Moominland Midwinter Read Online Free PDF Page A

squirrel on the table.
    The invisible shrews came running with hot water and rolled the squirrel in a warmed towel. But his little legs sprouted just as sadly and stiffly in the air, and he did not move a whisker.

    'He's quite dead,' said Little My matter-of-factly.
    'At least he saw something beautiful before he died,' said Moomintroll in a trembling voice.
    'Oh, well,' said Little My. 'In any case he's forgotten it by now. And I'm going to make myself a sweet little muff out of his tail.'
    'But you can't!' Moomintroll cried, very upset. 'He must have his tail with him in the grave. Because he has to be buried, hasn't he, Too-ticky?'
    'Mphm,' replied Too-ticky. 'It's very hard to tell if people take any pleasure in their tails when they're dead.'
    'Please,' said Moomintroll. 'Don't talk about him being dead all the time. It's so sad.' *
    'When one's dead, then one's dead,' said Too-ticky kindly. 'This squirrel will become earth all in his time. And still later on there'll grow trees from him, with new squirrels skipping about in them. Do you think that's so very sad?'*
    'Perhaps not,' said Moomintroll, and blew his snout. 'But in any case he's going to be buried tomorrow, and his tail too, and we'll have a nice and very proper funeral,'
    *
    The following day it was very cold in the bathing-house. The fire was lighted in the stove, but evidently the invisible shrews were tired. The coffee pot that Moomintroll had brought from home had a thin layer of ice under the lid.
    Moomintroll wouldn't take any coffee, out of consideration for the dead squirrel. 'You'll have to give me my bath-gown,' he said solemnly. 'Mother's told me that funerals are always cold.'
    'Turn your back and count ten,' said Too-ticky.
    Moomintroll turned towards the window and counted. At eight Too-ticky shut the cupboard door and gave him his blue gown.
    'Oh, you remembered that mine was the blue one,' Moomintroll said happily. He stuck his paws in the pockets at once but found no sun-glasses there, only a little sand and a perfectly round and smooth, white pebble.
    He closed his paw around the pebble. Its roundness held all the security of summer. He could even imagine that it was still a little warm from lying in the sun.
    'You look as if you were at the wrong party,' said Little My.
    Moomintroll didn't look at her.
    'Are you coming to the funeral or not?' he asked in a dignified manner.
    'Of course we're coming,' said Too-ticky. 'He was a nice squirrel in his way.'
    'Especially the tail,' Little My said.

    They wrapped the squirrel in an old bathing-cap and stepped out into the bitter cold.
    The snow crunched under their paws, and their breaths became clouds of white smoke. Moomintroll soon felt his snout stiffen so that it was impossible to wrinkle it.
    'Tough going, this,' Little My said happily and skipped along over the frozen shore.
    'Can't you slow up a bit,' asked Moomintroll. 'This is a funeral.'
    He was able to draw only very short breaths of the icy air.
    'I never knew you had any eyebrows at all,' said Little My interestedly. 'Now they're all white and you look more confused than ever.'
    'That's rime,' said Too-ticky sternly. 'And keep quiet now, because neither you nor I know anything about funerals.'
    Moomintroll cheered up. He carried the squirrel up to the house and laid it down before the snow-horse.
    Then he went up the rope-ladder and down into the warm, peaceful drawing-room where everybody lay asleep.

    He searched all the drawers. He ransacked every place, but he didn't find what he needed.
    He went to his Mother's bed and whispered a question in her ear. She sighed and turned around. Moomintroll repeated his whisper.
    Then Moominmamma answered, from the depths of her womanly understanding of all that preserves tradition: 'Black bands... they're in my cupboard... top shelf... to the right...' And she sank back into her winter sleep again.
    But Moomintroll took out the ladder from under the staircase and climbed up to the top shelf