Too Clever By Half
Mrs Tabby White thought she’d try some of the clever things her humans did.
1899
Introduction
Mrs White does everything she can for her kittens, but she can’t do what her humans do, and she starts to wonder if she’s a failure as a mother.
MRS Tabby* White’s kittens thought their mother was the cleverest mother in the world.
She washed them and caught mice for them and taught them how to creep up on unwary things.
But she feared she was not clever enough; so, after watching Cook carefully, she tried to pour milk from a jug. But her paws were clumsy and she broke it.
After watching Nanny, she took her kittens from their basket and tucked them neatly under the covers of the guest-bed, but the guest didn’t want to share, and threw them out again.
She took shoes from the baby, and put them on the kittens’ paws, but they gnawed the shoes to ribbons, so Nanny smacked them.
She took her kittens to the bathroom and scrubbed them with soap and water, but it made their eyes smart, and she couldn’t dry their fur.
And Mrs Tabby White reflected, that you can be too clever by half.
Based on ‘Pussy and Doggy Tales’, a collection of short stories for children by Edith Nesbit.