glittering and fragrant flowers everywhere.
Tommy and Annika were by now so brown that there was
hardly any difference between them and the Kurrekurredutt
children. And every spot on Pippi's face was covered with
freckles.
"This trip will turn out to be a real beauty treatment
for me," she said gaily.
"I
have more freckles and am therefore more beautiful than ever.
If this keeps up, I shall be irresistible."
Momo and Moana and all the other
Kurrekurredutt children already considered
Pippi irresistible. They had never had such a good
time before, and they were as fond of Pippi as Tommy and
Annika were. Of course they were fond of Tommy
and Annika too, and Tommy and Annika were fond
of them. So they had a marvelous time together and
Pippi Leaves Kurrekurredutt Island
backslash
107 played and played all day long. Often they
would go up to the cave to play.
Pippi had taken blankets there, and when they
wanted to they could spend the night and be even more comfortable
than they were the first time. She had also made a rope
ladder which reached all the way down to the water below the
cave, and all the children climbed up and down on it and
swam and splashed to their heart's- delight. Now it
was perfectly safe to swim. Pippi had blocked
off a big section with net so that the sharks couldn't
get in. It was such fun to swim in and out of those
caves filled with water. Even Tommy and
Annika had learned to dive for oysters. The first
pearl that Annika found Was a huge, beautiful
pink one. She decided to take it home with her and have
it made into a ring, which she would wear as a souvenir of
Kurrekurredutt Island.,
Sina Bahram Sometimes they would play that Pippi was
Buck trying to get into the cave to steal pearls. Then
Tommy would pull up the rope ladder and Pippi
would have to climb up the side of the cliff as best as
she could. All the children would shout, "Buck is coming,
Buck is coming!" when she stuck her head into the cave, and they would take turns at poking her in the
stomach so that she tumbled backward into the sea. Down
there she splashed around with
her bare feet sticking out of the water, and the children laughed
so hard that they almost fell out of the cave.
When they got tired of being in the cave they would play
in their bamboo hut. Pippi and the children had built
it, though of course Pippi had done most of the work.
It was big and square and made of thin bamboo
cane, and you could climb around inside it, and on top
of it too. Next to the hut was a tall cocoanut
tree. Pippi had hacked steps into it so that you could
climb all the way to the top. The view was
wonderful from up there. Between two other cocoanut
palms Pippi had rigged up a swing of hibiscus
fiber. It was marvelous, because if you swung as high
as the swing would go, you could throw yourself out into the air and
land in the water below.
Pippi swung so high and flew so far out into the
water that she said, "One fine day I'll
probably land in Australia, and then it won't be
much fun for the one who gets me on the head."
The children also went on expeditions into the jungle. There
was a high mountain and a waterfall that cascaded over
a cliff. Pippi had made up her mind that she
would like to go down the waterfall in a barrel. She
brought along one of the barrels from the
Hoptoad
and crawled into it. Momo and
Tommy closed the lid and helped to push the barrel
over the waterfall. It bounced down with tremendous
speed and then it broke. All the children saw Pippi
disappear into the tumbling water, and they didn't think
they would ever see her again. But all of a sudden she
dived up and climbed ashore, saying, "They
certainly go at a fast clip, those water
barrels."
The days went by. Soon the rainy season would start
and then Captain Longstocking would lock himself into his
hut and brood about life, and he was afraid that
Pippi wouldn't be happy on Kurrekurredutt
Island then. More often lately Tommy and Annika
would find themselves wondering how their mother and father were.
They were anxious to get home for Christmas. So they
weren't as sad as you might expect when
Pippi said one morning, "Tommy and Annika,
how would you like to go back to Villa Villekulla for a
while again?"
Of course, for Momo and Moana and the other
Kurrekurredutt children it was a sad day when they saw
Pippi and Tommy and Annika go on board the
Hoptoad
for the voyage home. But Pippi promised that they
would come back often to Kurrekurredutt Island. The
Kurrekurredutt children had made wreaths of white
flowers which they hung around the necks of Pippi and
Tommy and Annika as a
PippiLeaves Kurrekurredutt Island 1
farewell gesture. Their song of farewell sounded
sad as it followed the ship out to sea.
Captain Longstocking was also standing on the beach. He
had to stay behind in order to rule. Fri-dolf had
taken it upon himself to get the children home. Captain
Longstocking slowly and deliberately blew his
nose in his big pocket handkerchief as he waved
good-by. Pippi and Tommy and Annika cried,
and the tears streamed down their faces as they waved
to Captain Longstocking and the island children as long as they
were in sight.
The
Hoptoad
had a fair wind behind her during the whole voyage
home.
"We'd better dig out your undershirts in good time before
we reach the North Sea," said Pippi.
"What an awful thought," said Tommy and Annika.
It soon became evident that despite the fair
wind, the ship wouldn't reach home by Christmas.
Tommy and Annika were bitterly disappointed when
they heard it. Just think, no Christmas tree and no
Christmas presents!
"Then we could just as well have stayed on
Kurrekurredutt Island," said Tommy
angrily.
Annika thought of her mother and father and knew that she would
be glad to get home, no matter when. But it
certainly was sad that they were going
to miss Christmas. They both felt the same about
that.
One dark night at the beginning of January,
Pippi and Tommy and Annika spotted the lights
of the little town from afar, twinkling a welcome. They were
back home again.
"Well, now we have this trip behind us," said
Pippi as she walked down the gangplank with her
horse.
No one was at the port to meet them because no one had
known when they would get home. Pippi lifted up
Tommy and Annika and Mr. Nilsson onto the
horse and they rode toward Villa Villekulla.
<
br /> The poor horse had a hard time. He had to plow his
way through the snowdrifts piled up in the streets and
roads. Tommy and Annika stared straight ahead
into the snow flurry. Soon they would be back with their
mother and father, and they were suddenly aware how much they had
missed them.
In the Settergren house the lights were shining
invitingly, and through the window they could see Tommy's
and Annika's mother and father sitting at the dinner table.
"There are Mother and Father!" said Tommy and he sounded
so happy and excited.
But Villa Villekulla lay in complete darkness
and was covered with snow.
Pippi Leaves Kurrekurredutt Island
Annika was terribly unhappy at the thought of
Pippi's going back there alone. "Please,
Pippi, won't you stay with us the first night?" she
asked.
"Oh, no," said Pippi and jumped down in the snow
outside the gate. "I have to get some things in order
at Villa Villekulla."
She waded through the deep snowdrifts which reached all
the way up to her stomach. The horse plowed along
behind her.
"Yes, but think of how cold it will be in there," said
Tommy. "It hasn't been heated for such a long
time."
"Nonsense," said Pippi. "If the heart is
warm and beats the way it should, there is no reason
to be cold."
Pippi Longstocking
Doesn't Want to Grow Up
Oh, how Tommy's and Annika's mother and father
hugged and kissed their children, and what a wonderful
supper they prepared for them! Afterward they tucked them
in, and sat for a long, long time on the edge of their
beds, listening to the children's tales of all the strange
things they had experienced on Kurrekurredutt
Island. They were so happy, all of them. There was
only one sad thing, and that was not having had any
Christmas. Tommy and Annika didn't want
to tell their mother how miserable they were because they had
missed having a tree and presents, but
that's the way it was. It seemed so strange to be
back. It always does when you've been away, and it
would have been much easier if they could have come home on
Christmas Eve.
Tommy and Annika were also sad when they thought of
Pippi. Now of course she would be home in bed at
Villa Villekulla with her feet on her
pillow,
Pippi Long stocking Doesn't Want to Grow
Up
and there was no one there to tuck her in. They made up
their minds to go to see her as soon as they could the next
morning.
But the following day their mother didn't want to let them
go because she hadn't seen them for such a long time, and
besides, their grandmother was coming for dinner to welcome the children
home. Tommy and Annika wondered anxiously
what Pippi could be doing all day, and when it began
to get dark they couldn't stand it any longer.
"Please, Mother, we have to go and see Pippi," said
Tommy.
"Yes, run along then," said Mrs. Settergren.
"But don't stay too long."
Tommy and Annika ran off.
When they got to the garden gate of Villa
Villekulla they stopped and stared in amazement. It
looked just like a Christmas card. The whole house was
softly blanketed with snow and there were gleaming lights
in all the windows. A torch was burning on the veranda
and shedding its brightness over the snow-covered lawn.
One path to the veranda was neatly shoveled, so Tommy
and Annika didn't have to wade through the drifts.
Just as they were stamping the snow off their feet on the
veranda, the door opened and there stood Pippi.
"Merry Christmas!" she said.
She ushered them into the kitchen. And there was a
Christmas tree! The lights were lit and seventeen
sparklers were burning, filling the room with a nice
smoky smell. The table was set with puddings and hams
and sausages and all sorts of Christmas
delicacies-yes, even gingerbread men and birds"
nests. There was a fire in the stove, and the horse was
standing at the woodbin, scraping his hoof in a very
refined way. Mr. Nilsson was bopping back and
forth among the sparklers in the Christmas tree.
"He is-supposed to be an angel," said Pippi
grimly, "but I can't get him to sit still."
Tommy and Annika just stood there, speechless.
"Oh, Pippi," said Annika finally,
"how wonderful! When did you find time to do all this?"
"Me, I'm the hard-working type," said Pippi.
Tommy and Annika were suddenly overwhelmed with
happiness.
"I think it's just grand to be back in Villa
Villekulla again," said Tommy.
They sat down around the table and ate piles of ham
and pudding and sausage and gingerbread men, and everything
tasted even better to them than bananas and
breadfruit.
"But Pippi, it isn't Christmas at all," said
Tommy.
"Yes, sir," said Pippi. "The Villa
Villekulla al-
Pippi in the South Seas
manac is slow. I have to take it to an
almanac-maker and have it adjusted so that it will run
properly again."
"How wonderful," said Annika again. "We
celebrated Christmas after all-except without
Christmas presents, of course."
"That reminds me," said Pippi. "I have hidden your
Christmas presents. You have to find them yourselves."
Tommy's and Annika's faces became
flushed with excitement as they sprang up and started
hunting. In the woodbin Tommy found a big
package which was marked "tommy." Inside was a fine
set of paints. Under the table Annika found a
package with her name on it, and inside that was a
pretty red parasol.
"I
can take this with me to Kurrekurredutt Island the
next time we go there," said Annika.
High up on the hood of the stove were two more
packages. One contained a small jeep for
Tommy, and in the other was a set of doll's dishes
for Annika. A small package was also hanging
on the horse's tail. In it was a clock for
Tommy's and Annika's room.
When they had found all their Christmas presents,
they gave Pippi big hugs and thanked her over and
over again. She was standing at the kitchen
Pippi Longstocking Doesn't Want to Grow
Up
window, looking out at all the snow in the garden.
Tomorrow we'll build a big snow hut," she said.
"And we'll have lights burning in it at night."
"Oh, yes, let's," said Annika,
feeling happier than ever to be home.
"I'm wondering if we could make a ski slope
running down from the roof to the snowdrifts below. I'm
going to teach the horse to ski. But I can't decide
whether he needs four skis or only two."
"We're going to have a wonderful time tomorrow," said
> Tommy. "What luck that we came home in the
middle of Christmas vacation."
"We're always going to have fun," said Annika.
"At Villa Villekulla, on
Kurrekurredutt Island, and everywhere."
Pippi nodded in agreement. They had crawled up
on the kitchen table, all three of them. Suddenly a
dark shadow passed over Tommy's face.
"I never want to grow up," he said emphatically.
"I don't either," said Annika.
"No, that's nothing to wish for, being grown up," said
Pippi. "Grownups never have any fun. They
only have a lot of boring work and wear silly-looking
clothes and have corns and minicipal taxes."
"It's called
municipal,""
said Annika.
"Well, anyway, it's the same nonsense," said
Pippi. "And then they're full of
superstitions and
120 bar
Pippi in the South Seas
all sorts of crazy things. They think that something
terrible is going to happen if they happen to stick their
knives in their mouths while they're eating, and things
like that."
"And they can't play, either," said Annika.
"Ugh, how awful to have to grow up."
"Who says you have to grow up?" said Pippi. "If
I remember right, I have a few pills somewhere."
"What sort of pills?" said Tommy.
"Some very fine pills for people who don't want to grow
up," said Pippi and jumped down from the table. She
hunted through closets and drawers and after a while she
produced something that looked like three yellow peas.
"Peas!" said Tommy surprised.
"That's what you think," said Pippi. "These are no
peas. They are chililug pills and were given to me in
Rio by an old Indian chief when I happened
to mention that I wasn't wild about the idea of growing
up."
"You mean that those tiny little pills can do it?" said
Annika skeptically.
"Absolutely," said Pippi. "But they
have to be taken in the dark, and then you have to say this:
Pretty little chililug, I don't want to get
bug.
Pippi Longstocking Doesn't Want to Grow
Up backslash
"You mean big," said Tommy.
"If I say "bug" I mean
"bug,""
said Pippi. "That's the trick, you see. Most children
say Trig," and that's the worst thing that can happen.
Because then you start to grow more then ever. Once there was a
boy who ate pills like these. He said Trig*
instead of "bug" and he started growing until it was a
nightmare- many, many feet every day. It was terrible.
He was all right as long as he could go around grazing
under the apple trees, the way a giraffe does.
But then he got too big and that didn't work any
longer. When some ladies came to visit and they
wanted to say, "My, what a nice big boy
you've grown up to be," they had to shout into a
megaphone so that he would hear them. All you saw of
him was his long, skinny legs disappearing up among the
clouds like two flagpoles. He was never heard of
after that-oh, yes, once he was. That was
when he took a lick at the sun and got a blister
on his tongue. Then he let out such a roar that the
flowers down on earth wilted. But that was the last
sign from him--although his legs are probably still wandering
around down in Rio, making awful mix-ups in the
traffic."
"Oh, I wouldn't dare eat one of those pills,"
said Annika, terrified, In case I might say
the wrong thing."
"You won't say the wrong thing," said Pippi re-
assuringly. "If I thought you'd do that, I wouldn't
give you one. Because it would be boring to have just your legs
to play with. Tommy and me and your legs--that would be
fine company."
"You won't make a mistake, Annika," said
Tommy.
They turned the Christmas tree lights out. The
kitchen was in complete darkness, except near the
stove where the fire glowed behind the stove door. ,
They sat down in silence in a circle in the middle
of the floor, holding one another by the hand. Pippi
gave Tommy and Annika each a chililug
pill. Chills ran up and down their spines. Just
think, in a second the powerful pill would be down in
their stomachs, and then they would never have to grow
up. How marvelous that would be!
"Now," Pippi whispered.
"Pretty little chililug, I don't want to get
bug," they said all together and swallowed their pills.
The deed was done.
Pippi turned on the ceiling light. "That's it,"
she said. "Now we don't have to be grown up and have
corns and other miseries. Though the pills have been
lying around in my closet for so long that one can't be
absolutely sure that all the strength hasn't gone
out of them. But we have to hope for the best."
Annika suddenly thought of something. "Oh,
Pippi Longstocking Doesn't Want to Grow
Up
Pippi," she said in alarm, "you were going to be a
pirate when you grew up."
"Pshaw, I can be one anyway," said Pippi.
"I can still become a nasty
Pippi in the South Seas Page 7