Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson Page A

health.
    'But I don't understand,' exclaimed the Hemulen.
    Mymble kicked him in the leg.
    'You must all drink his health,' said Grandpa-Grumble, and stepped to one side. 'Where did he go to?'
    'We're much too young to drink with him,' said Fillyjonk hastily, 'he might be angry...'
    'Three cheers for the Ancestor!' the Hemulen exclaimed. 'One, two, three, hip hip hooray!'
    As they were going back to the kitchen, Grandpa-Grumble turned to Fillyjonk and said: 'You're not all that young...'
    'Yes, yes,' said Fillyjonk absently, and lifted her nose and sniffed. There was a musty smell, a nasty smell of decay. She looked at Toft. He turned away and thought: electricity.
    It was nice to be back in the warm kitchen again.
    'Now I want to see some conjuring tricks,' Grandpa-Grumble declared. 'Can anyone produce a rabbit out of my hat?'
    'No, it's my turn now,' said Fillyjonk with dignity.
    'I know what it is,' cried Mymble. 'It's going to be that awful business of hers where one of the guests goes out of the room and is eaten up, and then another goes outside and is eaten up...'
    'It's a shadow-play,' said Fillyjonk unmoved. She went up to the stove and turned and faced them. 'It is a shadow-play, called "The Return".' She hung the sheet over the bread-rack in the ceiling. Then she placed the kitchen lamp on the log-basket behind the sheet and went round blowing out the lanterns one after the other.
    'And when the lights went on again, the last one had been eaten up,' Mymble said under her breath.
    The Hemulen hushed her. Fillyjonk disappeared behind the sheet, shining big and white, everybody looked and waited and Snufkin started to play softly, almost in a whisper.
    Then a shadow appeared on the white sheet, a black silhouette, it was a. boat. There was somebody very small sitting in the prow who had an onion-shaped little knot on top of her head.
    It's Little My, Mymble thought. She looks just like that. I must say this is well done.
    The boat glided slowly on across the sheet, over the sea, never before had a boat sailed so silently and so naturally, and there sat the whole family, Moomintroll and Moominmamma with her handbag leaning against the gunwale and Moominpappa with his hat on sat in the stern and steered; they were sailing home. (But the rudder didn't look right.)
    Toft could only look at Moominmamma. He had time to take in every detail, for him the dark shadow took on colours, the silhouettes seemed to move and all the time

    Snufkin went on playing so fittingly that no one was conscious of the music until it stopped. The family had come home.
    That was a real shadow-play, Grandpa-Grumble said to himself. I have seen many shadow-plays in my time and I can remember them all, but that was the best.
    The curtain came down, the play was over. Fillyjonk blew out the kitchen lamp and the room was plunged in darkness. They all sat still in the dark, waiting, a little taken aback.
    Suddenly Fillyjonk said: 'I can't find the matches.'
    The darkness immediately took on a different character. They could hear the wind whistling, and it seemed as though the kitchen had expanded, the walls sliding out into the night beyond, and their legs felt cold.
    'I can't find the matches!' Fillyjonk repeated shrilly.
    There was a scraping of chair legs and something fell over on the table. They had all stood up, they bumped into each other in the dark, somebody got all tangled up in the sheet and fell over a chair. Toft raised his head, the Creature was outside now, a great heavy body rubbing along the wall by the kitchen door. There was a rumble of thunder.
    'They're outside!' Fillyjonk screamed. 'They're crawling in here!'
    Toft put his ear against the door and listened, he couldn't hear anything except the wind. He raised the latch and went out, and the door closed noiselessly behind him.
    At last the lamp was alight. Snufkin had found the matches. The Hemulen gave an embarrassed laugh. 'Look!' he said, 'I've stuck my paw into the Welsh