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Oh! Mother, Mother,” said Moppet, “there’s been an old woman rat in the kitchen, and she’s stolen some of the dough!” Ribby was one of the main characters of The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan (published in 1905), which also featured Tabitha Twitchit as a shop keeper, with the kittens appearing in the illustrations. The family had also appeared in The Tale of Tom Kitten in 1907. Music is equally memorable, with a return to the more understated, quaint and melodic incidental music of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny" and "The Tailor of Gloucester". The music accompanying the introduction and the beautifully sung rendition of "Perfect Day" particularly stand out. Anna Maria," said the old man rat (whose name was Samuel Whiskers),— "Anna Maria, make me a kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding for my dinner."
Born into a wealthy household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets, and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Because she was a woman, her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology.
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Ribby and Tabitha set to work to search the house thoroughly again. They poked under the beds with Ribby's umbrella, and they rummaged in cupboards. They even fetched a candle, and looked inside a clothes chest in one of the attics. They could not find anything, but once they heard a door bang and somebody scuttered downstairs. Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs mewing dreadfully—”Come in, Cousin Ribby, come in, and sit ye down! I’m in sad trouble, Cousin Ribby,” said Tabitha, shedding tears. “I’ve lost my dear son Thomas; I’m afraid the rats have got him.” She wiped her eyes with her apron. While they were gone Tom wriggled and tried to call for help, but his mouth was full of soot and cobwebs and he felt very tired. Mrs. Tabitha went up and down all over the house, mewing for Tom Kitten. She looked in the pantry under the staircase, and she searched the best spare bedroom that was all covered up with dust sheets. She went right upstairs and looked into the attics, but she could not find him anywhere. And when I was going to the post late in the afternoon—I looked up the lane from the corner, and I saw Mr. Samuel Whiskers and his wife on the run, with big bundles on a little wheel-barrow, which looked very like mine.
He scrambled up and up; but before he reached the chimney top he came to a place where somebody had loosened a stone in the wall. There were some mutton bones lying about— The two cats ran to look at the dough pan. Sure enough there were marks of little scratching fingers, and a lump of dough was gone! Samuel Whiskers got through a hole in the wainscot, and went boldly down the front staircase to the dairy to get the butter. He did not meet anybody.Samuel Whiskers headed to the dairy for the butter and rolling pin while Anna Maria went to the kitchen to steal some dough. Neither of them realised that Moppet and Mittens had spotted them. Mrs Tabitha displays the angst and panic of any mother upon losing a child, getting the help of her cousin Ribby to look for him around the family’s grand old house, “full of cupboards and passages” and possibly a “little secret staircase”.
IN REMEMBRANCE OF "SAMMY," THE INTELLIGENT PINK-EYED REPRESENTATIVE OF A PERSECUTED (BUT IRREPRESSIBLE) RACE. AN AFFECTIONATE LITTLE FRIEND. AND MOST ACCOMPLISHED THIEF!] The usual role of cats hunting/eating rats is reversed though as when Tom Kitten wanders off up the chimney and through some narrow passages, he ends up in the rats' lair and is captured by them. The rats do not hesitate at the opportunity and immediately start making roly poly pudding from him and intend to bake him alive!Whatever the mental trauma, the irony is that this was the only Beatrix Potter that did not physically injure me. I had all the books in a little bookcase designed specifically for them, like this: While Tom Kitten was left alone under the floor of the attic, he wriggled about and tried to mew for help. All over the house! The rats are too many for me. What a thing it is to have an unruly family!" said Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit. She caught Moppet and Mittens...but Tom was no-where to be found. The house was full of mysterious passages, with strange noises coming from behind the walls, and even things disappearing at night...Tom could be anywhere!
And they are all descended from Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Whiskers—children and grand-children and great great grand-children. Someone or something has discovered us!’ replied Samuel Whiskers. ‘I fear we must leave our pudding behind - though I wouldn’t have been able to eat the string in any case. I think it’s time to move home. We’ll go to Farmer Potatoes’ barn,’ he continued. I do not think”—said Samuel Whiskers, pausing to take a look at Tom Kitten—”I do not think it will be a good pudding. It smells sooty.” Oh! Mother, Mother, there has been an old man rat in the dairy—a dreadful 'normous big rat, Mother; and he's stolen a pat of butter and the rolling-pin."Anna Maria! Anna Maria!” squeaked the rat. There was a pattering noise and an old woman rat poked her head round a rafter. A wonderful classic from the beloved ‘Peter Rabbit’ series by Beatrix Potter. The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, or The Roly-Poly Pudding, is a cautionary tale featuring anthropomorphic, Edwardian; cats, rats and even a ‘handyman’ dog. The tale, as with all others in the series, is beautifully complimented to great effect by Mrs Potter’s classic illustrations, at one point being mentioned in the story itself to mark out the particular spot in the house a character was.
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