Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Ronald Holder and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team [Illustration: BUTTER AND MILK FROM THE FARM] THE TALE OF THE PIE AND THE PATTY-PAN BY BEATRIX POTTER _Author of_ _"The Tale of Peter Rabbit," &c._ _Pussy-cat sits by the fire--how should she be fair?_ _In walks the little dog--says "Pussy are you there?_ _How do you do Mistress Pussy? Mistress Pussy, how do you do?"_ _"I thank you kindly, little dog. I fare as well as you!"_ _Old Rhyme._ FREDERICK WARNE [Illustration] FREDERICK WARNE Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Viking Penguin Inc., 40 West 23rd Street, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A. Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1B4 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand First published 1905 This impression 1985 Printed and bound in Great Britain by William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London [Illustration] Once upon a time there was a Pussy-cat called Ribby, who invited a little dog called Duchess, to tea. "Come in good time, my dear Duchess," said Ribby's letter, "and we will have something so very nice. I am baking it in a pie-dish--a pie-dish with a pink rim. You never tasted anything so good! And _you_ shall eat it all! _I_ will eat muffins, my dear Duchess!" wrote Ribby. Duchess read the letter and wrote an answer:--"I will come with much pleasure at a quarter past four. But it is very strange. _I_ was just going to invite you to come here, to supper, my dear Ribby, to eat something _most delicious_. "I will come very punctually, my dear Ribby," wrote Duchess; and then at the end she added--"I hope it isn't mouse?" [Illustration: THE INVITATION] And then she thought that did not look quite polite; so she scratched out "isn't mouse" and changed it to "I hope it will be fine," and she gave her letter to the postman. But she thought a great deal about Ribby's pie, and she read Ribby's letter over and over again. "I am dreadfully afraid it _will_ be mouse!" said Duchess to herself--"I really couldn't, _couldn't_ eat mouse pie. And I shall have to eat it, because it is a party. And _my_ pie was going to be veal and ham. A pink and white pie-dish! and so is mine; just like Ribby's dishes; they were both bought at Tabitha Twitchit's." Duchess went into her larder and took the pie off a shelf and looked at it. [Illustration] "It is all ready to put into the oven. Such lovely pie-crust; and I put in a little tin patty-pan to hold up the crust; and I made a hole in the middle with a fork to let out the steam--Oh I do wish I could eat my own pie, instead of a pie made of mouse!" Duchess considered and considered and read Ribby's letter again--