Duchess looked aghast, and tilted up the pie-dish.

“I have only four patty-pans, and they are all in the cupboard.”

Duchess set up a howl.

“I shall die!  I shall die!  I have swallowed a patty-pan!  Oh, my dear Ribby, I do feel so ill!”

“It is impossible, my dear Duchess; there was not a patty-pan.”

Duchess moaned and whined and rocked herself about.

“Oh I feel so dreadful, I have swallowed a patty-pan!”

“There was nothing in the pie,” said Ribby severely.

“Yes there was, my dear Ribby, I am sure I have swallowed it!”

“Let me prop you up with a pillow, my dear Duchess; where do you think you feel it?”

“Oh I do feel so ill all over me, my dear Ribby; I have swallowed a large tin patty-pan with a sharp scalloped edge!”

[Illustration]

“Shall I run for the doctor?  I will just lock up the spoons!”

“Oh yes, yes! fetch Dr. Maggotty, my dear Ribby:  he is a Pie himself, he will certainly understand.”

Ribby settled Duchess in an armchair before the fire, and went out and hurried to the village to look for the doctor.

She found him at the smithy.

He was occupied in putting rusty nails into a bottle of ink, which he had obtained at the post office.

“Gammon? ha!  HA!” said he, with his head on one side.

Ribby explained that her guest had swallowed a patty-pan.

“Spinach? ha!  HA!” said he, and accompanied her with alacrity.

[Illustration:  DR. MAGGOTTY’S MIXTURE]

He hopped so fast that Ribby had to run.  It was most conspicuous.  All the village could see that Ribby was fetching the doctor.

“I knew they would over-eat themselves!” said Cousin Tabitha Twitchit.

[Illustration]

But while Ribby had been hunting for the doctor—­a curious thing had happened to Duchess, who had been left by herself, sitting before the fire, sighing and groaning and feeling very unhappy.

“How could I have swallowed it! such a large thing as a patty-pan!”

She got up and went to the table, and felt inside the pie-dish again with a spoon.

“No; there is no patty-pan, and I put one in; and nobody has eaten pie except me, so I must have swallowed it!”

[Illustration]

She sat down again, and stared mournfully at the grate.  The fire crackled and danced, and something sizz-z-zled!

Duchess started!  She opened the door of the top oven; out came a rich steamy flavour of veal and ham, and there stood a fine brown pie,—­and through a hole in the top of the pie-crust there was a glimpse of a little tin patty-pan!

Duchess drew a long breath—­

“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.