The Tale of Mr. Tod

The Tale of Mr. Tod, by Beatrix
Potter

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Title: The Tale of Mr. Tod
Author: Beatrix Potter
Release Date: November 14, 2006 [EBook #19805]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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[Illustration]
THE TALE OF MR. TOD

BY
BEATRIX POTTER
Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," etc.
[Illustration]
FREDERICK WARNE & CO., INC. NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1912 BY FREDERICK WARNE & Co.
Copyright renewed 1940 (All rights reserved)
PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE USA ROSE PRINTING CO INC
ISBN O 7232 0605 8
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 (C)
FOR FRANCIS WILLIAM OF ULVA ----SOMEDAY!

[Illustration]
THE TALE OF MR. TOD
I have made many books about well-behaved people. Now, for a
change, I am going to make a story about two disagreeable people,
called Tommy Brock and Mr. Tod.
Nobody could call Mr. Tod "nice." The rabbits could not bear him; they
could smell him half a mile off. He was of a wandering habit and he
had foxey whiskers; they never knew where he would be next.
[Illustration]
One day he was living in a stick-house in the coppice, causing terror to
the family of old Mr. Benjamin Bouncer. Next day he moved into a

pollard willow near the lake, frightening the wild ducks and the water
rats.
In winter and early spring he might generally be found in an earth
amongst the rocks at the top of Bull Banks, under Oatmeal Crag.
He had half a dozen houses, but he was seldom at home.
The houses were not always empty when Mr. Tod moved out; because
sometimes Tommy Brock moved in; (without asking leave).
Tommy Brock was a short bristly fat waddling person with a grin; he
grinned all over his face. He was not nice in his habits. He ate wasp
nests and frogs and worms; and he waddled about by moonlight,
digging things up.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
His clothes were very dirty; and as he slept in the day-time, he always
went to bed in his boots. And the bed which he went to bed in, was
generally Mr. Tod's.
Now Tommy Brock did occasionally eat rabbit-pie; but it was only
very little young ones occasionally, when other food was really scarce.
He was friendly with old Mr. Bouncer; they agreed in disliking the
wicked otters and Mr. Tod; they often talked over that painful subject.
Old Mr. Bouncer was stricken in years. He sat in the spring sunshine
outside the burrow, in a muffler; smoking a pipe of rabbit tobacco.
He lived with his son Benjamin Bunny and his daughter-in-law Flopsy,
who had a young family. Old Mr. Bouncer was in charge of the family
that afternoon, because Benjamin and Flopsy had gone out.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]

The little rabbit-babies were just old enough to open their blue eyes and
kick. They lay in a fluffy bed of rabbit wool and hay, in a shallow
burrow, separate from the main rabbit hole. To tell the truth--old Mr.
Bouncer had forgotten them.
He sat in the sun, and conversed cordially with Tommy Brock, who
was passing through the wood with a sack and a little spud which he
used for digging, and some mole traps. He complained bitterly about
the scarcity of pheasants' eggs, and accused Mr. Tod of poaching them.
And the otters had cleared off all the frogs while he was asleep in
winter--"I have not had a good square meal for a fortnight, I am living
on pig-nuts. I shall have to turn vegetarian and eat my own tail!" said
Tommy Brock.
[Illustration]
It was not much of a joke, but it tickled old Mr. Bouncer; because
Tommy Brock was so fat and stumpy and grinning.
So old Mr. Bouncer laughed; and pressed Tommy Brock to come inside,
to taste a slice of seed-cake and "a glass of my daughter Flopsy's
cowslip wine." Tommy Brock squeezed himself into the rabbit hole
with alacrity.
[Illustration]
Then old Mr. Bouncer smoked another pipe, and gave Tommy Brock a
cabbage leaf cigar which was so very strong that it made Tommy Brock
grin more than ever; and the smoke filled the burrow. Old Mr. Bouncer
coughed and laughed; and Tommy Brock puffed and grinned.
And Mr. Bouncer laughed and coughed, and shut his eyes because of
the cabbage