep hole. They held a big meeting that night in Doctor Rabbit’s front yard, and talked the matter over. While they talked, however, Doctor Rabbit sent Jack Rabbit to a place near the hole, “because,” Doctor Rabbit said to his friends, “old Thomas is mighty cunning, and he might manage somehow to get out. And if he _should_ happen to scramble out--well, he’d be pretty angry, and pretty hungry, too.”

“Indeed he would!” gasped Stubby Woodchuck in a frightened whisper. “I believe I’ll go home this very minute!” And he did, as fast as his short legs would carry him.

“I think it’s about time I was in bed,” Cheepy Chipmunk said, and away he scampered to his stump.

That broke up the meeting, and every one of them hurried to his home. Pretty soon Jack Rabbit came hopping back to report to Doctor Rabbit. “He’s still in the hole,” Jack Rabbit said. “I don’t think he can get out. I have a long way to go before I reach home, and I guess I’d better be going. I told Mrs. Jack Rabbit I wouldn’t be out late. I’ll see you in the morning, Doctor.” And with that Jack Rabbit started off on a run, and went like a streak through the woods toward the Wide Prairie.

The next morning, a little after daylight, Doctor Rabbit was awakened by the loud, harsh cries of Blue Jay, just outside the upstairs window.

Doctor Rabbit hurried out.

“He’s out and he’s gone!” Blue Jay shouted. “Tom Wildcat is out of that hole! I just came from there this minute!”

“He is?” Doctor Rabbit exclaimed in a frightened voice.

“Yes, sir, he is!” Blue Jay replied, all in a flutter of excitement.

Doctor Rabbit scratched his head in wonder. “I was just a little afraid of that,” he said half to himself, “because old Tom is certainly cunning; but I wonder how he got out.”