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Fairytale lovers of all ages, will enjoy this collection of timeless classics, as Ms. Rae takes you into the woods and to far off places.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Forget Me
Not Fairy Tales.
Classic stories for book lovers
of all ages.
Let's begin.
The Tale of the Flopsy Munnies
written and illustrated by
Beatrix Potter.
It is said that the effect of
eating too much lettuce is
sophorific.
I have never felt sleepy after
eating lettuces, but then I am
not a rabbit.
They certainly had a very
sophorific 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.
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 mister McGregor's
garden.
mister 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 flour.
The flopsy bunnies simply
stuffed lettuces.
By degrees, one after another,
they were overcome with slumber
and lay down in the moan grass.
Benjamin was not 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 bunny 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 Tittle
Mouse, a wood mouse with a long
tail.
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 up to the wall,
they heard a heavy tread above
their heads, and suddenly mister
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.
The little rabbits smiled
sweetly in their sleep under the
shower of grass.
They did not awake because the
lettuces had been so saporific.
They dreamt their mother Flopsy
was tucking them up in a hay
bed.
mister 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.
mister McGregor climbed down
onto the rubbish heap.
One, two, three, four, five, six
little 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.
mister McGregor tied up the sack
and left it on the wall.
He went to put away the mowing
machine.
While he was gone, misses 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 misses Tittle Mouse 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 empty
sack with three rotten vegetable
marrows, an old blacking brush,
and two decayed turnips.
Then they all hid under a bush
and watched for mister 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 his
house, and then they crept up to
the window to listen.
mister 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
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 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 windowsill.
Mrs McGregor told her the sack
and felt it.
She said she could feel six, but
they must be old rabbits because
they were so hard in all
different shapes.
Ooh, 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 spicy.
Rabbit tobacco.
I shall skin them and cut off
their heads.
Mrs McGregor untied the sack and
put her hand inside.
When she felt the vegetables she
became very, very angry.
She said that mister McGregor
had done it on purpose.
And mister 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.
Then Benjamin and Flopsy thought
it was time to go home.
So mister McGregor did not get
his tobacco, and misses McGregor
did not get her rabbit skins.
But next Christmas, Tomasina
Tittle Mouse got a present of
enough rabbit wool to make
herself a cloak and a hood, and
a handsome mup and a pair of
warm mittens.
The End I hope you like this
story.
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.
Fairy tales contain many morals.
One lesson from this story is
don't test your luck.
If you are lucky enough to find
something good, then don't be
foolish enough to lose it by
wasting time.