The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, by Beatrix Potter
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Title: The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
Author: Beatrix Potter
Release Date: February 2, 2005 [EBook #14872]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SQUIRREL NUTKIN ***
Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Emmy and the PG Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
THE TALE OF
SQUIRREL NUTKIN
BY
BEATRIX POTTER
_Author of_
"_The Tale of Peter Rabbit_"
[Illustration]
FREDERICK WARNE
[Illustration]
FREDERICK WARNE
1903 by Frederick Warne & Co.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London
A STORY FOR NORAH
[Illustration]
This is a Tale about a tail--a tail that belonged to a little red
squirrel, and his name was Nutkin.
He had a brother called Twinkleberry, and a great many cousins: they lived
in a wood at the edge of a lake.
[Illustration]
In the middle of the lake there is an island covered with trees and nut
bushes; and amongst those trees stands a hollow oak-tree, which is the
house of an owl who is called Old Brown.
[Illustration]
One autumn when the nuts were ripe, and the leaves on the hazel bushes
were golden and green--Nutkin and Twinkleberry and all the other little
squirrels came out of the wood, and down to the edge of the lake.
[Illustration]
They made little rafts out of twigs, and they paddled away over the water
to Owl Island to gather nuts.
Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar, and spread out his tail
for a sail.
[Illustration]
They also took with them an offering of three fat mice as a present for
Old Brown, and put them down upon his door-step.
Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow, and
said politely--
"Old Mr. Brown, will you favour us with permission to gather nuts upon
your island?"
[Illustration]
But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. He bobbed up and
down like a little red _cherry_, singing--
"Riddle me, riddle me, rot-tot-tote!
A little wee man, in a red red coat!
A staff in his hand, and a stone in his throat;
If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat."
Now this riddle is as old as the hills; Mr. Brown paid no attention
whatever to Nutkin.
He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.
[Illustration]
The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts, and sailed away home in
the evening.
[Illustration]
But next morning they all came back again to Owl Island; and Twinkleberry
and the others brought a fine fat mole, and laid it on the stone in front
of Old Brown's doorway, and said--
"Mr. Brown, will you favour us with your gracious permission to gather
some more nuts?"
[Illustration]
But Nutkin, who had no respect, began to dance up and down, tickling old
Mr. Brown with a _nettle_ and singing--
"Old Mr. B! Riddle-me-ree!
Hitty Pitty within the wall,
Hitty Pitty without the wall;
If you touch Hitty Pitty,
Hitty Pitty will bite you!"
Mr. Brown woke up suddenly and carried the mole into his house.
[Illustration]
He shut the door in Nutkin's face. Presently a little thread of blue
_smoke_ from a wood fire came up from the top of the tree, and Nutkin
peeped through the key-hole and sang--
"A house full, a hole full!
And you cannot gather a bowl-full!"
[Illustration]
The squirrels searched for nuts all over the island and filled their
little sacks.
But Nutkin gathered oak-apples--yellow and scarlet--and sat upon a
beech-stump playing marbles, and watching the door of old Mr. Brown.
[Illustration]
On the third day the squirrels got up very early and went fishing; they
caught seven fat minnows as a present for Old Brown.
They paddled over the lake and landed under a crooked chestnut tree on Owl
Island.
[Illustration]
Twinkleberry and six other little squirrels each carried a fat minnow; but
Nutkin, who had no nice manners, brought no present at all. He ran in
front, singing--
"The man in the wilderness said to me,
'How many strawberries grow in the sea?'
I answered him as I thought good--
'As many red herrings as grow in the wood.'"
But old Mr. Brown took no interest in riddles--not even when the answer
was provided for him.
[Illustration]
On the fourth day the squirrels brought a present of six fat beetles,
which were as good as plums in _plum-pudding_ for Old Brown. Each beetle
was wrapped up carefully in a dock-leaf, fastened with a pine-needle pin.
But Nutkin sang as rudely as ever--
"Old Mr. B! riddle-me-ree
Flour of England, fruit of Spain,
Met together in a shower of rain;
Put in a bag tied round with a string,
If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a ring!"
Which was ridiculous of Nutkin, because he had not got any ring to give to
Old Brown.
[Illustration]
The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes; but Nutkin
gathered robin's pincushions off a briar bush, and stuck them full of
pine-needle pins.
[Illustration]
On the fifth day the squirrels brought a present of wild honey; it was so
sweet and sticky that they licked their fingers as they put it down upon
the stone. They had stolen it out of a bumble _bees'_ nest on the tippitty
top of the hill.
But Nutkin skipped up and down, singing--
"Hum-a-bum! buzz! buzz! Hum-a-bum buzz!
As I went over Tipple-tine
I met a flock of bonny swine;
Some yellow-nacked, some yellow backed!
They were the very bonniest swine
That e'er went over Tipple-tine."
[Illustration]
Old Mr. Brown turned up his eyes in disgust at the impertinence of Nutkin.
But he ate up the honey!
[Illustration]
The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts.
But Nutkin sat upon a big flat rock, and played ninepins with a crab apple
and green fir-cones.
[Illustration]
On the sixth day, which was Saturday, the squirrels came again for the
last time; they brought a new-laid _egg_ in a little rush basket as a last
parting present for Old Brown.
But Nutkin ran in front laughing, and shouting--
"Humpty Dumpty lies in the beck,
With a white counterpane round his neck,
Forty doctors and forty wrights,
Cannot put Humpty Dumpty to rights!"
[Illustration]
Now old Mr. Brown took an interest in eggs; he opened one eye and shut it
again. But still he did not speak.
[Illustration]
Nutkin became more and more impertinent--
"Old Mr. B! Old Mr. B!
Hickamore, Hackamore, on the King's kitchen door;
All the King's horses, and all the King's men,
Couldn't drive Hickamore, Hackamore,
Off the King's kitchen door."
Nutkin danced up and down like a _sunbeam_; but still Old Brown said
nothing at all.
[Illustration]
Nutkin began again--
"Arthur O'Bower has broken his band,
He comes roaring up the land!
The King of Scots with all his power,
Cannot turn Arthur of the Bower!"
Nutkin made a whirring noise to sound like the _wind_, and he took a
running jump right onto the head of Old Brown!...
Then all at once there was a flutterment and a scufflement and a loud
"Squeak!"
The other squirrels scuttered away into the bushes.
[Illustration]
When they came back very cautiously, peeping round the tree--there was Old
Brown sitting on his door-step, quite still, with his eyes closed, as if
nothing had happened.
* * * * *
_But Nutkin was in his waistcoat pocket!_
[Illustration]
This looks like the end of the story; but it isn't.
[Illustration]
Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house, and held him up by the tail,
intending to skin him; but Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke
in two, and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic
window.
[Illustration]
And to this day, if you meet Nutkin up a tree and ask him a riddle, he
will throw sticks at you, and stamp his feet and scold, and shout--
"Cuck-cuck-cuck-cur-r-r-cuck-k-k!"
THE END
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