Tales From Moominvalley Read Online Free PDF

towards her, nearer and nearer...
    Those storms of her own were the worst ones. And deep down in her heart the fillyjonk was just a little proud of her disasters that belonged to no one else.
    Gaffsie is a jackass, she thought. A silly woman with cakes and pillow-slips all over her mind. And she doesn't know a thing about flowers. And least of all about me. Now she's sitting at home thinking that I haven't ever experienced anything. I, who see the end of the world every day, and still I'm going on putting on my clothes, and taking them off again, and eating and washing-up the dishes and receiving visits, just as if nothing ever happened!
    The fillyjonk thrust out her nose from the quilt, stared severely out in the dark and said: 'I'll show you.'
    Whatever that meant. Then she snuggled down under her quilt and pressed her paws against her ears.
    *
    But outside the gale was steadily rising towards midnight, and by one o'clock it had reached 47 yards per second (or however they measure the big storms).
    About two o'clock in the morning the chimney blew down. Half of it fell outside the house and the other half smashed down into the kitchen fireplace. Through the hole in the ceiling one could see the dark night sky and great rushing clouds. And then the gale found its way inside and nothing at all was to be seen except flying

    ashes, wildly fluttering curtains and tablecloths and photographs of aunts and uncles whirling through the air. All the fillyjonk's sacred things came to life, rustling, tinkling and clashing everywhere, doors were banging and pictures crashing to the floor.
    In the middle of the drawing-room stood the fillyjonk herself, dazed and wild in her fluttering skirt, thinking confusedly: this is it. Now comes the end. At last. Now I don't have to wait any more.
    She lifted the telephone receiver to call Gaffsie and tell her... well, tell her a few really crushing things. Coolly and triumphantly.
    But the telephone wires had blown down.
    The fillyjonk could hear nothing but the gale and the rattle of loosening roof-tiles. If I were to go up to the attic the roof would blow off, she thought. And if I go down in the cellar the whole house comes down over me. It's going to do it anyway.
    She got hold of a china kitten and pressed it hard in her paw. Then a window blew open and shattered its pane in small fragments over the floor. A gust of rain spattered the mahogany furniture, and the stately plaster



hemulen threw himself from his pedestal and went to pieces.
    With a sickening crash her great chandelier fell to the floor. It had belonged to her maternal uncle. All around her the fillyjonk heard her belongings cry and creak. Then she caught a flash of her own pale snout in a fragment of a mirror, and without any further thought she rushed up to the window and jumped out.
    She found herself sitting in the sand. She felt warm raindrops on her face, and her dress was fluttering and flapping around her like a sail.
    She shut her eyes very tight and knew that she was in the midst of danger, totally helpless.
    The gale was blowing, steady and undisturbed. But all the alarming noises had vanished, all the howling and crashing, the thumping, splintering and tearing. The danger had been inside the house, not outside.
    The fillyjonk drew a wary breath, smelt the bitter tang of the sea-weed, and opened her eyes.
    The darkness was no longer as dark as it had been in her drawing-room.
    She could see the breakers and the light-house's outstretched arm of light that slowly moved through the night, passing her, wandering off over the sand dunes, losing itself towards the horizon and returning again. Round and round circled the calm light, keeping an eye on the gale.
    I've never been out alone at night before, the fillyjonk thought. If Mother knew...
    She started to crawl against the wind, down to the beach, to get as far away as possible from the hemulen's house. She still held the china kitten in her left paw, it calmed her to