Finn Family Moomintroll (4 page)

Moomintroll felt quite confused and took hold of a pair of enormous crinkly ears. 'But I
am
Moomintroll!' he burst out in despair. 'Don't you believe me?'

'Moomintroll has a nice little tail, just about the right size, but yours is like a chimney sweep's brush,' said the Snork.

And, oh dear, it was true! Moomintroll felt behind him with a trembling paw.

'Your eyes are like soup-plates,' said Sniff. 'Moomintroll's are small and kind!'

'Yes, exactly,' Snufkin agreed.

'You are an impostor!' decided the Hemulen.

'Isn't there anyone who believes me?' Moomintroll pleaded. 'Look carefully at me, mother. You must know your own Moomintroll.'

Moominmamma looked carefully. She looked into his frightened eyes for a very long time, and then she said quietly: 'Yes, you are my Moomintroll.'

And at the same moment he began to change. His ears, eyes, and tail began to shrink, and his nose and tummy grew, until at last he was his old self again.

'It's all right now, my dear,' said Moominmamma. 'You see, I shall always know you whatever happens.'

*

A little later on, Moomintroll and the Snork were sitting in one of their secret hiding-places - the one under the jasmine-bush which was hidden by a curtain of green leaves.

'Yes, but you
must
have done something to change you,' the Snork was saying.

Moomintroll shook his head. 'I didn't notice anything unusual,' he said. 'And I didn't say any dangerous words either.'

'But perhaps you stepped into a fairy ring,' suggested the Snork.

'Not that I know of,' said Moomintroll. 'I sat the whole time under that black hat that we use as a waste-paper basket.'

'In the
hat?
' asked the Snork, suspiciously.

Moomintroll nodded, and they both thought for a long time. Then suddenly they burst out together: 'It must be...!' and stared at each other.

'Come on!' said the Snork.

*

They went on to the veranda and crept up to the hat very cautiously.

'It looks rather ordinary,' said the Snork. 'Unless you consider that a top hat is always somewhat extraordinary, of course.'

'But how can we find out if it
was
that?' asked Moomintroll. 'I'm not going to get into it again!'

'Perhaps we could lure somebody else into it,' suggested the Snork.

'But that would be a low-down trick,' said Moomintroll. 'How should we know that he would be all right again?'

'What about an enemy?' suggested the Snork.

'Hm,' said Moomintroll. 'Do you know of one?'

'The Pig-Swine,' said the Snork.

Moomintroll shook his head. 'He's too big.'

'Well, the Ant-lion, then?' the Snork suggested.

'That's a good idea,' Moomintroll agreed. 'He once pulled my mother down into a hole and sprayed sand into her eyes.'

So they set out to look for the Ant-lion, and took a big jar with them. You should look for ant-lions' holes in a sandy place, so they wandered down to the beach, and it wasn't long before the Snork discovered a big, round hole and signalled eagerly to Moomintroll.

'Here he is!' whispered the Snork. 'But how shall we lure him into the jar?'

'Leave it to me,' whispered Moomintroll. He took the jar and buried it in the sand a little distance away, with the opening on top. Then he said loudly: 'They are very weak creatures these ant-lions!' He signed to the Snork and they both looked expectantly down at the hole, but although the sand moved a bit nothing was to be seen.

'Very
weak,' repeated Moomintroll. 'It takes several hours for them to dig themselves down into the sand, you know!'

'Yes, but -' said the Snork, doubtfully.

'It does I tell you,' said Moomintroll, making frantic signs with his ears. 'Several hours!'

At that moment a threatening head with staring eyes popped up from the hole in the sand.

'Did you say weak?' hissed the Ant-lion. 'I can dig myself down in exactly three seconds!'

'You should really show us how it's done, so that we can believe such a wonderful feat is possible,' said Moomintroll, persuasively.

'I shall spray sand on you,' replied the Ant-lion very crossly, 'and when I have sprayed you down into my hole I shall gobble you up!'

'Oh, no,' pleaded the Snork. 'Couldn't you show us how to dig down backwards in three seconds instead?'

'Do it up here so that we can see better how it's done,' said Moomintroll, and pointed to the spot where the jar was buried.

'Do you think I am going to bother myself with showing tricks to babies?' said the Ant-lion, huffily. But all the same he simply could not resist the temptation to show them how strong and quick he was, so, with scornful sniffings, he scrambled up out of his hole and asked haughtily:

'Now, where shall I dig myself in?'

'There,' said Moomintroll pointing.

The Ant-lion drew up his shoulders and raised his mane in a terrifying manner.

'Out of my way!' he cried. 'Now I'm going underground, but when I come back I shall gobble you up! One, two, three!' And he backed down into the sand like a whirling propeller, right into the jar which was hidden under him. It certainly did only take three seconds, or perhaps two and a half, because he was so awfully angry.

'Quick with the lid,' cried Moomintroll, and scraping away the sand they screwed it on very tightly. Then they both heaved up the jar and began to roll it home, with the Ant-lion inside screaming and cursing and choking with sand.

'It's frightful how angry he is,' said the Snork. 'I daren't think what will happen when he comes out!'

'He won't come out now,' said Moomintroll, quietly, 'and when he does I hope he will be changed into something horrible.'

When they arrived at Moominhouse Moomintroll summoned everyone with three long whistles. (Which means: Something quite extraordinary has happened.)

The others arrived from all directions and collected round the jar with the screw-top.

'What have you got there?' asked Sniff.

'An ant-lion,' said Moomintroll, proudly. 'A genuine furiously angry ant-lion that we have taken prisoner!'

'Fancy you daring!' said the Snork Maiden, admiringly.

'And now I think we'll pour him into the hat,' said the Snork.

'So that he will be changed like I was,' said Moomintroll.

'Will somebody please tell me what all this is about?' the Hemulen asked plaintively.

'It was because I hid in that hat that I was changed,' explained Moomintroll. 'We've worked it out. And now we're going to make sure by seeing if the Ant-lion will turn into something else as well.'

'B-but he could turn into absolutely anything!' squeaked Sniff. 'He could turn into something still more dangerous than an ant-lion and gobble us all up in a minute.' They stood in terrified silence looking at the pot and listening to the muffled sounds coming from inside.

'Oh!' said the Snork Maiden, turning rather pale,
^*
but Snufkin suggested they should all hide under the table while the change took place, and put a big book on top of the hat. 'You must always take risks when experimenting,' he said. 'Tip him in now at once.'

Sniff scrambled under the table while Moomintroll, Snufkin, and the Hemulen held the jar over the Hobgoblin's hat, and the Snork gingerly unscrewed the lid. In a cloud of sand the Ant-lion tumbled out, and, quick as lightning, the Snork popped a Dictionary of Outlandish Words on top. Then they all dived under the table and waited.

At first nothing happened.

They peeped out from under the tablecloth, getting more and more agitated. Still there was no change.

'It was all rot,' said Sniff, but at that moment the big dictionary began to crinkle up, and in his excitement, Sniff bit the Hemulen's thumb thinking it was his own.

Now the dictionary was curling up more and more. The pages began to look like withered leaves, and between them the Outlandish Words came out and began crawling around on the floor.

'Goodness gracious me,' said Moomintroll.

But there was more to come. Water began to drip from the brim of the hat and then to overflow and to splash down on to the carpet so that the Words had to climb up the walls to save themselves.

'The Ant-lion has only turned into water,' said Snufkin in disappointment.

'I think it's the sand,' whispered the Snork. 'The Ant-lion is sure to come soon.'

They waited again for an unbearably long time. The Snork Maiden hid her face in Moomintroll's lap, and Sniff whimpered with fright. Then suddenly, on the edge of the hat, appeared the world's smallest hedgehog. He sniffed the air and blinked, and he was very tangled and wet.

There was dead silence for a couple of seconds. Then Snufkin began to laugh, and in a very short time they were all howling and rolling about under the table in pure delight. All, that is, except the Hemulen who did not join in the fun. He looked in surprise at his friends and said: 'Well, we expected the Ant-lion to change, didn't we? If only I could understand why you always make such a fuss about things.'

Meanwhile the little hedgehog had wandered solemnly and a little sadly to the door and out down the steps. The water had stopped flowing and now filled the veranda like a lake. And the whole ceiling was covered with Outlandish Words.

*

When the whole thing had been explained to Moominpappa and Moominmamma they took it very seriously, and decided that the Hobgoblin's Hat should be destroyed, so it was rolled cautiously down to the river and dropped into the water.

'There go the clouds and the magic changes,' said Moominmamma as they watched the hat gliding away.

'The clouds were fun,' said Moomintroll, rather dejectedly. 'I shouldn't mind having
them
back!'

'And the flood and the Words, too, I suppose,' Moominmamma said crossly. 'Look at the veranda! And I can't think what I shall do with these little creeping Words. They're all over the place and making the whole house untidy.'

'But the clouds
were
fun anyway,' said Moomintroll obstinately And that night he couldn't sleep, but lay looking out at the light June night which was full of lonely whisperings and rustlings and the pattering of feet. The air was sweet with the smell of flowers.

Snufkin wasn't in yet. On such nights he often wandered about alone with his mouth-organ, but tonight there was no song to be heard. He was probably on a voyage of discovery, and soon he would put up his tent by the river, refusing to sleep indoors. Moomintroll sighed. He felt sad but didn't know why.

Just then a faint whistle came from the garden. Moomintroll's heart gave a bound and he tiptoed softly to the window and looked out. The whistle meant: 'Secrets!' Snufkin was waiting under the rope-ladder.

'Can you keep a secret?' he whispered when Moomintroll had clambered down on to the grass.

Moomintroll nodded eagerly, and Snufkin leant towards him and whispered again: 'The hat has floated to land on a sandbank down the river.'

'What about it?' asked Snufkin's eyebrows, and Moomintroll's ears waggled a big 'Yes.' The next minute they were creeping like shadows through the dewy garden down towards the river.

'You know, it's really our duty to save the hat, because all the water that fills it is red,' said Snufkin. 'Those who live far down the river will be panicstricken by all this awful water.'

'We might have known something like that would happen,' said Moomintroll. He felt very proud to be walking along like this with Snufkin in the middle of the night; Snufkin had always done his night wandering alone before.

'It's somewhere here,' Snufkin said. 'There's the dark streak in the water. Do you see?'

'Not properly,' said Moomintroll, who was stumbling along in the half-dark. 'I haven't got night-eyes like you.'

'I wonder how we're going to get it,' said Snufkin looking out over the river. 'So foolish of your father not to have a boat.'

Moomintroll hesitated. 'I swim quite well - anyway if the water isn't too cold,' he said.

'You wouldn't dare!' said Snufkin.

'I certainly would,' Moomintroll retorted, suddenly feeling very brave. 'Where is it now?'