tiny thing, with green wings that gleamed like . metal.
"What a pretty little creature," said
Annika. "I wonder what it is."
"It isn't a June bug," said Tommy.
"And no ladybug either," said Annika. "And no
stagbeetle. I wish I knew what it was."
All at once a radiant smile lit up
Pippi's face. "I know," she said. "It's a
spink."
"Are you sure?" Tommy said doubtfully.
"Don't you think I know a spink when I see
one?" said Pippi. "Have you ever seen anything so
spink-like in your life?"
She carefully moved the beetle to a safer place,
where no one could step on it. "My sweet little
Pippi Finds a Spink
bar 39
spink," she said tenderly. "I knew that I would
find one at last. But isn't it funny! We've
been hunting all over town for a spink, and here was one
right outside Villa Villekulla all the time!"
Pippi Arranges
a Question-
and-Answer Bee
The long wonderful summer holiday suddenly came
to an end, and Tommy and Annika went back
to school. Pippi still considered herself
sufficiently well educated without going to school and
announced very decidedly that she had no intention of
setting her foot in school until the day came when
she couldn't stand not knowing how the word "seasick" was
spelled.
"But since I'm never seasick I don't have
to worry about the spelling in the first place," she said.
"And
if I
should happen to be seasick one day, then I'll have
other things to think about than knowing how to spell it."
"Besides, you'll probably never get seasick," said
Tommy.
And he was right. Pippi had sailed far and wide with
her father before he became king of a South Sea island and
before Pippi had settled down to live
Pippi Arranges a Question-and-Answer Bee
in Villa Villekulla. But in all her life
she had never been seasick.
Sometimes Pippi would ride over and pick up
Tommy and Annika when school was over. This
pleased Tommy and Annika very much. They loved
to ride, and there certainly aren't many children who are able
to ride home from school on horseback.
"Please, Pippi, come and pick us up this afternoon,"
said Tommy one day just as he and Annika were going
to dash back to school after their lunch hour.
"Yes, please," said Annika. "Because today is the
day that Miss Rosenblom is going to give out
gifts to children who have been good and worked hard."
Miss Rosenblom was a rich old lady who lived
in the little town. She took good care of her money, but
once every term she came to school and distributed
gifts to the children. But not to all the children-oh, no!
Only the very good and hard-working children got presents.
To make sure she would know which children were really good and
hard-working, Miss Rosenblom held long
examinations before she distributed the presents. That was
the reason all the children in town lived in constant dread
of her. Every day when they were about to do their homework and were
trying to think of something more
amusing to do before getting started, their mother
or father would say, "Remember Miss
Rosenblom!"
It was a terrible disgrace to come home to one's parents
and brothers and sisters the day Miss Rosenblom had
been to school, and not have a small coin or bag of
candy or at least some underwear to show for it. Yes, of
all things, underwear! Because Miss
Rosenblom distributed underwear to the poorest children.
But it didn't matter how poor a child was if he
didn't know the answer when Miss Rosenblom
asked how many inches there were in a mile. It wasn't
surprising at all that the children were afraid of Miss
Rosenblom!
They lived in terror of her soup too. Believe it
or not, Miss Rosenblom had all the children weighed
and measured in order to see if there were any among them
who were especially thin and pathetic and who looked as
if they weren't getting enough to eat at home. All
those who were found to be poor and too skinny had to go
to Miss Rosenblom's every lunch hour and eat a
big plate of soup. It would have been fine if there
hadn't been a whole lot of nasty barley in the
soup. It always felt so slippery in the mouth.
Now the big day had arrived when Miss Rosenblom
was coming to the school. Classes stopped earlier than
usual, and all the children gathered in the
Pippi Arranges a Question-and-Answer Bee
school yard. Miss Rosenblom sat at a big
table that had been placed in the middle of the yard.
To help her, she had two assistants who wrote
down everything about the children-how much they weighed,
if they were able to answer her questions, if they were poor and
needed clothes, if they had good marks in conduct, if
they had younger brothers and sisters at home who also
needed clothing. There was no end to the things that Miss
Rosenblom wanted to know. A box containing coins
stood on the table in front of her. There were also a
lot of bags of candy, and big piles of undershirts
and socks and woolen pants.
"All children get in line!" shouted Miss
Rosenblom. "In the first line I want children who
don't have brothers and sisters at home; in the
second line children who have one or two brothers and
sisters; and in the third, children who have more than two
brothers and sisters." This arrangement was made because
Miss Rosenblom wanted everything to be orderly.
Besides, it was only fair that the children who had many
brothers and sisters at home should get bigger bags
of candy than those who didn't have any.
Then the examination began. Oh, how the children trembled!
The ones who couldn't answer the minute a question was
asked had to go and stand in
a corner, and then they were sent home without as much as
one piece of candy for their little brothers and sisters.
Both Tommy and Annika were very good at their school
work. But in spite of that, the bow in
Annika's'hair quivered with suspense as she
stood in line beside Tommy. And Tommy's face
got whiter and whiter the closer he got to Miss
Rosenblom. When it was his turn to answer there was a
sudden commotion in the line for children without brothers and
sisters. Someone was pushing her way forward through the
crowd, and who should it be but Pippi! She brushed the
children aside and went straight up to Miss
Rosenblom.
"Excuse me, but I wasn't here when you started,"
she said. "In which line should I stand, since I
don't have fourteen brothers and sisters of which thirteen
are naughty little boys?"
Miss Rosenblom looked very disapproving. "You can
stay where you are fo
r the present," she said. "But it
seems to me that quite soon you will be moved over into the
line of children who are going to stand in the corner."
Then the assistants wrote down Pippi's name and
she was weighed in order to find out whether she needed
any soup. But she weighed five pounds too much for
that.
Pippi Arranges a Question-and-Answer Bee
"You don't get any soup," said Miss
Rosenblom sharply.
"Sometimes luck is with me," said Pippi. "Now
all I have to do is get by without getting stuck with the
underwear. Then I'll be able to breathe more freely."
Miss Rosenblom paid no attention to her. She was
looking through the dictionary for a difficult word for
Pippi to spell.
"Now then," she said finally, "will you tell me how you
spell "seasick"?"
"I'll be glad to," said Pippi.
"S-e-e-s-i-knowledge."
Miss Rosenblom smiled-a sour smile. "Is
that so?" she said. "The dictionary spells it
differently."
"Then it was very lucky that you wanted to know how I
spell it," said Pippi. "S-e-e-s-i-k
is the way I have always spelled it, and it seems to have
worked out just fine."
"Make a note of that," said Miss Rosenblom
to the assistants and grimly pressed her lips
together.
"Yes, do that," said Pippi. "Make a note of
this fine spelling and see to it that the change is made
in the dictionary as soon as possible."
"I wonder if you can answer this one," said Miss
Rosenblom. "When did King Charles the
Twelfth die?"
"Oh dear, is he dead too?" cried Pippi.
"It's awful
how many people die these days! If he had kept his
feet dry I'm sure it would never have happened."
"Make a note of that," said Miss Rosenblom
to her assistants in an icy voice.
"Yes, by all means do that," said Pippi. "And
make a note that it's very good to keep leeches next
to the skin. And you should drink a little warm kerosene before
going to bed. It's very invigorating!"
Miss Rosenblom looked desperate. "Why
does a horse have molars with dark markings running
through them?" she asked in a stern voice.
"But are you sure that he has?" said Pippi
thoughtfully. "You can ask him yourself. He is standing
over there," she said and pointed to her horse, who was
tied to a tree. She laughed contentedly. "It's a
good thing I brought him along," she said. "Otherwise
you would never have known why he has molars with markings in
them. Because honestly
I
have no idea-and, what's more, I don't care much
either."
A narrow line was now all that was left of
Miss Rosenblom's mouth. "This is
unbelievable," she murmured, "absolutely
unbelievable."
"Yes, I think so too," said Pippi, pleased.
"If I continue being this clever, I probably
won't be able to avoid getting a pair of pink
woolen under-drawers."
Pippi in the South Seas
"Make a note of that," said Miss Rosenblom
to the assistants.
"No, don't bother," said Pippi. "I really
don't care so much about pink woolen underdrawers. That
wasn't what I meant. But you could make a note
saying I'm to have a big bag of candy."
"I'm going to ask you one more question," said Miss
Rosenblom, and her voice sounded as if she were
strangling.
"Yes, keep right on," said Pippi. "I like this
kind of question-and-answer game."
"Can you answer this one?" said Miss Rosenblom.
"Peter and Paul are going to divide a cake.
If Peter gets one fourth, what does Paul
get?"
"A stomach-ache," said Pippi. She turned to the
assistants. "Make a note of that," she
said seriously. "Make a note that Paul gets a
stomach-ache."
But Miss Rosenblom was finished with Pippi. "You
are the most stupid and disagreeable child I have ever
seen," she said. "Go over and stand in the corner right
away!"
Pippi obediently trotted off, muttering
angrily to herself, "It's unfair, because I answered
every question!" When she had walked a few steps she
suddenly thought of something and quickly elbowed her way
back to Miss Rosenblom.
Pippi Arranges a Question-and-Answer Bee
"Excuse me," she said, "but I forgot to give my
chest measurement and my height above sea level.
Make a note of that," she said to the assistants.
"Not that I want any soup-far from it-but the books
should be in order, after all."
"If you don't go over and stand in the corner
immediately," said Miss Rosenblom, "I know a little
girl who is going to get a sound spanking."
"Poor child," said Pippi. "Where is she? Send
her to me and I'll defend her. Make a note of
that."
Then Pippi went over and stood in the
corner with the children who couldn't answer questions. There the
atmosphere was far from gay. Many of the children were sobbing and
crying at the thought of what their parents and their brothers
and sisters would say when they came home without the least
little coin and without any candy.
Pippi looked around at the crying children and swallowed
hard several times. Then she said, "We'll have a
question-and-answer bee all our own!"
The children looked a bit more cheerful, but they didn't quite
understand what Pippi meant.
"Form two lines," said Pippi. "All of you who
know that King Charles the Twelfth is dead stand in one
line and those who still haven't heard that he is dead stand
in the other."
But since all the children knew that Charles the Twelfth
was dead there was only one line.
"This is no good," said Pippi. "You have to have at
least two lines, otherwise it isn't right. Ask
Miss Rosenblom and you'll see." She stopped
to think. "I have it!" she said at last. "All very
clever and well-trained pranksters will form one line."
"And who is to stand in the other line?" a little girl who
didn't want to be thought of as a prankster asked
eagerly.
"In the other line we'll put all those who
are not quite so clever at playing pranks," said
Pippi.
Over at Miss Rosenblom's table the questioning was
continuing full force and now and then a child on the verge of
tears came shuffling over to Pippi's crowd.
"And now comes the hard part," said Pippi. "Now
we're going to see if you have been doing your
homework." She turned to a skinny little boy in a
blue shirt. "You over there," she said, "give me
the name of someone who is dead."
The boy looked a little surprised, but then he said,
"Old Mrs. Pettersson in Number
Fifty-seven."
"What do you know?" said Pippi. "Do you know anyone
else
?"
No, the boy didn't. Then Pippi put her hands
in
Pippi Arranges a Question-and-Answer Bee
51 front of her mouth in the form of a megaphone and
said in a stage whisper, "King Charles the
Twelfth, of course!"
Then Pippi asked all the children in turn if they
knew anyone who was dead, and they all answered,
"Old Mrs. Pettersson in Number
Fifty-seven and King Charles the
Twelfth."
"This examination is going better than I had
expected," said Pippi. "Now I'm going to ask
only one thing more. If Peter and Paul are going
to divide a cake, and Peter absolutely
doesn't want any but sits himself down in a
corner and gnaws on a dry little bit of bread, who
is then forced to sacrifice himself and down the whole
cake?"
"Paul!" shouted all the children.
"I wonder if children as clever as you could be found
anywhere else," said Pippi. "But you shall have a
reward."
From her pockets she dug out a whole handful of
gold pieces and each child got one. Each child also
got a huge bag of candy, which Pippi took out of
her rucksack.
That is why there was great rejoicing among the children who were
supposedly in disgrace. And when Miss
Rosenblom's examination was finished and everybody was
going home, the children who
Pippi in the South Seas
had been standing in the corner were the quickest
to disappear. But first they all crowded around
Pippi.
Thank you, dear Pippi," they said. "Thank you for the
gold pieces and the candy."
"It's nothing," said Pippi. "You don't need
to thank me. But you must never forget that I rescued you
from the pink woolen underdrawers."
Pippi Gets a Letter
The days went by, and all of a sudden it was
autumn-first autumn and then winter, a long, cold
winter that seemed as if it would never end. Tommy and
Annika were very busy at school, and with every day that went
by they felt more tired and had a harder time getting up
in the morning. Mrs. Setter-gren began to be
really worried about their paleness and their lack of
appetite. On top of everything, both of them
suddenly caught the measles and had to stay in bed for a
couple of weeks.
It would have been two very dreary weeks indeed if
Pippi hadn't come and done tricks outside their
window every day. The doctor had forbidden her to go into the
sickroom, because measles are catching, and Pippi
obeyed, although she said she would undertake to crack one
or two billion measle microbes between her
fingernails during the course of an afternoon.
Pippi in the South Seas
But no one had forbidden her to do tricks
outside the window. The children's room was on the
second floor, and Pippi had raised a ladder
to their window. It was very exciting for Tommy and
Annika to lie in their beds and try to guess how
Pippi would look when she appeared on the ladder,
because she never looked the same two days in a row.
Sometimes she would be dressed as a chimney sweep,
sometimes as a ghost in a white sheet, and sometimes she
appeared as a witch. Then she would act amusing
skits outside the window, playing all the parts
herself. Now and then she did acrobatics on the
step-ladder-and what acrobatics! She would stand on
the topmost rung and let the ladder sway forth and
back until Tommy and Annika screamed in
terror because it looked as if she would come crashing down
any minute. But she didn't. When she was going
to climb down again she always went head first just so that it
would be more amusing for Tommy and Annika to watch.
Every day she went to town to buy apples and oranges
and candy. She put everything into a basket and attached
it to a long string. Then Mr. Nilsson climbed
up with the string to Tommy, who opened the window and
hoisted up the basket. Sometimes Mr. Nilsson
would also bring letters from Pippi when she was busy and
couldn't come herself. But
Pippi Gets a Letter
that didn't happen often, because Pippi was on the
ladder practically all the time. Sometimes she
pressed her nose against the windowpane and turned her
eyelids inside out and made the most terrible
faces. She said to Tommy and Annika that she would
give each of them a gold piece if they could keep
from laughing at her. But of course they couldn't. They
laughed so hard that they almost fell out of their beds.
Gradually they became well again and were allowed to get
up. But, oh, how pale and thin they were! Pippi
was sitting with them in their kitchen the first day they were up,
watching them eat their cereal. That is, they were
supposed to be eating cereal, but they weren't doing very
well. It made their mother terribly nervous to see
them just sitting there and picking at it.
"Eat your good cereal," she said.
Annika stirred hers around in the dish with her spoon
a bit, but she knew that she just couldn't get any of
Pippi in the South Seas Page 3