When that famous doctor, Aunt Polly Woodchuck, reached Mrs. Rabbit's house, she said:
"Is Jimmy worse? He ought to be almost well by this time; for mumps don't last long, as a rule."
"It isn't Jimmy," Mrs. Rabbit told her. "It's the hot-water bottle! I find that it's full of holes; and I can't think how they came there."
Aunt Polly put on another pair of spectacles.
"Let me see it!" she said. "Aha!" she exclaimed, as she looked at the hot-water bottle closely. "I thought so!" she said.
"What is it?" Mrs. Rabbit inquired. "I hope it's nothing catching. For just think what a fix we'd be in if all the children should have that same trouble!"
Aunt Polly told her not to worry.
"You'd better get a new bottle," she said, "for this one can't be cured. But I'll show you what to do to prevent the new hot-water bottle from getting full of holes like this one.... Get me a piece of string!" said Aunt Polly.
Now, for some reason or other, Jimmy Rabbit began to feel very uncomfortable. He was no longer in bed. And when he heard Aunt Polly ask for a piece of string he started to sneak out of the room.
But Aunt Polly saw him.
"Come back here!" she said. "I want you!" And she made Jimmy sit at her feet and wait until his mother returned.
"Here!" Mrs. Rabbit said when she came back at last. "Is this string what you need? It's a very strong piece."
"Just the thing!" Aunt Polly told her. And she took hold of Jimmy Rabbit.
He began to howl. And he squirmed. And he would have kicked, if he had dared.
Aunt Polly Woodchuck did a strange thing then. She hung the hot-water bottle from Jimmy's neck.
"There!" she said. "Just let him wear that for a few days! I don't think you'll have any more trouble with holes in hot-water bottles."
"Have you known cases like this before?" Mrs. Rabbit asked her.
"A few!" said Aunt Polly. "And this is by far the best way to treat them. I've never known it to fail."
"It seems to me it's rather hard on Jimmy," Mrs. Rabbit said.
"Don't you worry about him!" Aunt Polly told her. "It will do him a world of good."
Jimmy Rabbit hung his head. He hated to have that hot-water bottle dangling from his neck. And he made up his mind that he would never prick another pin-hole in anything else so long as he lived.
But he was glad of one thing. He was glad Aunt Polly hadn't told his mother what he had done.
