The Tale of Tom Kitten

Dedicated
to all Pickles,
—especially to those that
get upon my garden wall.

A tortoiseshell cat in a pink coat is pulling a dark brown kitten along a garden path towards a house, and carrying a light grey kitten under her other arm. In front of them runs a brown kitten. The garden is full of pink and purple flowers, and the house is large and white with a covered porch.
The three kittens play, pouncing on each other and on a red flower on the ground. On the wall of the house behind them more of the red flowers are climbing, along with another plant with big square purple flowers.

Once upon a time there were three little kittens, and their names were Mittens, Tom Kitten, and Moppet.

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—Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit⁠—expected friends to tea; so she fetched the kittens indoors, to wash and dress them, before the fine company arrived.

Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit carries an unwilling Moppet past the wood-panelled walls towards the stairs. She’s followed by Tom who is staring up at Moppet. Mittens has already climbed up half the stairs and is rounding the corner.
A shocked Moppet is on a chair having her face vigorously scrubbed with a sponge by Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit. Behind the chair peak out the other two worried-looking kittens.

First she scrubbed their faces (this one is Moppet).

Then she brushed their fur, (this one is Mittens).

Mittens stands on the same chair, being brushed. Tom lies under the chair, swiping at her with his paws. Moppet stands in the background watching the scene.
Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit stands with a comb in her right hand, and licks the back of her left paw. Tom sits on the ground in front of her and swipes with his right paw. The other kittens are sitting on the windowsill and look shocked at his behaviour.

Then she combed their tails and whiskers (this is Tom Kitten).

Tom was very naughty, and he scratched.

Mrs. Tabitha dressed Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers; and then she took all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes out of a chest of drawers, in order to dress up her son Thomas.

Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit rummages through a chest of drawers, and pulls out a pair of blue shorts. The kittens on the windowsill are already dressed in short-sleeved white pinafores, while Tom still isn’t wearing anything. On the floor lies a hat and other blue clothing.
Tom is wearing blue trousers and a blue top. They’re both obviously too small for him. Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit is looking slightly worried, and holding a needle and thread. At their feet lies a spool of blue thread and some buttons.

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, 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.”

Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, holding a toasting fork, shoos the kittens out of the house. Moppet and Mittens talk to each other, while Tom seems more interested in a butterfly that has just flown away from the flowers surrounding the house.
The kittens play on the garden path, surrounded by tall flowers. Moppet is down on all fours, with her pinafore falling off her back. Mittens has lifted up the front of her pinafore to inspect it. Tom is trying to catch a large butterfly that is circling over his head.

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.

Mittens and Moppet have climbed through a raised bed of pink rhododendrons and ferns, and arrived on the top of a dry stone wall. Mittens is tugging at the neck of her pinafore, which is nearly falling off.
Tom Kitten bursts through a dense patch of ferns and foxgloves. He’s got a smile on his face, his jacket is undone, and he’s missing buttons on his trousers.

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.

Mittens and Moppet strip the broken clothes from a smiling Tom Kitten.
The three kittens look down from the top of the dry stone wall at the lane below, along which three large white ducks with yellow bills are walking in a line. Tom is trying to hold up his broken trousers with one paw.

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.

The three ducks stand in the lane, in front of the white farm house and the hills behind.
The three ducks stare up at the kittens on top of the wall, who are leaning over and staring at the ducks. Rebeccah Puddle-duck is wearing a straw boater with a curved brim, edged with a blue ribbon. Jemima Puddle-duck has the collar of a pinafore on her head.

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!”

The kittens have climbed down from the wall and are looking at the ducks. In between them lies a pile of clothes, including the pinafores and Tom’s blue trousers.
Mr. Drake Puddle-duck grabs Tom’s blue trousers in his bill.

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.

Mr. Drake Puddle-duck stands up to his full height. He is wearing Tom’s blue trousers, white collar, and has his blue jacket wrapped around him and pinned in place with his wings.
The three ducks waddle off down the lane, wearing the kittens’ clothes and looking happy with their finds. The lane runs between some stone farm buildings, through a wooden gate, and off up the hill. In the farmyard there is a group of chickens, who watch the ducks leaving.

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.

The three kittens sit on top of the wall next to each other and stare at the ducks as they walk away. Behind them, unseen, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit is looking down the garden path at the kittens.
Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit holds Tom Kitten by the scruff of his neck and raises her paw threateningly. The other kittens crouch at the hem of her dress.

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.

Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit is chatting excitedly with another cat, who is wearing a black dress, a purple scarf and a purple bonnet covering her ears. Outside the doorway stand two more cats, who are also wearing scarves and bonnets. Pots of geraniums are standing on the windowsill.
The bedroom that the kittens have gone to is in a dreadful mess. Clothes and shoes litter the floor; Moppet is trying to climb up the red curtains surrounding the head of a wooden bed; Mittens has already made it to the top; and Tom Kitten is standing on the foot of the bed looking up at Mittens and wearing a large blue bonnet.

Quite the contrary; they were not in bed: not in the least.

Somehow there were very extraordinary noises overhead, 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!

Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit has opened the door and is pointing a paw at Tom, who has climbed down from the bed. Behind the bed’s top curtains we can just see the other two kittens’ ears poking out. In front of the door a chair has tipped over, spilling the clothes that had been hung on it.

As for the Puddle-ducks⁠—they went into a pond.

The three ducks slide into a cool pond covered with floating lily leaves and with irises around the edge. The hat and blue jacket have slid off the ducks, and are being held in their bills.
Two of the three ducks are dabbling in the water, with their tails high in the air. The other floats in front, looking down into the water. They’re surrounded by water lilies and other flowers.

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.