A Clean Start

As I mentioned in my previous post, it's nice to have a good clear out following the December holiday season. Mrs. Ribby certainly favors a clean house. 

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Ribby put on some coal and swept up the hearth. Then she went out with a can to the well, for water to fill up the kettle.

Then she began to set the room in order, for it was the sitting-room as well as the kitchen. She shook the mats out at the front-door and put them straight; the hearthrug was a rabbit-skin. She dusted the clock and the ornaments on the mantelpiece, and she polished and rubbed the tables and chairs.

Then she spread a very clean white table-cloth, and set out her best china tea-set, which she took out of a wall-cupboard near the fireplace. The tea-cups were white with a pattern of pink roses; and the dinner-plates were white and blue.

Welcome

A TEA PARTY GONE WRONG. Ribby, the hostess, has no idea that that her guest, Duchess, has replaced her main course - a pie made of mouse - with a pie made of veal and ham. And how does Duchess get away with this little sleight of hand? She and Ribby own identical pink-and-white pie dishes, both purchased from Tabitha Twitchit's shop in town. 

The Pie and the Patty Pan has always charmed me.  Foxgloves and delphiniums overflow in Duchess' front yard. The postman delivers the tea party invitation from Ribby on the very same day it is sent to Duchess. And when they pass each other earlier in the day, before the party, they don't speak, because they are going to see each other in a much more formal social setting later in the day!

A gentler age perhaps.