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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14220 ***
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    THE TALE OF
+
+    THE FLOPSY BUNNIES
+
+    BY
+
+    BEATRIX POTTER
+
+    _Author of
+    "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," &c._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+    FREDERICK WARNE & CO., INC.
+    NEW YORK
+
+    1909
+
+
+    FOR ALL LITTLE FRIENDS
+
+    OF
+
+    MR. MCGREGOR & PETER & BENJAMIN
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is "soporific."
+
+_I_ have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then _I_ am not a
+rabbit.
+
+They certainly had a very soporific effect upon the Flopsy Bunnies!
+
+When Benjamin Bunny grew up, he married his Cousin Flopsy. They had a
+large family, and they were very improvident and cheerful.
+
+I do not remember the separate names of their children; they were
+generally called the "Flopsy Bunnies."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As there was not always quite enough to eat,--Benjamin used to borrow
+cabbages from Flopsy's brother, Peter Rabbit, who kept a nursery garden.
+
+Sometimes Peter Rabbit had no cabbages to spare.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+When this happened, the Flopsy Bunnies went across the field to a rubbish
+heap, in the ditch outside Mr. McGregor's garden.
+
+Mr. McGregor's rubbish heap was a mixture. There were jam pots and paper
+bags, and mountains of chopped grass from the mowing machine (which always
+tasted oily), and some rotten vegetable marrows and an old boot or two.
+One day--oh joy!--there were a quantity of overgrown lettuces, which had
+"shot" into flower.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The Flopsy Bunnies simply stuffed lettuces. By degrees, one after another,
+they were overcome with slumber, and lay down in the mown grass.
+
+Benjamin was not so much overcome as his children. Before going to sleep
+he was sufficiently wide awake to put a paper bag over his head to keep
+off the flies.
+
+The little Flopsy Bunnies slept delightfully in the warm sun. From the
+lawn beyond the garden came the distant clacketty sound of the mowing
+machine. The bluebottles buzzed about the wall, and a little old mouse
+picked over the rubbish among the jam pots.
+
+(I can tell you her name, she was called Thomasina Tittlemouse, a
+woodmouse with a long tail.)
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+She rustled across the paper bag, and awakened Benjamin Bunny.
+
+The mouse apologized profusely, and said that she knew Peter Rabbit.
+
+While she and Benjamin were talking, close under the wall, they heard a
+heavy tread above their heads; and suddenly Mr. McGregor emptied out a
+sackful of lawn mowings right upon the top of the sleeping Flopsy Bunnies!
+Benjamin shrank down under his paper bag. The mouse hid in a jam pot.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The little rabbits smiled sweetly in their sleep under the shower of
+grass; they did not awake because the lettuces had been so soporific.
+
+They dreamt that their mother Flopsy was tucking them up in a hay bed.
+
+Mr. McGregor looked down after emptying his sack. He saw some funny little
+brown tips of ears sticking up through the lawn mowings. He stared at them
+for some time.
+
+Presently a fly settled on one of them and it moved.
+
+Mr. McGregor climbed down on to the rubbish heap--
+
+"One, two, three, four! five! six leetle rabbits!" said he as he dropped
+them into his sack. The Flopsy Bunnies dreamt that their mother was
+turning them over in bed. They stirred a little in their sleep, but still
+they did not wake up.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mr. McGregor tied up the sack and left it on the wall.
+
+He went to put away the mowing machine.
+
+While he was gone, Mrs. Flopsy Bunny (who had remained at home) came
+across the field.
+
+She looked suspiciously at the sack and wondered where everybody was?
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then the mouse came out of her jam pot, and Benjamin took the paper bag
+off his head, and they told the doleful tale.
+
+Benjamin and Flopsy were in despair, they could not undo the string.
+
+But Mrs. Tittlemouse was a resourceful person. She nibbled a hole in the
+bottom corner of the sack.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+The little rabbits were pulled out and pinched to wake them.
+
+Their parents stuffed the empty sack with three rotten vegetable marrows,
+an old blacking-brush and two decayed turnips.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then they all hid under a bush and watched for Mr. McGregor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mr. McGregor came back and picked up the sack, and carried it off.
+
+He carried it hanging down, as if it were rather heavy.
+
+The Flopsy Bunnies followed at a safe distance.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+They watched him go into his house.
+
+And then they crept up to the window to listen.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mr. McGregor threw down the sack on the stone floor in a way that would
+have been extremely painful to the Flopsy Bunnies, if they had happened to
+have been inside it.
+
+They could hear him drag his chair on the flags, and chuckle--
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six leetle rabbits!" said Mr. McGregor.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Eh? What's that? What have they been spoiling now?" enquired Mrs.
+McGregor.
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six leetle fat rabbits!" repeated Mr.
+McGregor, counting on his fingers--"one, two, three--"
+
+"Don't you be silly; what do you mean, you silly old man?"
+
+"In the sack! one, two, three, four, five, six!" replied Mr. McGregor.
+
+(The youngest Flopsy Bunny got upon the window-sill.)
+
+Mrs. McGregor took hold of the sack and felt it. She said she could feel
+six, but they must be _old_ rabbits, because they were so hard and all
+different shapes.
+
+"Not fit to eat; but the skins will do fine to line my old cloak."
+
+"Line your old cloak?" shouted Mr. McGregor--"I shall sell them and buy
+myself baccy!"
+
+"Rabbit tobacco! I shall skin them and cut off their heads."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Mrs. McGregor untied the sack and put her hand inside.
+
+When she felt the vegetables she became very very angry. She said that Mr.
+McGregor had "done it a purpose."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+And Mr. McGregor was very angry too. One of the rotten marrows came flying
+through the kitchen window, and hit the youngest Flopsy Bunny.
+
+It was rather hurt.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Then Benjamin and Flopsy thought that it was time to go home.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+So Mr. McGregor did not get his tobacco, and Mrs. McGregor did not get her
+rabbit skins.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+But next Christmas Thomasina Tittlemouse got a present of enough
+rabbit-wool to make herself a cloak and a hood, and a handsome muff and a
+pair of warm mittens.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF THE FLOPSY BUNNIES
+
+BY BEATRIX POTTER
+
+F. WARNE & Co
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, by Beatrix Potter
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14220 ***