Moominsummer Madness Read Online Free PDF

feeling rather sorry in the drawing-room.
    'Never mind Misabel,' said the Mymble's daughter. 'Anything makes her fly off the handle.'
    'But she was right,' the Snork Maiden mumbled with a glance down at her stomach. 'I ought to have a frock.'
    'Of course not,' said the Mymble's daughter. 'Don't be silly.'
    'But you have one,' protested the Snork Maiden.
    'Well, that's me,' said the Mymble's daughter carelessly. 'Whomper! Should the Snork Maiden put on a frock?'
    'If she's cold,' replied Whomper.
    'No, no, just anyway,' explained the Snork Maiden.
    'Or of it rains,' said Whomper. 'But then it's more sensible to put on a raincoat.'
    The Snork Maiden shook her head. For a while she hesitated. Then she said: 'I'll go and have this matter out with Misabel.' She went for a flashlight and stepped into the small passage. It was empty.
    'Misabel?' cried the Snork Maiden in a hushed voice. 'As a matter of fact, I like your parting in the middle...'
    But no Misabel answered her. Then the Snork Maiden caught sight of a streak of light at one of the doors and pattered up to it to look through the crack.
    In the room behind the door Misabel was sitting all alone. She had a wholly new hair on. Long, yellow corkscrew curls framed her worried face.
    The little Misabel stared at her reflection in the glass and sighed. She reached for another beautiful mop of hair,

    a red and wild one, and pulled the fringe down to her eyes.
    It didn't make matters better. Finally, with trembling paws, she seized a set of curls that she had laid aside because she loved them most. They were magnificently jet-black with little dashes of gold glittering like tears. Breathlessly Misabel fitted this splendid hair over her own. For a Jong minute she looked at herself in the mirror. Then she lifted off the hair very slowly and sat staring at the floor.
    The Snork Maiden slipped back without disturbing her. She realized that Misabel wanted to be alone.
    But the Snork Maiden didn't return to the others. She went instead a bit further along the passage sniffing the air. She had noticed an enticing and very interesting scent, a scent of face powder. The small round spot from her flashlight wandered along the walls and finally caught the magic word 'Costumes' on a door. 'Dresses,' whispered the Snork Maiden to herself. 'Frocks!' She turned the doorhandle and stepped in.
    'Oh, how wonderful,' she panted. 'Oh how beautiful!'
    Robes, dresses, frocks. They hung in endless rows, in hundreds, one beside the other all round the room - gleaming brocade, fluffy clouds of tulle and swansdown, flowery silk, night-black velvet with glittering spangles everywhere like small, many-coloured blinker beacons.
    The Snork Maiden drew closer, overwhelmed. She fingered at the dresses. She seized an armful of them and pressed them to her snout, to her heart. The frocks rustled and swished, they smelled of dust and old perfume, they buried her in rich softness. Suddenly the Snork Maiden released them all and stood on her head for a few minutes.
    'To calm myself,' she whispered. 'I'll have to calm down

    a bit. Or else I'll burst with happiness. There's too many of them...'
    *
    A little before dinner Misabel was back again in the drawing-room and sat grieving alone by herself in a corner.
    'Hello,' said the Snork Maiden and sat down by her side.
    Misabel gave her a glance without replying.
    'I've been looking for a dress,' said the Snork Maiden. 'And I found several hundred and was so happy.'
    Misabel made a sound that could have meant anything.
    'Perhaps a thousand!' continued the Snork Maiden. 'And I looked and looked and tried on one after the other and felt sadder and sadder.'
    'Did you!' Misabel exclaimed.
    'Yes, what d'you think,' said the Snork Maiden. 'They were far too many, don't you see. I couldn't ever have had them all or even choose the prettiest. They nearly made me afraid! If there'd been only two instead!'
    'That'd been much easier,' replied Misabel a little more cheerfully.
    'So