Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

sit on the grass for a while to recover himself.
    'Goodness gracious me!' he repeated. 'I'll eat my tail if that isn't the King's Ruby that the Hobgoblin is still looking for in the craters of the moon. To think that this odd little couple have had it in their suitcase all the time!' Just then the Snork Maiden wandered out into the garden and came to sit beside him, but Moomintroll was so sunk in thought that he didn't notice her. After a while she poked cautiously at the tuft of his tail.
    'Oh - it's you, is it?' said Moomintroll, jumping up.
    The Snork Maiden smiled coyly. 'Have you seen my hair?' she asked patting her head.
    'All right, let's,' said Moomintroll absently.
    'What is the matter with you?' she asked.
    'My dear little rose-petal, I can't explain, even to you. But my heart is very heavy. You see, Snufkin has gone away.'
    'Oh, no!' said the Snork Maiden.
    'Yes, really. But he did say good-bye to me first,' Moomintroll replied. 'He didn't wake anyone else.'
    They sat there on the grass for a while, the sun gradually warming their backs, and then Sniff and the Snork came out on the steps.
    'Hullo,' said the Snork Maiden. 'Do you know that Snufkin has gone South?'
    'What, without me?' said Sniff, indignantly.
    'One must be alone sometimes,' said Moomintroll, 'but you're still too young to understand that. Where are the others?'
    'The Hemulen has gone to pick mushrooms,' said the Snork, 'and the Muskrat has taken his hammock in, because he thinks the nights are beginning to get cold. And then your mother is in a very bad mood today.'
    'Angry or sad?' Moomintroll asked, in surprise.
    'More sad, I think,' answered the Snork.
    'Then I must go in to her at once,' said Moomintroll. He found Moominmamma sitting on the drawing-room sofa looking most unhappy.
    'What is it, mother?' he asked.
    'My dear, something terrible has happened,' she said, 'my handbag has disappeared. I can't do anything without it. I've searched everywhere, but it isn't there.'
    So Moomintroll organized a hunt in which everybody but the Muskrat took part. 'Of all unnecessary things,' said he, 'your mother's bag is the most unnecessary. After all, time passes and the days change exactly the same whether she has her bag or not.'
    'That is not the point,' said Moominpappa, indignantly. 'I must confess that I feel most strangely towards Moominmamma without her bag. I've never seen her without it before!'
    'Was there much in it?' asked the Snork.
    'No,' said Moominmamma, 'only things that we might need in a hurry like dry socks and sweets and string and tummy-powder and so on.'
    'What reward do we get if we find it?' Sniff wanted to know.
    'Almost anything!' said Moominmamma. 'I know, I'll give a big party for you, and you can have nothing but cake for tea, and nobody need wash or go to bed early!'
    After that the search continued twice as hard. They hunted through the whole house. They looked under the carpets and under the beds; in the stove and in the cellar; in the attic and on the roof. They searched the whole garden, the wood-shed and down by the river. The bag was not to be found.
    'Perhaps you climbed a tree with it or took it with you when you went to have a bath?' asked Sniff.
    But Moominmamma only shook her head and wailed: 'Oh, unhappy day!'
    Then the Snork suggested putting an advertisement in the paper, which they did, and the paper came out with two big items of news on the front page:
    SNUFKIN LEAVES MOOMINDALE
Mysterious departure at dawn
    and in slightly bigger letters:
    MOOMINMAMMA'S HANDBAG DISAPPEARS
No clues
Search in progress
Biggest ever August party as reward to finder.
    *
    As soon as the news had got about, a huge crowd collected in the wood, on the hills and by the sea, and even the smallest forest rat joined in the hunt. Only the old and infirm stayed at home, and the whole valley echoed with shouting and running.
    'Dear me!' said Moominmamma. 'What an upheaval!' But she was secretly rather pleased about it.
    'What's all the