A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories | Page 6

Mother, Mother, there has been an old man rat in the dairy--a
dreadful 'normous big rat, Mother; and he's stolen a pat of butter and
the 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 the

attic when we were looking into that chest?"
Ribby and Tabitha rushed upstairs again. Sure enough the roly-poly
noise was still going on quite distinctly under the attic floor.
"This is serious, Cousin Tabitha," said Ribby. "We must send for John
Joiner at once, with a saw."
Now this is what had been happening to Tom Kitten, and it shows how
very unwise it is to go up a chimney in a very old house, where a
person does not know his way, and where there are enormous rats.
Tom Kitten did not want to be shut up in a cupboard. When he saw that
his mother was going to bake, he determined to hide.
He looked about for a nice convenient place, and he fixed upon the
chimney.
The fire had only just been lighted, and it was not hot; but there was a
white choky smoke from the green sticks. Tom Kitten got upon the
fender and looked up. It was a big old-fashioned fireplace.
The chimney itself was wide enough inside for a man to stand up and
walk about. So there was plenty of room for a little Tom Cat.
He jumped right up into the fireplace, balancing himself upon the iron
bar where the kettle hangs.
Tom Kitten took another big jump off the bar, and landed on a ledge
high up inside the chimney, knocking down some soot into the fender.
Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke; he could hear the
sticks beginning to crackle and burn in the fireplace down below. He
made 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 my
beautiful tail and my little blue jacket."
The chimney was a very big old-fashioned one. It was built in the days
when people burnt logs of wood upon the hearth.
The chimney stack stood up above the roof like a little stone tower, and
the daylight shone down from the top, under the slanting slates that
kept 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 little
sweep 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 to a place where somebody had loosened a stone in the wall.
There were some mutton bones lying about--
"This seems funny," said Tom Kitten. "Who has been gnawing bones
up here in the chimney? I wish I had never come! And what a funny
smell! It is something like mouse; only dreadfully strong. It makes me
sneeze," said Tom Kitten.
He squeezed through the hole in the wall, and dragged himself along a
most uncomfortably tight passage where there was scarcely any light.
He groped his way carefully for several yards; he was at the back of the
skirting- board in the attic, where there is a little mark * in the picture.
All at once he fell head over heels in the dark, down a hole, and landed
on a heap of very dirty rags.
When Tom Kitten picked himself up and looked about him--he found
himself in a place that he had never seen before, although he had lived
all his life in the house.
It was a very small stuffy fusty room, with boards, and rafters, and
cobwebs, 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?"
said the 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
noise and an old woman rat poked her head round a rafter.
All in a minute she rushed upon Tom Kitten, and before he knew what
was happening--
His coat was pulled off, and he was rolled up in a bundle, and tied with
string in very hard knots.
Anna Maria did the tying. The old rat watched her and took snuff.
When she had finished, they both sat staring at him with their mouths
open.
"Anna Maria," said