The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding, Beatrix Potter
The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding
Beatrix Potter
Category: Children
Genres: Fantasy,Fairytale,Fable
Level 3.30:19 h10.5 mb
Tom Kitten is the classic rebellious sibling. While his sisters stay where their mother puts them, he decides to run off and find some excitement. Unfortunately for Tom, a pair of devious hungry rats stumble upon the naughty little kitten. Will Tom escape the pie the rats are making to put him in, and will he have the chance to listen to his mother finally?

The Tale of
Samuel Whiskers
Or,
The Roly Poly Pudding

by
Beatrix Potter

SammySammy

In Remembrance of “SAMMY,”
The intelligent pink-eyed Representative of a Persecuted (but Irrepressible) Race
An affectionate little Friend, and a most accomplished thief

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding
The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding
The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, 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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs mewing dreadfully —
“Come in, Cousin Ribby, come in, and sit ye down! I’m in a sad state, 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 her 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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

“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 Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

“The chimney wants sweeping — Oh, dear me, Cousin Ribby — now Moppet and Mittens are gone!”
“They have both got out of the cupboard!”

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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 their search.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

They went into the dairy.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

The first thing they found was Mittens, hiding in an empty jar.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

They tipped over the jar, and she scrambled out.
“Oh, Mother, Mother!” said Mittens —

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

“Oh! 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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

“This is serious, Cousin Tabitha,” said Ribby. “We must send for John Joiner at once, with a saw.”

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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 little white choky smoke from the green sticks. Tom Kitten got upon the fender and looked up. It was a big old-fashioned fire-place. 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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

He jumped right up unto the fire-place, balancing himself upon the iron bar where the kettle hangs.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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.

The Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke; he could hear the sticks beginning to crackle and burn in the fire-place 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 Tale Of Samuel Whiskers Or, The Roly Poly Pudding

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.