A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories | Page 5

make herself a cloak and a hood, and a handsome muff
and a pair of warm mittens.
THE END

IN REMEMBRANCE OF "SAMMY," THE INTELLIGENT
PINK-EYED REPRESENTATIVE OF A PERSECUTED (BUT
IRREPRESSIBLE) RACE. AN AFFECTIONATE LITTLE FRIEND.
AND MOST ACCOMPLISHED THIEF!
THE ROLY-POLY PUDDING

ONCE upon a time there was an old cat, called Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit,
who was an anxious parent. She used to lose her kittens continually,
and whenever 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 best spare bedroom that was all covered up with dust sheets. She
went right upstairs and looked into the attics, but she could not find him
anywhere.
It was an old, old house, full of cupboards and passages. Some of the
walls were four feet thick, and there used to be queer noises inside
them, as if there might be a little secret staircase. Certainly there were
odd little jagged doorways in the wainscot, and things disappeared at
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
got into 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 before
the fire.
They patted it with their little soft paws --"Shall we make dear little
muffins?" said Mittens to Moppet.
But just at that moment somebody knocked at the front door, and
Moppet jumped into the flour barrel in a fright.
Mittens ran away to the dairy, and hid in an empty jar on the stone shelf
where the milk pans stand.
The visitor was a neighbor, Mrs. Ribby; she had called to borrow some
yeast.
Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs mewing dreadfully--"Come in, Cousin
Ribby, come in, and sit ye down! I'm in sad trouble, Cousin Ribby,"
said Tabitha, shedding tears. "I've lost my dear son Thomas; I'm afraid
the rats 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 best
bonnet 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 to
have 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 and Mittens are gone!"
"They have both got out of the cup- board!"

Ribby and Tabitha set to work to search the house thoroughly again.
They poked under the beds with Ribby's umbrella, and they rummaged
in cupboards. They even fetched a candle, and looked inside a clothes
chest in one of the attics. They could not find anything, but once they
heard a door bang and somebody scuttered downstairs.
"Yes, it is infested with rats," said Tabitha tearfully, "I caught seven
young ones out of one hole in the back kitchen, and we had them for
dinner last Saturday. And once I saw the old father rat--an enormous
old rat, Cousin Ribby. I was just going to jump upon him, when he
showed his yellow 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 curious
roly-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. She
seemed to be in a terrible fright.
"Oh! Mother, Mother," said Moppet, "there's been an old woman rat in
the kitchen, and she's stolen some of the dough!"
The two cats ran to look at the dough pan. Sure enough there were
marks of 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, while
they 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!