"Then I must have been eating MOUSE!... No wonder I feel ill.... But
perhaps I should feel worse if I had really swallowed a patty-pan!"
Duchess reflected--"What a very awkward thing to have to explain to
Ribby! I think I will put _my_ pie in the back-yard and say nothing
about it. When I go home, I will run round and take it away." She put
it outside the back-door, and sat down again by the fire, and shut her
eyes; when Ribby arrived with the doctor, she seemed fast asleep.
[Illustration]
"Gammon, ha, HA?" said the doctor.
"I am feeling very much better," said Duchess, waking up with a jump.
"I am truly glad to hear it! He has brought you a pill, my dear
Duchess!"
"I think I should feel _quite_ well if he only felt my pulse," said
Duchess, backing away from the magpie, who sidled up with something in
his beak.
"It is only a bread pill, you had much better take it; drink a little
milk, my dear Duchess!"
"Gammon? Gammon?" said the doctor, while Duchess coughed and choked.
"Don't say that again!" said Ribby, losing her temper--"Here, take
this bread and jam, and get out into the yard!"
[Illustration]
"Gammon and Spinach! ha ha HA!" shouted Dr. Maggotty triumphantly
outside the back door.
"I am feeling very much better my dear Ribby," said Duchess. "Do you
not think that I had better go home before it gets dark?"
"Perhaps it might be wise, my dear Duchess. I will lend you a nice
warm shawl, and you shall take my arm."
"I would not trouble you for worlds; I feel wonderfully better. One
pill of Dr. Maggotty--"
"Indeed it is most admirable, if it has cured you of a patty-pan! I
will call directly after breakfast to ask how you have slept."
Ribby and Duchess said goodbye affectionately, and Duchess started
home. Half-way up the lane she stopped and looked back; Ribby had gone
in and shut her door. Duchess slipped through the fence, and ran round
to the back of Ribby's house, and peeped into the yard.
Upon the roof of the pig-stye sat Dr. Maggotty and three jackdaws. The
jackdaws were eating pie-crust, and the magpie was drinking gravy out
of a patty-pan.
"Gammon, ha, HA!" he shouted when he saw Duchess's little black nose
peeping round the corner.
Duchess ran home feeling uncommonly silly!
When Ribby came out for a pailful of water to wash up the tea-things,
she found a pink and white pie-dish lying smashed in the
middle of the yard. The patty-pan was under the pump, where Dr.
Maggotty had considerately left it.
[Illustration: SO THERE REALLY _WAS_ A PATTY-PAN]
Ribby stared with amazement--"Did you ever see the like! so there
really _was_ a patty-pan?... But _my_ patty-pans are all in the
kitchen cupboard. Well I never did!... Next time I want to give a
party--I will invite Cousin Tabitha Twitchit!"
[Illustration]