The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood Read Online Free PDF Page A

who isn’t afraid of getting bitten, not that silly, harum-scarum Felicia Frummety.”
    Beatrix gave a resigned sigh. “I’m afraid you’re hearing our Hill Top rats, Sarah. There’s a very old spiral stair in the wall, which used to give access to the upper floor. It was blocked up when the other stair was built, but it seems that the rats delight in using it. Mrs. Jennings wrote me that they were becoming a problem, and last night, I heard them for myself, scurrying up and down the stair.”
    “Oh, rats,” Dimity said with a shiver. “You really have to get after them, Beatrix. If you don’t, they’ll take over the rest of the village, and everyone will be annoyed at you for letting them get a foothold. Doesn’t Mrs. Jennings have a cat?”
    Sarah chuckled. “The current Hill Top cat is a bit like our vicar. Not quite up to giving the rats the boot.”
    “Precisely,” said Crumpet, twitching her tail. “What’s wanted is a cat with a mouthful of sharp teeth and the will to use them.”
    “Exactly, Miss Potter,” Tabitha said. “I know of several cats who are currently looking for assignments—creatures of substance, with plenty of claw and sinew. I should be glad to send them around, and you can give them a trial.”
    “Bless me,” Sarah said admiringly. “Just listen to all that mewing. You’d think the creatures were talking to us, wouldn’t you?”
    “Perhaps they are,” Beatrix said with a little laugh. “I imagine that they are remarking that what Hill Top needs is a new cat.”
    “Yes, yes, yes!” shrieked the cats, in unison. “A new cat!”
    “That should be easy enough,” said Dimity.
    “I suppose,” Beatrix sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m rather partial to rats. I had a white one once, you see, as a pet. Sammy—a very sweet and affectionate fellow. And some cats can create as many problems as they solve. But in the present circumstance, I’m afraid I have to agree. One simply cannot have rats running riot.”
    “You see, Tabitha?” Crumpet said with satisfaction. “Miss Potter isn’t like the other humans. She really DOES understand what we say.”
    Crumpet and Tabitha (in fact, all of the animals in the Land between the Lakes) were sadly aware that the Big Folk rarely understood them when they tried to communicate what they knew or how they felt. Some were different, though. Miss Potter often seemed to understand, as did Jeremy Crosfield and several of the other children—the quiet ones, who preferred to sit still and listen rather than run around screaming and waving their arms all the time.
    “I can’t think what she means, though,” Tabitha said with a frown, “about cats becoming part of the problem. How could that be true?”
    Sarah handed Dimity a dish of rhubarb. “I told Bea about the Kittredges coming to Raven Hall, but I didn’t go into detail. You know more than I do about it, I’m sure.”
    “I know Major Kittredge, of course,” Dimity said slowly. “The Kittredge family has lived at Raven Hall for generations, so everyone in the village is acquainted with him.” She took a spoon and busied herself with her rhubarb. “The major was quite a handsome man before he got shot up in that appalling war.”
    “All wars are appalling,” Beatrix said soberly. Her parents had brought her up as a Unitarian, but she occasionally attended Quaker meetings, and leaned toward the Quakers’ pacifist ideals.
    Dimity nodded distractedly. “I haven’t seen the major since he returned, but I understand that he lost an eye and an arm. He spent quite a lot of time in hospital after he got back.” Her eyes filled with sadness. “Such terrible luck for such a good man.”
    “Raven Hall,” Beatrix said, pouring herself another cup of tea and pretending not to notice that Dimity seemed unusually affected by the major’s plight. “That’s the Gothic mansion at the top of Cuckoo Brow Wood?” She walked in that direction occasionally, following a path that took her