The Tale of Samuel Whiskers; Or, The Roly-Poly Pudding Read online

  THE TALE OF SAMUEL WHISKERS

  Or, The Roly-Poly Pudding

  by

  BEATRIX POTTER

  Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" etc.

  IN REMEMBRANCE OF"SAMMY,"THE INTELLIGENT PINK-EYED REPRESENTATIVEOFA PERSECUTED (BUT IRREPRESSIBLE) RACEAN AFFECTIONATE LITTLE FRIEND,AND MOST ACCOMPLISHEDTHIEF

  FREDERICK WARNE

  First published 1908(Originally published in U.S.A. as _The Roly-Poly Pudding_)

  Once upon a time there was an old cat, called Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, whowas an anxious parent. She used to lose her kittens continually, andwhenever they were lost they were always in mischief!

  On baking day she determined to shut them up in a cupboard.

  She caught Moppet and Mittens, but she could not find Tom.

  Mrs. Tabitha went up and down all over the house, mewing for TomKitten. She looked in the pantry under the staircase, and she searchedthe best spare bedroom that was all covered up with dust sheets. Shewent right upstairs and looked into the attics, but she could not findhim anywhere.

  It was an old, old house, full of cupboards and passages. Some of thewalls were four feet thick, and there used to be queer noises insidethem, as if there might be a little secret staircase. Certainly therewere odd little jagged doorways in the wainscot, and things disappearedat night--especially cheese and bacon.

  Mrs. Tabitha became more and more distracted, and mewed dreadfully.

  While their mother was searching the house, Moppet and Mittens had gotinto mischief.

  The cupboard door was not locked, so they pushed it open and came out.

  They went straight to the dough which was set to rise in a pan beforethe fire.

  They patted it with their little soft paws--"Shall we make dear littlemuffins?" said Mittens to Moppet.

  But just at that moment somebody knocked at the front door, and Moppetjumped into the flour barrel in a fright.

  Mittens ran away to the dairy, and hid in an empty jar on the stoneshelf where the milk pans stand.

  The visitor was a neighbour, Mrs. Ribby; she had called to borrow someyeast.

  Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs mewing dreadfully--"Come in, Cousin Ribby,come in, and sit ye down! I'm in sad trouble, Cousin Ribby," saidTabitha, shedding tears. "I've lost my dear son Thomas; I'm afraid therats have got him." She wiped her eyes with her apron.

  "He's a bad kitten, Cousin Tabitha; he made a cat's cradle of my bestbonnet last time I came to tea. Where have you looked for him?"

  "All over the house! The rats are too many for me. What a thing it is tohave an unruly family!" said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit.

  "I'm not afraid of rats; I will help you to find him; and whip him too!What is all that soot in the fender?"

  "The chimney wants sweeping--Oh, dear me, Cousin Ribby--now Moppet andMittens are gone!"

  "They have both got out of the cupboard!"

  Ribby and Tabitha set to work to search the house thoroughly again.They poked under the beds with Ribby's umbrella, and they rummaged incupboards. They even fetched a candle, and looked inside a clothes chestin one of the attics. They could not find anything, but once they hearda door bang and somebody scuttered downstairs.

  "Yes, it is infested with rats," said Tabitha tearfully. "I caught sevenyoung ones out of one hole in the back kitchen, and we had them fordinner last Saturday. And once I saw the old father rat--an enormous oldrat, Cousin Ribby. I was just going to jump upon him, when he showed hisyellow teeth at me and whisked down the hole."

  "The rats get upon my nerves, Cousin Ribby," said Tabitha.

  Ribby and Tabitha searched and searched. They both heard a curiousroly-poly noise under the attic floor. But there was nothing to be seen.

  They returned to the kitchen. "Here's one of your kittens at least,"said Ribby, dragging Moppet out of the flour barrel.

  They shook the flour off her and set her down on the kitchen floor. Sheseemed to be in a terrible fright.

  "Oh! Mother, Mother," said Moppet, "there's been an old woman rat in thekitchen, and she's stolen some of the dough!"

  The two cats ran to look at the dough pan. Sure enough there were marksof little scratching fingers, and a lump of dough was gone!

  "Which way did she go, Moppet?"

  But Moppet had been too much frightened to peep out of the barrel again.

  Ribby and Tabitha took her with them to keep her safely in sight, whilethey went on with their search.

  They went into the dairy. The first thing they found was Mittens, hidingin an empty jar.

  They tipped up the jar, and she scrambled out.

  "Oh, Mother, Mother!" said Mittens--

  "Oh! Mother, Mother, there has been an old man rat in the dairy--adreadful 'normous big rat, mother; and he's stolen a pat of butter andthe rolling-pin."

  Ribby and Tabitha looked at one another.

  "A rolling-pin and butter! Oh, my poor son Thomas!" exclaimed Tabitha,wringing her paws.

  "A rolling-pin?" said Ribby. "Did we not hear a roly-poly noise in theattic when we were looking into that chest?"

  Ribby and Tabitha rushed upstairs again. Sure enough the roly-poly noisewas still going on quite distinctly under the attic floor.

  "This is serious, Cousin Tabitha," said Ribby. "We must send for JohnJoiner at once, with a saw."

  * * * * *

  Now this is what had been happening to Tom Kitten, and it shows how veryunwise it is to go up a chimney in a very old house, where a person doesnot know his way, and where there are enormous rats.

  Tom Kitten did not want to be shut up in a cupboard. When he saw thathis mother was going to bake, he determined to hide.

  He looked about for a nice convenient place, and he fixed upon thechimney.

  The fire had only just been lighted, and it was not hot; but there was awhite choky smoke from the green sticks. Tom Kitten got upon the fenderand looked up. It was a big old-fashioned fire-place.

  The chimney itself was wide enough inside for a man to stand up and walkabout. So there was plenty of room for a little Tom Cat.

  He jumped right up into the fire-place, balancing himself upon the ironbar where the kettle hangs.

  Tom Kitten took another big jump off the bar, and landed on a ledge highup inside the chimney, knocking down some soot into the fender.

  Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke; and he could hear thesticks beginning to crackle and burn in the fire-place down below. Hemade up his mind to climb right to the top, and get out on the slates,and try to catch sparrows.

  "I cannot go back. If I slipped I might fall in the fire and singe mybeautiful tail and my little blue jacket."

  The chimney was a very big old-fashioned one. It was built in the dayswhen people burnt logs of wood upon the hearth.

  The chimney stack stood up above the roof like a little stone tower, andthe daylight shone down from the top, under the slanting slates thatkept out the rain.

  Tom Kitten was getting very frightened! He climbed up, and up, and up.

  Then he waded sideways through inches of soot. He was like a littlesweep himself.

  It was most confusing in the dark. One flue seemed to lead intoanother.

  There was less smoke, but Tom Kitten felt quite lost.

  He scrambled up and up; but before he reached the chimney top he came toa place where somebody had loosened a stone in the wall. There were somemutton bones lying about--

  "This seems funny," said Tom Kitten. "Who has been gnawing bones up herein the chimney? I wish I had never come! And what a funny smell? It issomething like mouse; only dreadfully strong. It makes me s
neeze," saidTom Kitten.

  He squeezed through the hole in the wall, and dragged himself along amost uncomfortably tight passage where there was scarcely any light.

  He groped his way carefully for several yards; he was at the back of theskirting-board in the attic, where there is a little mark * in thepicture.

  All at once he fell head over heels in the dark, down a hole, andlanded on a heap of very dirty rags.

  When Tom Kitten picked himself up and looked about him--he found himselfin a place that he had never seen before, although he had lived all hislife in the