The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood Read Free Page A

nerve of that young hussy, taking that tone to me!”
    “Don’t take it to heart, Tabitha,” Crumpet said soothingly. “Felicia will come to regret her impudence. But something really must be done, you know. The Hill Top rats are completely ungovernable. Why, at nine o’clock last night, while the Stubbses were sitting beside the fire, a pair of Hill Top rats attempted to raid the bread cupboard.” Crumpet lived with the Stubbses and prided herself in keeping their cottage free of both mice and rats. She grinned ruthlessly. “I showed them my teeth.”
    “Yes, something most certainly must be done,” Tabitha muttered. “But Felicia is quite within her rights to invoke the Rule.”
    The Rule (properly known as the No Poaching Rule ) was the foundation of each cat’s amicable relationship with every other cat in the village. Any cat might kill a rat, mouse, vole, or other vermin in another cat’s front or back garden, but NOT in the house or in any outbuilding unless expressly invited to do so by the human owner. No one knew who had made this Rule or how long it had been in existence, but it had been passed down from one generation of cats to another as long as anyone could remember and was held to be absolutely inviolate. To break it would be to risk the disintegration of the social order.
    Crumpet knew this rule, of course, and never hesitated to invoke it when one of the younger cats strayed into her territory. She did not like to think, however, that an equitable solution to the problem of the rats at Hill Top Farm might be constrained by the Rule. Surely, there was a way to deal with the matter.
    “The problem is that Miss Potter is a city lady,” Crumpet muttered. “She’s owned Hill Top for nearly two years now, and she likes to think of herself as a farmer. But she still has a great many lessons to learn when it comes to animal management. She seems to find it difficult to take a firm position on the matter of rats.”
    “Yes,” said Tabitha. “In fact, I’ve heard her say that she once kept a rat as a pet. His name was Sammy, and she was very fond of him.” She closed her eyes and shuddered. “A pet rat—when she might have had a nice, companionable cat!”
    “Even the best of humans are often illogical,” Crumpet said sadly. “And if Miss Potter allows the rats at Hill Top to carry on as they are, the entire village will soon be overtaken. You know rats, Tabitha. They have no restraints and not an ounce of pity, and they multiply faster than rabbits.” She laid back her ears. Thinking about the menace, she felt cold and frightened. “First Hill Top, then the Tower Bank Arms and Anvil Cottage, and after that, the entire village. No cottage will be safe from the ravaging horde. We will be completely overrun!”
    “We will indeed,” agreed Tabitha in a somber tone. “But I have an idea, Crumpet. What do you think of this?”
    When Crumpet had heard Tabitha’s plan, she cheered up immediately—and I think you will, too, when you have heard what it is.

2
    Miss Potter Flings Down the Gauntlet
    Beatrix Potter awoke a little later than her usual hour, jumped out of bed, and opened her window wide to take an eager breath of the fresh spring air. She had arrived at Hill Top Farm late the previous night, having spent a tiresome Tuesday on the railroad train from London. But a night’s sleep between lavender-scented sheets had entirely refreshed her. If any traces of the winter’s London fogs lingered in her lungs, they were whisked away by that first breath of clean, clear air. And if any London worries clouded her mind, they were gone as well, banished by the cheerful sight of green hills, wooly white sheep, and bright blue sky. It was as if she had awakened on the first day of spring and found the world a newly marvelous, magical place.
    All around her, Hill Top Farm, too, was wakening from its long winter sleep, stretching in the morning sunlight, taking a deep, full, happy breath of spring,