Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson Page B
Authors: Tove Jansson
Tags: Fiction, General, Fantasy, Juvenile Nonfiction, Classics, Action & Adventure, Family, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, Nature & the Natural World, Seasons, Concepts, winter, Moomins (Fictitious Characters), Environment, Surprise
Ads: Link
a moment. Then he decided that he would feel still worse if he were the only one awake among the sleeping.
And that was why Moomintroll made the first tracks in the snow, over the bridge and up the slope. They were very small tracks, but they were resolute and pointed straight in among the trees, southwards.
CHAPTER 2
The bewitched bathing-house
Down by the sea, farther to the west, a young squirrel was skipping aimlessly about in the snow. He was quite a foolish little squirrel who liked to think of himself as 'the squirrel with the marvellous tail'.
As a matter of fact, he never thought at all about anything for very long. Mostly he just had a feeling about things. His latest feeling was that his mattress in the nest was getting knobbly, and so he had gone out to look for a new one.
Now and again he mumbled: 'A mattress,' to keep himself from forgetting what he was looking for. He forgot things very easily.
The squirrel went skipping this way and that, in among the trees and out on the ice, he stuck his nose in the snow and pondered, looked up at the sky and shook his head and skipped along again.
He came to the cave on the hill and skipped inside. But when he had got there he wasn't able to concentrate any longer, and so he forgot all about his mattress. Instead he sat down on his tail and began to think that people could just as well call him 'the squirrel with the marvellous whiskers'.
Behind the great snowdrift at the opening of the cave somebody had spread out straw on the floor. And in the straw stood a large cardboard box with the lid partly raised.
'That's strange,' said the squirrel aloud, with some surprise. 'That cardboard box wasn't here before. Must be something wrong about it. Or else this is the wrong cave. Or I might be the wrong squirrel, but I wouldn't like to believe that.'
He poked up a corner of the lid and put his head inside the box.
It was warm, and it seemed to be filled with something soft and nice. Suddenly the squirrel remembered his mattress. His small, sharp teeth cut into the soft stuffing and pulled out a flock of wool.
He pulled out one flock after the other; he soon had his arms full of wool and was working hard with all four paws. He felt extremely pleased and happy.
Then all at once someone was trying to bite the squirrel in the leg. Like a streak of lightning he whizzed out of the box, then hesitated for a moment and decided to feel more curious than scared.
Presently an angry head with tousled hair appeared in the hole he had bitten in the wool.
'Are you all there, you !?!' said Little My.
'I'm not sure,' said the squirrel.
'Now you've waked me,' Little My continued severely. 'And eaten half my sleeping-bag. What's the great idea?'
But the squirrel was so beside himself that he had forgotten his mattress again.
Little My gave a snort and climbed out of the cardboard box. She closed the lid on her sister, who was still asleep, and went over and felt the snow with her paw.
'So this is what it's like,' she said. 'Funny ideas people get.' She squeezed a snowball and hit the squirrel on the head with her first throw. And then Little My stepped out from the cave to take possession of the winter.
The first thing she accomplished was to slip on the icy cliff and sit down very hard.
'I see,' Little My said in a threatening voice. 'They think they'll get away with anything.'
Then she happened to think of what a My looks like with her legs in the air, and she chuckled to herself for quite a while. She inspected the cliff and the hillside and thought a bit. Then she said: 'Well, now,' and did a jumpy switchback slide far out on the smooth ice.
She repeated this six times more and noticed that it made her tummy cold.
Little My went back into the cave and turned her
sleeping sister out of the cardboard box. My had never seen a toboggan, but she had a definite feeling that there were many sensible ways of using a cardboard box.
As to the squirrel, he was sitting in the
And that was why Moomintroll made the first tracks in the snow, over the bridge and up the slope. They were very small tracks, but they were resolute and pointed straight in among the trees, southwards.
CHAPTER 2
The bewitched bathing-house
Down by the sea, farther to the west, a young squirrel was skipping aimlessly about in the snow. He was quite a foolish little squirrel who liked to think of himself as 'the squirrel with the marvellous tail'.
As a matter of fact, he never thought at all about anything for very long. Mostly he just had a feeling about things. His latest feeling was that his mattress in the nest was getting knobbly, and so he had gone out to look for a new one.
Now and again he mumbled: 'A mattress,' to keep himself from forgetting what he was looking for. He forgot things very easily.
The squirrel went skipping this way and that, in among the trees and out on the ice, he stuck his nose in the snow and pondered, looked up at the sky and shook his head and skipped along again.
He came to the cave on the hill and skipped inside. But when he had got there he wasn't able to concentrate any longer, and so he forgot all about his mattress. Instead he sat down on his tail and began to think that people could just as well call him 'the squirrel with the marvellous whiskers'.
Behind the great snowdrift at the opening of the cave somebody had spread out straw on the floor. And in the straw stood a large cardboard box with the lid partly raised.
'That's strange,' said the squirrel aloud, with some surprise. 'That cardboard box wasn't here before. Must be something wrong about it. Or else this is the wrong cave. Or I might be the wrong squirrel, but I wouldn't like to believe that.'
He poked up a corner of the lid and put his head inside the box.
It was warm, and it seemed to be filled with something soft and nice. Suddenly the squirrel remembered his mattress. His small, sharp teeth cut into the soft stuffing and pulled out a flock of wool.
He pulled out one flock after the other; he soon had his arms full of wool and was working hard with all four paws. He felt extremely pleased and happy.
Then all at once someone was trying to bite the squirrel in the leg. Like a streak of lightning he whizzed out of the box, then hesitated for a moment and decided to feel more curious than scared.
Presently an angry head with tousled hair appeared in the hole he had bitten in the wool.
'Are you all there, you !?!' said Little My.
'I'm not sure,' said the squirrel.
'Now you've waked me,' Little My continued severely. 'And eaten half my sleeping-bag. What's the great idea?'
But the squirrel was so beside himself that he had forgotten his mattress again.
Little My gave a snort and climbed out of the cardboard box. She closed the lid on her sister, who was still asleep, and went over and felt the snow with her paw.
'So this is what it's like,' she said. 'Funny ideas people get.' She squeezed a snowball and hit the squirrel on the head with her first throw. And then Little My stepped out from the cave to take possession of the winter.
The first thing she accomplished was to slip on the icy cliff and sit down very hard.
'I see,' Little My said in a threatening voice. 'They think they'll get away with anything.'
Then she happened to think of what a My looks like with her legs in the air, and she chuckled to herself for quite a while. She inspected the cliff and the hillside and thought a bit. Then she said: 'Well, now,' and did a jumpy switchback slide far out on the smooth ice.
She repeated this six times more and noticed that it made her tummy cold.
Little My went back into the cave and turned her
sleeping sister out of the cardboard box. My had never seen a toboggan, but she had a definite feeling that there were many sensible ways of using a cardboard box.
As to the squirrel, he was sitting in the
Similar Books
