Tale of THE PIE AND THE PATTY PANpage 1 / 9
ONCE upon a time there was a Pussy-cat called Ribby, who invited a little dog called Duchess, to tea.
"Come in good time, my dear Duchess," said Ribby's letter, "and we will have something so very nice. I am baking it in a
pie-dish--a pie-dish with a pink rim. You never tasted anything so good! And you shall eat it all! I will eat muffins, my
dear Duchess!" wrote Ribby.
Dutchess read the letter and wrote an answer:--"I will come with much pleasure at a quarter past four. But it is very strange. I was just going to invite you to come here, to
supper, my dear Ribby, to eat something most delicious."
"I will come very punctually, my dear Ribby," wrote Duchess; and then at the end she added--"I hope it isn't mouse?"
And then she thought that did not look quite polite; so she scratched out "isn't mouse" and changed it to "I hope it will be fine," and she gave her letter to the postman.
But she thought a great deal about Ribby's pie, and she read Ribby's letter over and over again.
"I am dreadfully afraid it will be mouse!" said Duchess to herself--"I really couldn't, couldn't eat mouse pie. And I shall have to eat it, because it is a party. And my pie was going to be veal and ham. A pink and white pie-dish!
and so is mine; just like Ribby's dishes; they were both bought at Tabitha Twitchit's." Duchess went into her larder and took the pie off a shelf and looked at it.
"It is all ready to put into the oven. Such lovely pie-crust; and I put in a little tin patty-pan to hold up the crust; and I made a hole in the middle with a fork to let out the steam--Oh I do wish I could eat my own pie, instead of a pie made of mouse!"
Duchess considered and considered and read Ribby's letter again--
"A pink and white pie-dish--and you shall eat it all. 'You' means me--then Ribby is not going to even taste the pie herself? A pink and white pie-dish! Ribby is sure to go out to buy the muffins....."