A picture book · for small readers

THE LITTLEPATIENT

Name: The Little Patient
Author: The Sick Kitten

A silent story of a kitten, a spoon, and a cure

In a quiet parlour
of long ago.

The poorly kitten

There lived a small tabby kitten who felt poorly. She lay very still upon a cushion, and her whiskers did not twitch at all.

Her friends the children
put on their white coats.

The little doctors

A girl in a nurse’s apron and a boy in a tall hat decided they would make her well. They were very serious about it.

The boy fetched a bottle
marked FISIK.

A spoonful of cure

Carefully, so carefully, they tipped a spoon of medicine toward the kitten’s mouth. The room held its breath.

1903 · G. A. Smith

Close-up of the sick kitten from the 1903 film

The close-up

And here the picture did something new. The camera walked right up to the kitten’s face, one of the earliest narrative close-ups in the history of the movies.

The kitten swallowed.
Then she felt better.

A cure at once

Her ears perked. Her paws found the cushion again. The medicine had worked (or the kindness had), and either way she was herself once more.

They shook hands
like proper physicians.

The bow

The little doctor in the tall hat took a deep bow for the camera. The nurse smiled. Somewhere nearby, the mother cat watched over her child.

And that is how
a sick kitten
became a legend.

THE END

Told for the picture house · after the 1903 film of G. A. Smith

The film itself is public domain. This story is a new telling for young readers. More books open on this shelf each month.