His mother sewed them on again.
When the three kittens were ready, Mrs. Tabitha
unwisely turned them out into the garden, to be out of the way while she made hot buttered toast.
“Now keep your frocks clean, children! You must walk on your hind legs. Keep away from
the dirty ash-pit, and from Sally Henny-penny, and from the pig-stye and the Puddle-ducks.”
Moppet 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!
“Let us climb up the rockery, and sit on the
garden wall,” said Moppet.
They turned their pinafores back to front, and went up with a skip and a jump;
Moppet’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 ferns, and shedding buttons right and left.
He was all in pieces when he reached the top of
the wall.
Moppet 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 up at
the kittens. They had very small eyes and looked surprised.
Then the two duck-birds, Rebeccah and Jemima
Puddle-duck, picked up the hat and tucker and put them on.
Mittens laughed so that she fell off the wall.
Moppet and Tom descended after her; the pinafores and all the rest of Tom’s clothes came off on the way
down.
“Come! Mr. Drake Puddle-duck,” said Moppet — “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 Kitten.
“It’s a very fine morning!” said Mr. Drake Puddle-duck.
And he and Jemima and Rebeccah Puddle-duck set off
up the road, keeping step — pit pat, paddle pat! pit pat, waddle pat!
Then Tabitha Twitchit came down the garden and
found her kittens on the wall with no clothes on.
She pulled them off the wall, smacked them, and
took them back to the house.
“My friends will arrive in a minute, and you are not fit to be seen; I am affronted,”
said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit.
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 there were very extraordinary noises over-head, which disturbed the dignity
and repose of the tea-party.
And I think that some day I shall have to make
another, larger, book, to tell you more about Tom Kitten!
As for the Puddle-ducks — they went into a pond.
The clothes all came off directly, because there were no buttons.
And Mr. Drake Puddle-duck, and Jemima and
Rebeccah, have been looking for them ever since.
The End
FREDERICK WARNE
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand,
London WC2R
0RL, England
Website: www.peterrabbit.com
First published by Frederick Warne 1907
This electronic edition first published 2010
New reproductions copyright ©Frederick Warne & Co., 2002
Original copyright in text and illustrations ©Frederick Warne & Co., 1907
Frederick Warne & Co. is the owner of all rights, copyrights and trademarks in the Beatrix
Potter character names and illustrations.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-72-326567-2
.
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