# The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck _Retold by Talerie (talerie.com) from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, after Beatrix Potter_ · 8 min read · ages 4+ Jemima Puddle-duck lays nine eggs in the feather-filled shed of a polite gentleman, who asks her to bring herbs and two onions for an omelet. Kep the collie fetches two fox-hound puppies, the gentleman is never seen again, and Kep lets Jemima out, but the puppies gobble up all nine eggs and she is taken home in tears. --- What a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen! Listen to the story of Jemima Puddle-duck, who was annoyed because the farmer’s wife would not let her hatch her own eggs. Her sister-in-law, Mrs. Rebeccah Puddle-duck, was perfectly happy to leave the hatching to someone else. “I don’t have the patience to sit on a nest for twenty-eight days, and neither do you, Jemima,” she said. “You’d let them go cold. You know you would!” “I wish to hatch my own eggs; I will hatch them all by myself,” quacked Jemima Puddle-duck. She tried to hide her eggs, but the farmer’s wife always found them, carried them off, and gave them to a hen to sit on. At last Jemima grew quite desperate. She made up her mind to build a nest far away from the farm. One fine spring afternoon she set off along the cart road that leads over the hill. She was wearing a shawl and a bonnet. From the top of the hill she could see woods in the distance, and she thought they looked like a safe, quiet spot. Jemima was not much in the habit of flying. She ran a few yards downhill, flapping her shawl, and then she jumped off into the air. Once she had a good start, she flew beautifully. She skimmed along over the treetops until she saw a clearing in the middle of the woods, where the trees and bushes had been cut away. Jemima landed rather heavily and began to waddle about, looking for a dry, snug place for a nest. A tree stump among some tall foxgloves caught her eye. But sitting on the stump, to her great surprise, was an elegantly dressed gentleman reading a newspaper. He had black pointed ears and sandy-colored whiskers. “Quack?” said Jemima Puddle-duck, with her head and her bonnet on one side. “Quack?” The gentleman looked up over his newspaper and studied her with curiosity. “Madam, have you lost your way?” he said. He had a long, bushy tail, and it swept down over the side of the stump. Jemima thought him very polite and handsome. She explained that she had not lost her way at all; she was trying to find a dry, snug place for a nest. “Ah! Is that so? Indeed!” said the gentleman with sandy whiskers, still watching Jemima closely. He folded up his newspaper and tucked it into his coattail pocket. Jemima complained about the hen, who, she said, was not needed at all. “Indeed! How interesting!” said the gentleman. “I’d like to meet that hen. I would teach it to mind its own business! But as for a nest, that’s no trouble at all. I have a sackful of feathers in my woodshed. No, my dear madam, you’ll be in nobody’s way. You may sit there as long as you like.” The bushy long-tailed gentleman led the way to a gloomy little house, hidden well out of sight among the foxgloves. It was built of sticks and turf, and two broken pails, one on top of the other, served as a chimney. “This is my summer home,” said the gentleman, who was very hospitable. “You wouldn’t find my winter house, my den underground, nearly so convenient.” Behind the house stood a tumbledown shed made of old soap boxes. The gentleman opened the door and showed Jemima in. The shed was almost completely full of feathers. It was nearly stifling, but it was very soft and comfortable. Jemima Puddle-duck was a little surprised to find so many feathers. Still, it was cozy, and she made herself a nest quite easily. When she came out, the sandy-whiskered gentleman was sitting on a log reading the newspaper. At least, he had it spread out in front of him, but he was looking over the top of it. He was so polite that he seemed almost sorry to let Jemima go home for the night. He promised to take great care of her nest until she came back the next day. He said he loved eggs and ducklings, and he would be proud to see a fine nestful in his woodshed. Jemima Puddle-duck came every afternoon, and she laid nine eggs in the nest. They were greenish white and very large. The foxy gentleman admired them immensely. When Jemima was not there, he used to turn them over and count them. At last Jemima told him that she meant to start sitting the next day. “And I’ll bring a bag of grain with me, so that I never need to leave my nest until the eggs are hatched. They might catch cold,” said Jemima, who took her duties very seriously. “Madam, please don’t trouble yourself with a bag; I will provide oats,” said the gentleman with sandy whiskers. “But before you begin your long, dull sitting, I want to give you a treat. Let us have a dinner party, just the two of us! May I ask you to bring some herbs from the farm garden to make a savory omelet? Sage and thyme, and mint and two onions, and some parsley. I will provide the lard for the stuffing… for the omelet.” Jemima Puddle-duck was a simpleton: not even the mention of sage and onions made her suspicious. She went all around the farm garden, nibbling off snippets of all the different herbs that are used for stuffing roast duck. Then she waddled into the kitchen and took two onions out of a basket. Kep, the collie, met her coming out. “What are you doing with those onions?” he asked. “Where do you go every afternoon by yourself, Jemima Puddle-duck?” Jemima was a little in awe of the collie, so she told him the whole story. Kep listened with his wise head on one side. He grinned when she described the polite gentleman with sandy whiskers. Then he asked several questions about the woods, and about exactly where the house and the shed stood. After that he went out and trotted down to the village, to find two fox-hound puppies who were staying with the butcher. On a sunny afternoon, Jemima Puddle-duck went up the cart road for the last time. She was rather weighed down with bunches of herbs and two onions in a bag. She flew over the woods and landed across from the house of the bushy long-tailed gentleman. He was sitting on a log, sniffing the air and glancing uneasily around the woods. When Jemima landed, he gave a start. “Come into the house as soon as you’ve looked at your eggs. Give me the herbs for the omelet. Be sharp!” The gentleman had never been so abrupt with her before, and Jemima felt surprised and uncomfortable. While she was in the shed, she heard pattering feet around the back of it. Someone with a black nose sniffed at the bottom of the door, and then locked it. Jemima was terribly frightened. A moment later there were the most dreadful noises: barking, baying, growls and howls, squealing, and groans. And nothing more was ever seen of that foxy-whiskered gentleman. Before long, Kep opened the shed door and let Jemima Puddle-duck out. Unfortunately, the puppies rushed in and gobbled up all nine eggs before he could stop them. Kep had a bite on his ear, and both puppies were limping. Jemima was taken home in tears, all because of those eggs. She laid some more in June, and this time she was allowed to keep them herself, but only four of them hatched. Jemima Puddle-duck said it was because of her nerves. But she had always been a bad sitter. --- - Read online: https://talerie.com/en/tales/the-tale-of-jemima-puddle-duck - Characters: Kep - Also in: [German](https://talerie.com/de/maerchen/die-geschichte-von-jemima-pratschel-watschel.md), [French](https://talerie.com/fr/contes/le-conte-de-sophie-canetang.md) - Author's country: United Kingdom (https://talerie.com/en/tales/country/united-kingdom) - Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3079758 - Source: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, Beatrix Potter (Frederick Warne & Co., London, 1908; Project Gutenberg #14814) (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14814) - Public-domain basis: Talerie contemporary retelling (CC0 2026), based on: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, Beatrix Potter (Frederick Warne & Co., London, 1908; Project Gutenberg #14814) — original: author died 1943 (+70 passed) - License: CC0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)