The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter Once upon a time there were three little kittens and their names were Mittens,
Tom Kitten and Muppet.
They had dear little fur coats of their own and they tumbled about the doorstep and played in the dust.
But one day their mother,
Miss Tabitha Twitchett,
Expected friends to tea so she fetched the kittens indoors to wash and dress them before the fine company arrived.
First she scrubbed their faces.
This one is Muppet.
Then she brushed their fur.
This one is Mittens.
Then she combed their tails in whiskers.
This is Tom Kitten.
Tom was very mischievous and he scratched.
Miss Tabitha dressed Muppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers and then she took all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes out of the chest of drawers in order to dress up her son,
Thomas.
Tom Kitten was very fat and he had grown.
Several buttons burst off.
His mother sewed them on again.
When the three kittens were ready,
Miss Tabitha unwisely turned them out into the garden to be out of the way while she made hot button toast.
Now keep your frocks clean children.
You must walk.
Yes,
Walk on your hind legs.
Keep away from the dirty ash pit and from Sally Henny Penny and from the pig star and the puddle ducks.
Muppet and Mittens walked down the garden path unsteadily.
Presently they trod upon their pinafores and fell on their noses.
When they stood up,
There were several green smears.
Well,
Let us climb up the rockery and sit on the garden wall,
Said Muppet.
They turned their pinafores back to front and went up with a skip and a jump.
Muppet's white tucker fell down into the road.
Tom Kitten was quite unable to jump when walking upon his hind legs in trousers.
He came up the rockery by degrees,
Breaking the phones and shredding buttons right and left.
He was all in pieces when he reached the top of the wall.
Muppet and Mittens tried to pull him together.
His hat fell off and the rest of his buttons burst.
While they were in difficulties,
There was a pit pat paddle pat and the three puddle ducks came along the hard high road,
Marching one behind the other and doing the goose step.
Pit pat paddle pat,
Pit pat waddle pat.
They stopped and stood in a row and stared at the kittens.
They had very small eyes and looked very surprised.
Then the two duck birds,
Rebecca and Jemima Puddle Duck picked up the hat and tucker and put them off.
Mittens laughed so that she fell off the wall.
Muppet and Tom descended after her.
The pinafores and all the rest of Tom's clothes came off on the way down.
Muppet said,
Well come Mr Drake Puddle Duck said Muppet come and help us to dress him.
Come and button up Tom.
Mr Drake Puddle Duck advanced in a slow sideways manner and picked up the various articles.
But he put them on himself.
They fitted him even worse than Tom the kitten.
It's a very fine morning.
So Mr Drake Puddle Duck and he and Jemima and Rebecca Puddle Duck set off up the road keeping steady.
Pit pat paddle pat,
Pit pat waddle pat.
Then Tabitha Twitchett came down the garden and found her kittens on the wall with no clothes on.
She pulled them off the wall and took them back to the house.
Well my friends will arrive in a minute and you are not fit to be seen.
Said Miss Tabitha Twitchett.
She sent them upstairs and I am sorry to say she told her friends that they were in bed with the measles which was not true.
Quite the contrary.
They were not in bed.
Not in the least.
Somehow they were very extraordinarily noisy overhead which disturbed the dignity of the tea party below.
And I think that someday I shall have to make another larger book to tell you more about Tom the kitten.
As for the Puddle Dugs they went into a pond.
The clothes all came off directly because there were no buttons.
And Mr Drake Puddle Duck and Jemima and Rebecca have been looking for them ever since.
