The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin
From “The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin” by Beatrix Potter.
This is a Tale about a tail-a-tail that belonged to a little red squirrel named Nutkin.
He had a brother called Twinkleberry and a great many cousins: they lived in a wood at the edge of a lake.
In the middle of the lake is an island covered with trees and nut bushes; amongst those trees stands a hollow oak tree, which is the house of an owl called Old Brown.
One autumn, when the nuts were ripe, the leaves on the hazel bushes were golden. Green-nutkin, Twinkleberry, and other little squirrels came out of the wood and down to the edge of the lake.
They made little rafts out of twigs and paddled away over the water to Owl Island to gather nuts.
Each squirrel had a little sack and a large oar and spread his tail for a sail.
They also took an offering of three fat mice as a present for Old Brown and put them down upon his doorstep.
Then Twinkleberry and the other little squirrels each made a low bow and said politely-
“Old Mr. Brown, will you favor us with permission to gather nuts upon your island?”
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 wee little man in a red coat!
A staff in his hand and a stone in his throat;
If you tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a groat.”
Now, this riddle is as old as the hills; Mr. Brown paid no attention to Nutkin.
He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.
The squirrels filled their little sacks with nuts and sailed away home in the evening.
But next morning, they all came back again to Owl Island, and Twinkleberry and the others brought a fine fat mole, laid it on the stone in front of Old Brown’s doorway, and said-
“Mr. Brown, will you favor us with your gracious permission to gather some more nuts?”
But Nutkin, who had no respect, began to dance up and down, tickling old Mr. Brown with 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.
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!”
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 marble and watching the door of old Mr. Brown.
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.
Twinkleberry and six other little squirrels each carried a fat minnow. Still, Nutkin, who had no pleasant manners, brought no present. 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.
On the fourth day, the squirrels brought a present of six fat beetles, which were as good as plums in the plum pudding for Old Brown. Each beetle was wrapped carefully in a dock leaf and fastened with a pine-needle pin.
But Nutkin sang as rudely as ever-
“Old Mr. B! riddle-me-ree
Flour of England, the fruit of Spain,
Met together in a shower of rain;
Put in a bag tied round with a string,
If you tell me this riddle, I’ll give you a ring!”
This was ridiculous of Nutkin because he had not got any ring to give to Old Brown.
The other squirrels hunted up and down the nut bushes. Still, Nutkin gathered robin’s pincushions off a briar bush and stuck them full of pine-needle pins.
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 from a bumble bee’s 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.”
Old Mr. Brown turned his eyes in disgust at the impertinence of Nutkin.
But he ate up the honey!
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.
On the sixth day, 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!”
Now old Mr. Brown took an interest in eggs; he opened one eye and shut it again. But still, he did not speak.
Nutkin became more and more impertinent-
“Old Mr. B! Old Mr. B!
Hackamore, 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 Old Brown still said nothing.
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, there was a fluttering, a scufflement, and a loud “Squeak!”
The other squirrels scuttered away into the bushes.
When they came back very cautiously, peeping around the tree, Old Brown was sitting on his doorstep, quite still, with his eyes closed, as if nothing had happened.
But Nutkin was in his waistcoat pocket!
This looks like the end of the story, but it isn’t.
Old Brown carried Nutkin into his house and held him up by the tail, intending to skin him. Still, Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke in two, and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic window.
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!”
