The Roly-Poly Pudding Page #2

The Roly-Poly Pudding, also known as The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, is a charming children's book by Beatrix Potter. The narrative revolves around the misadventures of a carefree kitten named Tom Kitten who, while exploring his family's old manor, gets caught by a large rat named Samuel Whiskers. Samuel plans to turn Tom Kitten into a roly-poly pudding for his dinner. With the help of his mother and sisters, Tom Kitten must escape before it's too late. The story is packed with delightful illustrations and memorable characters, highlighting themes of adventure, family, and survival.

• Children

								


It was most confusing in the dark.
One flue seemed to lead into another.

There was less smoke, but Tom
Kitten felt quite lost.

He scrambled up and up; but
before he reached the chimney top he
came to a place where somebody had
loosened a stone in the wall. There
were some mutton bones lying about.

"This seems funny," said Tom
Kitten. "Who has been gnawing bones
up here in the chimney? I wish I had
never come! And what a funny smell?
It is something like mouse, only
dreadfully strong. It makes me
sneeze," said Tom Kitten.

He squeezed through the hole in
the wall and dragged himself along a
most uncomfortably tight passage
where there was scarcely any light.

He groped his way carefully for
several yards; he was at the back of
the skirting board in the attic, where
there is a little mark * in the picture.

All at once he fell head over heels in
the dark, down a hole, and landed on
a heap of very dirty rags.

When Tom Kitten picked himself up
and looked about him, he found
himself in a place that he had never
seen before, although he had lived all
his life in the house. It was a very
small stuffy fusty room, with boards,
and rafters, and cobwebs, and lath
and plaster.

Opposite to him--as far away as he
could sit--was an enormous rat.

"What do you mean by tumbling
into my bed all covered with smuts?"
said the rat, chattering his teeth.

"Please, sir, the chimney wants
sweeping," said poor Tom Kitten.

"Anna Maria! Anna Maria!"
squeaked the rat. There was a
pattering noise and an old woman rat
poked her head round a rafter.

All in a minute she rushed upon
Tom Kitten, and before he knew what
was happening. . .

. . . his coat was pulled off, and he
was rolled up in a bundle, and tied
with string in very hard knots.

Anna Maria did the tying. The old
rat watched her and took snuff. When
she had finished, they both sat staring
at him with their mouths open.

"Anna Maria," said the old man rat
(whose name was Samuel Whiskers),
"Anna Maria, make me a kitten
dumpling roly-poly pudding for my
dinner."

"It requires dough and a pat of
butter and a rolling pin," said Anna
Maria, considering Tom Kitten with
her head on one side.

"No," said Samuel Whiskers, "make
it properly, Anna Maria, with
breadcrumbs."

"Nonsense! Butter and dough,"
replied Anna Maria.

The two rats consulted together for
a few minutes and then went away.

Samuel Whiskers got through a
hole in the wainscot and went boldly
down the front staircase to the dairy
to get the butter. He did not meet
anybody.

He made a second journey for the
rolling pin. He pushed it in front of
him with his paws, like a brewer's
man trundling a barrel.

He could hear Ribby and Tabitha
talking, but they were too busy
lighting the candle to look into the
chest.

They did not see him.

Anna Maria went down by way of
skirting board and a window shutter
to the kitchen to steal the dough.

She borrowed a small saucer and
scooped up the dough with her paws.

She did not observe Moppet.

While Tom Kitten was left alone
under the floor of the attic, he
wriggled about and tried to mew for
help.

But his mouth was full of soot and
cobwebs, and he was tied up in such
very tight knots, he could not make
anybody hear him.

Except a spider who came out of a
crack in the ceiling and examined the
knots critically, from a safe distance.

It was a judge of knots because it
had a habit of tying up unfortunate
bluebottles. It did not offer to assist
him.

Tom Kitten wriggled and squirmed
until he was quite exhausted.

Presently the rats came back and
set to work to make him into a
dumpling. First they smeared him
with butter, and then they rolled him
in the dough.

"Will not the string be very
indigestible, Anna Maria?" inquired
Samuel Whiskers.

Anna Maria said she thought that it
was of no consequence; but she
wished that Tom Kitten would hold
his head still, as it disarranged the
pastry. She laid hold of his ears.

Tom Kitten bit and spit, and
mewed and wriggled; and the rolling
pin went roly-poly, roly; roly-poly,
roly. The rats each held an end.

"His tail is sticking out! You did not
fetch enough dough, Anna Maria."

"I fetched as much as I could
carry," replied Anna Maria.

"I do not think"--said Samuel
Whiskers, pausing to take a look at
Tom Kitten--"I do NOT think it will be
a good pudding. It smells sooty."

Anna Maria was about to argue the
point when all at once there began to
be other sounds up above--the
rasping noise of a saw, and the noise
of a little dog, scratching and yelping!

The rats dropped the rolling pin
and listened attentively.

"We are discovered and interrupted,
Anna Maria; let us collect our
property--and other people's--and
depart at once.

"I fear that we shall be obliged to
leave this pudding.

"But I am persuaded that the knots
would have proved indigestible,
whatever you may urge to the
contrary."

"Come away at once and help me
to tie up some mutton bones in a
counterpane," said Anna Maria. "I
have got half a smoked ham hidden in
the chimney."

So it happened that by the time
John Joiner had got the plank up--
there was nobody here under the floor
except the rolling pin and Tom Kitten
in a very dirty dumpling!

But there was a strong smell of
rats; and John Joiner spent the rest of
the morning sniffing and whining,
and wagging his tail, and going round
and round with his head in the hole
like a gimlet.

Then he nailed the plank down
again and put his tools in his bag, and
came downstairs.

The cat family had quite recovered.
They invited him to stay to dinner.

The dumpling had been peeled off
Tom Kitten and made separately into
a bag pudding, with currants in it to
hide the smuts.

They had been obliged to put Tom
Kitten into a hot bath to get the butter
off.

John Joiner smelt the pudding; but
he regretted that he had not time to
stay to dinner, because he had just
finished making a wheelbarrow for
Miss Potter, and she had ordered two
hen coops.

And when I was going to the post
late in the afternoon--I looked up the
land from the corner, and I saw Mr.
Samuel Whiskers and his wife on the
run, with big bundles on a little
wheelbarrow, which looked very
much like mine.

They were just turning in at the
gate to the barn of Farmer Potatoes.

Samuel Whiskers was puffing and
out of breath. Anna Maria was still
arguing in shrill tones.

She seemed to know her way, and
she seemed to have a quantity of
luggage.

I am sure I never gave her leave to
borrow my wheelbarrow!

They went into the barn and
hauled their parcels with a bit of
string to the top of the haymow.

After that, there were no more rats
for a long time at Tabitha Twitchit's.

As for Farmer Potatoes, he has been
driven nearly distracted. There are
rats, and rats, and rats in his barn!
They eat up the chicken food, and
steal the oats and bran, and make
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