[Illustration]

Then she combed their tails and whiskers (this is Tom Kitten).

Tom was very naughty, and he scratched.

Mrs. Tabitha dressed Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers;
and then she took all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes out of a
chest of drawers, in order to dress up her son Thomas.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Tom Kitten was very fat, and he had grown; several buttons burst off. His
mother sewed them on again.

When the three kittens were ready, Mrs. Tabitha unwisely turned them out
into the garden, to be out of the way while she made hot buttered toast.

"Now keep your frocks clean, children! You must walk on your hind legs.
Keep away from the dirty ash-pit, and from Sally Henny Penny, and from the
pig-stye and the Puddle-Ducks."

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Moppet and Mittens walked down the garden path unsteadily. Presently they
trod upon their pinafores and fell on their noses.