The tale begins with three feline siblings - Tom Kitten and his sisters Moppet and Mittens - tumbling about the doorstep and playing in the dust. Their mother, Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit, expects "e;fine company"e; for tea so she fetches the children indoors to wash and dress them before her friends arrive. Tom is "e;very naughty"e; and scratches his mother while she grooms him. Tabitha dresses Moppet and Mittens in clean pinafores and tuckers, and Tom in "e;all sorts of elegant uncomfortable clothes"e; taken from a chest of drawers. Tom is fat and bursts several buttons, but his mother sews them back on again.