Reflections on The Roly-Poly Pudding, by Beatrix Potter

In a previous blog post, I mentioned The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, orThe Roly-Poly Pudding, by Beatrix Potter, and how it had left me afraid of giant rats at bedtime. (I incorrectly called it The Tale of Tom Kitten, which is a different story about the hapless Tom.) 

I don’t regret having read The Roly-Poly Pudding when I did (third or fourth grade?). I knew perfectly well that our house had no rats and that I was much bigger than a rat in any case. Considering that I then went on to read collections of Strange But True and other explicitly scary stories, I can’t have been too upset about it.

I just reread The Roly-Poly Pudding, as I have done a number of times before, and it’s such a fun story that I decided to blog about it.

It starts like this:

Once upon a time, there was an old cat, called Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, who was an anxious parent.

As a child, I never thought much about her name or about her being “an anxious parent.” Looking at the colored plates (illustrations) now, I can see that she is in fact a tabby (“Tabitha”) who probably has a tail that twitches a lot (“Twitchit”.) As for her being an anxious parent, it makes sense that a cat of that time period would have great concerns for the safety of her kittens. On top of that, we learn that her kittens are constantly getting away from her and getting into trouble. No wonder she’s worried. So she takes steps.

On baking day she determined to shut them up in a cupboard.

Why on baking day, particularly? Because she will be too busy to keep an eye on them? Because they will get their paws in the dough? (Turns out she has reason to worry about that.)

I notice that she isn’t the only mother in Beatrix Potter’s stories to have a mischievous child. Mrs. Rabbit has Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. We all know what Peter is like. And while all Mrs. Twitchit’s kittens have tendency to get into trouble, on this baking day it is Tom kitten who is missing.

So she pops Moppet and Mittens in the cupboard and goes in search of Tom.

It was an old, old house, full of cupboards and passages. Some of the walls were four feet thick, and there used to be queer noises inside them, as if there might be a little secret staircase. Certainly there were odd little jagged doorways in the wainscot, and things disappeared at night—especially cheese and bacon.

Spooky! Even now it gives me a little chill. And Mrs. Twitchit seems very worried indeed.

Naturally, now that her back is turned, Moppet and Mittens get themselves into mischief, sneaking out of the cupboard and getting into the bread dough.

They patted it with their soft little paws—“Shall we make dear little muffins?” said Mittens to Moppet.

Cats love to pat anything squishy, hence the term “kneading” and also the expression “making biscuits”. Or in this case, muffins.

Then Cousin Ribby shows up, a no-nonsense disciplinarian. When Mrs. Twitchit moans that Tom is missing and she is afraid the rats have got him, Cousin Ribby says

“I will help you find him; and whip him, too!”

Cousin Ribby isn’t afraid of rats. She’s also a sharp observer, more so than Mrs. Twitchit.

“What is all that soot in the fender?”

Mrs. Twitchit probably should have paid more attention.

At any rate, they find Moppet and Mittens and learn that a lump of dough has been stolen by a rat--along with a pat of butter and the rolling pin! Mrs. Twitchit wrings her paws, while Ribby remembers that they heard a roly-poly noise in the attic.

“This is serious, Cousin Tabitha,” said Ribby. “We must send for John Joiner at once, with a saw.”

Now that we’re properly worried, we are given Tom Kitten’s side of things.

...and it shows how very unwise it is to go up a chimney in a very old house, where a person does not know his way, and where there are enormous rats.

Yes, enormous rats. Certainly by comparison to a kitten. 

The description of Tom’s journey through the system of interconnected chimneys/flues sounds unpleasantly dark and confined. He can’t go back the way he came, because the fire has been lit and it will be too hot and smoky. So he keeps on and finds a loose stone and very tight passage beyond, and then falls right through the floor.

...he found himself in a place that he had never seen before, although he had lived all his life in the house.

It’s that kind of house. Spooky! 

Unfortunately, he’s in Samuel Whiskers' bedroom and in no time he is tied up by Anna Maria “in very hard knots.” Then the rats argue about whether roly-poly pudding is properly made with butter and dough, or with bread crumbs, and off they go to get the ingredients. No one hears his muffled cries

Except a spider, which came out of a crack in the ceiling and examined the knots critically, from a safe distance.

The poor kitten is buttered and wrapped in dough, though Samuel Whiskers seems to be having doubts, both about the digestibility of the string and all the soot.

“I do not think it will be a good pudding. It smells sooty.”

Fortunately rescue is here—John Joiner with his saw! Samuel Whiskers knows when to leave.

“We are discovered and interrupted, Anna Maria; let us collect our property—and other people’s,--and depart at once.”

A happy yet practical ending ensues. The stolen dough is not wasted--it is peeled off and made into a pudding, with currants added to disguise the fact that it has bits of soot in it.  Meanwhile, Tom Kitten gets a hot bath—not the usual sort of bath for a cat—to wash the butter off him.

I said the ending is happy, but that isn’t entirely true. Tom Kitten has suffered a traumatic experience, and it has left its mark. While his siblings grow up into excellent ratters,

...Tom Kitten has always been afraid of a rat; he never durst face anything that is bigger than—a Mouse.

 Till next post.