Free The Exploits of Moominpappa (Moominpappa's Memoirs) by Tove Jansson

anyway.'
    The ghost replied in the afternoon, with red paint on parchment (The parchment was found to be Hodgkins's old raincoat, nailed to the tree with the Mymble's daughter's breadknife.)
    Hodgkins read the message aloud:
    'The Hour of Fate is nearing. Tuesday, but at midnight, when the Hounds of Death are howling in the lonely wilderness! Vain creatures, hide your snouts in the cold earth that rings with the heavy tread of the Invisible! Your Fate is written in blood on the walls of the Chambers of Terror. I'll bring my chain if I like.
    The Ghost, called the Horriblest.'
    'Well,' said Hodgkins. 'Fate's a word he's fond of, I see, and capitals. Don't be afraid. And don't be too brave, either. Wouldn't be polite.'
    The ghost greeted us punctually at twelve o'clock with three hollow howls and a green light (that lost its effect on account of our camp fire.)
    'I have come!' said the ghost in his inimitable tones. 'Tremble, mortals, for the revenge of the forgotten bones!'
    'Evening,' said the Joxter. ' You haven't forgotten those bones, I hear. Whose are they? Why don't you bury them?'
    'Now, now, Joxter,' said Hodgkins. 'Don't tease him. Dear ghost. Wouldn't you please let us have some sleep? Can't you move somewhere else for a while?'
    'Everybody's accustomed to me,' said the ghost sadly. 'Not even Edward the Booble's scared any more.'
    'I was!' said the Muddler. 'I'm still scared!'
    'That's kind of you,' replied the ghost thankfully and hastened to add: 'The lost skeleton caravan's wailing in icy moonlight!'
    'Listen,' Hodgkins said kindly. 'You don't seem to have the fun you ought to have. I'll speak to the King. Perhaps he could give you a territory of your own. What? Something with a good supply of phosphorus and tin cans?'

    'And fog horns?' said the ghost a little hesitantly. 'Do you think you could find me a real skeleton?'
    'Do my best,' said Hodgkins. 'By the way. Do you know the thread-and-resin trick?'
    'No! Tell me!' said the ghost with interest.
    'Quite simple,' said Hodgkins. 'You take a length of thick sewing cotton. Number twenty at least. Fasten it to the window-frame (of an enemy). Stand outside and rub the thread with a piece of resin.'
    'And it produces a noise of horror?' asked the ghost happily.
    'It does. And if you happen to have a tin tube and a pair of stilts...' Hodgkins continued.
    'By my demon eye, you're a real friend,' said the ghost and curled up at his feet. 'Tin tube, did you say? I have one.'
    Then Hodgkins sat half the night describing the most astonishing devices for frightening people. He drew the constructions in the sand. And at dawn the ghost was elected a member of the Royal Colony and officially named The Terror of Horror Island.
    'Listen,' I said, 'I wonder if you'd care to lodge with me? You can have the drawing-room to yourself. Not that I'm afraid to live alone, but it's always safer to have someone in the house.'
    'By all the Hounds of Hell,' the ghost began, paling with annoyance. But then he calmed down and replied: 'Well, thanks, that's kind of you.'
    I made him a nice bed out of a packing-case that I painted black with a decoration of skulls and bones in pale green. His feeding bowl I marked 'Poison' (to the Muddler's great satisfaction).
    'Most cosy,' said the ghost. 'Please don't mind if I rattle a little at midnight. It's a habit.'
    'Not at all,' I said. 'But not more than five minutes, and please keep away from the meerschaum tram. It's valuable.'
    'All right,' said the ghost. 'But I'll take a whole night out on Midsummer Night.'



CHAPTER 7
    Describing the triumphant unveiling of the Amphibian and its sensational trial dive to the bottom of the sea.
    A ND Midsummer Night came and went (at the Eve the Mymble gave birth to her smallest daughter and named her My, which means The-smallest-in-existence) and the trees blossomed, the blossoms changed into oranges, the oranges were eaten (mostly by the Joxter), and nobody ever found the time to write those Colony