Moominvalley in November Read Online Free PDF Page B

Fillyjonk's shrill voice in the garden, she had found the Hemulen.
    Toft felt very sleepy. He tried to describe the Happy Family, but he couldn't. Then he told himself all about the solitary creature instead, the little Nummulite who had something of Noctiluca about him and liked electricity.



CHAPTER 9
Mymble
    M YMBLE was walking through the forest and she thought: it's nice being a mymble. I feel absolutely splendid from top to toe.
    She liked her long legs and her red boots. On top of her head sat her haughty mymble hair-do, glossy and tight and a soft reddish-yellow like a little onion. She went through swamps and up hills and through the deep hollows that the rain had transformed into under-water landscapes, she walked quickly and sometimes she broke into a run just to feel how light and thin she was.
    Mymble had got an urge to go and see her little sister, Little My, whom the Moomin family had adopted some time ago. She imagined that Little My was just as down-to-earth and bad-tempered as ever and that she could still squeeze into a sewing-basket.
    When Mymble arrived Grandpa-Grumble was sitting on the bridge fishing with a home-made contraption. He was wearing his dressing-gown, gaiters and hat, and holding an umbrella. Mymble had never seen him close to, and she scrutinized him carefully and with a certain curiosity. He was surprisingly small.
    'I know who you are all right,' he said. 'And I am Grandpa-Grumble and nobody else! And I know you have parties on the sly because I can see the lights on in your windows all night!'
    'If you believe that, you'd believe anything,' Mymble answered unconcerned. 'Have you seen Little My?'
    Grandpa-Grumble pulled his contraption out of the water. It was empty.
    'Where's Little My?' Mymble asked.
    'Don't shout!' Grandpa-Grumble yelled. 'There's nothing wrong with my ears, and the fish may get scared and swim away!'
    'They did that long ago,' said Mymble, and ran off. Grandpa-Grumble sneezed and crept further in under his umbrella. His brook had always been full of fish. He looked down into the brown water rushing under the bridge in a glistening swollen mass, carrying with it thousands of floating, half-drowned objects which sped past and disappeared, all the time passing and disappearing... Grandpa-Grumble's eyes started to ache and he shut them in order to be able to see his own brook again, a clear brook with a sandy bottom and full of darting shiny fish...
    There's something wrong here, he thought anxiously. The bridge is all right, it's the right one. But I'm what's quite new... His thoughts drifted away and he fell asleep.
    *
    Fillyjonk sat on the veranda with blankets over her legs and looking as though she owned the whole valley and wasn't very pleased about it.

    'Hallo,' said Mymble. She could see at once that the house was empty.
    'Good morning,' Fillyjonk replied with the chilly charm she used for mymbles. 'They've all gone away. Without a word. One should feel grateful that the door wasn't locked!'
    'They never lock their doors,' Mymble said.
    'Yes they do,' Fillyjonk whispered and leant forward confidentially. 'They have locked doors. The clothes-cup-board upstairs is locked! Of course, that's where they keep their valuables, things they're afraid of losing!'
    Mymble looked at Fillyjonk, her anxious eyes and her hair all in tight curls with a hair-grip in each and her feather-boa. Fillyjonk hadn't changed. The Hemulen came up the garden-path, he was raking leaves into a basket.
    'Hallo,' said the Hemulen. 'So you're here too, are you?'
    'Who's that?' Mymble asked.
    'I brought a present with me,' Fillyjonk said behind her.
    'Toft,' the Hemulen explained, 'he's helping me a bit in the garden.'
    'A very fine china vase for Moominmamma! 'said Fillyjonk shrilly.

    'Really,' said Mymble. 'And you're raking leaves.'
    'I'm making the place look nice,' the Hemulen added.
    Suddenly Fillyjonk shouted: 'You mustn't touch old leaves! They're dangerous! They're full of