They were just turning in at the gate to the barn of Farmer Potatoes.

Samuel Whiskers was puffing and out of breath.  Anna Maria was still arguing in shrill tones.

She seemed to know her way, and she seemed to have a quantity of luggage.

I am sure I never gave her leave to borrow my wheelbarrow!

They went into the barn and hauled their parcels with a bit of string to the top of the haymow.

After that, there were no more rats for a long time at Tabitha Twitchit’s.

As for Farmer Potatoes, he has been driven nearly distracted.  There are rats, and rats, and rats in his barn!  They eat up the chicken food, and steal the oats and bran, and make holes in the meal bags.

And they are all descended from Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Whiskers—­ children and grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

There is no end to them!

Moppet and Mittens have grown up
into very good rat-catchers.

They go out rat-catching in the village, and they find plenty of employment.  They charge so much a dozen and earn their living very comfortably.

They hang up the rats’ tails in a row on the barn door, to show how many they have caught—­dozens and dozens of them.

But Tom Kitten has always been afraid of a rat; he never durst face anything that is bigger than—­

A Mouse.

THE TALE OF THE FLOPSY BUNNIES

[For All Little Friends of Mr. McGregor and Peter and Benjamin]

It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is “soporific.”

I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit.

They certainly had a very soporific effect upon the Flopsy Bunnies!

When Benjamin Bunny grew up, he married his Cousin Flopsy.  They had a large family, and they were very improvident and cheerful.

I do not remember the separate names of their children; they were generally called the “Flopsy Bunnies.”

As there was not always quite enough to eat,—­Benjamin used to borrow cabbages from Flopsy’s brother, Peter Rabbit, who kept a nursery garden.

Sometimes Peter Rabbit had no cabbages to spare.

When this happened, the Flopsy Bunnies went across the field to a rubbish heap, in the ditch outside Mr. McGregor’s garden.

Mr. McGregor’s rubbish heap was a mixture.  There were jam pots and paper bags, and mountains of chopped grass from the mowing machine (which always tasted oily), and some rotten vegetable marrows and an old boot or two.  One day—­oh joy!—­there were a quantity of overgrown lettuces, which had “shot” into flower.

The Flopsy Bunnies simply stuffed themselves with lettuces.  By degrees, one after another, they were overcome with slumber, and lay down in the mown grass.

Benjamin was not so much overcome as his children.  Before going to sleep he was sufficiently wide awake to put a paper bag over his head to keep off the flies.