Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (3 page)

Now the girl who answers the telephone called up the next towns and told them what was happening in Popperville. All the people came over to see if Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel could dig the cellar in just one day. The more people came, the faster Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne dug.

Never had Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne had so many people to watch them; never had they dug so fast and so well; and never had the sun seemed to go down so fast. Dirt was flying everywhere, and the smoke and steam were so thick that the people could hardly see anything. But listen!

BING! BANG! CRASH! SLAM!
LOUDER AND LOUDER,
FASTER AND
FASTER.

Then suddenly it was quiet. Slowly the dirt settled down. The smoke and steam cleared away, and there was the cellar, all finished. The sun was just going down behind the hill.

"Hurray!" shouted the people. "Hurray for Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel! They have dug the cellar in just one day!"

Suddenly the little boy said, "How are they going to get out?"

Mike Mulligan looked around at the four square walls and four square corners, and he said, "We've dug so fast and we've dug so well that we've quite forgotten to leave a way out!"

Nothing like this had ever happened before in Popperville. Everybody started talking at once, and everybody had a different idea, and everybody thought that his idea was the best.

Now the little boy had another good idea. "Why couldn't we leave Mary Anne in the cellar and build the new town hall above her? Let her be the furnace for the new town hall
^*
and let Mike Mulligan be the janitor."

^*
Acknowledgments to Dickie Birkenbush

"Why not?" said all the people. So they found a ladder and climbed down into the cellar to ask Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne.

"Why not?" said Mike Mulligan. So it was decided, and everybody was happy.

They built the new town hall right over Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne. It was finished before winter.

Now when you go to Popperville, be sure to go down in the cellar of the new town hall.