The Roly Poly Pudding

Mrs. Tabitha Twitchett, an anxious mother cat, loses track of her three kittens. She searches the house but cannot find one of them, Tom Kitten. Meanwhile, Moppet and Mittens, the other two kittens, have an adventure in the kitchen and encounter rats. Mrs. Tabitha seeks help from a neighbor, Mrs. Ribby, and they search the house again. They find Moppet and Mittens, but Tom Kitten is missing. Tom Kitten ends up in the chimney and climbs to the attic, where he falls into a room and is captured by two rats, Samuel Whiskers and Anna Maria. The rats argue about how to cook Tom Kitten. Samuel Whiskers goes to get butter and a rolling pin, while Anna Maria steals dough. Meanwhile, Tom Kitten is trapped and unable to call for help. Welcome to Kids Connect Storytime. We are reading classic, modern, and your submitted stories. And now, let's begin. The Roly-Poly Pudding Once upon a time, many years ago, before you were born, there lived an old cat in an old home. Her name was Mrs. Tabitha Twitchett, and she was an anxious mother. She would often lose track of her three kittens, and whenever they were missing, they were always getting up to mischief. One rainy day, she decided to put her kittens inside their playroom cupboard. She found Moppet and Mittens, but she could not see little Tom Kitten. Mrs. Tabitha went up and down and all over the house, meowing for Tom. She looked inside the pantry, under the staircase, in the bedroom, and even inside the dusty attic, but she just could not find him anywhere. It was a crumbly, croaky house, full of cupboards and passages. Some of the walls were more than half a meter thick, and there were occasionally strange noises inside them, as if there might be a busy secret staircase. In the corners of rooms, where the walls meet the floor, there were odd little jagged holes, and things did often disappear at night, particularly cheese and bacon. Mrs. Tabitha became increasingly more worried. She breathed and meowed faster and faster. While their mother was busy searching the house for their brother, Moppet and Mittens decided to have an adventure. The cupboard playroom door was not locked, so they poured it open and slinked out to the kitchen. They headed straight to the dough, which was rising in a bowl next to the warming fire. They patted it with their soft little paws. Do you think we could make muffets? said Mittens to Moppet with a grin. Just at that moment, there was a hard knock at the front door. Moppet jumped into the flour bag, and Mittens darted away to the dairy, hiding inside an empty jar next to the milk bottles. The visitor was just a neighbor, Mrs. Ribby, who had dropped by to borrow some sugar. Mrs. Tabitha came downstairs. Come in, Cousin Ribby, come in. Please sit down. Oh, I'm so terribly upset, Cousin Ribby. said Tabitha, shedding tears. I've lost my dear son, Thomas. I'm so afraid that the rats have got him. She wiped her eyes with an apron. Oh dear, he can be such a cheeky kitten, Cousin Tabitha. He made a cat's cradle of my best hat last time I came to tea. But where have you looked for him? Can I help you? All over the house. But I know there are rats hiding. Oh, what a thing it is to have such energetic kittens, said Mrs. Tabitha, twidget. I'm not afraid of rats. I will help you find him. Why is there all this soot on the floor, said Cousin Ribby, pointing to the extremely dirty fireplace? The chimney really needs... Oh, dear me, Cousin Ribby, now Moppet and Mittens are gone, said Mrs. Tabitha, realising that the playroom cupboard door was now open. Ribby and Tabitha began the search more carefully this time. They poked under the beds with Ribby's umbrella. They rummaged through the cupboards. They even fetched a candle and looked inside boxes in the attic. They could not find anything. But once they heard a door bang and then little feet scuttering downstairs. It is infested with rats, said Tabitha tearfully. I caught seven young ones crawling out of one hole in the back kitchen. They were quite well, though, for dinner last Saturday. And once I saw the old father rat. Oh, he is an enormously old rat, bigger than an old boot, Cousin Ribby. I was just about to jump on him when he showed me his yellow teeth and darted back inside his hole. Oh, these rats do so get on my nerves, Cousin Ribby, said Tabitha. Ribby and Tabitha searched and searched. They both heard a curious roly-poly noise under the attic floor. But there was nothing to be seen. They returned to the kitchen. Here's one of your kittens at least, said Ribby, dragging Moppet out of the flour barrel. They shook the flour off her and set her down upon the kitchen floor. She seemed to be in a terrible fright. Oh, Mother, Mother, said Moppet. There was an old woman rat right here in the kitchen and she's stolen some of our dough. The two cats ran to check the dough pan. Sure enough, there were little marks of scratched fingers and a lump of dough was gone. Mrs. Tabitha asked where the rat had run to. But poor Moppet had been much too frightened to peep out of the barrel again. Ribby and Tabitha took her with them to keep her safely in sight. They all went into the dairy and found mittens hiding half inside an empty jar. They tipped up the jar and she poured out. Oh, Mother, Mother, said mittens in a huff. Mother, there has been an old man rat in the dairy. He was a hugely big old rat, Mother, and he was bigger than the farmer's great wheels of cheese. He's stolen a pat of butter and, and, and also the rolling pin. Ribby and Tabitha looked at one another. A rolling pin and butter? Oh, my poor son Thomas! exclaimed Tabitha, her paws on her cheeks. A rolling pin? said Ribby. Did we not hear a roly-poly noise in the attic when we were looking into the boxes? Ribby and Tabitha rushed upstairs again. Sure enough, the roly-poly noise was quite distinctly going on underneath the attic floor. This is serious, cousin Tabitha, said Ribby. We must send for J. Jack Russell at once. Tell him to bring his tools. As this was happening inside of the house, Tom Kitten had other things to worry about. For it is rather unwise to go up a chimney in a very old house, where one does not know his way, and where there are enormous rats lurking in the dark spaces. As Tom Kitten did not want to be in the playroom cupboard with his brother and sister, he was determined to hide. He looked all around for a nice secret place, and he looked up at the chimney. The fire had only just been lit, and it was not burning hot, but there was a little white chalky smoke from the moist green sticks. The chimney itself was wide enough for a man to stand up and walk about, so there was plenty of room for a little Tom Cat. He jumped right up inside the fireplace, balancing himself upon the iron bar where the kettle hangs. Tom Kitten took another big jump off the bar and landed on a ledge high inside the chimney, knocking down some foot below. Tom Kitten coughed and choked with the smoke. He could hear sticks slowly beginning to crackle in the fireplace down below. He made up his mind to climb right to the top and get out on the roof, and perhaps try and chase the birds. He quickly realized that going back down was not an option, as he did not want to burn his beautiful tail. He climbed up the stone tower, and daylight shone down from the top, peeking through the slanting slates that kept out the rain. With the smoke and the changing light, Tom Kitten was feeling nervous. He climbed up and up and up. Then he waded sideways through inches of soot. He was like a fluffy broom through the ash, and it was becoming most confusing in the dark. When he reached the chimney top, he came to a place where somebody had loosened a stone in the wall. There were also some chicken bones lying about. How curious, thought Tom Kitten. Who has been gnawing bones up here in the chimney? Oh, I wish I had never come here. And what is that dreadful smell? Like musky mouths. Tom Kitten sneezed, and soot blew into his eyes. He squeezed through the hole in the wall where the stone was loose, and crawled along an uncomfortably tight passage where there was scarcely any light. He fumbled his way carefully for several meters. He did not know that he was crawling inside the walls of the attic. Before he could react, he tumbled head over heels down a hole, and landed on a heap of very dirty smelling rags. When Tom Kitten picked himself up and looked about him, he found himself in a place he had never seen before, although he had lived all his life in this house. It was a very small stuffy room, with small cupboards and stairs, and cobwebs on the walls. Opposite to him, as far away as he could sit, was an enormous rat. What are you doing in my room, covered in soot? said a mean looking rat, showing his teeth. I'm sorry sir, the chimney needs cleaning, said the shocked Tom Kitten. Anna Maria, Anna Maria, called the large man-rat, and there was a pattering noise of little feet, and an old woman rat poked her head around a wall. Quick as a flash, she jumped onto Tom Kitten, and before he knew what was happening, his coat had been pulled off, and he was rolled up in a bundle and tied tightly with string. Both of the rats sat staring at him with their mouths open. Anna Maria, said the old man-rat, whose name was Samuel Whiskers. Could you make me a kitten-dumpling, roly-poly pudding for my dinner? It requires dough, and a pat of butter, and a rolling pin, said Anna Maria, considering Tom Kitten with her head on one side. No, said Samuel Whiskers. Make it properly, with the breadcrumbs. Nonsense, butter and dough, replied Anna Maria. The two rats argued with one another for a few minutes, Samuel Whiskers got through a hole in the wall and crawled boldly down the front staircase to the dairy to get the butter. He was not stopped by anyone. He made a second journey to take the rolling pin. He could hear those cats Ribby and Tabitha talking in the attic, but they were so busy angling a candle to see better into the clothes drawers, looking for something, they did not see him. Anna Maria went down a different set of tunnels in the walls to the kitchen to steal the dough. She took a small plate and scooped up the dough with her paws. She did not see Moppet in the milk jug who was watching her. In the meantime, Tom Kitten was left all alone under the floor of the attic. He wriggled about and tried to meow for help, but his mouth was so full of soot and old spider webs, that when he was tied up in such very tight knots, he could not get anyone's attention. Except, that is, for a curious spider who came out of a crack in the ceiling and examined the knots on Tom Kitten critically from a safe distance. He was a good judge of knots because he was in the business of tying up unfortunate flies in his web. He did not offer to help him though. Tom Kitten wriggled and squirmed until he was quite exhausted. Presently, the rats came back and set to work to turn him into a dumpling. First, they smeared him with butter and then they rolled the dough around him. Will the string not be indigestible, Anna Maria? inquired Samuel Whiskers. Anna Maria said that she thought it was not important, but she did wish that Tom Kitten would hold his head still as it disarranged the pastry. She laid hold of his ears. Tom Kitten bit and spat and meowed and wriggled and the rolling pin went roly-poly, roly-poly, roly-poly. The rats each held an end. His tail is sticking out. I fetched as much as I could carry, replied Anna Maria. I do not think, said Samuel Whiskers, pausing to take a look at Tom Kitten. I do not think this will be a good pudding. It smells sooty. Anna Maria was just about to argue back when all at once there began to be sounds above. The rasping noise of a saw and the sound of a little dog scratching and yelping. The rats dropped the rolling pin and listened intently. I think we are about to be discovered. Quick, let us collect our things and leave. I am persuaded that the knots would not have been edible anyway, whatever you may say. Let's go, said Anna Maria. I have half a smoked ham hidden in the chimney. By that time, J. Jack Russell had cut into the floorboards and there was nobody there under the floor except for the rolling pin and little Tom Kitten inside of a very dirty dumpling. But all around there was a strong smell of rats and J. Jack Russell spent the rest of the morning sniffing, wagging his tail and digging the hole in the floor. Then he nailed the plank down again and put his tools in his bag and came downstairs. The cat family was so happy to be reunited they thanked J. Jack Russell profusely and asked him to stay for dinner. The dumpling had now been peeled off Tom Kitten and made separately in a pan with raisins to hide the soot. Tom Kitten sat inside a hot bath to melt all of the butter off. J. Jack Russell smelled the pudding but he informed Mrs. Tabitha that he had no time to stay as he still had work to be done the next farm over. As he left the home he saw Mr. Samuel Whiskers and his wife on the run from the house. They ran straight into the barn of farmer potatoes. Samuel Whiskers was puffing away and still arguing something in her shrill tones. At least there was no more rats for a long time at Tabitha Twitchett's. Moppet and Mittens have grown up and become very good rat catchers. They go out rat catching in the village and they always find plenty of work to be done. But Tom Kitten will always be afraid of rats and he is known to run as quick as the wind for anything that is bigger than a mouse. The End