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.