Title:  The Tale of Tom Kitten

Author:  Beatrix Potter

Release Date:  January 29, 2005 [EBook #14837]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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THE TALE OF TOM KITTEN

By
Beatrix Potter

Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, &c.

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FREDERICK WARNE

First published 1907

1907 by Frederick Warne & Co.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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.”

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Moppet and Mittens walked down the garden path unsteadily.  Presently they trod upon their pinafores and fell on their noses.