October 15, 2025 • 17 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Once upon a time there was an old cat called
Missus Tabitha Twiget, 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
(00:21):
and Mittens, but she could not find Tom. Missus 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 up stairs
and looked into the attics, but she could not find
(00:44):
him anywhere. It was an 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. Missus Tabitha became
(01:10):
more and more distracted. She mewed dreadfully while their mother
was searching the house. Moppet and Mittens had gotten to 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.
(01:32):
They patted it with their soft little paws. Shall we
make dear little muffins, said Mittens, to mop it. But
just at that moment somebody knocked on the front door,
and Moppet jumped into the flower 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.
(01:56):
The visitor was a neighbor, Missus Ribby. She had caught
to borrow some yeast. Missus Tabitha came downstairs, mewing dreadfully.
Come in, Cousin Ribby, Come in and sit you down.
I'm in sad trouble, Cousin Ribby, said Tabitha, shedding tears.
I've lost my dear son Thomas. I'm afraid the rats
(02:18):
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. The last die may came
to Tea. Where have you looked for? Him all over
the house. The rats are too many for me. What
(02:40):
a thing it is to have an unruly family, said
missus Tabitha Twitchet. I'm not afraid of rats. I will
help you find him and whip him too. What is
all that soot in the fender? Uh? The chimney went sweeping.
Oh dear me, Cousin Ribby, Now moppint and mittens are gone.
(03:00):
They have both got out of the cupboard. 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 the 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
(03:23):
door bang and some one scudded 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,
(03:45):
I was just going to jump on 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
(04:06):
was nothing to be seen. They returned to the kitchen.
Here's one of your kittens at last, said Ribby, dragging
Moppet out of the flower barrel. They shook the flower
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 an old woman rat in the kitchen,
(04:30):
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 much too frightened to peep out of
the barrel again. Ribby and Tabitha took her with them
(04:54):
to keep her safely in sight while they went on
with their search. They 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
(05:16):
old man rat in the dairy, a dreadful, enormous big rat, Mother,
and he 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
(05:41):
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 Joyner at once
(06:05):
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
(06:27):
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
(06:51):
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 tomcat. He jumped
right up into the fireplace, balancing himself upon the iron
bar where the kettle hangs. Tom Kitten took another big
(07:13):
jump off the bar and landed on a ledge high
up inside the chimney, knocking down some foot into the fender.
Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke, and 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
(07:35):
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
(07:57):
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.
(08:19):
It was most confusing in the dark. One flu 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,
(08:43):
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. Oh it makes me sneeze, said Tom Kitten.
He squeezed through the hole in the wall and dragged
(09:07):
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. 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
(09:29):
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
(09:53):
do you mean by tumbling into my bed, all covered
with smuts? Said the rat? Chatter his teeth, please, sir.
The chimney once sweeping, said poor Tom Kitten. Anna Maria.
Annie Maria squeaked the rat. There was a pattering noise,
and an old woman rat poked her head round a rafter.
(10:17):
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
(10:39):
mouths open. Anna Maria said, the old man rat whose
name with Samuel Whiskers, Anna Maria, make me a kitten
dumpling rolling poly pudding for my dinner. It recriers dough
and a pat of butter and a rolling pin, said
Anna Maria, considering tom kitten, with her head on one side. No,
(11:03):
said Samuel Whiskers, make it properly, Anna Maria, with bread crumbs. 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
(11:24):
boldly down the front staircase to the dairy to get
the butter. He did not meet anybody. He made a
second journey for the rolling pin. He pushed it in
front of him with his paws like a brewer's man
trundling a barrel. He could hear Ribby and Tabitha talking,
but they were busy lighting the candle to look into
the chest. They did not see him. Anna Maria went down,
(11:49):
by way of the skirting board and a window shutter
to 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, he wriggled about
and tried to mew for help, But his mouth was
(12:11):
full of soot and cobwebs, and he was tied up
in such very tight knots, and he could not make
any one hear him, except a spider, which came out
of a crack in the ceiling and examined the knots
critically from a safe distance. It was a judge of
knots because it had a habit of tying up unfortunate
(12:31):
blue 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 a dumpling. First they smeared him with butter,
and then they rolled him in the dough. Will not
the string be very indigestible? Annie Maria inquired Samuel Whiskers.
(12:57):
Anna Maria said she thought it was of no consequence,
but she wished that Tom Kitten would hold his head
still as it disarranged the pastry. She laid hold of
his ears. Tom Kitten bit and spat and mewed and wriggled,
and the rolling pin went roly poly, roly, roly poly roly.
(13:19):
The rats each held an end. His tail is sticking out.
You did not fetch enough dough, Annie 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 Tom Kitten. I do not think it will
be a good pudding. It smells sooty. Anna Maria was
(13:43):
about to argue the point, when all at once there
began to be other sounds up above, the rasping noise
of a saw, and the noise of a little dog
scratching and yelping. The rats dropped the rolling pin and
listened a tinily. We are discovered, and interrupted, Anna Maria.
(14:05):
Let us collect our property and other people's and apart
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 have urged to
the contrary, come away at once and help me tie
up some mutton bones in a counterpane, said Anna Maria.
(14:27):
I have got half a smoked ham hidden in the chimney.
So it happened that by the time John Joyner had
got the plank up, there was nobody under the floor
except the rolling pin and Tom kitten in a very
dirty dumpling. But there was a strong smell of rats.
(14:49):
And John Joyner spent the rest of the morning sniffing
and whining and wagging his tail and going round and
round with his head in the hole like a gimlet.
Then he nailed the plank down again and put his
tools in his bag and came downstairs. The cat family
had quite recovered. They invited him to stay to dinner.
(15:12):
The dumpling had been peeled off Tom kitten and made
separately into a bag pudding with currants in it to
hide the smut. They had been obliged to put tom
kitten into a hot bath to get the butter off.
John Joyner smelt the pudding, but he regretted that he
had not time to stay to dinner because he had
just finished making a wheelbarrow for Miss Potter, and she
(15:35):
had ordered two hen coops And when I was going
to the post late in the afternoon, I looked up
the lane from the corner, and I saw mister Samuel
Whiskers and his wife on the run with big bundles
on a little wheelbarrow which looked very like mine. They
(15:55):
were just turning in at the gate to the barn
of farmer Potatoes. Samuel Whiskers was puffing and out of breath.
Anna Maria was still arguing in shrill tones. She seemed
to know her way, and she seemed to have a
quantity of luggage. I am sure I never gave her
leave to borrow my wheelbarrow. They went into the barn
(16:18):
and hauled their parcels with a bit of string to
the top of the hay mow. After that there were
no more rats for a long time at Tabitha Twichets.
As for Farmer Potatoes, he has been driven nearly distracted.
There are rats and rats and rats in his bar.
(16:39):
The eat up the chicken food, and steal the oats
and bran, and make holes in the meal bags. And
they are all descended from mister and missus Samuel Whiskers
children and grandchildren and great great grandchildren. There is no
end to them. Moppet and mittens have grown up into
(17:03):
very good rat catchers. They go out rat catching in
the village and they find plenty of employment. They charge
so much a dozen and earn their living very comfortably.
They hang up the rat's tails in a row on
the barn door to show how many they have caught,
dozens and dozens of them. But Tom Kitten has always
(17:26):
been afraid of a rat. He never durst face anything
that is bigger than a mouse. End of the tail
of Samuel Whiskers or the roly Poly pudding by Beatrix
Potter
Once upon a time there was an old cat called
Missus Tabitha Twiget, 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
(00:21):
and Mittens, but she could not find Tom. Missus 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 up stairs
and looked into the attics, but she could not find
(00:44):
him anywhere. It was an 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. Missus Tabitha became
(01:10):
more and more distracted. She mewed dreadfully while their mother
was searching the house. Moppet and Mittens had gotten to 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.
(01:32):
They patted it with their soft little paws. Shall we
make dear little muffins, said Mittens, to mop it. But
just at that moment somebody knocked on the front door,
and Moppet jumped into the flower 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.
(01:56):
The visitor was a neighbor, Missus Ribby. She had caught
to borrow some yeast. Missus Tabitha came downstairs, mewing dreadfully.
Come in, Cousin Ribby, Come in and sit you down.
I'm in sad trouble, Cousin Ribby, said Tabitha, shedding tears.
I've lost my dear son Thomas. I'm afraid the rats
(02:18):
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. The last die may came
to Tea. Where have you looked for? Him all over
the house. The rats are too many for me. What
(02:40):
a thing it is to have an unruly family, said
missus Tabitha Twitchet. I'm not afraid of rats. I will
help you find him and whip him too. What is
all that soot in the fender? Uh? The chimney went sweeping.
Oh dear me, Cousin Ribby, Now moppint and mittens are gone.
(03:00):
They have both got out of the cupboard. 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 the 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
(03:23):
door bang and some one scudded 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,
(03:45):
I was just going to jump on 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
(04:06):
was nothing to be seen. They returned to the kitchen.
Here's one of your kittens at last, said Ribby, dragging
Moppet out of the flower barrel. They shook the flower
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 an old woman rat in the kitchen,
(04:30):
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 much too frightened to peep out of
the barrel again. Ribby and Tabitha took her with them
(04:54):
to keep her safely in sight while they went on
with their search. They 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
(05:16):
old man rat in the dairy, a dreadful, enormous big rat, Mother,
and he 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
(05:41):
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 Joyner at once
(06:05):
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
(06:27):
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
(06:51):
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 tomcat. He jumped
right up into the fireplace, balancing himself upon the iron
bar where the kettle hangs. Tom Kitten took another big
(07:13):
jump off the bar and landed on a ledge high
up inside the chimney, knocking down some foot into the fender.
Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke, and 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
(07:35):
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
(07:57):
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.
(08:19):
It was most confusing in the dark. One flu 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,
(08:43):
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. Oh it makes me sneeze, said Tom Kitten.
He squeezed through the hole in the wall and dragged
(09:07):
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. 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
(09:29):
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
(09:53):
do you mean by tumbling into my bed, all covered
with smuts? Said the rat? Chatter his teeth, please, sir.
The chimney once sweeping, said poor Tom Kitten. Anna Maria.
Annie Maria squeaked the rat. There was a pattering noise,
and an old woman rat poked her head round a rafter.
(10:17):
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
(10:39):
mouths open. Anna Maria said, the old man rat whose
name with Samuel Whiskers, Anna Maria, make me a kitten
dumpling rolling poly pudding for my dinner. It recriers dough
and a pat of butter and a rolling pin, said
Anna Maria, considering tom kitten, with her head on one side. No,
(11:03):
said Samuel Whiskers, make it properly, Anna Maria, with bread crumbs. 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
(11:24):
boldly down the front staircase to the dairy to get
the butter. He did not meet anybody. He made a
second journey for the rolling pin. He pushed it in
front of him with his paws like a brewer's man
trundling a barrel. He could hear Ribby and Tabitha talking,
but they were busy lighting the candle to look into
the chest. They did not see him. Anna Maria went down,
(11:49):
by way of the skirting board and a window shutter
to 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, he wriggled about
and tried to mew for help, But his mouth was
(12:11):
full of soot and cobwebs, and he was tied up
in such very tight knots, and he could not make
any one hear him, except a spider, which came out
of a crack in the ceiling and examined the knots
critically from a safe distance. It was a judge of
knots because it had a habit of tying up unfortunate
(12:31):
blue 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 a dumpling. First they smeared him with butter,
and then they rolled him in the dough. Will not
the string be very indigestible? Annie Maria inquired Samuel Whiskers.
(12:57):
Anna Maria said she thought it was of no consequence,
but she wished that Tom Kitten would hold his head
still as it disarranged the pastry. She laid hold of
his ears. Tom Kitten bit and spat and mewed and wriggled,
and the rolling pin went roly poly, roly, roly poly roly.
(13:19):
The rats each held an end. His tail is sticking out.
You did not fetch enough dough, Annie 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 Tom Kitten. I do not think it will
be a good pudding. It smells sooty. Anna Maria was
(13:43):
about to argue the point, when all at once there
began to be other sounds up above, the rasping noise
of a saw, and the noise of a little dog
scratching and yelping. The rats dropped the rolling pin and
listened a tinily. We are discovered, and interrupted, Anna Maria.
(14:05):
Let us collect our property and other people's and apart
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 have urged to
the contrary, come away at once and help me tie
up some mutton bones in a counterpane, said Anna Maria.
(14:27):
I have got half a smoked ham hidden in the chimney.
So it happened that by the time John Joyner had
got the plank up, there was nobody under the floor
except the rolling pin and Tom kitten in a very
dirty dumpling. But there was a strong smell of rats.
(14:49):
And John Joyner spent the rest of the morning sniffing
and whining and wagging his tail and going round and
round with his head in the hole like a gimlet.
Then he nailed the plank down again and put his
tools in his bag and came downstairs. The cat family
had quite recovered. They invited him to stay to dinner.
(15:12):
The dumpling had been peeled off Tom kitten and made
separately into a bag pudding with currants in it to
hide the smut. They had been obliged to put tom
kitten into a hot bath to get the butter off.
John Joyner smelt the pudding, but he regretted that he
had not time to stay to dinner because he had
just finished making a wheelbarrow for Miss Potter, and she
(15:35):
had ordered two hen coops And when I was going
to the post late in the afternoon, I looked up
the lane from the corner, and I saw mister Samuel
Whiskers and his wife on the run with big bundles
on a little wheelbarrow which looked very like mine. They
(15:55):
were just turning in at the gate to the barn
of farmer Potatoes. Samuel Whiskers was puffing and out of breath.
Anna Maria was still arguing in shrill tones. She seemed
to know her way, and she seemed to have a
quantity of luggage. I am sure I never gave her
leave to borrow my wheelbarrow. They went into the barn
(16:18):
and hauled their parcels with a bit of string to
the top of the hay mow. After that there were
no more rats for a long time at Tabitha Twichets.
As for Farmer Potatoes, he has been driven nearly distracted.
There are rats and rats and rats in his bar.
(16:39):
The eat up the chicken food, and steal the oats
and bran, and make holes in the meal bags. And
they are all descended from mister and missus Samuel Whiskers
children and grandchildren and great great grandchildren. There is no
end to them. Moppet and mittens have grown up into
(17:03):
very good rat catchers. They go out rat catching in
the village and they find plenty of employment. They charge
so much a dozen and earn their living very comfortably.
They hang up the rat's tails in a row on
the barn door to show how many they have caught,
dozens and dozens of them. But Tom Kitten has always
(17:26):
been afraid of a rat. He never durst face anything
that is bigger than a mouse. End of the tail
of Samuel Whiskers or the roly Poly pudding by Beatrix
Potter
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