Moominland Midwinter Read Online Free PDF Page B

snow.
    Thud goes the drumming
    In the black, black night.

    'I've got enough of your snow and night,' cried the Moomintroll. 'No, I won't hear the refrain. I'm cold! I'm lonely! I want the sun back again!'
    'But that's exactly why we burn up the great winter bonfire tonight,'aid Too-ticky. 'You'll get your sun back tomorrow.'
    'My sun,' repeated Moomintroll in a trembling voice.
    Too-ticky nodded and rubbed her nose.
    Moomintroll was silent a long while.
    Then he cautiously asked: 'Do you think she'd notice if the garden sofa were there or not?'
    'Now listen,' replied Too-ticky sternly. 'This bonfire is a thousand years older than your garden sofa. You ought to feel honoured by its being good enough to be laid on top.'
    And Moomintroll said no more. 'I'll have to explain that to the family,' he thought. 'And perhaps there'll be new driftwood and a new sofa on the shore after the spring gales.'
    The pyre was growing. Dried-up tree-trunks were being lugged up the hillside, as well as rotten stubs, old casks and battens that people seemed to have found on the shore. But the people themselves never came into view. Moomintroll had a feeling that the hill was thronged with them, but he never caught sight of anybody.

    Little My came along, trailing her cardboard box in the snow. 'I won't need it now,' she said. 'The silver tray's much better. And my sister seems to like sleeping in the drawing-room carpet. When are we going to light the fire.'
    'At moonrise,'said Too-ticky.
    Moomintroll felt greatly excited all evening. He padded from one room to the next and lit more candles than usual. Now and again he stood still, listening to the even breathing of the sleepers and to the light snapping in the walls as the cold sharpened.
    He felt certain that all the mysterious people would come out of their holes and dens tonight, all the light-shy and unreal that Too-ticky had talked about. They'd come padding up to the great bonfire that all the small beasts had lighted to make the dark and the cold go away. And now he would see them.
    Moomintroll lit the oil-lamp and went up to the attic. He opened the hatch. The moon had not yet risen, but

    the valley was bleakly lighted by the aurora borealis. Down by the bridge a file of torches was moving along, surrounded by leaping shadows. They were on their way to the seashore and the hilltop.
    Moomintroll climbed cautiously down with the lighted lamp in his hand. The garden and the wood were filled with flickering lights and whispers, and all tracks were leading towards the hill.
    When he reached the shore the moon was already high over the ice, chalk-blue and terribly remote. Something moved beside Moomintroll, and he looked down into Little My's ferociously gleaming eyes.
    'It's going to be quite a fire,' she laughed. 'Make all the moonshine look silly.'
    They looked towards the hilltop at the same time and saw a yellow flame rising against the sky. Too-ticky had lit the bonfire.
    It wrapped itself in flames at once, from ground to top, it gave a roar like a lion and threw its reflection straight down on the black ice. A lonely little tune came running past Moomintroll: it was the invisible shrew who was a little late for the winter ritual.
    Small and great shadows were solemnly skipping round the fire on the hilltop. Tails were beginning to thud on drums.
    'Good-bye to your garden sofa,' said Little My.
    'I've never needed it,' Moomintroll replied, impatiently. He stumbled up the icy slope. It was glittering in the firelight. The snow was melting from the heat, and the warm water wet his paws.
    'The sun's coming back again,' Moomintroll thought in great excitement. 'No darkness, no loneliness any more. Once again I'll sit in the sun on the verandah and feel my back warming...'
    Now he was up on the top. The air was hot around the fire. The invisible shrew was blowing another and wilder tune.
    But the dancing shadows were already gliding away, and the drums were thudding on the other side of the