Comet in Moominland (4 page)

'I have lived on this river the whole of my life,' said the Muskrat, 'and never have I seen such weather. Not that it makes any difference to
me
of course, except for giving me something new to think about. It would be much better if it rained in the hot, dried-up valley on the other side of the mountains. We don't need rain here with the heavy dew we get every morning.'

'How do you know what it's like on the other side of the mountains if you've lived here all your life, Uncle Muskrat?' asked Sniff.

'An otter who swam down here once told me,' answered the Muskrat. 'I never make unnecessary journeys myself.'

'I love making journeys!' cried Moomintroll. 'There are hardly
any
unnecessary things, I think. Only eating porridge, and washing...'

Hush, child,' said Moominmamma. 'The Muskrat is a wise man who knows about everything, and why it is unnecessary. I only hope, as I said, that there isn't going to be another flood.'

'Who knows?' said the Muskrat. 'There has certainly been something strange in the air lately. I have had vague forebodings and thought more than usual. It's all the same to me what happens, but one thing is certain, that
something
is going to happen.'

'Something awful?' asked Sniff, pulling his nightshirt tighter around him.

'One never knows,' said the Muskrat.

'Now we'll all go to bed,' said Moominmamma. 'It's not good for children to hear frightening stories at night.'

So they all crept into their own corners and went to sleep. But in the morning the rain clouds were still marching over the sky, and the lonely wind howled through the blue-trees.

*
It was painted blue. Moominhouses usually are. Translator.

CHAPTER 2

Which is about stars with tails.

N
EXT
day it was cloudy. The Muskrat went out in the garden and lay in the hammock to think, and Moominpappa wrote his memoirs in the sky-blue room. Moomintroll was hanging about at the kitchen door.

'Mamma,' he said, 'do you think the Muskrat meant anything special when he mentioned those forebodings?'

'I don't think he meant so very much,' said Moominmamma. 'Don't worry about it dear. Perhaps he'd just got a chill in all that rain, and felt a bit queer. Now run along with Sniff and collect some pears from the blue-trees.'

Moomintroll went, but he was very thoughtful, and decided he would talk to the Muskrat about it later. He and Sniff carried the longest ladder they could find up the hill.

'Are we going to my cave?' asked Sniff.

'Yes,' answered Moomintroll. 'Later. But first we have to collect some pears for mamma.'

When they reached the biggest blue-tree they saw the silk-monkey sitting up in the branches waving to them.

'Hullo!' she screeched. 'What awful weather! My house is sopping wet, and the whole forest is beastly. Are you coming to hunt for crabs?'

'We haven't time,' said Moomintroll. 'Mamma is going to make some jam. And besides we've got more important things to think about.'

'Tell!' said the silk-monkey.

'I can't tell you except that something is going to happen,' said Moomintroll. 'Something dreadful and unnecessary that nobody knows much about. But there has been a strange feeling in the air lately.'

'Ha! ha!' said the silk-monkey. 'Very funny!'

'Now shut up,' said Moomintroll putting the ladder up against the blue-tree, 'and try to be helpful for a change.'

It was great fun to pick these pears because you could throw them down as hard as you liked and they bounced off the ground like rubber balls. Moomintroll and the other two picked and threw and shouted, and the pears hopped and bounced in all directions until the ground was covered with them. The silk-monkey laughed till she nearly fell off the tree.

'That's enough,' gasped Moomintroll at last. 'We can't eat that much jam in a year. Now we'll roll the whole lot down to the river - I'll stop them at the bridge. You stay here and take care of this end, silk-monkey, and Sniff can keep an eye on the water transport.'

'Roll the pears into the river!' screamed Sniff excitedly, and he ran off to the river, while the silk-monkey rolled the pears one after another down the slope. In they plopped, swirled round in the current and bounced over the stones. Sniff ran here and there poking them with a long stick when they got caught up on their journey down to the bridge, where Moomintroll trapped them and stacked up a big pile on the bank.

After a time Moominmamma came out of the house with a big gong. 'Lunch time, children!' she cried.

'Well,' said Moomintroll, as they came up the garden, 'Haven't we picked a lot?'

'You certainly have!' exclaimed Moominmamma. 'I've never seen so many pears!'

'Then can we take our lunch out?' said Moomintroll. 'To a secret place we have?'

'Oh, please!' entreated Sniff. 'With lots of food so that there's enough for the silk-monkey. And could we have lemonade too?'

'Yes, of course, dears,' said Moominmamma, and she wrapped up all kinds of good things and put them in a basket, with an umbrella on top to be on the safe side.

The weather was still dull and grey when they reached the cave. Moomintroll had been rather quiet on the way up, worrying about his pearls, and directly they had crept through the opening he shouted out in alarm: 'Someone has been here!'

'In my cave!' screamed Sniff. 'Wretched wretch!'

The pearls, which they had left neatly arranged in rows, had been collected together in the middle of the floor in a pattern. 'You might as well count them anyway,' said Moomintroll to the silk-monkey, who had joined them in the wood, 'you're the treasurer.'

She counted them four times and then once more for luck, but she always got a different answer. 'How many were there before?' asked Moomintroll.

'I can't remember,' said the silk-monkey, 'but the answer was different every time I counted them then, too.'

'Oh,' said Moomintroll. 'Well that must be right I suppose. But I wonder who could have been here?'

They sat looking gloomily at the pattern of pearls.

'It
does
look like something,' said Sniff at last. 'A star I think.'

'With a tail,' said the silk-monkey.

Sniff looked suspiciously at her. 'I suppose it wasn't you who did it?' he said, for he remembered very well how the silk-monkey had made her curly flourish, marking the mysterious path, on all the tree-trunks.

'It could have been me,' she said. 'But this time it happens to have been someone else.'

'It could have been
anybody,'
said Moomintroll, 'but never mind now. Let's eat first.'

So they unpacked pancakes, sandwiches, bananas and lemonade from their basket and divided it all into three equal parts. Then there was silence for some minutes while they all munched happily. When everything was finished they dug a hole in the sand and buried the paper and banana skins. And after that they dug another hole and buried the pearls. Then Moomintroll said:

'Now I've eaten and thought and everything is a little clearer., This star with a tail must be either a warning or a threat. Perhaps somebody is angry with us for some reason -a secret society for instance.'

'Do you think it's somewhere near?' asked Sniff, beginning to get anxious. 'It might easily be angry with
me,
mightn't it?'

'Yes - you especially,' said Moomintroll. 'That's very likely. Perhaps this is its cave you have discovered.'

Sniff went very pale and said: 'Perhaps we should go home?' Nobody took any notice of this of course; they went out on to the ledge and looked at the sea instead. It was like a huge grey silk eiderdown with white flowers on it. The flowers were sea-gulls resting on the water with their heads pointing out to sea.

Suddenly the silk-monkey began to laugh. 'Look!' she said, 'those funny sea-gulls think they're embroidery. They've just formed themselves into a big star!'

'With a tail!' exclaimed Moomintroll.

Sniff began to tremble violently. Then he took to his heels and ran along the ledge, quite forgetting that he had once been afraid of falling, across the sand, and off towards Moomin Valley. On the way he stumbled over tufts of grass and roots, got entangled with branches, fell on his nose, splashed through a stream, and arrived in the valley at last quite dizzy and exhausted. He shot like an arrow into Moominhouse.