The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse. Беатрис Поттер

      The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse

NELLIE'S

LITTLE BOOK

      Once upon a time there was a wood-mouse, and her name was Mrs. Tittlemouse.

      She lived in a bank under a hedge.

      Such a funny house! There were yards and yards of sandy passages, leading to storerooms and nut-cellars and seed-cellars, all amongst the roots of the hedge.

      There was a kitchen, a parlour, a pantry, and a larder.

      Also, there was Mrs. Tittlemouse's bedroom, where she slept in a little box bed!

      Mrs. Tittlemouse was a most terribly tidy particular little mouse, always sweeping and dusting the soft sandy floors.

      Sometimes a beetle lost its way in the passages.

      "Shuh! shuh! little dirty feet!" said Mrs. Tittlemouse, clattering her dust-pan.

      And one day a little old woman ran up and down in a red spotty cloak.

      "Your house is on fire, Mother Ladybird! Fly away home to your children!"

      Another day, a big fat spider came in to shelter from the rain.

      "Beg pardon, is this not Miss Muffet's?"

      "Go away, you bold bad spider! Leaving ends of cobweb all over my nice clean house!"

      She bundled the spider out at a window.

      He let himself down the hedge with a long thin bit of string.

      Mrs. Tittlemouse went on her way to a distant storeroom, to fetch cherry-stones and thistle-down seed for dinner.

      All along the passage she sniffed, and looked at the floor.

      "I smell a smell of honey; is it the cowslips outside, in the hedge? I am sure I can see the marks of little dirty feet."

      Suddenly round a corner, she met Babbitty Bumble—"Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz!" said the bumble bee.

      Mrs. Tittlemouse looked at her severely. She wished that she had a broom.