Finn Family Moomintroll (13 page)

'And playing Tarzan in the jungle,' added Moomintroll sadly.

'Rood giddance to rad bubbish!' said Thingumy taking the suitcase in one hand and Bob in the other, and together they walked off towards Moominhouse while the others stood looking after them.

'What do they say now?' asked Sniff.

'Well! "Good afternoon!" is near enough,' said the Hemulen.

Chapter seven

Which is very long and describes Snufkin's departure and how the Contents of the mysterious suitcase were revealed; also how Moominmamma found her handbag and arranged a party to celebrate it, and finally how the Hobgoblin arrived in the Valley of the Moomins.

IT was the end of August - the time when owls hoot at night and flurries of bats swoop noiselessly over the garden. Moomin Wood was full of glow-worms, and the sea was disturbed. There was expectation and a certain sadness in the air, and the harvest moon came up huge and yellow. Moomintroll had always liked those last weeks of summer most, but he didn't really know why.

The wind and the sea had changed their tone; there was a new feeling in the air; the trees stood waiting, and Moomintroll wondered if something strange were going to happen. He had woken up and lay looking at the ceiling thinking about the sunshine, and that it must be quite early in the morning.

Then he turned his head and saw that Snufkin's bed was empty. And at that moment he heard the secret signal under his window - a long whistle and two short ones, which meant: 'What are your plans for today?'

Moomintroll jumped out of bed and looked out of the window. The sun hadn't reached the garden yet, and it looked cool and enticing down there. Snufkin was waiting.

'Pee-hoo,' said Moomintroll, very quietly so as not to wake anybody, and then he clambered down the rope-ladder.

They said 'hullo' to each other and then wandered down to the river and sat on the bridge with their legs dangling over the water. The sun had risen above the tree tops by this time, and it shone right into their eyes.

'We sat just like this in the spring,' said Moomintroll. 'Do you remember, we had woken up from our winter sleep and it was the very first day? All the others were still asleep.'

Snufkin nodded. He was busy making reed-boats and sailing them down the river.

'Where are they going?' asked Moomintroll.

'To places where I'm not,' Snufkin answered as, one after another, the little boats swirled away round the bend of the river and disappeared.

'Loaded with cinnamon, sharks' teeth and emeralds,' said Moomintroll.

'You talked of plans,' he went on. 'Have you got any yourself?'

'Yes,' said Snufkin. 'I have a plan. But it's a lonely one, you know.'

Moomintroll looked at him for a long time, and then he said: 'You're thinking of going away.'

Snufkin nodded, and they sat for a while swinging their legs over the water, without speaking, while the river flowed on and on beneath them to all the strange places that Snufkin longed for and would go to quite alone.

'When are you going?' Moomintroll asked.

'Now - immediately!' said Snufkin, throwing all the reed-boats into the water at once, and he jumped down from the bridge and sniffed the morning air. It was a good day to start a journey; the crest of the hill beckoned to him in the sunshine, with the road winding up and disappearing on the other side to find a new valley, and then a new hill...

Moomintroll stood looking on while Snufkin packed up his tent. 'Are you staying away long?' he asked.

'No,' said Snufkin, 'on the first day of spring I shall be here again whistling under your window - a year goes by so quickly!'

'Yes,' said Moomintroll. 'Cheerio then!'

'So long!' said Snufkin.

Moomintroll was left alone on the bridge. He watched Snufkin grow smaller and smaller, and at last disappear among the silver poplars and the plum trees. But after a while he heard the mouth-organ playing 'All small beasts should have bows in their tails', and then he knew that his friend was happy. He waited while the music grew fainter and fainter, till at last it was quite quiet, and then he trotted back through the dewy garden.

On the veranda steps he found Thingumy and Bob curled up in the sunshine.

'Good morning, Troominmoll,' said Thingumy.

'Good morning Bingumy and Thob,' answered Moomintroll, who had now mastered Thingumy and Bob's strange language.

'Are you crying?' asked Bob.

'N-no,' said Moomintroll, 'it's only that Snufkin has gone away.'

'Oh, dear - pot a wity!' said Thingumy, sympathetically. 'Would it cheer you up to niss Bob on the kose?'

So Moomintroll kissed Bob kindly on the nose, but it didn't make him feel any happier.

Then they put their heads together and whispered for a long time, and at last Bob announced, solemnly: 'We've decided to show you the Contents.'

'Of the suitcase?' asked Moomintroll.

Thingumy and Bob nodded eagerly. 'Come with us!' they said and scuttled away under the hedge.

Moomintroll crawled after them and discovered they had made a secret hiding place in the thickest part of the shrubbery. They had padded it with swansdown and decorated it with shells and small white stones. It was rather dark in there, and nobody passing the hedge would have suspected that there was a secret hiding-place on the other side. On a straw mat stood Thingumy and Bob's suitcase.

'That's the Snork Maiden's mat,' observed Moomintroll. 'She was looking for it only yesterday.'

'Oh, yes,' agreed Bob, happily. '
We
found it but she doesn't know, of course.'

'Hm,' said Moomintroll. 'And now weren't you going to show me what you've got in your suitcase?'

They nodded delightedly, and standing on either side of the suitcase said solemnly: 'Geady, steady, ro!'

And then the lid opened with a snap.

'Goodness gracious me!' exclaimed Moomintroll. A soft red light lit up the whole place, and before him lay a ruby as big as a panther's head, glowing like the sunset, like living fire.

'Do you like it mery vutch?' asked Thingumy.

'Yes,' said Moomintroll faintly.

'And now you won't cry any more, will you?' said Bob.

Moomintroll shook his head.

Thingumy and Bob sighed contentedly and settled down to contemplate the precious stone. They stared in silent rapture at it.

The ruby changed colour all the time. At first it was quite pale, and then suddenly a pink glow would flow over it like the sunrise on a snow-capped mountain - and then again crimson flames shot out of its heart and it seemed like a great black tulip with stamens of fire.

'Oh! if only Snufkin could see it!' sighed Moomintroll, and he stood there a long, long time while time grew weary and his thoughts were very big.

At last he said: 'It was wonderful. May I come back and look at it another day?'

But Thingumy and Bob didn't answer, so he crawled under the hedge again, feeling a bit giddy in the pale daylight, and had to sit on the grass for a while to recover himself.

'Goodness gracious me!' he repeated. 'I'll eat my tail if that isn't the King's Ruby that the Hobgoblin is still looking for in the craters of the moon. To think that this odd little couple have had it in their suitcase all the time!' Just then the Snork Maiden wandered out into the garden and came to sit beside him, but Moomintroll was so sunk in thought that he didn't notice her. After a while she poked cautiously at the tuft of his tail.

'Oh - it's you, is it?' said Moomintroll, jumping up.

The Snork Maiden smiled coyly. 'Have you seen my hair?' she asked patting her head.

'All right, let's,' said Moomintroll absently.

'What
is
the matter with you?' she asked.

'My dear little rose-petal, I can't explain, even to you. But my heart is very heavy. You see, Snufkin has gone away.'

'Oh, no!' said the Snork Maiden.

'Yes, really. But he did say good-bye to me first,' Moomintroll replied. 'He didn't wake anyone else.'

They sat there on the grass for a while, the sun gradually warming their backs, and then Sniff and the Snork came out on the steps.

'Hullo,' said the Snork Maiden. 'Do you know that Snufkin has gone South?'

'What, without me?' said Sniff, indignantly.

'One must be alone sometimes,' said Moomintroll, 'but you're still too young to understand that. Where are the others?'

'The Hemulen has gone to pick mushrooms,' said the Snork, 'and the Muskrat has taken his hammock in, because he thinks the nights are beginning to get cold. And then your mother is in a very bad mood today.'

'Angry or sad?' Moomintroll asked, in surprise.

'More sad, I think,' answered the Snork.

'Then I must go in to her at once,' said Moomintroll. He found Moominmamma sitting on the drawing-room sofa looking most unhappy.

'What is it, mother?' he asked.

'My dear, something terrible has happened,' she said, 'my handbag has disappeared. I can't do anything without it. I've searched everywhere, but it isn't there.'

So Moomintroll organized a hunt in which everybody but the Muskrat took part. 'Of all unnecessary things,' said he, 'your mother's bag is the most unnecessary. After all, time passes and the days change exactly the same whether she has her bag or not.'

'That is not the point,' said Moominpappa, indignantly. 'I must confess that I feel most strangely towards Moominmamma without her bag. I've never seen her without it before!'

'Was there much in it?' asked the Snork.

'No,' said Moominmamma, 'only things that we might need in a hurry like dry socks and sweets and string and tummy-powder and so on.'

'What reward do we get if we find it?' Sniff wanted to know.

'Almost anything!' said Moominmamma. 'I know, I'll give a big party for you, and you can have nothing but cake for tea, and nobody need wash or go to bed early!'

After that the search continued twice as hard. They hunted through the whole house. They looked under the carpets and under the beds; in the stove and in the cellar; in the attic and on the roof. They searched the whole garden, the wood-shed and down by the river. The bag was not to be found.

'Perhaps you climbed a tree with it or took it with you when you went to have a bath?' asked Sniff.

But Moominmamma only shook her head and wailed: 'Oh, unhappy day!'

Then the Snork suggested putting an advertisement in the paper, which they did, and the paper came out with two big items of news on the front page:

SNUFKIN LEAVES MOOMINDALE
Mysterious departure at dawn

and in slightly bigger letters:

MOOMINMAMMA'S HANDBAG DISAPPEARS
No clues
Search in progress
Biggest ever August party as reward to finder.

*

As soon as the news had got about, a huge crowd collected in the wood, on the hills and by the sea, and even the smallest forest rat joined in the hunt. Only the old and infirm stayed at home, and the whole valley echoed with shouting and running.

'Dear me!' said Moominmamma. 'What an upheaval!' But she was secretly rather pleased about it.

'What's all the buss afout?' asked Thingumy.

'My handbag, of course, dear!' said Moominmamma.

'Your black one?' asked Thingumy, 'that you can see yourself in, and that has pour fittle lockets?'

'What did you say?' asked Moominmamma, who was far too excited to listen to them.

'The black one with pour fockets?' repeated Thingumy.

'Yes, yes,' said Moominmamma. 'Run out and play dears, and don't worry me now.'

'What do you think?' asked Bob when they got into the garden.

'I can't bear to see her so miserable,' said Thingumy.

'I suppose we must bake it tack,' said Bob with a sigh. 'Pot a wity! It was so nice to sleep in the pittle lockets.'

So Thingumy and Bob went to their secret hiding place, which nobody had discovered yet, and pulled Moominmamma's bag out of a rose tree. It was exactly twelve o'clock when they went through the garden dragging the bag between them. The hawk caught sight of the little cavalcade, and went off at once to spread the news over Moomin Valley, and soon the stop press news announced: