ked Lucie.

"Oh yes, if you please'm; look at the sheep-mark on the shoulder. And
here's one marked for Gatesgarth, and three that come from Little-town.
They're _always_ marked at washing!" said Mrs. Tiggy-winkle.

[Illustration]

And she hung up all sorts and sizes of clothes--small brown coats of mice;
and one velvety black moleskin waist-coat; and a red tailcoat with no tail
belonging to Squirrel Nutkin; and a very much shrunk blue jacket belonging
to Peter Rabbit; and a petticoat, not marked, that had gone lost in the
washing--and at last the basket was empty!

[Illustration]

"Then Mrs. Tiggy-winkle made tea--a cup for herself and a cup for Lucie.
They sat before the fire on a bench and looked sideways at one another.
Mrs. Tiggy-winkle's hand, holding the tea-cup, was very very brown, and
very very wrinkly with the soap-suds; and all through her gown and her
cap, there were _hair-pins_ sticking wrong end out; so that Lucie didn't
like to sit too near her.

[Illustration]

When they had finished tea, they tied up the clothes in bundles; and
Lucie's pocket-handkerchiefs were folded up inside her clean pinny, and
fastened with a silver safety-pin.

And then they made up the fire with turf, and came out and locked the
door, and hid the key under the door-sill.

[Illustration]

Then away down the hill trotted Lucie and Mrs. Tiggy-winkle with the
bundles of clothes!

All the way down the path little animals came out of the fern to meet
them; the very first that they met were Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny!

[Illustration]

And she gave them their nice clean clothes; and all the little animals and
birds were so very much obliged to dear Mrs. Tiggy-winkle.

[Illustration]

So that at the bottom of the hill when they came to the stile, there was
nothing left to carry except Lucie's one little bundle.

[Illustration]

Lucie scrambled up the stile with the bundle in her hand; and then she
turned to say "Good-night," and to thank the washer-woman--But what a
_very_ odd thing! Mrs. Tiggy-winkle had not waited either for thanks or
for the washing bill!

She was running running running up the hill--and where was her white
frilled cap? and her shawl? and her gown--and her petticoat?

[Illustration]

And _how_ small she had grown--and _how_ brown--and covered with PRICKLES!

Why! Mrs. Tiggy-winkle was nothing but a HEDGEHOG.

* * * * *

(Now some people say that li