Mary-Mary by Joan G. Robinson

firemen were very nice and said accidents did happen sometimes, and they were glad the children hadn’t been playing a joke on them, because that would be a very serious matter. Then every one suddenly remembered that Mary-Mary was still outside the front gate. So Mother sent Miriam to fetch her in.
    Mary-Mary came in with her wet hair still sticking out in spikes all round her head, and her hands and knees black where she had climbed up on the wall to watch the fire engine arrive. Her face was black too, where she had rubbed it with her hands.
    â€œI know now what I’m going to be when I grow up,” she said, smiling brightly at them all. “I’m going to be a fire lady.”
    â€œSo you’re the young lady who was locked up in the coal cellar?” said one of the firemen.
    â€œOh, no,” said Mary-Mary. “I was locked up in the bathroom.”
    â€œWere you really, now?” said the fireman. “I wonder what made me think it was the coal cellar.”
    Mary-Mary couldn’t think either; but, as everybody laughed, she laughed too. It was fun having four real firemen drinking tea in her house on a Saturday morning.
    When they had finished their tea the firemen showed Miriam, Martyn, Mervyn, and Meg all sorts of interesting things: the ladders with hooks on them for climbing up the walls of houses; the hoses, coiled up tightly like Swiss rolls, that could be joined together to make one long one if they wanted it; and even the little iron lid that covered the hole in the road where they got the water to put out a fire.
    Then they all said good-bye, and thank you for the tea, and thank you for coming; and Miriam, Martyn, Mervyn, Meg, and Mary-Mary waved until the fire engine was out of sight.
    â€œWell, that
was
fun!” said Miriam.
    â€œJust what we wanted!” said Martyn.
    â€œBetter than having the road dug up,” said Mervyn.
    â€œOr a tree cut down,” said Meg.
    â€œI’m so glad you liked it,” said Mary-Mary, smiling proudly at them all.
    â€œGood gracious, Mary-Mary!” they said. “Do you mean to say you did all that on purpose?”
    â€œNo, not quite,” said Mary-Mary. “I really did lose the key. But when I found it again I thought how disappointed you’d all be, because I knew you so specially wanted something interesting to happen. And I couldn’t dig up the road for you, or cut a tree down, but I’d jolly nearly got you a fire engine without meaning to, so I ran away and hid because I thought it would be such a pity to spoil it.”
    â€œThat
was
sweet of you,” said Miriam.
    â€œYou
are
a sport,” said Martyn.
    â€œThanks
awfully,
Mary-Mary,” said Mervyn.
    â€œBut you’d better not do it again,” said Meg.
    â€œOh, no,” said Mary-Mary, “once is enough. But I am glad you all enjoyed it.”
    So Mary-Mary made the morning exciting, after all, and that is the end of the story.

JOAN G. ROBINSON
    Joan G. Robinson (1910–88) was the second of four children to barrister parents. She trained as an illustrator and in 1939 began writing and illustrating stories for the very young. She published over thirty books in her lifetime for three different age groups. In 1953 the first of her enduringly popular
Teddy Robinson
series about her daughter Deborah and her teddy was published, followed by the
Mary-Mary
series, about the youngest of five children. In 1967
When Marnie Was There
was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Published in Great Britain in 2013 by Hot Key Books
    Northburgh House,
10 Northburgh Street,
London EC1V 0AT
    Mary-Mary
first published by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd in 1957
    More Mary-Mary
first published by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd in 1958
    Text and illustrations copyright © the Estate of Joan G. Robinson
    The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
    All rights reserved.
    No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted