A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories — John Shaqi
A Collection of Beatrix Potter StoriesPotter, Beatrix
General
A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories
Potter, Beatrix
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, English; Short stories
I HAVE made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a change, I
am going to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy
Brock and Mr. Tod. Nobody could call Mr. Tod "nice." The rabbits could
not bear him; they could smell him half a mile off. He was of a
wandering habit and he had foxey whiskers; they never knew where he
would be next.
One day he was living in a stick-house in the coppice, causing terror to
the family of old Mr. Benjamin Bouncer. Next day he moved into a pollard
willow near the lake, frightening the wild ducks and the water rats.
In winter and early spring he might generally be found in an earth
amongst the rocks at the top of Bull Banks, under Oatmeal Crag.
He had half a dozen houses, but he was seldom at home.
The houses were not always empty when Mr. Tod moved OUT; because
sometimes Tommy Brock moved IN; (without asking leave).
Tommy Brock was a short bristly fat waddling person with a grin; he
grinned all over his face. He was not nice in his habits. He ate wasp
nests and frogs and worms; and he waddled about by moonlight, digging
things up.
His clothes were very dirty; and as he slept in the day-time, he always
went to bed in his boots. And the bed which he went to bed in, was
generally Mr. Tod's.
Now Tommy Brock did occasionally eat rabbit-pie; but it was only very
little young ones occasionally, when other food was really scarce. He
was friendly with old Mr. Bouncer; they agreed in disliking the wicked
otters and Mr. Tod; they often talked over that painful subject.
Old Mr. Bouncer was stricken in years. He sat in the spring sunshine
outside the burrow, in a muffler; smoking a pipe of rabbit tobacco.
He lived with his son Benjamin Bunny and his daughter-in-law Flopsy, who
had a young family. Old Mr. Bouncer was in charge of the family that
afternoon, because Benjamin and Flopsy had gone out.
The little rabbit-babies were just old enough to open their blue eyes
and kick. They lay in a fluffy bed of rabbit wool and hay, in a shallow
burrow, separate from the main rabbit hole. To tell the truth--old Mr.
Bouncer had forgotten them.
He sat in the sun, and conversed cordially with Tommy Brock, who was
passing through the wood with a sack and a little spud which he used for
digging, and some mole traps. He complained bitterly about the scarcity
of pheasants' eggs, and accused Mr. Tod of poaching them. And the otters
had cleared off all the frogs while he was asleep in winter--"I have not
had a good square meal for a fortnight, I am living on pig-nuts. I shall
have to turn vegetarian and eat my own tail!" said Tommy Brock.
It was not much of a joke, but it tickled old Mr. Bouncer; because Tommy
Brock was so fat and stumpy and grinning.
So old Mr. Bouncer laughed; and pressed Tommy Brock to come inside, to
taste a slice of seed-cake and "a glass of my daughter Flopsy's cowslip
wine." Tommy Brock squeezed himself into the rabbit hole with alacrity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account