The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies

Hello,

Hello,

My name is Jessica Amos and today I am reading you The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter.

This book was written in 1909,

That is almost 120 years ago and what I love about these little books is the illustrations are fabulous.

Sometimes it uses words or dialogue that we wouldn't otherwise be used to in our modern times and they are just full of so much silliness and fun.

So,

Thank you so much for joining me here today.

I invite you to find a comfortable place to sit and relax,

Get your favorite blanket,

A pillow,

Get really cozy and enjoy being read to.

Okay,

So The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter.

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.

Let's see if you can figure out what the term soporific means as I read this to you,

Okay?

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.

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.

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 morrows and an old boot or two.

One day,

Oh joy,

There was a quantity of overgrown lettuces,

Which had shot into flower.

The Flopsy Bunnies simply stuffed lettuces by degrees one after another.

They were overcome with slumber and laid down in the mown grass.

They ate so much lettuce,

They had to lay down and take a nap.

It's soporific.

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 clackety sound of the mowing machine.

The blue bottles 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 wood mouse with a long tail.

She rushed 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 sack full 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.

The little rabbits smiled sweetly in their sleepy slumber as the shower of grass hit them.

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 onto the rubbish heap.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six little rabbits,

Said he as he dropped them into his sack.

Oh no!

The Flopsy Bunnies dreamt that their mother was turning them over in bed.

They stirred a little in their sleep,

But they still did not wake up.

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.

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.

The little rabbits were pulled out and pinched to wake them.

Their parents stuffed the emptied sack with three rotten vegetable marrows and an old blacking brush and two decayed turnips.

Don't wake up all those little Flopsy Bunnies!

Then they all hid under a bush and watched for Mr.

McGregor.

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.

They watched him go into the house and then they crept up to the window to listen.

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 still be inside.

They could hear him drag his chair on the flags and chuckle.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six little rabbits,

Said Mr.

McGregor.

Hey,

What's that?

What have they been spoiling now,

Inquired Mrs.

McGregor.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six little fat rabbits,

Repeated Mr.

McGregor counting on his fingers.

One,

Two,

Three.

Don't 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 windowsill.

Mrs.

McGregor took hold of the sack and felt it.

She said she could not 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 a bossy.

What is that?

Rabbit tobacco.

I shall skin them and cut off their heads.

Oh,

No.

Mr.

McGregor untied the sack and put his hand inside.

When she felt the vegetable,

She became very,

Very angry.

She said that Mr.

McGregor had done it on purpose.

And Mr.

McGregor was very angry,

Too.

One of them rotten morrows came flying through the kitchen window and hit the youngest Flopsy Bunny.

It was rather hurt.

They tricked Mr.

McGregor,

Didn't they?

Can we turn the last page?

Then Benjamin and Flopsy thought that it was time to go home.

So Mr.

McGregor did not get his tobacco and Mrs.

McGregor did not get her rabbit skins.

But next Christmas,

Thomasina Littlemouse 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.

Oh,

So cute.

So cute and sweet.

Those bunnies always getting into trouble,

Huh?

A little troublesome Flopsy Bunnies.

Thank you so much for reading this story with me.

I think this is just like so cute.

And there were several words in there and I wasn't quite sure what they meant.

So if you want,

You can always look them up and come back and listen again and again if that feels good to you.

Okay,

Until next time,

May you stay with yourself today and always.

Bye.