A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories Read online

  IN REMEMBRANCE OF "SAMMY," THE INTELLIGENT PINK-EYED REPRESENTATIVE OF APERSECUTED (BUT IRREPRESSIBLE) RACE. AN AFFECTIONATE LITTLE FRIEND. ANDMOST ACCOMPLISHED THIEF!

  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 Tom Kitten.She looked in the pantry under the staircase, and she searched the bestspare bedroom that was all covered up with dust sheets. She went rightupstairs and looked into the attics, but she could not find himanywhere.

  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 neighbor, 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 an 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 cup-board!"

  Ribby and Tabitha set to work to search the house thoroughly again. Theypoked 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, hiding in 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 fireplace.

  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 fireplace, 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; he could hear the sticksbeginning to crackle and burn in the fireplace down below. He made uphis mind to climb right to the top, and get out on the slates, and tryto 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 into another.

  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 sneeze," 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, and landedon 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 house.

  It was a very small stuffy fusty room, with boards, and rafters, andcobwebs, and lath and
plaster.

  Opposite to him--as far away as he could sit--was an enormous rat.

  "What do you mean by tumbling into my bed all covered with smuts?" saidthe rat, chattering his teeth.

  "Please sir, the chimney wants sweeping," said poor Tom Kitten.

  "Anna Maria! Anna Maria!" squeaked the rat. There was a pattering noiseand an old woman rat poked her head round a rafter.

  All in a minute she rushed upon Tom Kitten, and before he knew what washappening--

  His coat was pulled off, and he was rolled up in a bundle, and tied withstring in very hard knots.

  Anna Maria did the tying. The old rat watched her and took snuff. Whenshe had finished, they both sat staring at him with their mouths open.

  "Anna Maria," said the old man rat (whose name was SamuelWhiskers),--"Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding formy dinner."

  "It requires dough and a pat of butter, and a rolling-pin," said AnnaMaria, considering Tom Kitten with her head on one side.

  "No," said Samuel Whiskers, "make it properly, Anna Maria, withbreadcrumbs."

  "Nonsense! Butter and dough," replied Anna Maria.

  The two rats consulted together for a few minutes and then went away.

  Samuel Whiskers got through a hole in the wainscot, and went boldly downthe front staircase to the dairy to get the butter. He did not meetanybody.

  He made a second journey for the rolling-pin. He pushed it in front ofhim with his paws, like a brewer's man trundling a barrel.

  He could hear Ribby and Tabitha talking, but they were busy lighting thecandle to look into the chest.

  They did not see him.

  Anna Maria went down by way of the skirting-board and a window shutterto the kitchen to steal the dough.

  She borrowed a small saucer, and scooped up the dough with her paws.

  She did not observe Moppet.

  While Tom Kitten was left alone under the floor of the attic, hewriggled about and tried to mew for help.

  But his mouth was full of soot and cob-webs, and he was tied up in suchvery tight knots, he could not make anybody hear him.

  Except a spider, which came out of a crack in the ceiling and examinedthe knots critically, from a safe distance.

  It was a judge of knots because it had a habit of tying up unfortunateblue-bottles. It did not offer to assist him.

  Tom Kitten wriggled and squirmed until he was quite exhausted.

  Presently the rats came back and set to work to make him into adumpling. First they smeared him with butter, and then they rolled himin the dough.

  "Will not the string be very indigestible, Anna Maria?" inquired SamuelWhiskers.

  Anna Maria said she thought that it was of no consequence; but shewished that Tom Kitten would hold his head still, as it disarranged thepastry. She laid hold of his ears.

  Tom Kitten bit and spat, and mewed and wriggled; and the rolling-pinwent roly-poly, roly; roly, poly, roly. The rats each held an end.

  "His tail is sticking out! You did not fetch enough dough, Anna Maria."

  "I fetched as much as I could carry," replied Anna Maria.

  "I do not think"--said Samuel Whiskers, pausing to take a look at TomKitten--"I do NOT think it will be a good pudding. It smells sooty."

  Anna Maria was about to argue the point, when all at once there began tobe other sounds up above--the rasping noise of a saw; and the noise of alittle dog, scratching and yelping!

  The rats dropped the rolling-pin, and listened attentively.

  "We are discovered and interrupted, Anna Maria; let us collect ourproperty,--and other people's,--and depart at once."

  "I fear that we shall be obliged to leave this pudding."

  "But I am persuaded that the knots would have proved indigestible,whatever you may urge to the contrary."

  "Come away at once and help me to tie up some mutton bones in acounterpane," said Anna Maria. "I have got half a smoked ham hidden inthe chimney."

  So it happened that by the time John Joiner had got the plank up--therewas nobody under the floor except the rolling-pin and Tom Kitten in avery dirty dumpling!

  But there was a strong smell of rats; and John Joiner spent the rest ofthe morning sniffing and whining, and wagging his tail, and going roundand round with his head in the hole like a gimlet.

  Then he nailed the plank down again, and put his tools in his bag, andcame downstairs.

  The cat family had quite recovered. They invited him to stay to dinner.

  The dumpling had been peeled off Tom Kitten, and made separately into abag pudding, with currants in it to hide the smuts.

  They had been obliged to put Tom Kitten into a hot bath to get thebutter off.

  John Joiner smelt the pudding; but he regretted that he had not time tostay to dinner, because he had just finished making a wheel-barrow forMiss Potter, and she had ordered two hen-coops.

  And when I was going to the post late in the afternoon--I looked up thelane from the corner, and I saw Mr. Samuel Whiskers and his wife on therun, with big bundles on a little wheel-barrow, which looked very likemine.

  They were just turning in at the gate to the barn of Farmer Potatoes.

  Samuel Whiskers was puffing and out of breath. Anna Maria was stillarguing in shrill tones.

  She seemed to know her way, and she seemed to have a quantity ofluggage.

  I am sure _I_ never gave her leave to borrow my wheel-barrow!

  They went into the barn, and hauled their parcels with a bit of stringto the top of the haymow.

  After that, there were no more rats for a long time at TabithaTwitchit's.

  As for Farmer Potatoes, he has been driven nearly distracted. There arerats, and rats, and rats in his barn! They eat up the chicken food, andsteal the oats and bran, and make holes in the meal bags.

  And they are all descended from Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Whiskers--childrenand grand-children and great great grand-children.

  There is no end to them!

  Moppet and Mittens have grown up into very good rat-catchers.

  They go out rat-catching in the village, and they find plenty ofemployment. They charge so much a dozen, and earn their living verycomfortably.

  They hang up the rats' tails in a row or the barn door, to show how manythey have caught--dozens and dozens of them.

  But Tom Kitten has always been afraid of a rat; he never durst faceanything that is bigger than--

  A Mouse.

  THE END