The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
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The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies is another story in the universe of Peter Rabbit! The Flopsy Bunnies are six mischievous siblings who make a plan and decide to raid Mr. McGregor's garden. However, McGregor has plenty of experience with rabbits and is ready for the unsuspecting bunnies. Hopefully, Thomasina Tittlemouse can arrive in time to provide a heroic rescue and help the bunnies escape.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

by
Beatrix Potter


The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies
For All The Little Friends
Of

Mr.
Mcgregor & Peter & Benjamin

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is “soporific.” I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit. They certainly had a very soporific effect on the Flopsy Bunnies!

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

When Benjamin Bunny grew up, he married his Cousin Flopsy. They had a large family, and they were very improvident and cheerful. I do not remember the separate names of their children; they were generally called the “Flopsy Bunnies.”

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

As there was not always quite enough to eat, — Benjamin used to borrow cabbages from Flopsy’s brother, Peter Rabbit, who kept a nursery garden.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Sometimes Peter Rabbit had no cabbages to spare. When this happened, the Flopsy Bunnies went across the field to a rubbish heap, in the ditch outside Mr. McGregor’s garden.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mr. McGregor’s rubbish heap was a mixture. There were jam pots and paper bags, and mountains of chopped grass from the mowing machine (which always tasted oily), and some rotten vegetable marrows and an old boot or two. One day — oh joy! — there were a quantity of overgrown lettuces, which had “shot” into flower.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

The Flopsy Bunnies simply stuffed themselves with lettuces. By degrees, one after another, they were overcome with slumber, and lay down in the mown grass.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Benjamin was not so much overcome as his children. Before going to sleep he was sufficiently wide awake to put a paper bag over his head to keep off the flies.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

The little Flopsy Bunnies slept delightfully in the warm sun. From the lawn beyond the garden came the distant clacketty sound of the mowing machine. The bluebottles buzzed about the wall, and a little old mouse picked over the rubbish among the jam pots. (I can tell you her name, she was Thomasina Tittlemouse, a woodmouse with a long tail.)

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

She rustled across the paper bag, and awakened Benjamin Bunny. The mouse apologized profusely, and said that she knew Peter Rabbit.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

While she and Benjamin were talking, close under the wall, they heard the heavy tread above their heads; and suddenly Mr. McGregor emptied out a sackful of lawn mowings right on top of the sleeping Flopsy Bunnies! Benjamin shrank down under his paper bag. The mouse hid in a jam pot.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

The little rabbits smiled sweetly in their sleep under the shower of grass; they did not awake because the lettuces had been so soporific. They dreamt that their mother Flopsy was tucking them up in a hay bed.

Mr. McGregor looked down after emptying his sack. He saw some funny little brown tips of ears sticking up through the lawn mowings. He stared at them for some time.
Presently a fly settled on one of them and it moved.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mr. McGregor climbed down on the rubbish heap —
“One, two, three, four! five! six leetle rabbits!” said he as he dropped them into his sack.
The Flopsy Bunnies dreamt that their mother was turning them over in bed. They stirred a little in their sleep, but still they did not wake up.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mr. McGregor tied up the sack and left it on the wall. He went to put away the mowing machine.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

While he was gone, Mrs. Flopsy Bunny (who had remained at home) came across the field. She looked suspiciously at the sack and wondered where everybody was?

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Then the mouse came out of her jam pot, and Benjamin took the paper bag off of his head, and they told the doleful tale. Benjamin and Flopsy were in despair, they could not undo the string. But Mrs. Tittlemouse was a resourceful person. She nibbled a hole in the bottom corner of the sack.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

The little rabbits were pulled out and pinched to wake them. Their parents stuffed the empty bag with three rotten vegetable marrows, an old blacking-brush and two decayed turnips.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Then they all hid under a bush and watched for Mr. McGregor.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mr. McGregor came back and picked up the sack, and carried it off. He carried it hanging down, as if it were rather heavy. The Flopsy Bunnies followed at a safe distance.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

They watched him go into his house. And then they crept up to the window to listen.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mr. McGregor threw down the sack on the stone floor in a way that would have been extremely painful to the Flopsy Bunnies, if they had happened to have been inside it. They could hear him drag his chair on the flags, and chuckle —
“One, two, three, four, five, six leetle rabbits!” said Mr. McGregor.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

“Eh? What’s that? What have they been spoiling now?” enquired Mrs. McGregor.
“One, two, three, four, five, six leetle fat rabbits!” repeated Mr. McGregor, counting on his fingers — “one, two, three — ”
“Don’t you be silly; what do you mean, you silly old man?”
“In the sack! one, two, three, four, five, six!” repeated Mr. McGregor.

(The youngest Flopsy Bunny got upon the window-sill.)

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mrs. McGregor took hold of the sack and felt it. She said she could feel six, but they must be old rabbits, because they were so hard and all different shapes.
“Not fit to eat; but the skins will do fine to line my old cloak.”
“Line your old cloak?” shouted Mr. McGregor — “I shall sell them and buy myself baccy!”
“Rabbit tobacco! I shall skin them and cut off their heads.”

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Mrs. McGregor untied the sack and put her hand inside. When she felt the vegetables she became very angry. She said that Mr. McGregor had “done it a purpose.”

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

And Mr. McGregor was very angry too. One of the rotten marrows came flying through the kitchen window, and hit the youngest Flopsy Bunny.
It rather hurt.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Then Benjamin and Flopsy thought that it was time to go home.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

So Mr. McGregor did not get his tobacco, and Mrs. McGregor did not get her rabbit skins. But next Christmas Thomasina Tittlemouse got a present of enough rabbit-wool to make herself a cloak and a hood, and a handsome muff and a pair of warm mittens.

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