The Story of Mrs. Tubbs

~ M RS TUBBS. ~ ( 100 years old. )
TOLD AND ILLUSTRATED BY HUGH LOFTING
THE STORY OF M RS TUBBS
Published by FRED K A. STOKES C O , 443 Fourth Av. NEW YORK
Copyright, 1923, by Frederick A. Stokes Company All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America
To THE TWO ELIZABETHS
The Story of Mrs. Tubbs
Once upon a time, many, many years ago, there lived a very old woman and her name was Mrs. Tubbs. She lived on a little farm, way off in the country. Her little house stood on the edge of the woods, not very far from a village with a little church, and a little river with a little bridge over it, flowed close by the house. There was a barn too for cows and horses, only the woman hadn’t any cows or horses; she lived all alone with a dog and a duck and a pig. The dog’s name was Peter Punk, the duck’s name was Polly Ponk, and the pig’s name was Patrick Pink. The old woman called them Punk, Ponk and Pink for short.
Mrs. Tubbs’s Farm
Punk and Ponk had known one another for many years and were very good friends. The pig they treated as a baby because they said he was very young and hadn’t much sense.
The old woman did not own the farm although she had lived on it so long. The farm belonged to a man up in London who never came there at all. This man, one fine day at the end of summer when the leaves were beginning to fall in the woods, sent his nephew, a very silly young man with a red face, down from London to live in the farm-house instead of Mrs. Tubbs.
Punk, Ponk and Pink and the old woman were all dreadfully sad at having to leave the home where they had been so happy together for so many years.