Free Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson Page B

cellar was still open. Moomintroll hurried after him and peered in through the black hole. 'In with you all!' he said, 'but hurry up before it gets overgrown here, too,' and they crawled into the dark cellar, one after another.
    'Hi!' shouted the Hemulen who was last. 'I can't get through.'
    'Then you can stay outside and guard the Mameluke,' said the Snork. 'You can botanize on the house now, can't you?'
    And while the poor Hemulen whimpered outside in the rain, the others groped their way up the cellar steps.
    'We're in luck,' said Moomintroll when he reached the top. 'The door's open. It pays to be careless sometimes.'
    'I'm the culprit,' squeaked Sniff. 'So you can thank me!'
    As they pushed through the door a remarkable sight met their eyes: the Muskrat was sitting in the fork of a tree eating a pear.
    'Where's mother?' asked Moomintroll.
    'She's trying to get your father out of his room,' replied the Muskrat, bitterly. 'This is what comes of collecting plants. I've never quite trusted that Hemulen. Well, I hope the Muskrat heaven is a peaceful place, because I shan't be here much longer.'
    They listened for a moment to the sound of enormous axe blows coming from upstairs. Then came a crash and a whoop of joy. Moominpappa was free!
    'Mamma! Pappa!' shouted Moomintroll, pushing his way through the jungle to the bottom of the stairs. 'What have you been doing while I was away?'
    'Well, dear,' replied Moominmamma. 'We must have been careless with the Hobgoblin's Hat again. But come up here - I've found a gooseberry bush in the wardrobe.'
    It was a thrilling afternoon. They played a jungle game in which Moomintroll was Tarzan and the Snork Maiden was Jane. Sniff was Tarzan's Son, and Snufkin was the chimpanzee Cheeta, while the Snork crawled about in the undergrowth, with huge teeth made of orangepeel, * pretending to be the Enemy.
    'Now I shall steal Jane away,' he cried, dragging the Snork Maiden by the tail to a hole under the dining-room table, so that Moomintroll, when he came home to their house in the chandelier, and discovered what had happened, had to lower himself to the ground on a creeper and dash off to the rescue. Then he produced a Tarzan roar from the top of the airing cupboard, and Jane and the rest of them roared back.
    'Well, things can't get much worse - that's one consolation,' the Muskrat groaned. He had hidden himself in a forest of bracken in the bathroom, and had wrapped his head in a handkerchief so that nothing should grow into his ears.
    But Moominmamma was quite unperturbed. 'Well, well!' she said, 'it seems to me that our guests are having a very good time.'
    'I hope so,' replied Moominpappa. 'Pass me a banana, please dear.'
    And so it went on until the evening. Nobody bothered about whether the cellar-door was getting overgrown, and nobody even thought about the poor Hemulen. He still sat, with his wet dress flapping round his legs, guarding the Mameluke. Sometimes

    he ate an apple or counted the stamens on a jungle flower, but in between he mostly sighed.
    It had stopped raining, and night began to fall. And at the moment that the sun went down something happened to the green mound that was Moominhouse: it began to wither as quickly as it had grown; the fruit shrivelled and fell to the ground; the flowers drooped and the leaves curled up, and once more the house was filled with rustlings and cracklings.
    The Hemulen watched for a bit, and then he went and pulled gently at a branch. It came off at once and was as dry as tinder. Then the Hemulen had an idea. He collected a huge pile of sticks and branches, went to the woodshed for matches, and then lit a crackling bonfire in the middle of the garden path.
    Pleased and happy he sat himself down beside the blaze to dry his dress, and after a while he had another idea. With super-Hemulenish strength he dragged the Mameluke's tail into the fire. Baked fish was the best thing he had ever tasted.
    Thus it was that when the Moomin family and their