The Tale of Mr. Tod (Illustrated) E-Book

Beatrix Potter

• Herausgeber: Bauer Books
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The tale is about a badger called Tommy Brock and his arch enemy Mr. Tod, a fox. Brock kidnaps the children of Benjamin Bunny and his wife Flopsy, intending to eat them, and hides them in an oven in the home of Mr. Tod. Benjamin and his cousin Peter Rabbit have followed Tommy Brock in an attempt to rescue the babies.

Leseprobe

Beatrix

The Tale of Mr. Tod (Illustrated Edition)

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Table of contents

FOR FRANCIS WILLIAM OF ULVA

——SOMEDAY!

I have made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a change, I am going to make a story about two disagreeable people, called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.

Nobody could call Mr. Tod “nice.” The rabbits could not bear him; they could smell him half a mile off. He was of a wandering habit and he had foxey whiskers; they never knew where he would be next.

One day he was living in a stick-house in the coppice, causing terror to the family of old Mr. Benjamin Bouncer. Next day he moved into a pollard willow near the lake, frightening the wild ducks and the water rats.

In winter and early spring he might generally be found in an earth amongst the rocks at the top of Bull Banks, under Oatmeal Crag.

He had half a dozen houses, but he was seldom at home. The houses were not always empty when Mr. Tod moved out; because sometimes Tommy Brock moved in; (without asking leave).

Tommy Brock was a short bristly fat waddling person with a grin; he grinned all over his face. He was not nice in his habits. He ate wasp nests and frogs and worms; and he waddled about by moonlight, digging things up.

And Mr. Bouncer laughed and coughed, and shut his eyes because of the cabbage smoke . . . Benjamin Bunny set off at once after Tommy Brock. The blue coated rabbit sat up with pricked ears— “Whatever is the matter, Cousin Benjamin? Is it a cat? or John Stoat Ferret?” “No, no, no! He’s bagged my family—Tommy Brock—in a sack— have you seen him?” “Tommy Brock? how many, Cousin Benjamin?” “Seven, Cousin Peter, and all of them twins! Did he come this way? “Which way? which way has he gone, Cousin Peter?” “He must be very puffed; we are close behind him, by the scent. What a nasty person!” said Peter. Benjamin sighed with relief. Then they scrambled round the rocks to the other side of the house. It was damp and smelly, and overgrown with thorns and briars. The rabbits shivered in their shoes. “Oh my poor rabbit babies! What a dreadful place; I shall never see them again!” sighed Benjamin. Benjamin, who was all of a twitter, pulled Peter off the window-sill. The moonbeams twinkled on the carving knife and the pie dish, and made a path of brightness across the dirty floor. Benjamin was so excited that it was a mercy he did not awake Tommy Brock, whose snores continued solemnly in Mr. Tod’s bed. Again from the fields down below in the mist there came the angry cry of a jay—followed by the sharp yelping bark of a fox! But what absorbed Mr. Tod’s attention was a noise—a deep slow regular snoring grunting noise, coming from his own bed. Tommy Brock snored conscientiously. Mr. Tod stood and looked at him for a minute; then he left the room again. Tommy Brock watched him with one eye, through the window. He was puzzled. Mr. Tod fetched a large heavy pailful of water from the spring, and staggered with it through the kitchen into his bedroom. Mr. Tod gingerly mounted a chair by the head of the bedstead. His legs were dangerously near to Tommy Brock’s teeth. He reached up and put the end of rope, with the hook, over the head of the tester bed, where the curtains ought to hang. Surely there never was such a sleeper! Mr. Tod got up and down, down and up on the chair. “It will make a great mess in my bedroom; but I could never sleep in that bed again without a spring cleaning of some sort,” said Mr. Tod. He ran round behind the house, intending to undo the rope in order to let fall the pailful of water upon Tommy Brock— “I will wake him up with an unpleasant surprise,” said Mr. Tod. There was nothing stirring, and no sound except the drip, drop, drop drip of water trickling from the mattress. Mr. Tod watched it for half an hour; his eyes glistened. Then he cut a caper, and became so bold that he even tapped at the window; but the bundle never moved. He opened the door.... Everything was upset except the kitchen table. And everything was broken, except the mantelpiece and the kitchen fender. The crockery was smashed to atoms. The chairs were broken, and the window, and the clock fell with a crash, and there were handfuls of Mr. Tod’s sandy whiskers. As soon as the coast was clear, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny came out of the bushes— “Now for it! Run in, Cousin Benjamin! Run in and get them! while I watch at the door.” But Benjamin was frightened— “Oh; oh! they are coming back!” “No they are not.” Still Benjamin hesitated, and Peter kept pushing him— “Be quick, it’s all right. Shut the oven door, Cousin Benjamin, so that he won’t miss them.” Decidedly there were lively doings in Mr. Tod’s kitchen! At home in the rabbit hole, things had not been quite comfortable. “I’ve got them! Can we get away? Shall we hide, Cousin Peter?” Peter pricked his ears; distant sounds of fighting still echoed in the wood. A long new pipe and a fresh supply of rabbit tobacco was presented to Mr. Bouncer. He was rather upon his dignity; but he accepted.