The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix PotterPotter, Beatrix
General
The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter
Potter, Beatrix
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, English; Short stories
At length there was a pitter-patter,
pitter-patter, and some bits of mortar
fell from the wall above.
The cat looked up and saw old Mr.
Benjamin Bunny prancing along the
top of the wall of the upper terrace.
He was smoking a pipe of rabbit-
tobacco, and had a little switch in his
hand.
He was looking for his son.
Old Mr. Bunny had no opinion
whatever of cats. He took a
tremendous jump off the top of the
wall on to the top of the cat, and
cuffed it off the basket, and kicked it
into the greenhouse, scratching off a
handful of fur.
The cat was too much surprised to
scratch back.
When old Mr. Bunny had driven the
cat into the greenhouse, he locked the
door.
Then he came back to the basket
and took out his son Benjamin by the
ears, and whipped him with the little
switch.
Then he took out his nephew Peter.
Then he took out the handkerchief
of onions, and marched out of the
garden.
When Mr. McGregor returned
about half an hour later he observed
several things which perplexed him.
It looked as though some person
had been walking all over the garden
in a pair of clogs--only the footmarks
were too ridiculously little!
Also he could not understand how
the cat could have managed to shut
herself up INSIDE the greenhouse,
locking the door upon the OUTSIDE.
When Peter got home his mother
forgave him, because she was so glad
to see that he had found his shoes and
coat. Cotton-tail and Peter folded up
the pocket-handkerchief, and old Mrs.
Rabbit strung up the onions and hung
them from the kitchen ceiling, with
the bunches of herbs and the rabbit-
tobacco.
THE TALE OF
TWO BAD MICE
[For W.M.L.W., the Little Girl
Who Had the Doll's House]
Once upon a time there was a very
beautiful doll's-house; it was red
brick with white windows, and it had
real muslin curtains and a front door
and a chimney.
It belonged to two Dolls called
Lucinda and Jane; at least it belonged
to Lucinda, but she never ordered
meals.
Jane was the Cook; but she never
did any cooking, because the dinner
had been bought ready-made, in a
box full of shavings.
There were two red lobsters and a
ham, a fish, a pudding, and some
pears and oranges.
They would not come off the plates,
but they were extremely beautiful.
One morning Lucinda and Jane had
gone out for a drive in the doll's
perambulator. There was no one in
the nursery, and it was very quiet.
Presently there was a little scuffling,
scratching noise in a corner near the
fireplace, where there was a hole
under the skirting-board.
Tom Thumb put out his head for a
moment, and then popped it in again.
Tom Thumb was a mouse.
A minute afterwards, Hunca
Munca, his wife, put her head out,
too; and when she saw that there was
no one in the nursery, she ventured
out on the oilcloth under the coal-box.
The doll's-house stood at the other
side of the fire-place. Tom Thumb
and Hunca Munca went cautiously
across the hearthrug. They pushed
the front door--it was not fast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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