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Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories - Beatrix Potter · The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Isabel Brahm. The Tale of
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  Speaker 1: Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. Once upon a time there
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  Speaker 1: were four little rabbits, and their names wear Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail,
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  Speaker 1: and Peter. They lived with their mother in a sandbank
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  Speaker 1: underneath the root of a very big fair tree. No,
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  Speaker 1: my DearS said all missus Rabbit. One morning, you may
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  Speaker 1: go into the fields or down the lane, but don't
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  Speaker 1: go into mister McGregor's garden. Your father had an accident there.
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  Speaker 1: He was put in a pie by missus McGregor. Now
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  Speaker 1: run along and don't get into mischief. I going out.
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  Speaker 1: Then old Missus Rabbit took a basket and her umbrella
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  Speaker 1: to the bakies. She bought a loaf of brown bread
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  Speaker 1: and five currant bands. Flopsy, Mupsy and Cottontail, who wear
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  Speaker 1: good little bunnies, went down the lane took gather blackberries.
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  Speaker 1: But Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to
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  Speaker 1: mister McGregor's garden and squeezed under the gate. First he
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  Speaker 1: ate some lettuces and some French beans, and then he
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  Speaker 1: ate some raddishes, And then, feeling rather sick, he went
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  Speaker 1: to look for some parsley, but round the end of
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  Speaker 1: a cucumber frame. Whom should he meet but mister McGregor.
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  Speaker 1: Mister McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out
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  Speaker 1: young cabbagees. But he jumped up and ran after Peter,
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  Speaker 1: waving a rake and calling out stop thief. Peter was
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  Speaker 1: most dreadfully from frightened. He rushed all over the garden,
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  Speaker 1: for he had forgotten the way back to the gate.
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  Speaker 1: He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and
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  Speaker 1: the other shee amongst the potatoes. After losing them, he
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  Speaker 1: ran on four legs and went faster, so that I
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  Speaker 1: think he might have got away altogether if he had
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  Speaker 1: not unfortunately, run into a gooseberry nat and got caught
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  Speaker 1: by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a
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  Speaker 1: blue jacket with brass buttons quite near. Peter gave himself
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  Speaker 1: up for lost and shed big tears, but his sobs
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  Speaker 1: were overheard by some friendly sparrows who flew to him
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  Speaker 1: in great excitement and implored him to exert himself. Mister
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  Speaker 1: McGregor came up with a sieve which he intended to
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  Speaker 1: pop upon the top of Peter, but Peter wriggled out
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  Speaker 1: just in time, leaving his jacket behind him, and rushed
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  Speaker 1: into the tall shed and jumped into a can. It
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  Speaker 1: would have been a beautiful thing to hide in if
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  Speaker 1: it had not had so much water in it. Mister
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  Speaker 1: McGregor was quite sure that Peter was somewhere in the
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  Speaker 1: tool shed, perhaps hidden underneath a flower pot. He began
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  Speaker 1: to turn them over, carefully, looking under each. Presently Peter
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  Speaker 1: sneezed could shoe. Mister McGregor was after him in no
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  Speaker 1: time and tried to put his foot upon Peter, who
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  Speaker 1: jumped out of a window, upsetting three plants. The window
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  Speaker 1: was too small for mister McGregor, and he was tired
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  Speaker 1: of running after Peter. He went back to his work.
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  Speaker 1: Peter sat down to rest. He was out of breath
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  Speaker 1: and trembling with fright, and he had not the least
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  Speaker 1: idea which way to go. Also, he was very damp
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  Speaker 1: with sitting in that can. After a time he began
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  Speaker 1: to wonder about going libberty pity. Not very fast, and
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  Speaker 1: looking all round, he found a door in a wall,
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  Speaker 1: but it was locked and there was no room for
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  Speaker 1: a fat little rabbit to squeeze underneath. An old mouse
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  Speaker 1: was running in and out over the stone doorstep, carrying
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  Speaker 1: peas and beans to her family in the wood. Peter
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  Speaker 1: asked her the way to the gate, but she had
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  Speaker 1: such a large bee in her mouth that she could
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  Speaker 1: not answer. She only shook her head at him. Peter
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  Speaker 1: began to cry. Then he tried to find his way
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  Speaker 1: straight across the garden, but he became more and more puzzled.
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  Speaker 1: Presently he came to a pond where mister McGregor filled
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  Speaker 1: his water cans. A white cat was staring at some goldfish.
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  Speaker 1: She sat very very still, but now and then the
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  Speaker 1: tip of her tail twitched as if it were alive.
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  Speaker 1: Peter thought it best to go without speaking to her.
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  Speaker 1: He had heard about cats from his cousin, Little Benjamin Bunny.
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  Speaker 1: He went back towards the tall shed, but suddenly, quite
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  Speaker 1: close to him, he had the nose.
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  Speaker 2: Of a hoe. Scretch, scratch, scratch, scratch.
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  Speaker 1: Peter sketched underneath the bushes, but presently as nothing happened.
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  Speaker 1: He came out and climbed upon a wheelbarrow and peeped over.
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  Speaker 1: The first thing he saw was mister McGregor hoeing onions.
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  Speaker 1: His back was turned towards Peter, and beyond him was
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  Speaker 1: the gate. Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow
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  Speaker 1: and started running as fast as he could go along
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  Speaker 1: a straight walk behind some blackerrant bushes. Mister McGregor caught
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  Speaker 1: sight of him at the corner, but Peter did not care.
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  Speaker 1: He slipped underneath the gate and was safe at last.
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  Speaker 1: In the wood outside the garden, mister mc gregor hung
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  Speaker 1: up the little jacket in the shoes for a scarecrow
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  Speaker 1: to frighten the blackbirds. Peter never stopped running or looked
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  Speaker 1: behind him till he got home to the big fair tree.
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  Speaker 1: He was so tired that he flopped down upon the
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  Speaker 1: noise soft sand on the floor of the rabbit hall
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  Speaker 1: and shut his eyes. His mother was busy cooking. She
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  Speaker 1: wondered what he had done with his clothes. It was
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  Speaker 1: the second little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter
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  Speaker 1: had lost in a fortnight. I am sorry to say
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  Speaker 1: that Peter was not very well. During the evening, his
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  Speaker 1: mother put him to bed and made some camemel tea,
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  Speaker 1: and she gave a dose of it to Peter one
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  Speaker 1: table spoonful to be taken at bedtime. But Flubbsy, Mubsie
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  Speaker 1: and Cottontail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.
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  Speaker 1: End of the Tale of Peter Rabbit.
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  Speaker 3: Chapter two of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
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  Speaker 3: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 3: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 3: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Elisabeth Kleatt. The Tale of
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  Speaker 3: Benjamin Bunny by Beatrix Potter for the Children of Sorry
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  Speaker 3: from Old mister Bunny. One morning, a little rabbit sat
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  Speaker 3: on a bank. He pricked his ears and listened to
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  Speaker 3: the trit trot trit trot of a pony. A gig
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  Speaker 3: was coming along the road. It was driven by mister
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  Speaker 3: mc gregor, and beside him sat Missus mc gregor in
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  Speaker 3: her best bonnet. As soon as they had passed, little
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  Speaker 3: Benjamin Bunny slid down into the road and set off
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  Speaker 3: with a hop, skip and a jump to call upon
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  Speaker 3: his relations who lived in the wood at the back
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  Speaker 3: of mister McGregor's garden. That wood was full of rabbit holes,
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  Speaker 3: and in the neatest, sandiest hole of all cousins Flopsy,
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  Speaker 3: Mopsy Cottontail and Peter.
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  Speaker 4: Old.
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  Speaker 3: Missus Rabbit was a widow. She earned her living by
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  Speaker 3: knitting rabbit wool mittens and muffettees. I once bought a
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  Speaker 3: pair at a bazaar. She also sold herbs and rosemary tea,
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  Speaker 3: and rabbit tobacco, which is what we call lavender. Little
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  Speaker 3: Benjamin did not very much want to see his aunt.
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  Speaker 3: He came round the back of the fir tree and
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  Speaker 3: nearly tumbled upon the top of his cousin, Peter. Peter
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  Speaker 3: was sitting by himself. He looked poorly and was dressed
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  Speaker 3: in a red cottage pocket handkerchief. Peter said, Little Benjamin
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  Speaker 3: in a whisper, who has got your clothes? Peter replied
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  Speaker 3: the scarecrow in mister McGregor's garden and described how he
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  Speaker 3: had been chased about the garden and had dropped his
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  Speaker 3: shoes and coat. Little Benjamin sat down beside his cousin
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  Speaker 3: and assured him that mister mc gregor had gone out
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  Speaker 3: in a gig and Missus mc gregor also, and certainly
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  Speaker 3: for the day, because she was wearing her best bonnet.
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  Speaker 3: Peter said he hoped that it would rain. At this point,
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  Speaker 3: old missus Rabbit's voice was heard inside the rabbit hole,
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  Speaker 3: calling cotton tail, cotton tale, fetch some more camer mile.
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  Speaker 3: Peter said he thought he might feel better if he
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  Speaker 3: went for a walk. They went away hand in hand
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  Speaker 3: and got upon the flat top of the wall at
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  Speaker 3: the bottom of the wood. From here they looked down
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  Speaker 3: into mister mcgreggor's gar garden. Peter's coat and shoes were
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  Speaker 3: plainly to be seen upon the scarecrow, topped with an
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  Speaker 3: old tam o' shanter of mister McGregor's. Little Benjamin said
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  Speaker 3: it spoils people's clothes to squeeze under a gate. The
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  Speaker 3: proper way to get in is to climb down a
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  Speaker 3: pear tree. Peter fell down head first, but it was
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  Speaker 3: of no consequence, as the bed below was newly raked
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  Speaker 3: and quite soft. It had been sown with lettuces. They
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  Speaker 3: left a great many odd little footmarks all over the bed,
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  Speaker 3: especially Little Benjamin, who was wearing clogs. Little Benjamin said
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  Speaker 3: that the first thing to be done was to get
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  Speaker 3: back Peter's clothes in order that they might be able
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  Speaker 3: to use the pocket handkerchief. They took them off the scarecrow.
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  Speaker 3: There had been rain during the night. There was water
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  Speaker 3: in the shoes, and the coat was somewhat shrunk. Benjamin
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  Speaker 3: tried on the tam O'Shanter, but it was too big
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  Speaker 3: for him. Then he suggested that they should fill the
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  Speaker 3: pocket handkerchief with onions as a little present for his aunt.
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  Speaker 3: Peter did not seem to be enjoying himself. He kept
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  Speaker 3: hearing noises. Benjamin, on the contrary, was perfectly at home
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  Speaker 3: and ate a lettuce leaf. He said that he was
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  Speaker 3: in the habit of coming to the garden with his
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  Speaker 3: father to get lettuces for their Sunday dinner. The name
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  Speaker 3: of Little Benjamin's papa was old mister Benjamin Bunny. The
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  Speaker 3: lettuces certainly were very fine. Peter did not eat anything.
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  Speaker 3: He said he should like to go home. Presently, he
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  Speaker 3: dropped half the onions. Little Benjamin said that it was
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  Speaker 3: not possible to get back up the pear tree with
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  Speaker 3: a load of vegetables. He led the way boldly towards
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  Speaker 3: the other end of the garden. They went along a
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  Speaker 3: little walk on planks under a sunny red brick wall.
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  Speaker 3: The mice sat on their doorsteps, cracking cherry stones. They
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  Speaker 3: winked at Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin Bunny. Presently Peter
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  Speaker 3: let the pocket handkerchief go again. They got amongst flower
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  Speaker 3: pots and frames and tubs. Peter heard noises worse than ever.
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  Speaker 3: His eyes were as big as a lollipop's. He was
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  Speaker 3: a step or two in front of his cousin when
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  Speaker 3: he suddenly stopped. This is what those little rabbits saw
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  Speaker 3: round that corner. Little Benjamin took one look, and then
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  Speaker 3: in half a minute less than no time, he hid
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  Speaker 3: himself and Peter and the onions underneath a large basket.
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  Speaker 3: The cat got up and stretched herself and came and
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  Speaker 3: sniffed at the basket. Perhaps she liked the smell of onions. Anyway,
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  Speaker 3: she sat down upon the top of the basket. She
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  Speaker 3: sat there for five hours. I cannot draw you a
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  Speaker 3: picture of Peter and Benjamin underneath the basket, because it
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  Speaker 3: was quite dark, and because the smell of onions was fearful.
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  Speaker 3: It made Peter Rabbit and little Benjamin cry. The sun
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  Speaker 3: got round behind the wood, and it was quite late
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  Speaker 3: in the afternoon, but still the cat sat upon the
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  Speaker 3: basket at length. There was a pitter patter, pitter patter,
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  Speaker 3: and some bits of mortar fell from the wall above.
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  Speaker 3: The cat looked up and saw old mister Benjamin Bunny
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  Speaker 3: prancing along the top of the wall of the upper terrace.
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  Speaker 3: He was smoking a pipe of rabbit tobacco and had
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  Speaker 3: a little switch in his hand. He was looking for
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  Speaker 3: his son. Old mister Bunny had no opinion whatever of cats.
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  Speaker 3: He took a tremendous jump off the top of the
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  Speaker 3: wall on to the top of the cat, and cuffed
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  Speaker 3: it off the basket and kicked it into the garden house,
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  Speaker 3: scratching off a handful of fur. The cat was too
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  Speaker 3: much surprised to scratch back. When old mister Bunny had
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  Speaker 3: driven the cat into the greenhouse, he locked the door.
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  Speaker 3: Then he came back to the basket and took out
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  Speaker 3: his son Benjamin by the ears and whipped him with
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  Speaker 3: the little switch. Then he took out his nephew Peter.
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  Speaker 3: Then he took out the handkerchief of onions and marched
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  Speaker 3: out of the garden. When mister mc gregor returned about
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  Speaker 3: half an hour later, he observed several things which perplexed him.
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  Speaker 3: It looked as though some person had been walking all
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  Speaker 3: over the garden in a pair of clogs, only the
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  Speaker 3: footmarks were too ridiculously little. Also, he could not understand
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  Speaker 3: how the cat could have managed to shut herself up
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  Speaker 3: inside the greenhouse, locking the door upon the outside. When
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  Speaker 3: Peter got home, his mother forgave him because she was
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  Speaker 3: so glad to see that he had found his shoes
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  Speaker 3: and coat, cotton tail. And Peter folded up the pocket handkerchief,
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  Speaker 3: and old Missus Rabbit, strung up the onions and hung
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  Speaker 3: them from the kitchen ceiling with the rabbit tobacco and
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  Speaker 3: of the tail of Benjamin Bunny.
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  Speaker 2: Chapter three of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: public domain. For more information, ought to volunteer, please visit
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Shaki A. Searl, The Tale
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: of Missus Tiggywinkle by Beatrix Potter. For the real Little
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  Speaker 2: Lucy of Newland's Once upon a time, there was a
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  Speaker 2: little girl called Lucy who lived at a farm called
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  Speaker 2: Little Town. She was a good little girl. Only she
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  Speaker 2: was always losing her pocket handkerchiefs. One day, Lucy came
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  Speaker 2: into the farm yard crying, Oh she did, cry, so,
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  Speaker 2: I've lost my pocket handkin, three hankins, and a pinny.
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  Speaker 2: Have you seen them? Tabby kitten. The kitten went on
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  Speaker 2: washing her white paws. So Lucy asked a speckled hen, Sally, Henny, penny,
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  Speaker 2: has you found three pocket handkins? But the speckled hen
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  Speaker 2: ran into a barn, plucking, I go barefoot, barefoot, barefoot.
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  Speaker 2: And then Lucy asked cock Robin, sitting on a twig.
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  Speaker 2: Cock Robin looked sideways at Lucy with his bright black eye,
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  Speaker 2: and he flew over a stile and away. Lucy climbed
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  Speaker 2: upon the stile and looked up at the hill behind
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  Speaker 2: little Town, a hill that goes up up into the
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  Speaker 2: clouds as though it had no top, and a great
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  Speaker 2: way up the hillside she thought she saw some white
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  Speaker 2: things spread upon the grass. Lucy scrambled up the hill
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  Speaker 2: as fast as her stout legs would carry her. She
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  Speaker 2: ran along a steep pathway up and up until little
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  Speaker 2: Town was right away down below. She could have dropped
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  Speaker 2: a pebble down the chimney. Presently she came to a
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  Speaker 2: spring bubbling out from the hillside. Some one had stood
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  Speaker 2: a tin can upon a stone to catch the water,
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  Speaker 2: but the water was already running over, for the can
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  Speaker 2: was no bigger than an egg cup. And where the
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  Speaker 2: sand upon the path was wet, there were the footmarks
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  Speaker 2: of a very small person. She ran on and on
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  Speaker 2: the path ended under a big rock. The grass was
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  Speaker 2: short and green, and there were clothes props cut from
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  Speaker 2: bracken stems with lines of plattered rushes, and a heap
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  Speaker 2: of tiny clothespins, but no pocket handkerchiefs. But there was
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  Speaker 2: something else, a door straight into the hill, and inside
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  Speaker 2: it some one was singing lily white and clean o
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  Speaker 2: with little frills between. No smooth and hot red rusty
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  Speaker 2: spot never here be seen.
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  Speaker 5: No.
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  Speaker 2: Lucy knocked once twice and interrupted the song. A little
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  Speaker 2: frightened voice called out, who's that? Lucy opened the door,
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  Speaker 2: and what do you think? There was inside the hill
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  Speaker 2: a nice, clean kitchen with a flagged floor and wooden beams,
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  Speaker 2: just like any other farm kitchen. Only the ceiling was
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  Speaker 2: so low that Lucy's head nearly touched it, and the
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  Speaker 2: pots and pans were small, and so was everything there.
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  Speaker 2: There was a nice hot, singey smell. And at the table,
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  Speaker 2: with an iron in her hand, stood a very stout,
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  Speaker 2: short person staring anxiously at Lucy. Her print gown was
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  Speaker 2: tucked up, and she was wearing a large apron over
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  Speaker 2: her striped petticoat. Her little black nose went sniffle, sniffle, snuffle,
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  Speaker 2: and her eye went twinkle twinkle. And under her cap,
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  Speaker 2: where Lucy had yellow curls, that little person had prickles.
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  Speaker 2: Who are you, said Lucy? Have you seen my pocket hankins.
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  Speaker 2: The little person made a bob Curtsey. Oh yes, if
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  Speaker 2: you please'm. My name is missus Tiggywinkle. Oh yes, if
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  Speaker 2: you please em, I'm an excellent clear starcher. And she
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: took something out of a clothes basket and spread it
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  Speaker 2: on the ironing blanket. What's that thing, said Lucy. That's
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  Speaker 2: not my pocket hankin. Oh no, if you please em,
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  Speaker 2: that's a little scarlet waistcoat belonging to cock robin. And
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  Speaker 2: she ironed it and folded it and put it on
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  Speaker 2: one side. Then she took something else off a clothes horse.
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  Speaker 2: That isn't my pinny, said Lucy, Oh no, if you
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  Speaker 2: please em, that's a dummask tablecloth belonging to Jenny Wren.
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  Speaker 2: Look how it's stained with currant wine. It's very bad
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  Speaker 2: to wash, said Missus Tiggywinkle. Missus Tiggywinkle's nose went sniffle, sniffle, snuffle,
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  Speaker 2: and her eyes went twinkle twinkle, and she fetched another
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  Speaker 2: hot iron from the fire. There's one of my pocket handkins,
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  Speaker 2: cried Lucy. And there's my pinny. Missus Tiggiwinkle ironed it
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  Speaker 2: and goffered it and shook out the frills. Oh that
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  Speaker 2: is lovely, said Lucy. And what are those long yellow
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: things with fingers like gloves. Oh that's a pair of
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  Speaker 2: stockings belonging to Sally Henny Penny. Look how she's worn
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  Speaker 2: the heels out with scratching in the yard. She'll very
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  Speaker 2: soon go barefoot, said Missus Tiggywinkle. Why there's another handkersniff
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  Speaker 2: but it isn't mine. It's red. Oh no, if you
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  Speaker 2: please em That one belongs to old missus Rabbit. And
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  Speaker 2: it did so smell of onions. I've had to wash
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  Speaker 2: it separately. I can't get out the smell. There's another
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  Speaker 2: one of mine, said Lucy. What are those funny little
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  Speaker 2: white things. That's a pair of mittens belonging to Tabby Kitten.
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  Speaker 2: I only have two iron them. She washes them herself.
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  Speaker 2: There's my last pocket, Hankin said. And what are you
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  Speaker 2: dipping into the basin of starch? They're little dicky shirt
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  Speaker 2: fronts belonging to Tom titmouse, most terrible particular, said Missus Tiggiwinkle.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: Now I've finished my ironing, I'm going to air some clothes.
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  Speaker 2: What are these dear soft fluffy things, said Lucy. Oh,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: those are wooly coats belonging to the little lambs at Skelgill.
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  Speaker 2: Will their jackets take off? Asked Lucy, Oh, yes, if
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: you please em Look at the sheep mark on the shoulder.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: And here's one marked for Gatescarf and three that come
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: from little town. They're always marked at washing, said Missus Tiggiwinkle,
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: And she hung up all sorts and sizes of clothes,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: small brown coats of mice, and one velvety black moleskin waistcoat,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: and a red tailcoat with no tail belonging to squirrel Nutkin,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: and a very much shrunk blue jacket belonging to Peter Rabbit,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: and a petticoat not marked that had gone lost in
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: the washing, And at last the basket was empty. Then
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Missus Tiggiwinkle made tea, a cup for herself and a
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: cup for Lucy. They sat before the fire on a
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: bench and looked sideways at one another. Missus Tiggiwinkle's hand
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: holding the tea cup was very very brown and very
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: very wrinkly with the soap SuDS, and all through her
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: gown and her cap there were hairpins sticking wrong end out,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: so that Lucy didn't lie to sit too near her.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: When they had finished tea, they tied up the clothes
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: in bundles, and Lucy's pocket handkerchiefs were folded up inside
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: her clean pinny and fastened with a silver safety pin.
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: And then they made up the fire with turf, and
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: came out and locked the door and hid the key
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: under the door sill. Then away down the hill trotted
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: Lucy and Missus Tiggiwinkle with the bundles of clothes. All
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: the way down the path, little animals came out of
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: the fern to meet them. The very first that they
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: met were Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, and she gave
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: them their nice clean clothes and all the little animals
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: and birds were so very much obliged to dear Missus Tiggiwinkle,
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: so that at the bottom of the hill, when they
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: came to the stile, there was nothing left to carry
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: except Lucy's one little bundle. Lucy scrambled up the stile
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: with the bundle in her hand, and then she turned
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: to say good night and to thank the washerwoman. But
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: what a very odd thing. Missus Tiggiwinkle had not waited
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: either for thanks or for the washing bill. She was running, running,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: running up the hill. And where was her white frilled cap,
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: and her shawl, and her gown and her petticoat? And
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: how small she had grown? And how brown and covered
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: with prickles. Why Missus Tiggiwinkle was nothing but a hedgehog.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Now some people say that little Lucy had been asleep
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: upon the style, But then how could she have found
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: three clean pocket handkins and a pinny pinned with a
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: silver safety pin. And besides, I have seen that door
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: into the back of the hill called cat bills. And besides,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: I am very well acquainted with dear missus Tiggiwinkle. End
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: of the Tale of Missus Tiggiwinkle. Recording by Shakier.
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: A s earl.
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: Section four of a collection of Beatrix Powder stories. This
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: LibriVox dot org. Recording by wooe Be woolleyb dot blog
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: dot com. The Tale of Mister Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: Once upon a time there lived a frog called mister
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: Jeremy Fisher. He lived in a little damp house amongst
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: the buttercups at the edge of a pond. The water
• 28:17
  Speaker 4: was all slippy, sloppy in the larder and in the
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: back passage. But mister Jeremy liked getting his feet wet.
• 28:24
  Speaker 4: Nobody ever scolded him, and he never caught a cold.
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: He was quite pleased when he looked out and saw
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: large drops of rain splashing in the pond. I will
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: get some worms and go fishing and catch a dish
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: of minnows for my dinner, said mister Jeremy Fisher. If
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: I catch more than five fish, I will invite my friends,
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: mister Alderman, Ptolemy Tortoise, and Sir Isaac Newton. The Alderman however,
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: eats salad. Mister Jeremy put on a macintosh and a
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: pair of shiny goloshes. He took his rod and basket,
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: and he set off with enormous hops to the place
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: where he kept his boat. The boat was round and green,
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: and very like the other lily leaves. It was tied
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: to a water plant in the middle of the pond.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: Mister Jeremy took a reed pole and pushed the boat
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: out into the open water. I know a good place
• 29:18
  Speaker 4: for minnows, said mister Jeremy fisher. Mister Jeremy stuck his
• 29:23
  Speaker 4: pole into the mud and fastened his boat to it.
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: Then he settled himself, cross lugged, and arranged his fishing tackle.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: He had the dearest little red float. His rod was
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: a tough stalk of grass, His line was a fine,
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: long white horsehair, and he tied a little wriggling worm
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: at the end. The rain trickled down his back, and
• 29:43
  Speaker 4: for nearly an hour he stared at the float. This
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: is getting tiresome. I think I should like some lunch,
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: said mister Jeremy Fisher. He punted back again amongst the
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: water plants and took some lunch out of his basket.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: I will eat a butterfly sandwich and wait till the
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: shower is over, said mister Jeremy Fisher. A great big
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: water beetle came up underneath the lily leaf and tweaked
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: the toe of one of his galoshes. Mister Jeremy crossed
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: his legs up shorter out of reach, and went on
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: eating his sandwich. Once or twice, something moved about with
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: a rustle and a splash amongst the rushes at the
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: side of the pool. I trust that is not a rat,
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: said mister Jeremy Fisher. I think I'd better get away
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: from here. Mister Jeremy shoved the boat out again a
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: little way and dropped in the bait. There was a
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: bite almost directly the float gave a tremendous bobbit A minnow.
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: A minnow. I have him by the nose, cried mister
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: Jeremy Fisher, jerking up his rod. But what a horrible surprise.
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: Instead of a smooth, fat minnow, mister Jeremy landed little
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: jack sharp, the stickleback covered with spines. The stickleback floundered
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: about the boat, pricking and snapping until he was quite
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: out of breath. Then he jumped back into the water,
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: and a shoal of other little fishes put their heads
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: out and laughed at mister Jeremy fisher. And while mister
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: Jeremy sat disconsolately on the edge of his boat, sucking
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: his sore fingers and peering down into the water, a
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: much worse thing happened, A really frightful thing it would
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: have been if mister Jeremy had not been wearing a macintosh.
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: A great, big, enormous trout came up ker puff flop,
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: with a splash, and it seized mister Jeremy with a
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: snap ow ow ow, and it turned and dived down
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: to the bottom of the pond. But the trout was
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: so displeased with the taste of the macintosh that in
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: less than half a minute it spat him out again,
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: and the only thing it swallowed was mister Jeremy's galoshes.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: Mister Jeremy bounced up to the surface of the water
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: like a cork and the bubbles out of a soda
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: water bottle, and he swam with all his might to
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: the edge of the pond. He scrambled out on the
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: first bank he came to, and he hopped home across
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: the meadow with his macintosh all in tatters. What a
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: mercy that was not a pike, said mister Jeremy Fisher.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: I have lost my rod and basket, but it is
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: not much matter, for I am sure I should never
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: have dared to go fishing again. He put some sticking
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: plaster on his fingers, and his friends both came to dinner.
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: He could not offer them fish, but he had something
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: else in his larder. Sir Isaac Newton wore his black
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: and gold waistcoat, and mister Alderman ptolemy tortoise brought a
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: salad with him in a string bag, and instead of
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: a nice dish of minnows, they had a roasted grasshopper
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: with lady bird sauce, which frogs consider a beautiful treat,
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: but I think it must have been quite nasty. The
• 32:47
  Speaker 4: end and of the Tale of mister Jeremy Fisher. Recording
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: by Wooly Bee Woolybe dot blog dot com, Chapter five
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This is a
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: Org recording by Wolly b. The Tale of Geminia puddle
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: Duck by Beatrix Potter. What a funny sight it is
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: to see a brood of ducklings with a hen. Listen
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: to the story of Geminia puddle Duck, who was annoyed
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: because the farmer's wife would not let her hatch her
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: own eggs. Her sister in law, missus Rebecca puddle Duck,
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: was perfectly willing to leave the hatching to some one else.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: I have not the patience to sit on a nest
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: for twenty eight days, and no more have you, Gemeniah,
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: You would let them go cold? You know you would.
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: I wish to hatch my own eggs. I will hatch
• 33:53
  Speaker 4: them all by myself. Quacked Geminia puddle Duck. She tried
• 33:58
  Speaker 4: to hide her eggs, but they were all we spound
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: and carried off. Geminia puddle Duck became quite desperate. She
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: determined to make a nest right away from the farm.
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: She set off on a fine spring afternoon along the
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: cart road that leads over the hill. She was wearing
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: a shawl and a poke bonnet. When she reached the
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: top of the hill, she saw a wood in the distance.
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: She thought that it looked a safe quiet spot. Gemenia
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: puddle Duck was not much in the habit of flying.
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: She ran downhill a few yards, flapping her shawl, and
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: then she jumped off into the air. She flew beautifully.
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: When she had got a good start, she skimmed along
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: over the tree tops until she saw an open place
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: in the middle of the wood where the trees and
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: brushwood had been cleared. Geminiah alighted rather heavily and began
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: to waddle about in search of a convenient, dry nesting place.
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: She rather fancied a tree stump amongst some tall foxgloves,
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: but seated upon the stump, she was startled to find
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: an elegantly dressed gentleman reading a newspaper. He had black
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: prick ears and sandy colored whiskers. Quack, said Gemenia puddle Duck,
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: with her head and her bonnet on one side. Quack.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: The gentleman raised his eyes above the newspaper and looked
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: curiously at Geminia, madam. Have you lost your way? Said he.
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: He had a long bushy tail which he was sitting upon.
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: As the stump was somewhat damp. Jemenia thought him mighty
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: civil and handsome. She explained that she had not lost
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: her way, but that she was trying to find a convenient,
• 35:27
  Speaker 4: dry nesting place. Ah is that so, indeed, said the gentleman,
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: with sandy whiskers, looking curiously at Gemenia. He folded up
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: the newspaper and put it in his coat tail pocket.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: Gemenia complained of the superfluous hen. Indeed, how interesting I
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: wish I could meet with that fowl. I would teach
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: it to mind its own business. But as to a
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: nest there is no difficulty. I have a sackful of
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: feathers in my woodshed. No, my dear madam, you will
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: be in nobody's way. You may sit there as long
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: as you like, said the bushy long tailed gentlemen. He
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: led the way to a very retired, dismal looking house
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: amongst the foxgloves. It was built of faggots and turf,
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: and there were two broken pails, one on top of
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: another by way of a chimney. This is my summer residence.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: You would not find my earth my winter house so convenient,
• 36:17
  Speaker 4: said the hospitable gentleman. There was a tumble down shed
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: at the back of the house made of old soap boxes.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: The gentleman opened the door and showed Geminia in. The
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: shed was almost quite full of feathers. It was almost suffocating,
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: but it was very comfortable and very soft. Geminiah puddle
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: Duck was rather surprised to find such a vast quantity
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: of feathers, but it was very comfortable, and she made
• 36:40
  Speaker 4: a nest without any trouble at all. When she came out,
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: the sandy whiskered gentleman was sitting on a log reading
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: the newspaper. At least he had it spread out, but
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: he was looking over the top of it. He was
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: so polite that he seemed almost sorry to let Geminia
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: go for the night. He promised to take great care
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: of her nest until she came back the next day.
• 37:00
  Speaker 4: He said he loved eggs and ducklings. He should be
• 37:03
  Speaker 4: proud to see a fine nestful in his woodshed. Geminia
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: puddle Duck came every afternoon. She laid nine eggs in
• 37:10
  Speaker 4: the nest. They were greeny white, and very large. The
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: foxy gentlemen admired them immensely. He used to turn them
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: over and count them when Geminia was not there. At last,
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Geminia told them that she intended to begin to sit
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: the next day, and I will bring a bag of
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: corn with me, so that I need never leave my
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: nest until the eggs are hatched. They might catch cold,
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: said the conscientious Geminia. Madam, I beg you not to
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: trouble yourself with a bag. I will provide oats. But
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: before you commence your tedious sitting, I intend to give
• 37:39
  Speaker 4: you a treat. Let us have a dinner party all
• 37:41
  Speaker 4: to ourselves. May I ask you to bring up some
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: herbs from the farm garden to make a savory omelet,
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: Sage and thyme and minted, two onions and some parsley.
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: I will provide lard for the stuff. Lard for the omelet,
• 37:53
  Speaker 4: said the hospitable gentleman, with sandy whiskers. Geminia puddle Duck
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: was a simpleton. Not even the mention of sage and
• 37:59
  Speaker 4: onions made her suspicious. She went round the farm garden
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: nibbling off snippets of all the different sorts of herbs
• 38:05
  Speaker 4: that were used for stuffing roast duck. And she waddled
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: into the kitchen and got two onions out of a basket.
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: The collie dog kep met her coming out. What are
• 38:14
  Speaker 4: you doing with those onions? Where do you go every
• 38:17
  Speaker 4: afternoon by yourself? Geminia puddle duck. Geminia was rather in
• 38:21
  Speaker 4: awe of the collie. She told him the whole story.
• 38:24
  Speaker 4: Collie listened with his wise head on one side. He
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: grinned when she described the polite gentleman with sandy whiskers.
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: He asked several questions about the wood and about the
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: exact position of the house and shed. Then he went
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: out and trotted down the village. He went to look
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: for two foxhound puppies who were out at walk with
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: the butcher. Geminia puddle Duck went up to the cart
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: road for the last time on a sunny afternoon. She
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: was rather burdened with bunches of herbs and two onions
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: in a bag. She flew over the wood and alighted
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: opposite the house of the bushy long tailed gentleman. He
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: was sitting on a log. He sniffed the air and
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: kept glancing on easily round the wood. When Geminia alighted,
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: he quite jumped. Come into the house. As soon as
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: you have looked at your eggs, give me the herbs
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: for the omelet be sharp. He was rather abrupt. Geminiah
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: Puddle Duck had never heard him speak like that. She
• 39:14
  Speaker 4: felt surprised and uncomfortable. While she was inside, she heard
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: pattering feet round the back of the shed. Someone with
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: a black nose sniffed at the bottom of the door
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: and then locked it. Gemeniah became much alarmed. A moment
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: afterwards there were the most awful noises, barking, baying, growls
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: and howls, squealing and groans, and nothing more was ever
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: seen of that foxy whiskered gentleman. Presently, kep opened to
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: the door of the shed and let out Geminia puddle Duck. Unfortunately,
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: the puppies rushed in and gobbled up all the eggs
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: before he could stop them. He had a bite on
• 39:50
  Speaker 4: his ear and both puppies were limping. Geminia Puddle Duck
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: was escorted at home in tears on account of those eggs.
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: She laid some more in June, and she was permitted
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: to keep and herself, but only four of them hatched.
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: Geminia Puddle Ducks said that it was because of her nerves,
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: but she had always been a bad Sitter, The End
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: and of the Tale of Geminia Puddle Duck. Recording by
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: Wally b.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Chapter six of a collection of Beatrix Potus stories. This
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or too volunteer, please visit
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Isabel Brahm. The Tale of
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter For all little Friends
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: of mister McGregor and Peter and Benjamin. It is said
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: that the effect of eating too much lettuce is so horrific.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces, but then
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: I am not a rabbit. They certainly had a very
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: soporific effect upon the Flopsy bunnies. When Benjamin Bunny grew up,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: he married his cousin Flopsy. They had a large family,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: and they were very improvident and cheerful. I do not
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: remember the separate names of their children. They were generally
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: called the Flopsy Bunnies as they were not always quite
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: enough to eat. Benjamin used to burrow cabbages from Phloppsy's
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: brother Peter Rabbit, who kept a nursery garden. Sometimes Peter
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: Rabbit had no cabbages to spare. When this happened, the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: flopsy bunnies went across the fields to a rubbish heap
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: in the ditch outside mister McGregor's garden. Mister McGregor's rubbish
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: heap was a mixture. There were jam pots and paper bags,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: and mountains of chopped grass from the mowing machine, which
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: always tastes oily, and some rotten vegetable marrows, and an
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: old boot hartie. One day, oh joy, there were a
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: quantity of overgrown lettices which should shot into flower. The
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: flupsy bunnies simply stuffed lettuces by degrees one after another.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: They were overcome with slumber and lay down in the
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: moon grass. Benjamin was not so much overcome as his children.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: Before going to sleep, he was sufficiently wide awake to
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: put a paper bag over his head to keep off
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: the flies. The little flupsy bunnies slept delightfully in the
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: warm sun. From the lawn beyond the garden came the
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: distant clacketty sound of the mowing machine. The blue bottles
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: bust about the wall, and a little old mouse picked
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: over the rubbish among the jampots. I can tell you
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: her name. She whis called Tomessina Titton mouse, a wood
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: mouse with a long tail. She rustled across the paper
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: bag and awakened Benjamin Bunny. The mouse apologized profusely and
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: said that she knew Peter rabbit.
• 43:15
  Speaker 6: While she and.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Benjamin were talking close under the wall, they heard a
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: heavy tread above their heads, and suddenly mister McGregor emptied
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: out a sack full of long mowings, right upon the
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: top of the sleeping flopsy bunnies. Benjamin shrank down under
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: his paper bag. The mouse hid in a jampot. The
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: little rabbits smiled sweetly in the sleep under the shower
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: of grass. They did not awake because the lettucees had
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: been so soperific. They dreamt that their mother Flopsy was
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: tacking them up in a hay bed. Mister McGregor looked
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: down after emptying his sack. He saw some funny little
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: brown tip years sticking up through the lawn mowings. He
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: stared at them for some time. Presently a fly settled
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: on one of them, and it moved. Mister McGregor climbed
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: down on to the rubbish heap. One two, three, four, five,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: six little rabbits said he as he dropped them into
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: his sack, the flupsy bunnies dreamt that their mother was
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: turning them over in bed. They stared a little in
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: their sleep, but still they did not wake up. Mister
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: McGregor tied up the sack and left it on the wall.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: He went to put away the mowing machine. While he
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: was gone, Missus Flupsy Bunny, who had remained at home,
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: came across the field. She looked suspiciously at the sack
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: and wondered where everybody was. Then the mouse came out
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: of her jampot, and Benjamin took the paper bag off
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: his head and told the dollful tale. Benjamin and Flopsy
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: were in despair. They could not undo the string, but
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: Missus Tittlemouse was a resourceful person. She nibbled a hole
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: in the bottom corner of the sack. The little rabbits
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: were pulled out and pinched to wake them. Their parents
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: stuffed the empty sack with three rotten vegetable marrows, an
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: old blacking brush, and two decayed turnips. Then they all
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: hid under a bush and watched for mister McGregor. Mister
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: McGregor came back and picked up the sack and carried
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: it off. He carried it hanging down as if it
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: were rather heavy. The floppsy bunnies followed at a safe distance.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: They watched him go into his house, and then they
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: crept up to the window to listen. Mister McGregor threw
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: down the sack on the stone floor in a way
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: that would have been extremely painful to the flopsy bunnies
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: if they had happened to have been in it. They
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: could hear him drag his chair and the flags and chuckle.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: One two three four five six. Lettle rabbits said, mister McGregor, Eh,
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: what's that? What have they been spoiling now? Inquired Missus McGregor.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: One two three four five six. Little fat rabbits, repeated
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: mister McGregor, counting on his fingers. One two three don't
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: you be silly? What do you mean, you silly old
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: man in the suck? One two three four five six,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: replied mister McGregor. The youngest flupsy bunny got upon the
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: window seal. Missus McGregor took hold of the sack and
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: felt it. She said, she coens feel six. But there
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: must be odd rabbits because they were so hard and
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: all different shapes. Not fit to eat. But the skins
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: will do fine to line my old cloak, line your
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: old cloak, shouted mister McGregor. I shall sell them and
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: buy myself backy rabbit tobacco. I shall skin them and
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: cut off their heads. Missus McGregor untied the sack and
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: put her hand inside. When she felt the vegetables, she
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: became very angry. She said that mister McGregor had done
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: it a purpose, and mister McGregor was very angry too.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: One of the rutten marrows came flying through the kitchen
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: window and hit the youngest Flopsy bunny. It was rather hurt.
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Then Benjamin and Flopsy thought that it was time to
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: go home. So mister McGregor did not get his tobacco,
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: and Missus McGregor did not get her rabbit skins. But
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: next Christmas, to miss in a tittlemouse got a present
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: of enough rabbit war to make herself a cloak and
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: a hood, and a handsome muff and a pair of
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: warm mittens. End of the Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: Chapter seven of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 48:22
  Speaker 3: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Elisabeth Klett. The Tale of
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter for W. M. L. W.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: The Little Girl who had the Dollhouse. Once upon a
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: time there was a very beautiful doll's house. It was
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: red brick with white windows, and it had real muslin
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: curtains and a front door and a chimney. It belonged
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: to two dolls called Lucinda and Jane. At least it
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: belonged to Lucinda, but she never ordered meals. Jane was
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: the cook, but she never did any cooking because the
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: dinner had been bought ready made in a box full
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: of shavings. There were two red lobsters, and a ham,
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: a fish, a pudding, and some pears and oranges. They
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: would not come off the plates, but they were extremely beautiful.
• 49:21
  Speaker 3: One morning, Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: drive in the doll's perambulator. There was no one in
• 49:27
  Speaker 3: the nursery and it was very quiet. Presently, there was
• 49:31
  Speaker 3: a little scuffling, scratching noise in a corner near the fireplace,
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: where there was a hole under the skirting board. Tom
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: Thumb put out his head for a moment, and then
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: popped it in again. Tom Thumb was a mouse. A
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: minute afterwards, hunker Monker his wife put her head out too,
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: and when she saw that there was no one in
• 49:52
  Speaker 3: the nursery, she ventured out on the oilcloth under the
• 49:56
  Speaker 3: coal box. The doll's house stood at the other side
• 49:59
  Speaker 3: of the fireplace. Tom Thumb and hunker Monker went cautiously
• 50:03
  Speaker 3: across the hearth rug. They pushed the front door. It
• 50:06
  Speaker 3: was not vast. Tom Thumb and hunker Mounker went upstairs
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: and peeped into the dining room. Then they squeaked with joy.
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: There were tin spoons, and lead knives and forks, and
• 50:23
  Speaker 3: two dolly chairs, all so convenient. Tom Thumb set to
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: work at once to carve the ham. It was a
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: beautiful shiny yellow, streaked with red. The knife crumpled up
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: and hurt him. He put his finger in his mouth.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: It is not boiled enough. It is hard. You have
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: a try, hunker Mounker. Hunker Monker stood up in her
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: chair and chopped at the ham with another lead knife.
• 50:49
  Speaker 3: It's as hard as the ham's at the cheesemonger's, said
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: hunker Monker. The ham broke off the plate with a
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: jerk and rolled under the table let it alone, said
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: Tom Thumb. Give me some fish, Hunkermunker. Hunker Monker tried
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: every tin spoon in turn. The fish was glued to
• 51:09
  Speaker 3: the dish. Then Tom Thumb lost his temper. He put
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: the ham in the middle of the floor and hid
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: it with the tongs and with the shovel bang bang, smash, smash,
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: the ham flew all into pieces, for underneath the shiny
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: paint it was made of nothing but plaster. Then there
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: Thumb and hunker Monker. They broke up the pudding, the lobsters,
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: the pears, and the oranges. As the fish would not
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: come off the plate, they put it into the red hot,
• 51:43
  Speaker 3: crinkly paper fire in the kitchen, but it would not
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: burn either. Tom Thumb went up the kitchen chimney and
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: looked out at the top there was no soot. While
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: Tom Thumb was up the chimney, Hunkermunker had another disappointment.
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: She found some tiny canisters upon the dress Sir labeled
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: rice coffee Sago, but when she turned them upside down,
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: there was nothing inside except red and blue beads. Then
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: those mice set to work to do all the mischief
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: they could, especially Tom Thumb. He took Jane's clothes out
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: of the chest of drawers in her bedroom and he
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: threw them out of the top floor window. But hunker
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: Monker had a frugal mind. After pulling half the feathers
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: out of Lucinda's bolster, she remembered that she herself was
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: in want of a feather bed. With Tom Thumb's assistance,
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: she carried the bolster downstairs and across the hearth rug.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse hole,
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: but they managed it somehow. Then hunker Monker went back
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: and fetched a chair, a bookcase, a bird cage, and
• 52:47
  Speaker 3: several small odds and ends. The bookcase and the bird
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: cage refused to go into the mousehole. Hunker Monker left
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: them behind the coal box and went to fetch a cradle.
• 52:59
  Speaker 3: Hunker Monker was just returning with another chair when suddenly
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: there was a noise of talking outside. Upon the landing,
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: the mice rushed back to their hole, and the dolls
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: came into the nursery. What a sight met the eyes
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: of Jane and Lucinda. Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen
• 53:16
  Speaker 3: stove and stared, and Jane leaned against the kitchen dresser
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: and smiled, but neither of them made any remark. The
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: bookcase and the birdcage were rescued from under the coal box,
• 53:27
  Speaker 3: but Hunca Monker has got the cradle and some of
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: Lucinda's clothes. She also has some useful pots and pans
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: and several other things. The little girl that the doll's
• 53:37
  Speaker 3: house belonged to said, I will get a doll dressed
• 53:41
  Speaker 3: like a policeman. But the nurse said, I will set
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: a mouse trap. So that is the story of the
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: two bad mice. But they were not so very very
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: naughty after all, because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke.
• 53:58
  Speaker 3: He found a crooked sixpence under the hearthrug, and upon
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: Christmas Eve he and hunka Monk is stuffed into one
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane. And very early
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: every morning, before anybody is awake, hunk A Monka comes
• 54:13
  Speaker 3: with her dust pine into broom to sweep the Dollies house.
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: End of the Two Bad.
• 54:20
  Speaker 7: Mice, Chapter eight of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories.
• 54:30
  Speaker 7: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 54:33
  Speaker 7: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Jennifer Dore. The Tale
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: of Timmy Tiptoes by Beatrix Potter. Once upon a time
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: there was a little, fat, comfortable gray squirrel called Timmy Tiptoes.
• 54:50
  Speaker 7: He had a nest thatched with leaves in the top
• 54:52
  Speaker 7: of a tall tree. And yet little squirrel wife called Goody.
• 54:57
  Speaker 7: Timmy Tiptoes, sat out, enjoying the breeze. He whisper his
• 55:00
  Speaker 7: tail and chuckled little wife Goody. The nuts are ripe.
• 55:04
  Speaker 7: We must lay up a store for winter and spring.
• 55:07
  Speaker 7: Goody Tiptoes was busy pushing moss under the thatch. The
• 55:11
  Speaker 7: nest is so snug, we shall be sound asleep all winter.
• 55:15
  Speaker 7: Then we shall wake up all the thinner when there
• 55:17
  Speaker 7: is nothing to eat in springtime, replied prudent Timothy. When
• 55:21
  Speaker 7: Timmy and Goody Tiptoes came to the nut thicket, they
• 55:24
  Speaker 7: found other squirrels were there already. Timmy took off his
• 55:27
  Speaker 7: jacket and hung it on a twig. They worked away
• 55:30
  Speaker 7: quietly by themselves. Every day they made several journeys and
• 55:34
  Speaker 7: pick quantities of nuts. They carried them away in bags
• 55:37
  Speaker 7: and stored them in several hollow stumps near the tree
• 55:40
  Speaker 7: where they had built their nest. When these stumps were full,
• 55:43
  Speaker 7: they began to empty the bags into a hole high
• 55:46
  Speaker 7: up a tree that had belonged to a woodpecker. The
• 55:49
  Speaker 7: nuts rattled down down down inside. How shall you ever
• 55:53
  Speaker 7: get them out again? It's like a money box, said Goody,
• 55:57
  Speaker 7: I shall be much thinner before springtime, my love, said
• 56:01
  Speaker 7: timmy tiptoes peeping into the hole. They did collect quantities
• 56:05
  Speaker 7: because they did not lose them. Squirrels who bury their
• 56:08
  Speaker 7: nuts in the ground lose more than half because they
• 56:11
  Speaker 7: cannot remember the place. The most forgetful squirrel in the
• 56:14
  Speaker 7: wood was called silvertail. He began to dig, and he
• 56:17
  Speaker 7: could not remember. And then he dug again and found
• 56:20
  Speaker 7: some nuts that did not belong to him, And there
• 56:23
  Speaker 7: was a fight, and other squirrels began to dig. The
• 56:26
  Speaker 7: whole wood was in commotion. Unfortunately, just at this time,
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: a flock of little birds flew by from bush to bush,
• 56:33
  Speaker 7: searching for green caterpillars and spiders. There were several sorts
• 56:37
  Speaker 7: of little birds twittering different songs. The first one sang,
• 56:41
  Speaker 7: who's been digging up my nuts? Who's been digging up
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: my nuts? And another sang little bit of bread and
• 56:48
  Speaker 7: no cheese? Little bit of bread and no cheese. The
• 56:51
  Speaker 7: squirrels followed and listened. The first little bird flew into
• 56:55
  Speaker 7: the bush where Timmy and Goody Tiptoes were quietly tying
• 56:58
  Speaker 7: up their bags, and sang, who's been digging up my nuts?
• 57:02
  Speaker 7: Who's been digging up my nuts? Timmy Tiptoes went on
• 57:05
  Speaker 7: with his work without replying. Indeed, the little bird did
• 57:08
  Speaker 7: not expect an answer. It was only singing its natural song,
• 57:12
  Speaker 7: and it meant nothing at all. But when the other
• 57:14
  Speaker 7: squirrels heard that song, they rushed upon Timmy Tiptoes and
• 57:18
  Speaker 7: cuffed and scratched him and upset his bag of nuts.
• 57:21
  Speaker 7: The innocent little bird, which had caused all the mischief,
• 57:24
  Speaker 7: flew away in fright. Timmy rolled over and over and
• 57:27
  Speaker 7: then turned tail and fled towards his nest, followed by
• 57:31
  Speaker 7: a crowd of squirrels shouting, who's been digging up my nuts.
• 57:35
  Speaker 7: They caught him and dragged him up the very same
• 57:36
  Speaker 7: tree where there was the little round hole, and they
• 57:39
  Speaker 7: pushed him in. The hole was much too small for
• 57:42
  Speaker 7: Timmy Tiptoe's figure. They squeezed him dreadfully. It was a
• 57:46
  Speaker 7: wonder they did not break his ribs. We will leave
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: him here till he confesses, said silvertail squirrel, And he
• 57:53
  Speaker 7: shouted into the hole, who's been digging up my nuts?
• 57:57
  Speaker 7: Timmy Tiptoes made no reply. He had tumbled down inside
• 58:01
  Speaker 7: the tree upon half a peck of nuts belonging to himself.
• 58:04
  Speaker 7: He lay quite stunned and still. Goody Tiptoes picked up
• 58:08
  Speaker 7: the nut bags and went home. She made a cup
• 58:10
  Speaker 7: of tea for Timmy, but he didn't come, and didn't come.
• 58:14
  Speaker 7: Goody Tiptoes passed a lonely and unhappy night. Next morning,
• 58:18
  Speaker 7: she ventured back to the nut bushes to look for him,
• 58:20
  Speaker 7: but the other unkind squirrels drove her away. She wandered
• 58:24
  Speaker 7: all over the wood, calling Timmy Tiptoes, Timmy Tiptoes, Oh,
• 58:30
  Speaker 7: where is Timmy Tiptoes. In the meantime, Timmy Tiptoes came
• 58:34
  Speaker 7: to his senses. He found himself tucked up in a
• 58:37
  Speaker 7: little moss bed very much in the dark, feeling sore.
• 58:40
  Speaker 7: It seemed to be underground. Timmy coughed and groaned because
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: his ribs herded him. There was a chirpy noise, and
• 58:47
  Speaker 7: a small striped chipmunk appeared with the night light and
• 58:50
  Speaker 7: hoped he felt better. It was most kind to Timmy Tiptoes.
• 58:54
  Speaker 7: It lent him its nightcap, and the house was full
• 58:56
  Speaker 7: of provisions. The chipmunk explained that it had rained nuts
• 59:00
  Speaker 7: through the top of the tree. Besides, I found a
• 59:02
  Speaker 7: few buried. It laughed and chuckled when it heard Timmy's story.
• 59:06
  Speaker 7: While Timmy was confined to bed, it ticed him to
• 59:09
  Speaker 7: eat quantities. But how shall I ever get out through
• 59:12
  Speaker 7: the hole Unless I thin myself. My wife will be anxious.
• 59:16
  Speaker 7: Just another nut or two nuts, Let me crack them
• 59:19
  Speaker 7: for you, said the chipmunk. Timmy Tiptoes grew fatter and fatter.
• 59:24
  Speaker 7: Now Goody Tiptoes had set to work again by herself.
• 59:28
  Speaker 7: She did not put any more nuts into the woodpecker's hole,
• 59:30
  Speaker 7: because she had always doubted how they could be got
• 59:32
  Speaker 7: out again. She hid them under a tree root. They
• 59:36
  Speaker 7: rattled down, down, down, once when Goody emptied an extra
• 59:39
  Speaker 7: big bagful. There was a decided squeak, and next time
• 59:43
  Speaker 7: Goody brought another bagful. A little striped chipmunk scrambled out
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: in a hurry. It is getting perfectly full. Up downstairs,
• 59:50
  Speaker 7: the sitting room is full, and they are rolling along
• 59:52
  Speaker 7: the passage. And my husband, Chippy Hackee, has run away
• 59:56
  Speaker 7: and left me. What is the explanation of these showers
• 59:59
  Speaker 7: of nuts? I am sure, I beg your pardon. I
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 7: did not know that anybody lived here, said missus Goody Tiptoes.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 7: But where is Chippy Hackee? My husband, Timmy Tiptoes, has
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 7: run away too. I know where Chippy is, A little
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 7: bird told me, said missus Chippy Hackee. She led the
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 7: way to the woodpecker's tree, and they listened at the
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 7: hole down below. There was a noise of nut crackers,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 7: and a fat squirrel voice and a thin squirrel voice
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 7: were singing together. My little old man and I fell out.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 7: How shall we bring this matter about? Bring it about
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 7: as well as you can, and get you gone, you
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 7: little old man. You could squeeze in through that little
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 7: round hole, said Goody Tiptoes. Yes I could, said the chipmunk.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 7: But my husband, Chippy Hackee bites down below. There was
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 7: a noise of cracking nuts and nibbling, And then the
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 7: fat squirrel voice and the thin squirrel voice sang for
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 7: the diddle dumb day day, diddle dum dee day, diddle
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 7: diddle dum day. Then Goody peeped in at the hole
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 7: and called down Timmy Tiptoes. Oh, fie, Timmy Tiptoes. And
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 7: Timmy replied, is that you Goody Tiptoes? Why? Certainly he
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 7: came up and kissed Goody through the hole, but he
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 7: was so fat that he could not get out. Chippy
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 7: Hackee was not too fat, but he did not want
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 7: to come. He stayed down below and chuckled. And so
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 7: it went on for a fortnight till a big wind
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 7: blew off the top of the tree and opened up
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 7: the hole and let in the rain. Then Timmy Tiptoes
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 7: came out and went home with an umbrella. But Chippy
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 7: Hackee continued to camp out for another week, although it
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 7: was uncomfortable. At last, a large bear came walking through
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 7: the wood. Perhaps he also was looking for nuts. He
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 7: seemed to be sniffing around. Chippy Hackee went home in
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 7: a hurry. And when Chippy Hacke got home, he found
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: he had caught a cold in his head, and he
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 7: was more uncomfortable still. And now Timmy and Goody Tiptoes
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 7: keep their nut store fastened up with a little padlock.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 7: And whenever that little bird seized the chipmunks, he sang,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 7: who's been digging up my nuts? Who's been digging up
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 7: my nuts? But nobody ever answers. End of the Tale
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 7: of Timmy Tiptoes.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 5: Chapter nine of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 5: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 5: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 5: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Beth Thomas. The Tale of
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 5: Mister Todd by Beatrix Potter. I have made many books
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 5: about well behaved people. Now, for a change, I'm going
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 5: to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 5: Brock and mister Todd. Nobody could call mister Todd nice.
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 5: The rabbits could not bear him. They could smell him
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: half a mile off. He was of a wandering habit,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 5: and he had foxy whiskers. They never knew where he
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 5: would be next one day he was living in a
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 5: stick house in the coppice, causing terror to the family
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 5: of old mister Benjamin Bouncer. Next day he moved into
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: a pollard willow near the lake, frightening the wild ducks
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 5: and the water rats. In winter and early spring, he
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: might generally be found in an earth amongst the rocks
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 5: at the top of bull Banks under oatmeal Crag. He
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 5: had half a dozen houses, but he was seldom at home.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 5: The houses were not always empty when mister Todd moved out,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 5: because sometimes Tommy Brock moved in without asking leave. Tommy
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 5: Brock was a short, bristly, fat, waddling person with a grin.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 5: He grinned all over his face. He was not nice
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 5: in his habits. He ate wasp nests and frogs and worms,
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 5: and he waddled about by moonlight digging things up. His
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 5: clothes were very dirty, and as he slept in the daytime,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 5: he always went to bed in his boots, and the
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 5: bed which he generally went to bed in was generally
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 5: mister Todd's. Now Tommy Brock did occasionally eat rabbit pie,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 5: but it was only the very young ones. Occasionally when
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 5: other food was really Scarce. He was friendly with old
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 5: mister Bouncer. They agreed in dis liking the wicked Otters
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 5: and mister Todd. They often talked over that painful subject.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 5: Old mister Bouncer was stricken in years. He sat in
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: the spring sunshine outside the burrow in a muffler, smoking
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 5: a pipe of rabbit tobacco. He lived with his son,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 5: Benjamin Bunny and his daughter in law, Flopsy, who had
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 5: a young family. Old mister Bouncer was in charge of
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 5: the family that afternoon because Benjamin and Flopsy had gone out.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 5: The little rabbit babies were just old enough to open
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 5: their blue eyes and kick. They lay in a fluffy
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 5: bed of rabbit wool and hay in a shallow burrow
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: separate from the main rabbit hole. To tell the truth,
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 5: Old mister Bouncer had forgotten them. He sat in the
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 5: sun and conversed cordially with Tommy Brock, who was passing
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 5: through the wood with a sack and a little spud
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 5: which he used for digging, and some mole traps. He
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 5: complained bitterly about the scarcity of pheasant eggs and accused
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 5: mister Todd approaching them, and the Otters had cleared off
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 5: all the frogs while he was asleep in winter. I
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 5: have not had a good square meal for a fortnight.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 5: I am living on pig nuts. I shall have to
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 5: turn vegetarian and eat my own tail, said Tommy Brock.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 5: It was not much of a joke, but it tickled
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 5: old mister Bouncer because Tommy Brock was so fat and
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 5: stumpy and grinning. So Old mister Bouncer laughed and pressed
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 5: Tommy Brock to come inside and taste a slice of
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 5: seed cake and a glass of my daughter Flopsy's car
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 5: slip wine. Tommy Brock squeezed himself into the rabbit hole
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 5: with alacrity. Then old mister Bouncer smoked another pipe and
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 5: gave Tommy Brock a cabbage leaf cigar, which was so
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 5: very strong that it made Tommy Brock grin more than ever,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 5: and the smoke filled the burrow. Old mister Bouncer coughed
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 5: and laughed, and Tommy Brock puffed and grinned, and mister
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 5: Bouncer laughed and coughed and shut his eyes because of
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 5: the cabbage smoke. When Benjamin and Flopsy came back, old
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 5: mister Bouncer woke up Tommy Brock, and all the young
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 5: rabbit babies had disappeared. Mister Bouncer would not confess that
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 5: he had admitted anybody into the rabbit hole, but the
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 5: smell of badger was undeniable, and there were round, heavy
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 5: footmarks in the sand. He was in disgrace. Flopsy wrung
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 5: her ears and slapped him. Benjamin Bunny set off at
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 5: once after Tommy brook There was not much difficulty in
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 5: tracking him. He had left his footmark and gone slowly
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 5: up the winding footpath through the wood. Here he had
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 5: rooted up the moss and wood sorrel. There he had
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 5: dug quite a deep hole for dog dnal and set
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 5: a mole trap. A little stream crossed the way. Benjamin
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 5: skipped lightly over dry foot The badger's heavy steps showed
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 5: plainly in the mud. The path led to a part
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 5: of the thicket where the trees had been cleared. There
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 5: were leafy oak stumps and a sea of blue hyacinths.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 5: But the smell that made Benjamin stop was not the
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 5: smell of flowers. Mister Todd's stick house was before him,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 5: and for once mister Todd was at home. There was
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 5: not only a foxy flavor. In proof of it, there
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 5: was smoke coming out of the broken pail that served
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 5: as a chimney. Benjamin Bunny sat up, staring. His whiskers twitched.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 5: Inside the stick house, somebody dropped a plate and said something.
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 5: Benjamin stamped his foot and bolted. He never stopped till
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 5: he came to the other side of the wood. Apparently
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: Tommy bro Rock had turned the same way. Upon the
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 5: top of the wall, there were again the marks of badger,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 5: and some ravelings of a sack had caught on a briar.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 5: Benjamin climbed over the wall into a meadow. He found
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 5: another mole trap, newly set. He was still upon the
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 5: track of Tommy Brock. It was getting late in the afternoon.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 5: Other rabbits were coming out to enjoy the evening air.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 5: One of them, in a blue coat by himself, was
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 5: busily hunting for dandelions. Cousin, Peter, Peter Rabbit. Peter Rabbit,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 5: shouted Benjamin Bunny. The blue coated rabbit sat up with
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 5: pricked ears. Whatever is the matter, cousin, Benjamin, Is it
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 5: a cat or John Stote? Ferret? No, No, no, he's
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 5: bagged my family. Tommy brock In a sack. Have you
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 5: seen him, Tommy Brock? How many cousin Benjamin, seven, cousin Peter,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 5: and all of them twins? Did he come this way?
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 5: Please tell me quick? Yes, yes, not ten minutes since
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 5: he said there were caterpillars. I did think they were
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 5: kicking rather hard for caterpillars.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 6: Which way?
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 5: Which way has he gone? Cousin Peter, He had a
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 5: sack with something live in it. I watched him set
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 5: a mole trap. Let me use my mind, Cousin Benjamin,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 5: tell me from the beginning. Benjamin did so. My uncle
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 5: Bouncer has displayed a lamentable want of discretion for his years,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 5: said Peter reflectively. But there are two hopeful circumstances. Your
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 5: family is alive and kicking, and Tommy Brock has had refreshment.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 5: He will probably go to sleep and keep them for breakfast.
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 5: Which way, Cousin Benjamin, compose yourself. I know very well
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 5: which way, because mister Todd was at home in the
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 5: stick House. He has gone to mister Tod's other house
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 5: at the top of Bull Banks. I partly know because
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 5: he offered to leave any message at sister Cottontail's. He
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 5: said he would be passing. Cottontail had married a black
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 5: rabbit and had gone to live on the hill. Peter
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 5: hid his dandelions and accompanied the afflicted parent, who was
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 5: all of a twitter. They crossed several fields and began
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 5: to climb the hill. The tracks of Tommy Brock were
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 5: plainly to be seen. He seemed to have put down
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 5: the sack every dozen yards to rest. He must be
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 5: very puffed. We are close behind him by the scent.
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 5: What a nasty person, said Peter. The sunshine was still
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 5: warm and slanting on the hill pastures. Half way up.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 5: Cottontail was sitting in her doorway with four or five
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 5: half grown little rabbits playing about her, one black and
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 5: the other's brown. Cotton Tail had seen Tommy Brock passing
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 5: in the distance. Asked whether her husband was at home.
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 5: She replied that Tommy Brock had rested twice while she
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 5: watched him. He had nodded and pointed to the sack
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 5: and seemed doubled up with laughing. Come away, Peter, he'll
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 5: be cooking them. Come quicker, said Benjamin Bunny. They climbed
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 5: up and up. He was at home. I saw his
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 5: black ears peeping out of the hole. They lived too
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 5: near the rocks to quarrel with their neighbors. Come on,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 5: cousin Benjamin. When they came near the wood at the
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 5: top of bull banks, they went cautiously. The trees grew
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 5: amongst heaped up rocks, and there, beneath a crag mister
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 5: Todd had made one of his homes. It was at
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 5: the top of a steep bank. The rocks and bushes
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 5: overhung it. The rabbits crept up carefully, listening and peeping.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 5: This house was something between a cave, a prison, and
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 5: a tumble down pigstye. There was a strong door which
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: was shut and locked. The setting sun made the window
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 5: panes glow like red flame, but the kitchen fire was
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 5: not a light. It was neatly laid with dry sticks,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 5: as the rabbits could see when they peeped through the window.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 5: Benjamin sighed with relief, But there were preparations upon the
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 5: kitchen table which made him shudder. There was an immense
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 5: empty pie dish of blue willow pattern, and a large
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 5: carving knife and fork and a chopper. At the other
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 5: end of the table was a partly unfolded tablecloth, a plate,
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 5: a tumbler, a knife and fork, salt, cellar, mustard, and
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 5: a chair in short preparations for one person's supper. No
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 5: person was to be seen, and no young rabbits. The
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 5: kitchen was empty and silent. The clock had run down.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 5: Peter and Benjamin flattened their noses against the window and
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 5: stared into the dusk. Then they scrambled round the rocks
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 5: to the other side of the house. It was damp
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 5: and smelly and overgrown with thorns and briars. The rabbits
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 5: shivered in their shoes. Oh my, poor rabbit baby's what
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 5: a dreadful place. I shall never see them again, sighed Benjamin.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 5: They crept up to the bedroom window. It was closed
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 5: and bolted, like the kitchen, but there were signs that
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 5: this window had recently been open. The cobwebs were disturbed,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 5: and there were fresh, dirty footmarks upon the window sill.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 5: The room inside was so dark that at first they
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 5: could make out nothing, But they could hear a noise,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 5: a slow, deep, regular snoring grunt, And as their eyes
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 5: became accustomed to the darkness, they perceived that somebody was
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 5: asleep on mister Tod's bed, curled up under the blanket.
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 5: He has gone to bed in his boots, whispered Peter. Benjamin,
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 5: who was all of a twitter, pulled Peter off the
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 5: window sill. Tommy Brock's snores continued, grunty and regular from
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 5: mister Tod's bed. Nothing could be seen of the young family.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 5: The sun had set, and an owl began to hoot in
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 5: the wood. There were many unpleasant things lying about that
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 5: had much better have been buried, rabbit bones and skulls,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 5: and chicken legs and other horrors. It was a shocking place,
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 5: and very dark. They went back to the front of
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 5: the house and tried in every way to move the
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 5: bolt of the kitchen window. They tried to push up
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 5: a rusty nail between the window sashes, but it was
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 5: of no use, especially without a light. They sat side
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 5: by side outside the window, whispering and listening. In half
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 5: an hour the moon rose over the wood. It shone
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 5: full and clear and cold upon the house, amongst the rocks,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 5: and in at the kitchen window, but alas no little
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 5: rabbit babies were to be seen. The moonbeams twinkled on
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 5: the carving knife and the pie dish, and made a
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 5: path of brightness across the dirty floor. The light showed
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 5: a little door in a wall beside the kitchen fireplace,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 5: a little iron door belonging to a brick oven of
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 5: that old fashioned sort that used to be heated with
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 5: faggots of wood, and presently at the same moment, Peter
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 5: and Benjamin noticed that whenever they shook the window, the
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 5: little door opposite shook in answer. The young family were alive,
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 5: shut up in the oven. Benjamin was so excited that
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 5: it was a mercy he did not awake Tommy Brock,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 5: whose snores can hinued solemnly in mister Tod's bed. But
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 5: there really was not very much comfort in the discovery.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 5: They could not open the window, and although the young
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 5: family was alive, the little rabbits were quite incapable of
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 5: letting themselves out. They were not old enough to crawl.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 5: After much whispering, Peter and Benjamin decided to dig a tunnel.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 5: They began to burrow a yard or two lower down
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 5: the bank. They hoped that they might be able to
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 5: work between the large stones under the house. The kitchen
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 5: floor was so dirty it was impossible to say whether
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 5: it was made of earth or flags. They dug and
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 5: dug for hours. They could not tunnel straight on account
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: of the stones, but by the end of the night
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 5: they were under the kitchen floor. Benjamin was on his
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 5: back scratching upwards. Peter's claws were worn down. He was
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 5: outside the tunnel shuffling sand away. He called out that
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 5: it was morning sunrise, and that the jays were making
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 5: a noise down below in the woods. Benjamin Bunny came
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 5: out of the dark tunnel, shaking the sand from his ears.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 5: He cleaned his face with his paws. Every minute the
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 5: sun shone warmer. On the top of the hill in
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 5: the valley there was a sea of winter white mist,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 5: with golden tops of trees showing through again from the
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 5: fields down below in the mist, there came an angry
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 5: cry of a jay, followed by the sharp, yelping bark
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 5: of a fox. Then those two rabbits lost their heads completely.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 5: They did the most foolish thing that they could have done.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 5: They rushed into their short new tunnel and hid themselves
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 5: at the top end of it, under mister Tod's kitchen floor.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 5: Mister Todd was coming up bull Banks, and he was
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 5: in the very worst of tempers. First he had been
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 5: upset by breaking the plate. It was his own fault
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 5: but it was a china plate, the last of the
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 5: dinner service that had belonged to his grandmother, Old Vixen Tod.
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 5: Then the midges had been very bad and he had
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 5: failed to catch a hen pheasant on her nest, and
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 5: it had contained only five eggs, two of them addled.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 5: Mister Tod had had an unsatisfactory night as usual, when
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 5: out of humor, he determined to move house. First, he
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 5: tried the pollid willow, but it was damp and the
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 5: otters had left a dead fish near it. Mister Todd
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 5: likes nobody's leavings but his own. He made his way
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 5: up the hill. His temper was not improved by noticing
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 5: the unmistakable marks of badger. No one else grubs up
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 5: the moss so wantonly as Tommy Brock. Mister Todd slapped
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 5: his stick upon the earth and fumed. He guessed where
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 5: Tommy Brock had gone to. He was further annoyed by
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 5: the jay bird, which followed him persistently. It flew from
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 5: tree to tree and scalded, warning every rabbit within hearing
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 5: that either a cat or a fox was coming up
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 5: the plantation. Once when it flew screaming over his head.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 5: Mister Todd snapped at it and barked. He approached his
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 5: house very carefully with a large rusty key. He sniffed,
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 5: and his whiskers bristled. The house was locked up, but
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 5: mister Tod had his doubts whether it was empty. He
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 5: turned the rusty key in the lock. The rabbits below
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 5: could hear it. Mister Todd opened the door cautiously and
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 5: went in. The sight that met mister Tod's eyes. In
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 5: mister Tod's kitchen made mister Tod furious. There was mister
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 5: Tod's chair, and mister Tod's pie dish, and his knife
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 5: and fork, and mustard and salt cellar, and his tablecloth
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 5: that he had left folded up in the dresser, all
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 5: set out for supper or breakfast without doubt for that
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 5: odious Tommy Brock. There was a smell of fresh earth
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 5: and dirty badger, which fortunately overpowered all smell of rabbit.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 5: But what absorbed mister Tod's attention was a noise, a deep, slow,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 5: regular snoring, grunting noise coming from his own bed. He
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 5: peeped through the hinges of the half open bedroom door.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 5: Then he turned and came out of the house in
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 5: a hurry. His whiskers bristled, and his coat collar stood
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 5: on end with rage. For the next twenty minutes, mister
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 5: Todd kept creeping cautiously into the house and retreating hurriedly
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 5: out again. By degrees, he ventured further in right into
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 5: the bedroom. When he was outside the house, he scratched
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 5: up the earth with fury, But when he was inside
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 5: he did not like the look of Tommy Brock's teeth.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 5: He was lying on his back with his mouth open,
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 5: grinning from ear to ear. He snored peacefully and regularly,
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 5: but one eye was not perfectly shut. Mister Tod came
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 5: in ant out of the bedroom twice. He brought his
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 5: walking stick, and once he brought him the coal scuttle,
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 5: but he thought the better of it and took them away.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 5: When he came back after removing the coal scuttle, Tommy
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 5: Brock was lying a little more sideways, but he seemed
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 5: even sounder asleep. He was an incurably indolent person. He
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 5: was not in the least afraid of mister Tod. He
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 5: was simply too lazy and comfortable to move. Mister Tod
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 5: came back yet again into the bedroom of the clothes line.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 5: He stood a minute, watching Tommy Brock and listening attentively
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 5: to the snores. They were very loud, indeed, but seemed
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 5: quite natural. Mister Todd turned his back towards the bed
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 5: and undid the window. It creaked. He turned round with
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 5: a jump. Tommy Brock, who had opened one eye, shut
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 5: it hastily. The snores continued. Mister Tod's proceedings were peculiar
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 5: and rather uneasy, because the bed was between the window
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 5: and the door of the bedroom. He opened the window
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 5: a little way and pushed out the greater part of
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 5: the clothes line on to the window sill. The rest
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 5: of the line, with a hook at the end, remained
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 5: in his hand. Tommy Brock snored conscientiously. Mister Todd stood
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 5: and looked at him for a minute, then he left
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 5: the room again. Tommy Brock opened both eyes and looked
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 5: at the rope and grinned. There was a noise outside
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 5: the window. Tommy Brock shut his eyes in a hurry.
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 5: Mister Todd had gone out the front door and round
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 5: to the back of the house. On the way, he
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 5: stumbled over the rabbit burrow. If he had had any
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 5: idea who was inside it. He would have pulled them
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 5: out quickly. His foot went through the tunnel, nearly upon
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 5: the top of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin, but fortunately he
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 5: thought it was some more of Tommy Broke's work. He
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 5: took up the coil of line from the sill and
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 5: listened for a moment, and then tied the rope to
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 5: a tree. Tommy Brock watched him with one eye through
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 5: the window. He was puzzled. Mister Todd fetched a large,
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 5: heavy pailful of water from the spring and staggered with
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 5: it through the kitchen into his bedroom. Tommy Brock snored
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 5: industriously with rather a snort. Mister Todd put down the
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 5: pail beside the bed, took up the end of the
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 5: rope with the hook, hesitated, and looked at Tommy Brock.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 5: The snores were almost apoplectic, but the grin was not
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 5: quite so big. Mister Todd gingerly mounted a chair by
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 5: the head of the bedstead. His legs were dangerously near
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 5: to Tommy Brock's teeth. He reached up and put the
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 5: end of the rope with the hook over the head
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 5: of the tester bed, where the curtains ought to hang.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 5: Mister Todd's curtains were folded up and put away, owing
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 5: to the house being unoccupied, so was the counterpane. Tommy
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 5: Brock was covered with a blanket. Only mister Todd, standing
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 5: on the unsteady chair, looked down upon him attentively. He
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 5: really was a first prize sound sleeper. It seemed as
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 5: though nothing would wake him, not even the flapping rope
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 5: across the bed. Mister Todd descended safely from the chair
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 5: and endeavored to get up again With the pail of water.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 5: He intended to hang it from the hook dangling over
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 5: the head of Tommy Brock in order to make a
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 5: sort of shower bath worked by a string through the window.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 5: But naturally, being a thin legged person, though vindictive and
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 5: sandy whiskered, he was quite unable to lift the heavy
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 5: weight to the level of the hook and rope. He
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 5: very nearly overbalanced himself. The snores became more and more apoplectic.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 5: One of Tommy Brok's hind legs twitched under the blanket,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 5: but still he slept on peacefully. Mister Tod and the
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 5: pail descended from the chair without accident. After considerable thought,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 5: he emptied the water into a wash basin and jug.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 5: The empty pail was not too heavy for him. He
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 5: slung it up, wobbling over the head of Tommy Brock.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 5: Surely there never was such a sleeper. Mister Tod got
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 5: up and down, down and up on the chair. As
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 5: he could not lift the hole pailful at once. He
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 5: fetched a milk jug and ladled quarts of water into
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 5: the pail by degrees. The pail got fuller and fuller,
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 5: and swung like a pendulum. Occasionally a drop splashed over,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 5: But still Tommy Brock snored regularly and never moved except
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 5: one eye. At last, mister Tod's preparations were complete. The
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 5: pail was full of water, the rope was tightly strained
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 5: over the top of the bed and across the window
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 5: sill to the tree outside. It will make a great
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 5: mess in my bedroom, but I could never sleep in
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 5: that bed again without a spring cleaning of some sort,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 5: said mister Todd. Mister Todd took a last look at
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 5: the badger and softly left the room. He went out
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 5: of the house, shutting the front door. The rabbits heard
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 5: his footsteps over the tunnel. He ran round behind the house,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 5: intending to undo the rope in order to let fall
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 5: the pailful of water upon Tommy Brock. I will wake
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 5: him up with an unpleasant surprise, said mister Todd. The
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 5: moment he had gone, Tommy Brock got up in a hurry.
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 5: He rolled mister Todd's dressing gown into a bundle, put
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 5: it into the bed beneath the pail of water instead
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 5: of himself, and left the room, also grinning immensely. He
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 5: went into the kitchen, lighted the fire, and boiled the kettle.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 5: For the moment, he did not trouble himself to cook
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 5: the baby rabbits. When mister Todd got to the tree,
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 5: he found that the weight and strain had dragged the
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 5: knots so tight that it was past untying. He was
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 5: obliged to gnaw it with his teeth. He chewed and
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 5: gnawed for more than twenty minutes. At last the rope
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 5: gave way with such a sudden jerk that it nearly
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 5: pulled his teeth out and quite knocked him over backwards.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 5: Inside the house, there was a great crash and splash,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 5: and the noise of a pail rolling over and over,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 5: but no screams. Mister Tod was mystified. He sat quite
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 5: still and listened attentively. Then he peeped in at the window.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 5: The water was dripping from the bed. The pail had
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 5: rolled into a corner in the middle of the bed.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 5: Under the blanket was a wet, flattened something much diged
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 5: in in the middle where the pail had caught it
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 5: as it were across the tummy. Its head was covered
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 5: by the wet blanket, and it was not snoring any longer.
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 5: There was nothing stirring and no sound except the drip, drop,
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 5: drop drip of water trickling from the mattress. Mister Todd
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 5: watched it for half an hour. His eyes glistened. Then
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 5: he cut a caper and became so bold that he
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 5: even tapped at the window. But the bundle never moved. Yes,
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 5: there was no doubt about it. It had turned out
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 5: even better than he had planned. The pail had hit
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 5: poor old Tommy Brock and killed him dead. I will
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 5: bury that nasty person in the hole which he has dug.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 5: I will bring my bedding out and dry it in
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 5: the sun, said mister Tod. Will wash the tablecloth and
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 5: spread it on the grass in the sun to bleach,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 5: and the blanket must be hung up in the wind,
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 5: and the bed must be thoroughly disinfected and aired with
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 5: a warming pan and warmed with a hot water bottle.
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 5: I will get soft soap and monkey soap, and all
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 5: sorts of soap and soda, and scrubbing brushes, and persian
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 5: powder and carbolic to remove the smell. I must have
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 5: a disinfecting Perhaps I may have to burn sulfur. He
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 5: hurried round the house to get a shovel from the kitchen. First,
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 5: I will arrange a hole. Then I will drag out
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 5: that person in the blanket. He opened the door. Tommy
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 5: Brock was sitting at mister Tod's kitchen table, pouring out
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 5: tea from mister Tod's teapot into mister Tod's teacup. He
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 5: was quite dry himself and grinning, and he threw the
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 5: cup of scalding tea all over mister Todd. Then mister
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 5: Todd rushed upon Tommy Brock, and Tommy Brock grappled with
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 5: mister Tod amongst the broken crockery, and there was a
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 5: terrific battle all over the kitchen. To the rabbits underneath,
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 5: it sounded as if the floor would give way. At
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 5: each crash of falling furniture, they crept out of their
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 5: tunnel and hung about amongst the rocks and bushes, listening anxiously.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 5: Inside the house, the racket was fearful. The rabbit babies
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 5: in the oven woke up trembling. Perhaps it was fortunate
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 5: they were shut up inside. Everything was upset except the
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 5: kitchen table, and everything was broken except the mantelpiece and
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 5: the kitchen fender. The crockery was smashed to atoms. The
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 5: chairs were broken, and the window and the clock fell
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 5: off with a crash, and there were handfuls of mister
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 5: Tod's sandy whiskers. The VARs fell off the mantelpiece, the
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 5: canisters fell off the shelf, the kettle fell off the hob.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 5: Tommy Brock put his foot in a jar of raspberry jam,
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 5: and the boiling water out of the kettle fell upon
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 5: the tail of mister Todd. When the kettle fell, Tommy Brock,
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 5: who was still grinning, happened to be uppermost, and he
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 5: rolled mister Todd over and over like a log out
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 5: the door. Then the snarling and worrying went on outside,
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 5: and they rolled over the bank and downhill bumping over
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 5: the rocks. There will never be any love lost between
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 5: Tommy Brock and mister Todd. As soon as the coast
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 5: was clear, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny came out of
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 5: the bushes. Now for it, Run in, cousin, Benjamin, run
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 5: in and get them. While I watched the door. But
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 5: Benjamin was frightened. Oh oh, they are coming back. No
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 5: they are not, Yes, they are what dreadful bad language.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 5: I think they have fallen down the stone quarry. Still
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 5: Benjamin hesitated, and Peter kept pushing him. Be quick, it's
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 5: all right. Shut the oven door, cousin Benjamin, so that
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 5: he won't miss them. Decidedly, there were lively doings in
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 5: mister Tod's kitchen. At home in the rabbit Hole, things
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 5: had not been quite comfortable. After quarreling at supper, Flopsy
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 5: and old mister Bouncer had passed a sleepless night and
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 5: quarreled again at breakfast. Old mister Bouncer could no longer
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 5: deny that he had invited company into the rabbit hole,
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 5: but he refused to reply to the questions and reproaches
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 5: of Flopsy. The day passed heavily. Old mister Bouncer, very sulky,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 5: was huddled up in a corner, barricaded with a chair.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 5: Flopsy had taken away his pipe and hidden the tobacco.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 5: She had been having a complete turnout and spring cleaning
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 5: to relieve her feelings she had just finished. Old mister Bouncer,
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 5: behind his chair, was wondering anxiously what she would do next.
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 5: In mister Tod's kitchen, amongst the wreckage, Benjamin Bunny picked
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 5: his way to the oven nervously through a thick cloud
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 5: of dust. He opened the oven door, felt inside, and
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 5: found something warm and wriggling. He lifted out carefully and
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 5: rejoined Peter Rabbit. I've got them? Can we get away?
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 5: Shall we hide? Cousin Peter. Peter pricked his ears. Distant
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 5: sounds of fighting still echoed in the wood. Five minutes afterwards,
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 5: two breathless rabbits came scuttering away down bull banks, half carrying,
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 5: half dragging a sack between them, bumpity bump over the grass.
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 5: They reached home safely and burst into the rabbit hole.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 5: Great was old mister Bouncer's relief and Fhlopsy's joy when
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 5: Peter and Benjamin arrived in triumph with the young family.
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 5: The rabbit babies were rather tumbled and very hungry. They
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 5: were fed and put to bed. They soon recovered a
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 5: long new pipe and a fresh supplier rabbit tobacco was
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 5: presented to mister Bouncer. He was rather upon his dignity,
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 5: but he accepted. Old Mister Bouncer was forgiven, and they
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 5: all had dinner. Then Peter and Benjamin told their story,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 5: but they had not waited long enough to be able
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 5: to tell the end of the battle between Tommy Brock
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 5: and mister Todd. End of the Tale of Mister Todd,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 5: Chapter ten of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 5: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 5: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 5: LibriVox dot org. Read by Beth Thomas. The Tale of
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 5: Pigling Bland by Beatrix Potter for Cecily and Charlie. A
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 5: tale of the Christmas Peak. Once upon a time there
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 5: was an old Peak called Aunt Pettito's. She had eight
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 5: of a family, four little Peak girls called cross Patch, Suck, Suck,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 5: Yok Yok, and Spot, and four little boy pigs called Alexander,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 5: Pigling bland Chinchin and Stumpy. Stumpy had had an accident
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 5: to his tail. The eight little pigs had very fine appetites.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 5: Yus yus ys they eat, and indeed they do eat,
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 5: said Aunt Pettitoes, looking at her family with pride. Suddenly
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 5: there were fearful squeals. Alexander had squeezed inside the hoops
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 5: of the pig trough and stuck Aunt Pettitoes, and I
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 5: dragged him out by the hind legs. Chinchin was already
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 5: in disgrace. It was washing day, and he had eaten
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 5: a piece of soap. And presently, in a basket of
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 5: clean clothes, we found another dirty little pig. Chut chut chut.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 5: Whatever is this grunted Aunt Pettitoes. Now all the pig
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 5: family are pink or pink with black spots, But this
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 5: pig child was smutty black all over when it had
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 5: been popped into a tub. It proved to be yok yok.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 5: I went into the garden. There I found cross Patch
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 5: and suck suck rooting up carrots. I whipped them myself
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 5: and led them out by the ears. Cross Patch tried
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 5: to bite me, Aunt Pettitoes, Aunt Pettitoes.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 6: You are a.
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 5: Worthy person, but your family is not well brought up.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 5: Every one of them has been in mischief except Spot
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 5: and Pigling Bland. Yus yus, sighed, Aunt Pettitoes, and they
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 5: drink bucketfuls of milk. I shall have to get another cow.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 5: Good little Spot shall stay at home to do the housework,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 5: but the others must go. Four little pig boys and
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 5: four little pig girls are too many all together, Yes, yes, yes,
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 5: said Aunt Pettittoes. There'll be more to eat without them.
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 5: So Chinchin and Suck Suck went away in a wheelbarrow,
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 5: and Stumpy Yok Yok and cross Patch rode away in
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 5: a cart, and the other two little boy pigs, Pigling
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 5: Bland and Alexander, went to market. We brushed their coats,
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 5: we curled their tails, and washed their little faces, and
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 5: wished them good bye. In the yard, Aunt Pettitoes wiped
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 5: her eyes with a large pocket handkerchief. Then she wiped
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 5: Pigling Bland's nose and shed tears. Then she wiped Alexander's
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 5: nose and shed tears. Then she passed the handkerchief to Spot.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 5: Aunt Pettitoes sighed and grunted, and addressed those little pigs
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 5: as follows. Now Piggling Bland, son of Pigling Bland, you
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 5: must go to market. Take your brother Alexander by the hand,
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 5: mind your Sunday clothes, and remember to blow your nose.
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 5: Aunt Pettetos passed around the handkerchief again. Beware of traps,
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 5: hen roosts, bacon and eggs. Always walk upon your hind legs.
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 5: Piggling Bland, who was a sedate little pig, looked solemnly
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 5: at his mother, and a tear trickled down his cheek.
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 5: Aunt Pettitoes turned to the other. Now, son, Alexander, take
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 5: the hand. Whee wee wee, giggled Alexander, take the hand
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 5: of your brother, Pigling Bland. You must go to market.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 5: Mind wee wee wee, interrupted Alexander again. You put me out,
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 5: said Aunt Pettittoes. Observe signposts and milestones, do not gobble
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 5: herring bones, and remember, said I impressively. If you once
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 5: cross the county boundary, you cannot come back. Alexander, you
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 5: are not attending. Here are two licenses permitting two pigs
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 5: to go to market in Lancashire, attend, Alexander, I have
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 5: had no end of trouble in getting these papers from
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 5: the policemen. Pigling Bland listened gravely. Alexander was hopelessly volatile.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 5: I pinned the papers for safety inside their waistcoat pockets.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 5: Aunt Pettitoes gave to each a little bundle and eight
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 5: conversation peppermints with appropriate moral sentiments in screws of paper.
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 5: Then they started. Pigling Bland and Alexander trotted along steadily
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 5: for a mile. At least Pigling Bland did. Alexander made
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 5: the road half as long again. By skipping from side
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 5: to side. He danced about and pinched his brother, singing,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 5: this pig went to market. This pig's day at home.
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 5: This pig had a bit of meat. Let's see what
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 5: they've given us for dinner. Pigling, Pigling Bland and Alexander
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 5: sat down and untied their bundles. Alexander gobbled up his
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 5: dinner in no time. He had already eaten all his
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 5: own peppermints. Give me one of yours, please, Pigling, But
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 5: I wish to preserve them for emergencies, said Pigling Bland doubtfully,
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 5: Alexander went in to squeals of laughter. Then he pricked
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 5: Pigling with the pin that had fastened his pig paper,
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 5: and when Pigling slapped him, he dropped the pin and
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 5: tried to take Pigling's pin, and the papers got mixed up.
• 1:32:11
  Speaker 5: Pigling Bland reproved Alexander, but presently they made it up
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 5: again and trotted away together, singing Tom Tom, the piper's
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 5: son stole a pig, and away here run, But all
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 5: the tune that he could play was over the hills
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 5: and far away. What's that, young sirs? Stole a pig?
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 5: Where are your licenses? Said the policeman. They had nearly
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 5: run against him round a corner. Pigling Bland pulled out
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 5: his paper. Alexander, after fumbling, handed over something scrumply to
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 5: two and a half ounces. Conversation, sweeties at three farthings.
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 6: What's this?
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 5: This ain't a license? Alexander's nose lengthened visibly. He had
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 5: lost it. I had one, Indeed I had, mister policeman.
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 5: It's not likely they let you start without. I am
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 5: passing the farm. You may walk with me. Can I
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 5: come back too? Inquired giggling Bland, I see no reason,
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 5: young sir. Your paper is all right. Pigling Bland did
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 5: not like going on alone, and it was beginning to rain.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 5: But it is unwise to argue with the police. He
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 5: gave his brother a peppermint and watched them out of sight.
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 5: To conclude the adventures of Alexander, the policeman sorted up
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 5: to the house about tea time, followed by a damp
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 5: and subdued little pig. I disposed of Alexander in the neighborhood.
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 5: He did fairly well. When he had settled down, Pigling
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 5: Bland went on alone. Dejectedly. He came to a cross
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 5: roads and a sign post to market Town, five miles
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 5: over the hills, four miles to Petito's farm three miles.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 5: Piggling Bland was shocked. There was little hope of sleeping
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 5: in market Town, and tomorrow was the hiring fair. It
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 5: was deplorable to think how much time had been wasted
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 5: by the frivolity of Alexander. He glanced wistfully along the
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 5: road toward the hills, then set off walking obediently the
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 5: other way, buttoning up his coat against the rain. He
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 5: had never wanted to go, and the idea of standing
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 5: all by himself in a crowded market, to be stared at,
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 5: pushed and hired by some strange big farmer was very disagreeable.
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 5: I wish I could have a little garden and grow potatoes,
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 5: said Piggling Bland. He put his cold hand in his
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 5: pocket and felt his paper. He put his other hand
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 5: in his other pocket and felt another paper. Alexander's piggling squealed,
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 5: then ran back frantically, hoping to overtake Alexander and the policeman.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 5: He took a wrong turn, several wrong turns, and was
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 5: quite lost. It grew dark, the wind whistled, the trees
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 5: creaked and groaned. Pigling Bland became frightened and cried, wee,
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 5: wee wee, I can't find my way home. After an
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 5: hour's wandering, he got out of the wood. The moon
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 5: shone through the clouds, and Pigling Bland saw a country
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 5: that was new to him. The road crossed a moor.
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 5: Below was a wide valley with a river twinkling in
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 5: the moonlight, and beyond, in the misty distance lay the hills.
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 5: He saw a small wooden hut. Made his way to
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 5: it and crept inside. I'm afraid it is a hen house,
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 5: But what can I do? Said Pigling Bland, Wet and
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 5: cold and quite tired out. Bacon and eggs, Bacon and eggs.
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 5: Cocked a hen on a perch. Trap trap trap. Cackle, cackle, cackle, scold.
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 5: The disturbed cockrel to market, to market. Jiggety jig cocked
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 5: a broody white hen roosting next to him. Pigling Bland,
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 5: much alarmed, determined to leave at daybreak. In the meantime,
• 1:35:17
  Speaker 5: he and the hens fell asleep. In less than an hour,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 5: they were all awakened. The owner, mister Peter Thomas Piperson,
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 5: came with a lantern and a hamper to fetch six
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 5: fowl to take to market in the morning. He grabbed
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 5: the white hen roosting next to the cock. Then his
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 5: eye fell upon Pigling Bland, squeezed up in a corner.
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 5: He made a singular remark, Hello, here's another, seized Piggling
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 5: by the scruff of the neck and dropped him into
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 5: the hamper. Then he dropped in five more dirty, kicking,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 5: cackling hens on the top of Pigling Bland. The hamper
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 5: containing six fowls, and a young pig was no light weight.
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 5: It was taken down hill unsteadily with jerks. Piggling, though
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 5: nearly scratched to pieces, contrived to hide the papers and
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 5: peppermints inside his clothes. At last the hamper was bumped
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 5: down on the kitchen floor, the lid was opened, and
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 5: Pigling was lifted out. He looked up, blinking, and saw
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 5: an offensively ugly elderly man grinning from ear to ear.
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 5: This one's come of himself, whatever, said mister Piperson, turning
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 5: Piggling's pockets inside out. He pushed the hamper into a
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 5: corner and threw a sack over it to keep the
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 5: hens quiet, put a pot on the fire, and unlaced
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 5: his boots. Piggling Bland drew forward a copy stool and
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 5: sat on the edge of it, shyly, warming his hands.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 5: Mister Piperson pulled off a boot and threw it against
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 5: the wainscot at the further end of the kitchen. There
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 5: was a smothered noise. Shut up, said mister Piperson. Piggling
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 5: Bland warmed his hands and eyed him. Mister Piperson pulled
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 5: off the other boot and flung it after the first
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 5: Again there was this curious noise. Be quiet, will ye,
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 5: said mister Piperson. Piggling Bland sat on the very edge
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 5: of the copy stool. Mister Piperson fetched meal from the
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 5: chest and made porridge. It seemed to Piggling that something
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 5: at the further end of the kitchen was taking a
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 5: suppressed interest in the cooking, but he was too hungry
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 5: to be troubled by noises. Mister Piperson poured out three
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 5: platefuls for himself for Pigling, and a third. After glancing
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 5: at Pigling, he put away with much scuffling and locked up.
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 5: Piggling Bland ate his supper discreetly. After supper, mister Piperson
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 5: consulted an almanac and felt Pigling's ribs. It was too
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 5: late in the season for curing bacon, and he grudged
• 1:37:21
  Speaker 5: his meal. Besides, the hens had seen this pig He
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 5: looked at the small remains of a flitch, and then
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 5: looked undecidedly at Pigling. You may sleep on the rug,
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 5: said mister Peter Thomas Piperson. Piggling Bland slept like a
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 5: top in the morning. Mister Piperson made more porridge. The
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 5: weather was warmer. He looked to see how much meal
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 5: was left in the chest and seemed dissatisfied. You'll likely
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 5: be moving on again, said he to Pigling Bland. Before
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 5: Piggling could reply, a neighbor who was giving mister Piperson
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 5: and the hens a lift, whistled from the gate. Mister
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 5: Piperson hurried out with the hamper enjoining Piggling to shut
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 5: the door behind him, and not meddle with nought, or
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 5: I'll come back and skin, ye, said mister Piperson. It
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 5: crossed Piggling's mind that if he had asked for a
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 5: lift too, he might still have been in time for
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 5: the market, but he distrusted Peter Thomas. After finishing breakfast
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 5: at his leisure, Piggling had a look around the cottage.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 5: Everything was locked up. He found some potato peelings in
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 5: a bucket in the back kitchen. Piggling ate the peel
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 5: and washed up the porridge plates in the bucket. He
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 5: sang while he worked tom with his pipe made such
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 5: a noise he called up all the girls and boys,
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 5: and they all ran to hear him play. Over the
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 5: hills and far our way Suddenly a little smothered voice
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 5: chimed in over the hills, and a great way off
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 5: the wind shall blow my top not off. Piling Land
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 5: put down a plate which he was wiping, and listened.
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 5: After a long pause, Piggling went on tiptoe and peeped
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 5: around the door into the front kitchen. There was nobody there.
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 5: After another pause, Piggling approached the door of the locked
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 5: cupboard and snuffed at the keyhole. It was quite quiet.
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 5: After another long pause, Piggling pushed a peppermint under the door.
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 5: It was sucked in immediately. In the course of the day,
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 5: Piggling pushed in all the remaining six peppermints. When mister
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 5: Piperson returned, he found Pigling sitting before the fire. He
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 5: had brushed up the hearth and put on the pot
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 5: to boil. The meal was not get at able. Mister
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 5: Pipson was very affable. He slept Piggling on the back,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 5: made lots of porridge, and forgot to lock the meal chest.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 5: He did lock the cover door, but without properly shutting it.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 5: He went to bed early and told Piggling upon no
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 5: account to disturb him. The next day, before twelve o'clock.
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 5: Pigling Bland sat by the fire, eating his supper all
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 5: at once. At his elbow, a little voice spoke, my name,
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 5: miss Pigwig, make me more porridge please. Pigling Bland jumped
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 5: and looked around. A perfectly lovely little black Berkshire pig
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 5: stood smiling beside him. She had twinkled, little screwed up eyes,
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 5: a double chin, and a short turned up nose. She
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 5: pointed at Piggling's plate. He hastily gave it to her
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 5: and fled to the meal chest. How did you come here,
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 5: asked piggling Bland. Stolen, replied Pigwig. With her mouth full.
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 5: Piggling helped to meal without scruple. What for bacons Hams
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 5: required Pigwig cheerfully. Why on earth don't you run away?
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 5: Exclaimed the horrified pigling. I shall after supper, said Pigwig. Decidedly.
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 5: Pigling Bland made more porridge and watched her shyly. She
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 5: finished her second plate, got up and looked about her
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 5: as though she were going to start. You can't go
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 5: in the dark, said Pigling Bland. Pigwig looked anxious. Do
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 5: you know your way by daylight? I know we can
• 1:40:28
  Speaker 5: see this little white house from the hills across the river.
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 5: Which way are you going, mister pig to market? I
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 5: have two pig papers. I might take you to the
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 5: bridge if you have no objection, said Piggling, much confused
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 5: and sitting on the edge of his copy stool. Pigwig's
• 1:40:41
  Speaker 5: gratitude was such, and she asked so many questions that
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 5: it became embarrassing to pigling Bland. He was obliged to
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 5: shut his eyes and pretend to sleep. She became quiet,
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 5: and there was a smell of peppermint. I thought you
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 5: had eaten them, said Pigling, waking suddenly. Only the corners,
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 5: replied Pigwig, studying the sentiments with much interest by firelight.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 5: She wouldn't he might smell them through the ceiling, said
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 5: the alarmed Piggling. Pigwig put back the sticky peppermints into
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 5: her pocket, sing something she demanded. I'm sorry, I have
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 5: a toothache, said Piggling, much dismayed. Then I will sing,
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 5: replied Pigwig. You will not mind if I say ittty tiddity.
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 5: I've forgotten some of the words. Pigling Bland made no objection.
• 1:41:19
  Speaker 5: He sat with his eyes half shut, and watched her.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 5: She wagged her head and rocked about, clapping time and
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 5: singing in a sweet, little grunty voice. A funny old
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 5: mother pig lived in a stye, and three little piggies
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 5: had she tee dee did tea ump ump ump, and
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 5: the little pigs said wee wee. She sang successfully through
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 5: three or four verses, only at every verse her head
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 5: nodded a little lower, and her twinkly eyes closed up.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 5: Those three little piggies grew piky and lean and lean.
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 5: They might very well be. Or somehow they couldn't say ump, bump, bump,
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 5: and they wouldn't say wee wee oee. Somehow they couldn't
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 5: say Pigwig's head bob lower and lower. Until she rolled
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 5: over a round little ball, fast asleep on the hearth rug,
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 5: Piggling bland and tiptoe covered her up with an anti macassa.
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 5: He was afraid to go to sleep himself. For the
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 5: rest of the night, he sat listening to the chirping
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 5: of the crickets and the snores of mister Piperson overhead.
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 5: Early in the morning, between dark and daylight, Pigling tied
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 5: up his little bundle and woke up Pigwig. She was
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 5: excited and half frightened. But it's dark. How can we
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 5: find our way? The cock has crowed. We must start
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 5: before the hens come out. They might shout to mister Piperson.
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 5: Pigwig sat down and commenced to cry, come away, Pigwig,
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 5: we can see when we get used to it.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 6: Come.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 5: I can hear them clucking. Pigling had never said shut
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 5: to a head in his life, being peaceable. Also, he
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 5: remembered the hamper. He opened the house door quietly and
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 5: shut it after them. There was no garden. The neighborhood
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 5: of mister Piperson's was all scratched up by fowls. They
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 5: slipped away, hand in hand, across an untidy field to
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 5: the road. The sun rose while they were crossing the moor,
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 5: a dazzle of light on the tops of the hills.
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 5: The sunshine crept down the slopes into the peaceful green valleys,
• 1:42:57
  Speaker 5: where little white cottages nestled in gardens and orchards. That's Westmoreland,
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 5: said Pigwig. She dropped Piggling's hand and commenced to dance, singing,
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 5: Tom Tom, the piper's son stole a pig and away
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 5: he run. But oh, the tune that he could play
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 5: was over the hills and far away. Come, Pigwig. We
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 5: must get to the bridge before folks are stirring. Why
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 5: do you want to go to market, Pigling, inquired Pigwig. Presently,
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 5: I don't I want to grow potatoes. Have a peppermint,
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 5: said Pigwig. Pigling Bland refused, quite crossly, does your poor
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 5: toothy hurt, inquired Pigwig. Pigling Bland grunted. Pigwig ate the
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 5: peppermint herself and followed the opposite side of the road. Pigwig,
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 5: keep under the wall was a man plowing. Pigwig crossed over,
• 1:43:42
  Speaker 5: and they hurried down hill towards the county boundary. Suddenly
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 5: Piggling stopped. He heard wheels slowly jogging up the road.
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 5: Below them came a tradesman's cart. The reins flapped on
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 5: the horse's back. The grocer was reading a newspaper. Take
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 5: that peppermint out of your mouth, Pigwig, we may have
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 5: to run. Don't say one word. Leave it to me.
• 1:44:01
  Speaker 5: And in sight of the bridge, said Piggling, nearly crying.
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 5: He began to walk frightfully lame, holding Pigwig's arm. The grocer,
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 5: intent upon his newspaper, might have passed them if his
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 5: horse had not shied and snorted. He pulled up the
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 5: cart crossways and held down his whip. Hello, where are
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 5: you going to? Pigling Bland stared at hi vacantly. Are
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 5: you deaf? Are you going to market? Pigling nodded slowly.
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 5: I thought as much it was yesterday. Show me your license.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 5: Piggling stared at the off hind shoe of the grocer's horse,
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 5: which had picked up a stone. The grocer flicked his whip, papers,
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 5: pig License. Piggling fumbled in all his pockets and handed
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 5: up the papers. The grocer read them, but still seemed disatisfied.
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 5: This here, pig is a young lady. Is her name Alexander?
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 5: Pigwig opened her mouth and shut it again. Piggling coughed asthmatically.
• 1:44:50
  Speaker 5: The grocer ran his finger down the advertisement column of
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 5: his newspaper, lost, stolen, or strayed ten shillings reward. He
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 5: looked suspiciously at Pigwig. Then he stood up in the
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 5: trap and whistled for the plowman. You wait here? Will
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 5: I drive on? And speak to him, said the grocer,
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 5: gathering up the reins. He knew that pigs are slippery,
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 5: but surely is such a very lame pig could never run?
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 5: Not yet, Pigwig, He will look back. The grocer did so,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 5: he saw the two pigs standing stock still in the
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 5: middle of the road. Then he looked over at his
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 5: horses heels. It was lame also. The stone took some
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 5: time to knock out after he got to the plowman.
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 5: Now Pigwig, now said piggling Bland. Never did any pigs
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 5: run as those pigs ran. They raced and squealed and
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 5: pelted down the long white hill towards the bridge. Little
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 5: fat Pigwig's petticoats fluttered and her feet went pitter pat
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 5: to pitter as she bounded and jumped. They ran, and
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 5: they ran, and they ran down the hill and across
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 5: a short cut on a level green turf at the
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 5: bottom between pebble beds and rushes. They came to the river.
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 5: They came to the bridge. They crossed it hand in hand.
• 1:45:51
  Speaker 5: Then over the hills and far away she danced with
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 5: Piggling Bland. The end of the Tail of Piggling Bland.
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 6: Chapter eleven of a collection of BEETERX Potter's stories. This
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 6: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 6: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 6: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Sarah Holtz. The roly Poly
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 6: Pudding by BEETERX Potter. Once upon a time there was
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 6: an old cat called Miss Tabitha Twitchett, who was an
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 6: anxious parent. She used to lose her kittens continually, and
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 6: whenever they were lost, they were always a mischief. On
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 6: baking day, she determined to shut them up in a cupboard.
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 6: She caught mop at a mitten's, but she could not
• 1:46:52
  Speaker 6: find Tom. Miss Tabitha went up and down all over
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 6: the house, mewing for Tom kitten. She looked in the
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 6: pantry under the staircase, and she searched the best spare
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 6: bedroom that was all covered up with dust sheets. She
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 6: went right up stairs and looked into the attics, but
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 6: she could not find 'em anywhere. It was an old,
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 6: old house full of cupboards and passages. Some of the
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 6: walls were four feet thick, and there used to be
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 6: queer noises inside them, as if there might be a
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 6: little secret staircase. Certainly there were all little jacket doorways
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 6: in the wainscot, and things disappeared at night, especially cheese
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 6: and bacon. Miss Tabitha became more and more distracted and
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 6: mewed dreadfully. While their mother was searching the house, Poppet
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 6: and Mittens had got into mischief. The cupboard door was
• 1:47:47
  Speaker 6: not locked, so they pushed it open and came out.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 6: They went straight to the dough, which was set to
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 6: rise in a pan before the fire. They patted it
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 6: with their little soft paws. Shall I make dear little muffins,
• 1:48:00
  Speaker 6: said Mittens, to mop it. But just at that moment
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 6: somebody knocked at the front door, and Moppet jumped into
• 1:48:07
  Speaker 6: the flower barrel in a fright. Mittens ran away to
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 6: the dairy and hid in an empty jar on the
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 6: stone shelf where the milk pans stand. The visitor was
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 6: a neighbor, missus Ribby. She had called to borrow some yeast.
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 6: Miss Tabitha came downstairs, mewing dreadfully. Come in, Cousin Ribby,
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 6: Come in and sit ye down. I'm in sad trouble,
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 6: Cousin Ribby, said Tabitha, shedding tears. I've lost my dear
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 6: son Thomas. I'm afraid the rats have got him. She
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 6: wiped her eyes with an apron. He's a bad kitten,
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 6: Cousin Tabitha. He made a cat's cradle my best bonnet
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 6: last time I came to tea. Where have you looked
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 6: for him? All over the house? The rats are too
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 6: many for me. What a thing it is to have
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 6: an unruly family, said miss Tabitha twitchet. I'm not afraid
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 6: of rats. I will help you to find him and
• 1:49:03
  Speaker 6: whip him too. What is all that suit in the
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 6: thunder the chimney wants sweeping. Oh dear me, Cousin Ribby,
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 6: Now moppet and mittens are gone. They have both got
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 6: out of the cupboard. Ribby and Tabitha set to work
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 6: to search the house thoroughly again. They poked under the
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 6: beds with Ribby's umbrella, and they rummaged in cupboards. They
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 6: even fetched a candle and looked inside a clothes chest
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 6: in one of the attics. They could not find anything,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 6: but once they heard a door bang and somebody scuttered downstairs. Yes,
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 6: it is infested with rats, said Tabitha tearfully. I caught
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 6: seven young ones out of one hole in the back kitchen,
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 6: and we had them for dinner last Saturday. And once
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 6: I saw the old father rat, an enormous old rat,
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 6: cousin Ribby, I was just going to jump upon him,
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 6: when he showed his yellow teeth at me and whisked
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 6: down the hole. The rats get upon my nerves, cousin Ribby,
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 6: said Tabitha. Ribby and Tabitha searched and searched. They both
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 6: heard a curious roly poly noise under the attic floor,
• 1:50:09
  Speaker 6: but there was nothing to be seen. They returned to
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 6: the kitchen. Here's one of your kittens, at least, said Ribby,
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 6: dragging Moppet out of the flower barrel. They shook the
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 6: flower off her and set her down on the kitchen floor.
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 6: She seemed to be in a terrible fright. Oh, mother, mother,
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 6: said Moppet. There's been an old woman ra at the kitchen,
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 6: and she stolen some of the dough. The two cats
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 6: ran to look at the dough pan. Sure enough, there
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 6: were marks of little scratching fingers, and a lump of
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 6: dough was gone. Which way did she go, Moppet? But
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 6: Moppett had been too much frightened to peep out of
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 6: the barrel again. Ribby and Tabitha took her with them
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 6: to keep her safely in sight while they went on
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 6: with their search. They went into the dairy. The first
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 6: thing they found was Mitten's hiding in an empty jar.
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 6: They chipped up the jar, and she scrambled out, Oh, mother, mother,
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 6: said Mittens, Oh mother, mother. There's been an old man
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 6: rat in the dairy, a dreadful, enormous big rat, mother,
• 1:51:16
  Speaker 6: and he stolen a pat of butter and the rolling pin.
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 6: Ribby and Tabitha looked at one another, a rolling pin
• 1:51:24
  Speaker 6: and butter. Oh my poor son, Thomas, exclaimed Tabitha, wringing
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 6: her paws. A rolling pin, said Ribby. Did we not
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 6: hear a roly poly noise in the attic when we
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 6: were looking into that chest? Ribby and Tabitha rushed upstairs again.
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 6: Sure enough, the roly poly noise was still going on,
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 6: quite distinctly under the attic floor. This is serious, cousin, Tabitha,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 6: said Ribby. We must send for John Joyner at once
• 1:51:53
  Speaker 6: with a saw. Now this is what had been happening
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 6: to Tom Kitten, and it shows how very unwise it
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 6: is to go up a chimney in a very old
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 6: house where a person does not know his way, and
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 6: where there are enormous rats. Tom Kitten did not want
• 1:52:09
  Speaker 6: to be shut up in a cupboard. When he saw
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 6: that his mother was going to bake, he determined to hide.
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 6: He looked about for a nice convenient place, and he
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 6: fixed upon the chimney. The fire had only just been lighted,
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 6: and it was not hot, but there was a white,
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 6: choky smoke from the green sticks. Tom Kitten got upon
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 6: the fender and looked up. It was a big, old
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 6: fashioned fireplace. The chimney itself was wide enough inside for
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 6: a man to stand up and walk about, so there
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 6: was plenty of room for a little tom cat. He
• 1:52:42
  Speaker 6: jumped right up into the fireplace, balancing himself upon the
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 6: iron bar where the kettle hangs. Tom Kitten took another
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 6: big jump off the bar and landed on a ledge
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 6: high up inside the chimney, knocking down some suit into
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 6: the fender. Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke.
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 6: He could hear the sticks beginning to crackle and burn
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 6: the fireplace down below. He made up his mind to
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 6: climb right to the top and get out on the
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 6: slates and try to catch sparrows. I cannot go back.
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 6: If I slipped, I might fall into the fire and
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 6: sind my beautiful tail and my little blue jacket. The
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 6: chimney was a very big, old fashioned one. It was
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 6: built in the days when people burnt logs of wood
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 6: upon the hearth. The chimney stack stood up above the
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 6: roof like a little stone tower, and the daylight shone
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 6: down from the top under the slanting slates that kept
• 1:53:34
  Speaker 6: out the rain. Tom Kitten was getting very frightened. He
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 6: climbed up and up and up. Then he waded sideways
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 6: through inches of suit. He was like a little sweep himself.
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 6: It was most confusing. In the dark. One flew seemed
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 6: to lead into another. There was less smoke, but Tom
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 6: Kitten felt quite lost. He scrambled up and up, but
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 6: before he reached the chimney top he came to a
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 6: place where somebody had loosened a stone in the wall.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 6: There were some mutton bones lying about. This seems funny,
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 6: said Tom Kitten, who has been gnawing bones up here
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 6: in the chimney. I wish I had never come. And
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 6: what a funny smell. It is something like mouse only
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 6: dreadfully strong. It makes me sneeze, said Tom Kitten. He
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 6: squeezed through the hole in the wall and dragged himself
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 6: along a most uncomfortably tight passage, where there was scarcely
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 6: any light. He groped his way carefully for several yards.
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 6: He was at the back of a skirting board in
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 6: the attic, where there was a little mark in the picture.
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 6: All at once he fell head over heels in the dark,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 6: down a hole, and landed on a heap of very
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 6: dirty rags. When Tom Kitten picked himself up and looked
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 6: about him, he found himself in a place that he
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 6: had never seen before, although he had lived all his
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 6: life in the house. It was a very a small, stuffy,
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 6: fusty room, with boards and rafters and cobwebs in lath
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 6: and plaster. Opposite to him, as far away as he
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 6: could sit, was an enormous rat. What do you mean
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 6: by tumbling into my bed all covered with smuts, said
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 6: the rat, chattering his teeth. Please, sir, the chimney wants sweeping,
• 1:55:23
  Speaker 6: said poor Tom Kitten. Anna Maria, Anna Maria squeaked the rat.
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 6: There was a pattering noise, and an old woman rat
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 6: poked her head round a rafter. All in a minute
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 6: she rushed upon Tom Kitten, and before he knew what
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 6: was happening, his coat was pulled off and he was
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 6: rolled up in a bundle and tied with string in
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 6: very hard knots. Anna Maria did the tying. The old
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 6: rat watched her and took snuff. When she had finished,
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 6: they both sat staring at him with their mouths open.
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 6: Anna Maria said the old man rat, whose name was
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 6: Samuel Whiskers, Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling roly
• 1:56:03
  Speaker 6: poly pudding for my dinner. It requires dough and a
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 6: pat of butter and a rolling pin, said Anna Maria,
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 6: considering Tom Kitten with her head on one side. No,
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 6: said Samuel Whiskers, make it properly, Anna Maria, with bread crumbs. Nonsense.
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 6: Butter and dough, replied Anna Maria. The two rasks consulted
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 6: together for a few minutes and then went away. Samuel
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 6: Whiskers got through a hole in the wainscot and went
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 6: boldly down the front staircase to the dairy to get
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 6: the butter. He did not meet anybody. He made a
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 6: second journey for the rolling pin. He pushed it in
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 6: front of him with his paws like a brewer's man
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 6: trembling a barrel. He could hear Ribby and Tabitha talking,
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 6: but they were busy lighting the candle to look into
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 6: the chest. They did not see him. Anna Maria went down,
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 6: by way of the skirting board and a window shutter
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 6: to the kitchen to steal the dough. She borrowed us
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 6: small saucer and scooped up the dough with her paws.
• 1:57:03
  Speaker 6: She did not observe Moppet. While Tom Kitten was left
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 6: alone under the floor of the attic, he wriggled about
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 6: and tried a mew for help, but his mouth was
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 6: full of souit and cobwebs, and he was tied in
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 6: such very tight knots. He could not make anybody hear him,
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 6: except a spider, which came out of a crack in
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 6: the ceiling and examined the knots critically from a safe distance.
• 1:57:28
  Speaker 6: It was a judge of knots because it had a
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 6: habit of tying up unfortunate blue bottles. It did not
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 6: offer to assist him. Tom Kitten wriggled and squirmed until
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 6: he was quite exhausted. Presently, the rats came back and
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 6: set to work to make him into a dumpling. First
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 6: they smeared him with butter, and then they rolled him
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 6: in the dough. Will not the string be very indidjustable,
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 6: Anna Maria, inquired Samuel Whiskers. Anna Maria said she thought
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 6: it was of no consequence, but she wished that Tom
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 6: Kitten would hold his head still as it disarranged the pastry.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 6: She laid hold of his ears. Tom Kitten bit and
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 6: spat and mewed and wriggled, and the rolling pin went rolly,
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 6: poly roly, rolly, poly roly. The rats each held an end.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 6: His tail is sticking out. You do not fetch enough dough,
• 1:58:22
  Speaker 6: Anna Maria. I fetched as much as I could carry,
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 6: replied Anna Maria. I do not think, said Samuel Whiskers,
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 6: pausing to take a look at Tom Kitten. I do
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 6: not think it will be a good pudding. It smells sooty.
• 1:58:39
  Speaker 6: Anna Maria was about to argue the point, when all
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 6: at once there began to be other sounds up above,
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 6: the rasping noise of a saw and the noise of
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 6: a little dog scratching and yelping. The rat stropped the
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 6: rolling pin and listened attentively. We are discovered and interrupted,
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 6: Anna Maria, Let us collect our property and other peopils
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 6: and depart at once. I fear that we shall be
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 6: obliged to leave this pudding, but I am persuaded that
• 1:59:08
  Speaker 6: the knots would have proved indigestible. Whatever you may urge
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 6: the contrary, Come away at once and help me to
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 6: tye up some mutton bones at a counterpane, said Anna Maria,
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 6: I have got half a smoked ham hidden in the chimney.
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 6: So it happened that by the time John Joyner had
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 6: got the plank up, there was nobody under the floor
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 6: except the rolling pin and Tom Kitten in a very
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 6: dirty dumpling. But there was a strong smell of rats.
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 6: And John Joyner spent the rest of the morning sniffing
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 6: and whining and wagging his tail and going round and
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 6: round with his head in the hole like a gimlet.
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 6: Then he nailed the plank down again and put his
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 6: tools in his bag and came down stairs. The cat
• 1:59:51
  Speaker 6: family had quite recovered. They invited him to stay to dinner.
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 6: The dampling had been peeled off Tom Kitten and made
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 6: separately an to a bag pudding with currants in it
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 6: to hide the smuts. They had been obliged to put
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 6: tom kitten into a hot bath to get the butter off.
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 6: John Joyner smelt the pudding, but he regretted that he
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 6: had not time to stay to dinner because he had
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 6: just finished making a wheelbarrow for Miss Potter, and she
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 6: had ordered two hen coops. And when I was going
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 6: to the post late in the afternoon, I looked up
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 6: the lane from the corner, and I saw mister Samuel
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 6: Whiskers and his wife on the run with big bundles
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 6: on a.
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 5: Little wheelbarrow which.
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 6: Looked very like mine. They were just turning in at
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 6: the gate to the barn of farmer Potatoes. Samuel Whiskers
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 6: was puffing and out of breath. Anna Maria was still
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 6: arguing in shrill tones. She seemed to know her way,
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 6: and she seemed to have a quantity of luggage. I
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 6: am sure I never gave her leave to borrow my wheelbarrow.
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 6: They went into the barn and hauled their parcels with
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 6: a bit of string to the top of the hay mow.
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 6: After that there were no more rats for a long time.
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 6: At Tabitha Twitchet's as for far potatoes, he has been
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 6: driven nearly distracted. There are rats and rats and rats
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 6: in his barn. They eat out the chicken food, and
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 6: steal the oats and bran, and make holes in the
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 6: meal bags. And they are all descended from mister and
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 6: missus Samuel Whiskers, children and grandchildren and great great grandchildren.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 6: There is no end to them. Moppet and Bittens have
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 6: grown up into very good rat catchers. They go out
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 6: rat catching the village. They find plenty of employment. They
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 6: charge so much a dozen, and learn their living very comfortably.
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 6: They hang up the rats tails in a row on
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 6: the barn door to show how many they have caught,
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 6: dozens and dozens of them. But Tom Kitten has always
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 6: been afraid of a rat. He never durst face anything
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 6: that is bigger than a mouse. The end end of
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 6: the roly Poly Pudding recording by Sarah Halts.
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 5: Chapter twelve of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 5: is LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 5: Read by Beth Thomas, The Pie in the pattypan By
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 5: Beatrix Potter. Pussy cat sits by the fire? How should
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 5: she be fair? In walks? Little dog says, Pussy? Are
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 5: you there? How do you do, mistress Pussy? Mistress Pussy?
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 5: How do you do? I thank you kindly, little dog,
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 5: I fare as well as you. Old rhyme. Once upon
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 5: a time there was a pussy cat called Ribby, who
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 5: invited a little dog called Duchess to tea Come in
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 5: good time, my dear Duchess, said Ribby's letter, and we
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 5: will have something so very nice. I'm baking it in
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 5: a pie dish, a pie dish with a pink rim.
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 5: You never tasted anything so good, and you shall eat
• 2:03:01
  Speaker 5: it all. I will eat muffins, my dear Duchess, wrote Ribby.
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 5: Duchess read the letter and wrote an answer. I will
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 5: come with much pleasure at a quarter past four. But
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 5: it is very strange. I was just going to invite
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 5: you to come here to supper, my dear Ribby, to
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 5: eat something most delicious. I will come very punctually, my
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 5: dear Ribby, wrote Duchess, And then at the end she added,
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 5: I hope it isn't mouse. But then she thought that
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 5: did not look quite polite, so she scratched out isn't
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 5: mouse and changed it to I hope it will be fine,
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 5: And she gave her letter to the postman. But she
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 5: thought a great deal about Ribby's pie, and she read
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 5: Ribby's letter over and over again. I'm dreadfully afraid it
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 5: will be mouse, said Duchess to herself. I really couldn't
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 5: couldn't eat mouse pie, and I shall have to eat
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 5: it because it is a party. And my pie was
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 5: going to be veal and ham a pink and white
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 5: pie dish, and so is mine, just like Ribby's dishes.
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 5: They were both bought at Tabitha Twitchet's. Duchess went into
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 5: her larder and took the pie off a shelf and
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 5: looked at it. It is all ready to be put
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 5: into the oven. Such a lovely pie crust. And I
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 5: put in a little tin patty pan to hold up
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 5: the crust, and I made a hole in the middle
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 5: with a fork to let the steam out. Oh, I
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 5: do wish I could eat my own pie instead of
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 5: a pie made of mouse. Duchess considered and considered, and
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 5: read Ribby's letter again. A pink and white pie dish
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 5: and you shall eat it all you means me. Then
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 5: Ribby is not even going to taste the pie herself,
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 5: a pink and white pie dish. Ribby is sure to
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 5: go out to buy the muffins. What a good idea.
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 5: Why shouldn't I rush along and put my pie into
• 2:04:39
  Speaker 5: Ribby's oven when Ribby isn't there. Duchess was quite delighted
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 5: at her own cleverness. Ribby, in the meantime, had received
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 5: Duchess's answer, and as soon as she was sure that
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 5: the little dog could come, she popped her pie into
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 5: the oven. There were two ovens, one above the other.
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 5: Some other knobs and handles were only ornamental and not
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 5: intended to open. Ribby put the pie into the low oven.
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 5: The door was very stiff. The top oven bakes too quickly,
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 5: said Ribby to herself. It is a pie of the
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 5: most delicate and tender mouse, minced up with bacon, and
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 5: I have taken out all the bones, because Duchess did
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 5: nearly choke herself with a fish bone last time I
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 5: gave a party. She eats a little fast, rather big mouthfuls,
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 5: but a most genteel and elegant little dog, infinitely superior
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 5: company to cousin tabath the twitter. Ribby put on some
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 5: coal and swept up the hearth. Then she went out
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 5: with a can to the well for water to fill
• 2:05:29
  Speaker 5: up the kettle. Then she began to set the room
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 5: in order, for it was the sitting room as well
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 5: as the kitchen. She shook out the mats at the
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 5: front door and put them straight. The hearth rug was
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 5: a rabbit skin. She dusted the clock and the ornaments
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 5: on the mantelpiece, and she polished and rubbed the tables
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 5: and chairs. Then she spread a very clean white tablecloth
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 5: and set out her best china tea set, which she
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 5: took out of a wall cupboard near the fireplace. The
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 5: tea cups were white with a pattern of pink roses,
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 5: and the dinner plates were white and blue. When Ribby
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 5: had laid the table, she took a jug and a
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 5: blue and white dish and went down the field to
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 5: the farm to fetch milk and butter. When she came back,
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 5: she peeped into the bottom oven. The pie looked very comfortable.
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 5: Ribby put on her shawl and bonnet and went out
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 5: again with a basket to the village shop to buy
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 5: a packet of tea, a pound of lump sugar, and
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 5: a pot of marmalade. Just at the same time, Duchess
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 5: came out of her house at the other end of
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 5: the village. Ruby met Duchess half way down the street,
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 5: also carrying a basket covered with a cloth. They only
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 5: bowed to one another. They did not speak, because they
• 2:06:27
  Speaker 5: were going to have a party. As soon as Duchess
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 5: had got round the corner out of sight, she simply
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 5: ran straight away to Ribby's house. Ribby went into the
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 5: shop and bought what she required and came out after
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 5: a pleasant gossip with cousin Tabitha Twitchet. Cousin Tabitha was
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 5: disdainful afterwards in conversation. A little dog indeed, just as
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 5: if there were no cats in sorry, and a pie
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 5: for afternoon tea the very idea, said cousin Tabitha Twitchet.
• 2:06:53
  Speaker 5: Ribby went on to Timothy Baker's and bought the muffins,
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 5: and then she went home. There seemed to be a
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 5: sort of scuffling noise in the back passage as she
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 5: was coming in the front door. I trust that is
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 5: not the pie. The spoons locked up, however, said Ribby.
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 5: But there was nobody there. Ribby opened the bottom oven
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 5: door with some difficulty and turned the pie. There began
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 5: to be a pleasing smell of baked mouse. Duchess, in
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 5: the meantime, had slipped out at the back door. Tis
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 5: a very odd thing that Ribby's pie was not in
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 5: the oven when I put mine in, and I can't
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 5: find it anywhere. I have looked all over the house.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 5: I put my pie into a nice hot oven at
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 5: the top. I could not turn any of the other handles.
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 5: I think they are all shams, said Duchess. But I
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 5: wish I could removed the pie made of mouse. I
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 5: cannot think what she has done with it. I heard
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 5: Ribby coming, and I had to run out by the
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 5: back door. Duchess went home and brushed her beautiful black coat,
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 5: and then she picked a bunch of flowers in her
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 5: garden as a present for Ribby, and passed the time
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 5: until the clock struck four. Ribby, having assured herself by
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 5: careful search that there really was no one hiding in
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 5: the cupboard or in the ladder, went upstairs to change
• 2:07:56
  Speaker 5: her dress. She put on a lilac silk gown for
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 5: the party, and an embroidered muslin, apron and tippet. It
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 5: is very strange, said Ribby. I did not think I
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 5: left that drawer pulled out. Has somebody been trying on
• 2:08:07
  Speaker 5: my mittens? She came downstairs again and made the tea
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 5: and put the teapot on the hop. She peeped again
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 5: into the bottom oven. The pie had become a lovely
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 5: brown and was steaming hot. She sat down before the
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 5: fire to wait for the little dog. I am glad
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 5: I used the bottom oven, said Ribby. The top one
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 5: would certainly have been much too hot. I wonder why
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 5: that cupboard door was open? Can there really have been
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 5: some one in the house? Very punctually, at four o'clock,
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 5: Duchess started to go to the party. She ran so
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 5: fast through the village that she was too early, and
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 5: she had to wait a little while in the lane
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 5: that leads down to Ribby's house. I wonder if Ribby
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 5: has taken my pie out of the oven yet, said Duchess.
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 5: And whatever can have become of the other pie made
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 5: of mouse? At a quarter past four to the minute,
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 5: there came a most genteel little tap tappitty. Is missus
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 5: Ribston at home? Inquired duchess in the porch.
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: Come in.
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 5: How do you do, my dear duchess, cried Ribby. I
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 5: hope I see you well quite well? Thank you? And
• 2:09:02
  Speaker 5: how do you do, my dear Ribby, said duchess. I've
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 5: brought you some flowers. What a delicious smell of pie? Oh,
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 5: what lovely flowers? Yes, it is mouse and bacon. Do
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 5: not talk about food, my dear Ribby, said duchess. What
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 5: a lovely white tea cloth? Is it done to a turn?
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 5: Is it still in the oven? I think it wants
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 5: another five minutes, said Ribby. Just a shade longer. I
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 5: will pour out the tea while we wait. Do you
• 2:09:25
  Speaker 5: take sugar, my dear duchess. Oh, yes, please, my dear Ribby,
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 5: And may I have a lump upon my nose with pleasure,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 5: my dear duchess, How beautifully you beg Oh, how sweetly pretty?
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 5: Duchess sat up with the sugar on her nose and sniffed,
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 5: how good that pie smells. I do love veal and ham,
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 5: I mean mouse and bacon. She dropped the sugar in
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 5: confusion and had to go hunting under the tea table,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 5: so did not see which oven Ribby opened. In order
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 5: to get out the pie. Ribby set the pie upon
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 5: the table. There was a very savory smell. Duchess came
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 5: out from under the tablecloth, munching sugar, and sat up
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 5: on a chair. I will first cut the pie for you,
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 5: then I am going to have muffin and marmalade, said Ribby.
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 5: Do you really prefer muffin? Of mind the petty pan.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 5: I beg your pardon, said Ribby. Maya PASSI the marmalade,
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 5: said Duchess hurriedly. The pie approved extremely toothsome, and the
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 5: muffins light and hot. They disappeared rapidly, especially the pie,
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 5: I think, thought Duchess to herself. I think it would
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 5: be wiser if I help myself to pie. Though Ribby
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 5: did not seem to notice anything when she was cutting it.
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 5: What very small fine pieces it has cooked into. I
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 5: did not remember that I had minced it up so fine.
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 5: I suppose this is a quicker oven than my own.
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 5: How fast Duchess is eating, thought Ribby to herself, as
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 5: she buttered her fifth muffin. The pie dish was emptying rapidly.
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 5: Duchess had four helps already and was fumbling with the
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 5: spoon a little more bacon, my dear Duchess, said Ribby.
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 5: Thank you, my dear Ribby, I was only feeling for
• 2:10:46
  Speaker 5: the patty pan. Are the patty pan, my dear duchess.
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 5: The patty pan had held up the pie crust, said Duchess,
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 5: blushing under her black coat. Oh I didn't put one in,
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 5: my dear Duchess, said Ribby. I don't think it is necessary,
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 5: and pie is made of mouse. Duchess fumbled with the spoon.
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 5: I can't find it, she said anxiously. There isn't a
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 5: patty pan, said Ribby, looking perplexed. Yes, indeed, my dear Ribby,
• 2:11:06
  Speaker 5: when it Where can it have gone to? Said Duchess.
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 5: There most certainly is not one, my dear Duchess. I
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 5: disapprove of tin articles in puddings and pies. It is
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 5: most undesirable, especially when people swallow in lumps, she added
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 5: in a lower voice. Duchess looked very much alarmed and
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 5: continued to scoop the inside of the pie dish. My
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 5: great aunt's Quintina, grandmother of cousin Tabitha Twitchet, died of
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 5: a thimble in a Christmas plum pudding. I never put
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 5: any article of metal in my puddings or pies. Duchess
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 5: looked aghast and tilted up the pie dish. I have
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 5: only four patty pans, and they are all in the cupboard.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 5: Duchess set up a howl. I shall die, I shall die.
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 5: I have swallowed a patty pan. Oh, my dear Ribby,
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 5: I feel so ill. It is impossible, my dear Duchess,
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 5: there was not a patty pan. Duchess moaned and whined
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 5: and rocked herself about. Oh, I feel so dreadful. I
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 5: have swallowed a patty pan. There was nothing in the pie,
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 5: said Ribby severely. Yes there was, my dear Ribby. I
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 5: am sure I have swallowed it. Let me prop you
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 5: up with a pillow, My dear duchess. Where do you
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 5: think you feel it? Oh? I feel so ill all over,
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 5: my dear Ribby. I have swallowed a large tin patty
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 5: pan with a sharp scalloped Detch. Shall I run for
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 5: the doctor. I will just lock up the spoons. Oh, yes, yes,
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 5: fetch doctor Maggotty, My dear Ribby, here is a pie himself.
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 5: He will certainly understand. Ribby settled Duchess in an arm
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 5: chair before the fire, and went out and hurried to
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 5: the village to look for the doctor. She found him
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 5: at the smithy. He was occupied putting rusty nails into
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 5: a bottle of ink which he had obtained at the
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 5: post office. Gammon ha Ha said he with his head
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 5: on one side. Ribby explained that her guest had swallowed
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 5: a patty pan. Spinach ha Ha said he and accompanied
• 2:12:51
  Speaker 5: her with alacrity. He hopped so fast that Ribby had
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 5: to run. It was most conspicuous. All the village could
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 5: see that Ribby was fetching the doctor. I knew they
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 5: would overeat themselves, said cousin Tabitha Twitchet. But while Ruby
• 2:13:05
  Speaker 5: had been hunting for the doctor, a curious thing had
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 5: happened to Duchess, who had been left by herself, sitting
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 5: before the fire, sighing and groaning and feeling very unhappy.
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 5: How could I have swallowed it, such a large thing
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 5: as a patty pan. She got up and went to
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 5: the table and felt inside the pie dish again with
• 2:13:21
  Speaker 5: the spoon. No, there is no patty pan, and I
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 5: put one in, and nobody has eaten pie except me,
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 5: so I must have swallowed it. She sat down again
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 5: and stared mournfully at the grate. The fire crackled and danced,
• 2:13:35
  Speaker 5: and something sizzled. Duchess started. She opened the door of
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 5: the top oven. Out came a rich, steamy flavor of
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 5: veal and ham, and there stood a fine brown pie.
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 5: And through a hole in the top of the pie
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 5: crust there was a glimpse of a little tin patty pan.
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 5: Duchess drew a long breath. Then I must have been
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 5: eating mouse. No wonder I feel ill, But perhaps I
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 5: should feel worse if I had really swallowed a patty pan.
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 5: Duchess reflected, what a very awkward thing to have to
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 5: explain to Ribby. I think I will put my pie
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 5: in the back yard and say nothing about it. When
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 5: I go home, I will run round and take it away.
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 5: She put it outside the back door and sat down
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 5: again by the fire and shut her eyes. When Ribby
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 5: arrived with the doctor, she seemed fast asleep. Gammon ha ha,
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 5: said the doctor. I am feeling very much better, said Duchess,
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 5: waking up with a jump. I am truly glad to
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 5: hear it. He has brought you a pill, my dear Duchess.
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 5: I think I should feel quite well If he only
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 5: felt my pulse, said Duchess, backing away from the magpie,
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 5: who sidled up with something in his beak. It is
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 5: only a bread pill. You had much better take it
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 5: and drink a little milk, my dear duchess. Gammon, gammon,
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 5: said the doctor, while Duchess coughed and choked. Don't say
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 5: that again, said Ribby, losing her temper. Here take this
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 5: bread and jam and get out into the yard Gamon
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 5: and spinach. Ha ha ha, shouted doctor Maggotty triumphantly outside
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 5: the back door. I am feeling very much better, my
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 5: dear Ribby, said Duchess. Do you not think that I
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 5: had better go home before it gets dark? Perhaps it
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 5: might be wise, my dear Duchess. I will lend you
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 5: a nice warm shawl, and you can take my arm. Oh,
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 5: I would not trouble you for worlds. I feel wonderfully
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 5: better one pill of doctor Maggotty. Indeed, it is most
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 5: admirable if it has cured you of a patty pan.
• 2:15:17
  Speaker 5: I will call directly after breakfast to ask how you
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 5: have slept. Ribby and Duchess said good bye affectionately, and
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 5: Duchess started home half way up the lane, she stopped
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 5: and looked back. Ribby had gone in and shut her door.
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 5: Duchess slipped through the fence and ran round to the
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 5: back of Ribby's house and peeped into the yard. Upon
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 5: the roof of the pig stye sat Doctor Maggotty and
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 5: three jackdaws. The jackdaws were eating pie crust, and the
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 5: magpie was drinking gravy out of the petty pan. Gammon ha,
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 5: he shouted when he saw Duchess's little black nose peeping
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 5: round the corner. Duchess ran home, feeling uncommonly silly. When
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 5: Ribby came out for a pailful of water to wash
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 5: up the tea things, she found a pink and white
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 5: pie dish lying smashed in the middle of the yard.
• 2:15:56
  Speaker 5: The petty pan was under the pump, where Doctor Maggotty
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 5: had considerately left it. Ruby stad with amazement, did you
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 5: ever see the like? So there really was a petty pen?
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 5: But my petty pan's all in the kitchen cupboard? Well
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 5: I never did. Next time I want to give a party,
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 5: I will invite cousin Tabitha twitget End of the Pie
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 5: and the Pettypan.
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 7: Chapter thirteen of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 7: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 7: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 7: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Jennifer Dorr. The Tale of
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 7: Ginger and Pickles. Once upon a time there was a
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 7: village shop. The name over the window was Ginger and Pickles.
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 7: It was a little small shop, just the right size
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 7: for dolls. Lucinda and Jane Dahl Cook always bought their
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 7: groceries at Ginger and Pickles. The counter inside was a
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 7: convenient height for rabbits. Ginger and Pickles sold red spotty
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 7: pocket handker at a penny three farthings. They also sold
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 7: sugar and snuff and galoshes. In fact, although it was
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 7: such a small shop, it sold nearly everything except a
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 7: few things that you want in a hurry, like bootlaces, hairpins,
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 7: and mutton chops. Ginger and Pickles were the people who
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 7: kept the shop. Ginger was a yellow tom cat and
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 7: Pickles was a terrier. The rabbits were always a little
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 7: bit afraid of pickles. The shop was also patronized by mice,
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 7: only the mice were rather afraid of Ginger. Ginger usually
• 2:17:32
  Speaker 7: requested Pickles to serve them because he said it made
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 7: his mouth water. I cannot bear, said he to see
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 7: them going out at the door carrying their little parcels.
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 7: I have the same feeling about rats, replied Pickles. But
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 7: it would never do to eat our own customers. They
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 7: would leave us and go to Tabitha Twitchets. On the contrary,
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 7: they would go nowhere, replied Ginger gloomily. Tabitha Twitchet kept
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 7: the only other shop in the village. She did not
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 7: give credit. Ginger and Pickles gave unlimited credit. Now the
• 2:18:04
  Speaker 7: meaning of credit is this when a customer buys a
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 7: bar of soap. Instead of the customer pulling out a
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 7: purse and paying for it, she says she will pay
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 7: another time, and Pickles makes a low bow and says,
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 7: with pleasure, madam. And it is written down in a book.
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 7: The customers come again and again and buy quantities in
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 7: spite of being afraid of Ginger and Pickles, but there
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 7: is no money in what is called the till. The
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 7: customers came in crowds every day and bought quantities, especially
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 7: the toffee customers, but there was always no money. They
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 7: never paid for as much as a pennyworth of peppermints,
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 7: but the sales were enormous, ten times as large as
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 7: Tabitha twichets. As there was always no money, Ginger and
• 2:18:46
  Speaker 7: Pickles were obliged to eat their own goods. Pickles ate
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 7: biscuits and Ginger ate a dried hattock. They ate them
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 7: by candle light after the shop was closed. When it
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 7: came to January first, there was still no money, and
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 7: Pickles was honey to buy a dog license. It is
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 7: very unpleasant. I'm afraid of the police, said Pickles. It
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 7: is your own fault for being a terrier. I do
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 7: not require a license, and neither does Kep the Collie dog.
• 2:19:12
  Speaker 7: It is very uncomfortable, and I'm afraid I shall be summoned.
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 7: I have tried in Vain to get a license upon
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 7: credit at the post office, said Pickles. The place is
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 7: full of policemen. I met one as I was coming home.
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 7: Let us send in the bill again to Samuel Whiskers.
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 7: Ginger he owes twenty two nine for bacon. I do
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 7: not believe that he intends to pay at all, replied Ginger.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 7: And I feel sure that Anna Maria pockets things Where
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 7: are all the cream crackers? You have eaten them yourself,
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 7: replied Ginger. Ginger and Pickles retired into the back parlor.
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 7: They did accounts. They added up sums and sums and sums.
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 7: Samuel Whiskers has run up a bill as long as
• 2:19:50
  Speaker 7: his tail. He's had an ounce and three quarters of
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 7: snuffs since October? What is seven pounds of butter at
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 7: one third and a stick of sealing wax and four matches.
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 7: Send in all the bills again to everybody with comps,
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 7: replied Ginger. After a time, they heard a noise in
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 7: the shop, as if something had been pushed in at
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 7: the door. They came out of the back parlor. There
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 7: was an envelope lying on the counter, and a policeman
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 7: writing in a notebook. Pickles nearly had a fit. He barked,
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 7: and he barked, and made little rushes bite him. Pickles
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 7: bite him, spluttered Ginger behind a sugar barrel. He's only
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 7: a German doll. The policeman went on writing in his notebook.
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 7: Twice he put his pencil in his mouth, and once
• 2:20:31
  Speaker 7: he dipped it in the treacle. Pickles barked till he
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 7: was hoarse, but still The policeman took no notice. He
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 7: had beat eyes, and his helmet was sewed on with
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 7: stitches at length. On his last little rush, Pickles found
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 7: that the shop was empty. The policeman had disappeared, but
• 2:20:47
  Speaker 7: the envelope remained. Do you think that he has gone
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 7: to fetch a real live policeman. I am afraid it
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 7: is a summons, said Pickles. No, replied Ginger, who had
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 7: opened the envelope. It is the rates and taxes, three
• 2:20:59
  Speaker 7: pounds nineteen eleven and three quarters. This is the last straw,
• 2:21:04
  Speaker 7: said Pickles. Let us close the shop. They put up
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 7: the shutters and left, but they have not removed from
• 2:21:10
  Speaker 7: the neighborhood. In fact, some people wish they had gone further.
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 7: Ginger is living in the warren. I do not know
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 7: what occupation he pursues. He looks stout and comfortable. Pickles
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 7: is at present a gamekeeper. The closing of the shop
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 7: caused great inconvenience. Tabitha Twitchett immediately raised the prices of
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 7: everything a halfpenny, and she continued to refuse to give credit.
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 7: Of course, there are the tradesmen's carts, the butcher, the
• 2:21:36
  Speaker 7: fish man, and Timothy Baker but a person cannot live
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 7: on seed wigs and sponge cake and butter buns, not
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 7: even when the sponge cake is as good as Timothy's.
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 7: After a time, mister John Dormouse and his daughter began
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 7: to sell peppermints and candles, but they did not keep
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 7: self fitting sixes, and it takes five mice to carry
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 7: one seven inch candle. Besides, the candles which they sell
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 7: behave very strangely in warm weather, and Miss Dormouse refused
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 7: to take back the ends when they were brought back
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 7: to her with complaints. And when mister John Dormouse was
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 7: complained to, he stayed in bed and would say nothing
• 2:22:11
  Speaker 7: but very snug, which is not the way to carry
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 7: on a retail business. So everybody was pleased when Sally
• 2:22:18
  Speaker 7: Henny Penny sent out a printed poster to say that
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 7: she was going to reopen the shop Henny's Opening Sale,
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 7: Grand Cooperative Jumble Penny's Penny prices come by, come try,
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 7: come by. The poster really was most ticing. There was
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 7: a rush upon the opening day. The shop was crammed
• 2:22:37
  Speaker 7: with customers, and there were crowds of mice upon the
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 7: biscuit canisters. Sally Henny Penny gets rather flustered when she
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 7: tries to count out change, and she insists on being
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 7: paid cash. But she is quite harmless, and she is
• 2:22:49
  Speaker 7: laid in a remarkable assortment of bargains. There is something
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 7: to please everybody. End of Ginger and Pickles.
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 4: Section fourteen of a collection of Beatrix Potter stories. This
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 4: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 4: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 2:23:16
  Speaker 4: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Woolybe Woolybee dot blog dot com.
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 4: The Story of Miss Moppett by Beatrix Potter. This is
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 4: a pussy called miss Moppet. She thinks she has heard
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 4: a mouse. This is the mouse peeping out behind the
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 4: cupboard and making fun of Miss Moppet. He is not
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 4: afraid of a kitten. This is Miss Moppett jumping just
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 4: too late. She misses the mouse and hits her own head.
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 4: She thinks it is a very hard cupboard. The mouse
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 4: watches Miss Moppet from the top of the cupboard. Miss
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 4: Moppett ties up her head in a duster and sits
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 4: before the fire. The mouse thinks she is looking very ill.
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 4: He comes sliding down the bell pull. Miss Moppett looks
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 4: worse and worse. The mouse comes a little nearer. Miss
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 4: Moppett holds her poor head in her paws and looks
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 4: at him through a hole in the duster. The mouse
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 4: comes very close, and then all of the sudden, Miss
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 4: Moppett jumps upon the mouse. And because the mouse has
• 2:24:26
  Speaker 4: teased miss Moppet, miss Moppett thinks she will tease the mouse,
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 4: which is not at all nice of miss Moppet. She
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 4: ties him up in the duster and tosses it about
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 4: like a ball. But she forgot about that hole in
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 4: the duster, and when she untied it there was no mouse.
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 4: He has wriggled out and run away, and he is
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 4: dancing a jig on the top of the cupboard. The end.
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 4: End of the Story of Miss Moppett. Recording by wooly
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 4: Bee wolybe dot blog. End of a collection of Beatrix
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 4: Potter stories by Beatrix Potter