The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin

Welcome beautiful soul and thank you so much for joining me for a reading of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter.

Beatrix Potter loved the countryside and she spent much of her otherwise conventional Victorian childhood drawing and studying animals.

Her passion for the natural world lay behind the creation of her famous series of little books.

A particular source of inspiration was the English Lake District where she lived for the last 30 years of her life as a farmer and land conservationist.

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is set on Derwentwater and is based on an American story about squirrels traveling on little rafts using their bushy tails as sails.

Squirrel Nutkin sails across the lake with his cousins to gather nuts on Owl Island where his impudence to Old Brown,

The owl,

Leads him into serious trouble.

Before we begin just take a moment and make yourself comfortable.

If you're sitting in your favorite chair it might feel nice to put your feet up and maybe wrap a cozy blanket around your shoulders.

If it's time for sleep and you're settling into bed just take a little time to stretch out your body.

Take a nice deep inhale which will probably turn into a yawn and as you release the stretch and your body begins to soften and simply allow yourself to begin to relax.

And now the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter.

This is a tale about a tail.

A tail that belonged to a little red squirrel and his name was Nutkin.

He had a brother called Twinkleberry and a great many cousins.

They lived in a wood at the edge of a lake.

In the middle of the lake there is an island covered with trees and nut bushes and amongst those trees stands a hollow oak tree which is the house of an old owl who is called Old Brown.

One autumn when the nuts were ripe and the leaves on the hazel bushes were golden and green Nutkin and Twinkleberry and all the other little squirrels came out of the wood and down to the edge of the lake.

They made little rafts out of twigs and they paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts.

Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar and spread out his tail for a sail.

They also took with him an offering of three fat mice as a present for Old Brown and put them down upon his doorstep.

Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow and said politely,

Old Mr.

Brown,

Will you favor us with permission to gather nuts upon your island?

But Nutkin,

Who was excessively impertinent in his manners,

He bobbed up and down like a little red cherry singing,

Riddle me,

Riddle me,

Rot tote,

A little wee man in a red,

Red coat,

A staff in his hand and a stone in his throat.

If you tell me this riddle I'll give you a groat.

Now this riddle is as old as the hills.

Mr.

Brown paid no attention whatever to Nutkin.

He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.

The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts and sailed away home in the evening.

But next morning they all came back again to Owl Island and Twinkleberry and the others brought a fine fat mole and laid it on the stone in front of Old Brown's doorway and said,

Mr.

Brown,

Will you favor us with your gracious permission to gather some more nuts?

But Nutkin,

Who had no respect,

Began to dance up and down tickling Old Mr.

Brown with a nettle and singing,

Old Mr.

B,

Riddle me,

Riddle me,

Hitty pitty within the wall,

Hitty pity without the wall.

If you touch hitty pity,

Hitty pity will bite you.

Mr.

Brown woke up suddenly and carried the mole into his house.

He shut the door in Nutkin's face.

Presently a little thread of blue smoke from a wood fire came up from the top of the tree and Nutkin peeped through the keyhole and sang,

A house full,

A hole full,

And you cannot gather a bowl full.

The squirrels searched for nuts all over the island and filled their little sacks.

But Nutkin gathered oak apples,

Yellow and scarlet,

And sat upon a beach stump playing marbles and watching the door of Old Brown.

On the third day,

The squirrels got up very early and went fishing.

They caught seven fat minnows as a present for Old Brown.

They paddled over the lake and landed under a crooked chestnut tree at Owl Island.

Twinkleberry and six other little squirrels each carried a fat minnow.

But Nutkin,

Who had no nice manners,

Brought no present at all.

He ran in front singing.

The man in the wilderness said to me,

How many strawberries grow in the sea?

I answered him as I thought good.

As many red herrings grow in the wood.

But Old Brown took no interest in riddles,

Not even when the answer was provided for him.

On the fourth day,

The squirrels brought a present of six fat beetles,

Which were as good as plums and plum pudding for Old Brown.

Each beetle was wrapped up carefully in a dock leaf,

Fastened with a pine needle pin.

But Nutkin sang as rudely as ever.

Oh,

Mr.

B,

Riddle me re,

Flower of England,

Fruit of Spain,

Met together in a shower of rain,

Put in a bag tied round with a string.

If you tell me this riddle,

I'll give you a ring.

Which was ridiculous of Nutkin,

Because he had not got any ring to give Old Brown.

The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes,

But Nutkin gathered robin's pin cushions off a briar bush and stuck them full of pine needle pins.

On the fifth day,

The squirrels brought a present of wild honey.

It was so sweet and sticky that they licked their fingers as they put it down upon the stone.

They had stolen it out of a bumblebee's nest on the tippity top of the hill.

But Nutkin skipped up and down,

Singing hum-a-bum-buzz-buzz,

Hum-a-bum-buzz.

As I went over tipple-tine,

I met a flock of bonnie swine,

Some yellow neck,

Some yellow back.

They were the very bonniest swine that ever went over tipple-tine.

Old Mr.

Brown turned up his eyes and discussed at the impertinence of Nutkin.

But he ate up the honey.

The squirrels filled up their little sacks with nuts,

But Nutkin sat upon a big flat rock and played nine pins with a crab apple and green fur cones.

On the sixth day,

Which was Saturday,

The squirrels came again for the last time.

They brought a new laid egg in a little rush basket as a last parting present for Old Brown.

But Nutkin ran in front laughing and shouting.

Humpty Dumpty lies in the back with a white counterpane round his neck.

Forty doctors and forty rights cannot put Humpty Dumpty to rights.

Now Old Mr.

Brown took an interest in eggs.

He opened one eye and shut it again.

But still he did not speak.

Nutkin became more and more impertinent.

Oh,

Mr.

B,

Oh,

Mr.

B,

Hickamore,

Hackamore on the king's kitchen door.

All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't drive hickamore,

Hackamore off the king's kitchen door.

Nutkin danced up and down like a sunbeam,

But still Old Brown said nothing.

Nutkin began again.

Arthur O'Bower has broken his band.

He comes roaring up the land.

The king of Scots with all his power cannot turn Arthur of the Bower.

Nutkin made a whirring noise to sound like the wind,

And he took a running jump right on to the head of Old Brown.

Then all at once there was a flutterment and a scufflement and a loud squeak.

The other squirrels scuttered away into the bushes.

When they came back very cautiously peeping around the tree,

There was Old Brown sitting on his doorstep quite still with his eyes closed as if nothing had happened.

But Nutkin was in his waistcoat pocket.

This looks like the end of the story,

But it isn't.

Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house and held him up by the tail,

Intending to skin him.

But Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke in two,

And he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic window.

And to this day,

If you meet Nutkin up in a tree and ask him a riddle,

He will throw sticks at you and stamp his feet and scold and shout,

C-C-C-Cruck!

The end.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Good night.