Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson Read Free Book Online Page B

bathing-house.
    Moomintroll crept back into the drawing-room.
    A Little Creep had been frightened by the mirror and sat sobbing in the meerschaum tram.
    Otherwise everything was silent.
    'What troubles people have,' Moomintroll thought. 'Perhaps the jam isn't such an awful matter, after all. And I could always put the Sunday jar aside. The strawberry one. For the time being.'
    *
    At dawn the following day the valley was awakened by clear and piercing bugle notes. My sat up at once in her cave, and her feet started to beat time. Too-ticky pricked her ears, and Sorry-oo rushed under one of the benches, with his tail between his legs.
    Moomintroll's ancestor annoyedly rattled the damper, and most of the guests woke up.
    Moomintroll rushed to the window and crawled out through the snow-tunnel.

    The pale winter sun shone over a big Hemulen who came rushing down the nearest slope on his skis. He was holding a shining brass horn to his snout, and seemed to be having a splendid time.
    'That one's going to eat lots of jam,' Moomintroll thought. 'And whatever are those things he's got on his feet?'
    The Hemulen laid his bugle on the woodshed roof and took off his skis.
    'Good slopes you have hereabouts,' he said. 'Got any slalom here?'
    'I'll ask,' said Moomintroll.
    He crawled back to the drawing-room and asked:
    'Is there anybody here by name of Slalom?'
    'My name's Salome,' whispered the Creep who had been frightened by the mirror.
    Moomintroll went back out to the Hemulen and said: 'Almost, but not quite. Here's one Salome.'
    But the Hemulen was sniffing about in Moomin-pappa's tobacco plot and didn't listen. 'This is the place for a house,' he said. 'We'll make an igloo here.'
    'You might move into my house,' Moomintroll said lingeringly.
    'Thanks, never,' replied the Hemulen. 'Too stuffy and unhealthy. I want fresh air, and lots of it. Let's start at once and not lose any time.'
    Moomintroll's guests were beginning to crawl outside. They stopped and stood staring.
    'Won't he play some more?' asked Salome the Little Creep.
    'There's a time for everything, young lady,' said the Hemulen briskly. 'This is the time for a spot of work.'
    A little later all the guests were busy building an igloo on Moominpappa's tobacco plot. The Hemulen himself was enjoying a swim in the river, with a couple of chilled Creep as terrified spectators.
    Moomintroll went running down to the bathing-house at top-speed.
    'Too-ticky!' he shouted. 'There's a Hemulen here...

    He's going to live in an igloo, and at this moment he's bathing in the river.'
    'Oh, that kind of Hemulen,' Too-ticky said earnestly. 'Then good-bye to peace and all that.' She laid her fishing-rod aside.
    On their way back they met Little My who beamed with excitement. 'Seen what he's got?' she cried. 'They're called skis! I'm going to get myself a pair exactly like them at once!'
    The igloo was already taking shape. The guests drudged for all they were worth, all the while throwing longing looks towards the jam-cellar. The Hemulen was doing gymnastics down by the river. 'Isn't the cold wonderful?' he said. 'I'm never in such good shape as in winter. Won't you have a dip before breakfast?'
    Moomintroll stared at the Hemulen's sweater. It was black and lemon-yellow and zigzaggy. He wondered, slightly troubled, why he couldn't find the Hemulen a jolly person. Although he had been longing and longing for somebody who wouldn't be secretive and distant but cheery and tangible, exactly like the Hemulen.
    And now he was feeling more a stranger to the Hemulen than even to the angry and incomprehensible beast under the sink.
    He looked helplessly at Too-ticky. She was pouting her underlip and looking at her mitten with raised eyebrows. From this Moomintroll knew that Too-ticky didn't like the Hemulen either. He turned to the Hemulen and said with all the kindness of a bad conscience: 'It must be wonderful to like cold water.'
    T love it,' replied the Hemulen, beaming at him. 'It puts a stop to