More of Milly-Molly-Mandy

by Joyce Lankester Brisley

  AND SHE WAS SURPRISED!

  And then Mother couldn’t say anything, but that they were all very dear, naughty people to have worked so hard while she was being lazy! And Father and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy were all very pleased, and said they liked being naughty!

  Then Mother brought out the presents she had got for them. And what do you think Milly-Molly-Mandy’s present was (besides some shells which Mother had picked up on the sand)?

  It was a beautiful little blue dressing-gown, which Mother had sewed and sewed for her while she sat on the beach and under her new sunshade with Mrs Hooker listening to the waves splashing!

  Then Father and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy all said Mother was very naughty to have worked when she might have been having a nice lazy time!

  But Mother said she liked being naughty too! – and Milly-Molly-Mandy was so pleased with her new little blue dressing-gown that she couldn’t help wearing it straight away!

  And then Mother put on her apron and insisted on setting to work to make them something nice for supper, so that she should feel she was really at home.

  For it had been a perfect holiday, said Mother, but it was really like having another one to come home again to them all at the nice white cottage with the thatched roof.

  11

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes to the Sea

  Once upon a time – what do you think? – Milly-Molly-Mandy was going to be taken to the seaside!

  Milly-Molly-Mandy had never seen the sea in all her life before, and ever since Mother came back from her seaside holiday with her friend Mrs Hooker, and told Milly-Molly-Mandy about the splashy waves and the sand and the little crabs, Milly-Molly-Mandy had just longed to go there herself.

  Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty just longed for her to go too, because they knew she would like it so much. But they were all so busy, and then, you know, holidays cost quite a lot of money.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy played “seaside” instead, by the little brook in the meadow, with little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt and the shells Mother had brought home for her. (And it was a very nice game indeed, but still Milly-Molly-Mandy did wish sometimes that it could be the real sea!)

  Then one day little-friend-Susan went with her mother and baby sister to stay with a relation who let lodgings by the sea. And little-friend-Susan wrote Milly-Molly-Mandy a postcard saying how lovely it was, and how she did wish Milly-Molly-Mandy was there; and Mrs Moggs wrote Mother a postcard saying couldn’t some of them manage to come down just for a day excursion, one Saturday?

  Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty thought something really ought to be done about that, and they talked it over, while Milly-Molly-Mandy listened with all her ears.

  But Father said he couldn’t go, because he had to get his potatoes up; Mother said she couldn’t go because it was baking day, and, besides, she had just had a lovely seaside holiday; Grandpa said he couldn’t go, because it was market day; Grandma said she wasn’t really very fond of train journeys; Uncle said he oughtn’t to leave his cows and chickens.

  But then they all said Aunty could quite well leave the sweeping and dusting for that one day.

  So Aunty only said it seemed too bad that she should have all the fun. And then she and Milly-Molly-Mandy hugged each other, because it was so very exciting.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy ran off to tell Billy Blunt at once, because she felt she would burst if she didn’t tell someone. And Billy Blunt did wish he could be going too, but his father and mother were always busy.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy told Aunty, and Aunty said, “Tell Billy Blunt to ask his mother to let him come with us, and I’ll see after him!”

  So Billy Blunt did, and Mrs Blunt said it was very kind of Aunty and she’d be glad to let him go.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy hoppity-skipped like anything, because she was so very pleased; and Billy Blunt was very pleased too, though he didn’t hoppity-skip, because he always thought he was too old for such doings (but he wasn’t really!).

  So now they were able to plan together for Saturday, which made it much more fun.

  Mother had an old bathing-dress which she cut down to fit Milly-Molly-Mandy, and the bits over she made into a flower for the shoulder (and it looked a very smart bathing-dress indeed). Billy Blunt borrowed a swimming-suit from another boy at school (but it hadn’t any flower on the shoulder, of course not!).

  Then Billy Blunt said to Milly-Molly-Mandy, “If you’ve got swimming-suits you ought to swim. We’d better practise.”

  But Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “We haven’t got enough water.”

  Billy Blunt said, “Practise in air, then – better than nothing.”

  So they fetched two old boxes from the barn out into the yard, and then lay on them (on their fronts) and spread out their arms and kicked with their legs just as if they were swimming. And when Uncle came along to fetch a wheelbarrow he said it really made him feel quite cool to see them!

  He showed them how to turn their hands properly, and kept calling out, “Steady! Steady! Not so fast!” as he watched them.

  And then Uncle lay on his front on the box and showed them how (and he looked so funny!), and then they tried again, and Uncle said it was better that time.

  So they practised until they were quite out of breath. And then they pretended to dive off the boxes, and they splashed and swallowed mouthfuls of air and swam races to the gate and shivered and dried themselves with old sacks – and it was almost as much fun as if it were real water!

  Well, Saturday came at last, and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy met Billy Blunt at nine o’clock by the crossroads. And then they went in the red bus to the station in the next town. And then they went in the train, rumpty-te-tump, rumpty-te-tump, all the way down to the sea.

  And you can’t imagine how exciting it was, when they got out at last, to walk down a road knowing they would see the real sea at the bottom! Milly-Molly-Mandy got so excited that she didn’t want to look till they were up quite close.

  So Billy Blunt (who had seen it once before) pulled her along right on to the edge of the sand, and then he said suddenly, “Now look!”

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy looked.

  And there was the sea, all jumping with sparkles in the sunshine, as far as ever you could see. And little-friend-Susan, with bare legs and frock tucked up, came tearing over the sand to meet them from where Mrs Moggs and Baby Moggs were sitting by a wooden breakwater.

  Wasn’t it fun!

  They took off their shoes and their socks and their hats, and they wanted to take off their clothes and bathe, but Aunty said they must have dinner first. So they sat round and ate sandwiches and cake and fruit which Aunty had brought in a basket. And the Moggs had theirs too out of a basket.

  Then they played in the sand with Baby Moggs (who liked having her legs buried), and paddled a bit and found crabs (they didn’t take them away from the water, though).

  And then Aunty and Mrs Moggs said they might bathe now if they wanted to. So (as it was a very quiet sort of beach) Milly-Molly-Mandy undressed behind Aunty, and little-friend-Susan undressed behind Mrs Moggs, and Billy Blunt undressed behind the breakwater.

  And then they ran right into the water in their bathing-dresses. (And little-friend-Susan thought Milly-Molly-Mandy’s bathing-dress was smart, with the flower on the shoulder!)

  But, dear me! Water-swimming feels so different from land-swimming, and Milly-Molly-Mandy couldn’t manage at all well with the little waves splashing at her all the time. Billy Blunt swished about in the water with a very grim face, and looked exactly as if he were swimming; but when Milly-Molly-Mandy asked him, he said, “No! My arms swim, but my legs only walk!”

  THEY RAN RIGHT INTO THE WATER IN THEIR BATHING-DRESSES

  It was queer, for it had seemed quite easy in the barnyard.

  But they went on pretending and pretending to swim until Aunty called them out. And then
they dried themselves with towels and got into their clothes again; and Billy Blunt said, well, anyhow, he supposed they were just that much nearer swimming properly than they were before; and Milly-Molly-Mandy said she supposed next time they might p’r’aps be able to lift their feet off the ground for a minute at any rate; and little-friend-Susan said she was sure she had swallowed a shrimp! (But that was only her fun!)

  Then they played and explored among the rockpools and had tea on the sand. And after tea Mrs Moggs and Baby Moggs and little-friend-Susan walked with them back to the station; and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy and Billy Blunt went in the train, rumpty-te-tump, rumpty-te-tump, all the way home again.

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy was so sleepy when she got to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof that she had only just time to kiss Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty goodnight and get into bed before she fell fast asleep.

  12

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Finds a Nest

  Once upon a time, one warm summer morning, Uncle came quickly in at the back door of the nice white cottage with the thatched roof and shouted from the kitchen, “Milly-Molly-Mandy!”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy, who was just coming downstairs carrying a big bundle of washing for Mother, called back, “Yes, Uncle?”

  “Hi! quick!” said Uncle, and went outside the back door again.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy couldn’t think what Uncle wanted with her, but it had such an exciting sound she dropped the big bundle on the stairs in a hurry and ran down to the passage. But when she got to the passage she thought she ought not to leave the big bundle on the stairs, lest someone trip over it in the shadow; so she ran back again in a hurry and fetched the big bundle down, and ran along to the kitchen with it. But she was in such a hurry she dropped some things out of the big bundle and had to run back again and pick them up.

  But at last she got them all on to the kitchen table, and then she ran out of the back door and said, “Yes, Uncle? What is it, Uncle?”

  Uncle was just going through the meadow gate, with some boards under one arm and the tool-box on the other. He beckoned to Milly-Molly-Mandy with his head (which was the only thing he had loose to do it with), so Milly-Molly-Mandy ran after him down the garden path to the meadow.

  “Yes, Uncle?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.

  “Milly-Molly-Mandy,” said Uncle, striding over the grass with his boards and tool-box, “I’ve found a nest.”

  “What sort of a nest?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy, hoppity-skipping a bit to keep up with him.

  “Milly-Molly-Mandy,” said Uncle, “I rather think it’s a Milly-Molly-Mandy nest.”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy stopped and stared at Uncle, but he strode on with his boards and tool-box as if nothing had happened.

  Then Milly-Molly-Mandy began jumping up and down in a great hurry and said, “What’s a Milly-Molly-Mandy nest, Uncle? What’s it like, Uncle? Where is it, Uncle? DO-O tell me!”

  “Well,” said Uncle, “you ought to know what a Milly-Molly-Mandy nest is, being a Milly-Molly-Mandy yourself. It’s up in the big old oak-tree at the bottom of the meadow.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy tore off to the big old oak-tree at the bottom of the meadow, but she couldn’t see any sort of a nest there, only Uncle’s ladder leaning against the tree.

  Uncle put the boards and tool-box carefully down on the ground, then he settled the ladder against the big old oak-tree, then he picked up Milly-Molly-Mandy and carried her up the ladder and sat her on a nice safe branch.

  And then Milly-Molly-Mandy saw there was a big hollow in the big old oak-tree (which was a very big old oak-tree indeed). And it was such a big hollow that Uncle could get right inside it himself and leave quite a lot of room over.

  “Now, Milly-Molly-Mandy,” said Uncle, “you can perch on that branch and chirp a bit while I put your nest in order.”

  Then Uncle went down the ladder and brought up some of the boards and the tool-box, which he hung by its handle on a sticking-out branch. And Milly-Molly-Mandy watched while Uncle measured off boards and sawed them and fitted them and hammered nails into them, until he had made a beautiful flat floor in the hollow in the big old oak-tree, so that it looked like the nicest little fairy-tale room you ever saw!

  Then he hoisted Milly-Molly-Mandy off the branch, where she had been chirping with excitement like the biggest sparrow you ever saw (only that you never saw a sparrow in a pink-and-white striped cotton frock), and heaved her up into the hollow.

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy stood on the beautiful flat floor and touched the funny brown walls of the big old oak-tree’s inside, and looked out of the opening on to the grass down below, and thought a Milly-Molly-Mandy nest was the very nicest and excitingest place to be in the whole wide world!

  Just then whom should she see wandering along the road at the end of the meadow but little-friend-Susan!

  “Susan!” called Milly-Molly-Mandy as loud as ever she could, waving her arms as hard as ever she could. And little-friend-Susan peeped over the hedge.

  At first she didn’t see Milly-Molly-Mandy up in her nest, and then she did, and she jumped up and down and waved; and Milly-Molly-Mandy beckoned, and little-friend-Susan ran to the meadow gate and couldn’t get it open because she was in such a hurry, and tried to get through and couldn’t because she was too big, and began to climb over and couldn’t because it was rather high. So at last she squeezed round the side of the gate-post through a little gap in the hedge and came racing across the meadow to the big old oak-tree, and Uncle helped her up.

  And then Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan sat and hugged themselves together, up in the Milly-Molly-Mandy nest.

  Just then Father came by the big old oak-tree, and when he saw what was going on he went and got a rope and threw up one end to Milly-Molly-Mandy. And then Father tied an empty wooden box to the other end, and Milly-Molly-Mandy pulled it up and untied it and set it in the middle of the floor like a little table.

  Then Mother, who had been watching from the gate of the nice white cottage with the thatched roof, came and tied an old rug to the end of the rope, and little-friend-Susan pulled it up and spread it on the floor like a carpet.

  Then Grandpa came along, and he tied some fine ripe plums in a basket to the end of the rope, and Milly-Molly-Mandy pulled them up and set them on the little table.

  Then Grandma came across the meadow bringing some old cushions, and she tied them to the end of the rope, and little-friend-Susan pulled them up and arranged them on the carpet.

  Then Aunty came along, and she tied a little flower vase on the end of a rope, and Milly-Molly-Mandy pulled it up and set it in the middle of the table. And now the Milly-Molly-Mandy nest was properly furnished, and Milly-Molly-Mandy was in such a hurry to get Billy Blunt to come to see it that she could hardly get down from it quickly enough.

  Mother said, “You may ask little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt to tea up there if you like, Milly-Molly-Mandy.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan ran off straight away, hoppity-skip to the Moggs’ cottage (for little-friend-Susan to ask Mrs Moggs’ permission), and to the village to Mr Blunt’s corn-shop (to ask Billy Blunt), while Uncle fixed steps up the big old oak-tree, so that they could climb easily to the nest.

  UP IN THE MILLY-MOLLY-MANDY NEST

  And at five o’clock that very afternoon Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt were sitting drinking milk from three little mugs and eating slices of bread-and-jam and gingerbread from three little plates, and feeling just as excited and comfortable and happy as ever they could be, up in the Milly-Molly-Mandy nest!

  13

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Has Friends

  Once upon a time Milly-Molly-Mandy heard the Postman’s knock on the door, and when she ran to look in the letter-box there was a letter for Milly-Molly-Mandy herself!

  It looked rather the same kind of writing as Milly-Molly-Mandy’s own, and Milly-Molly-Mandy couldn’t think whom it was from. She ran to Mothe
r, who was ironing in the kitchen, and Mother looked on while Milly-Molly-Mandy tore open the envelope.

  And when she pulled out the letter, two little paper girls fell out and fluttered to the floor. And Milly-Molly-Mandy said excitedly, “Oh, I know!—it’s from Milly-next-door-to-Mrs Hooker!”

  Mother remembered Milly-Molly-Mandy telling her about when she went to stay with Mrs Hooker (the old friend of Mother’s in the next town), and how a little girl, Milly-next-door, had come in to play, and they had painted and cut out paper dolls together from a fashion book.

  “You had better read what the letter says,” said Mother.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy set the two little paper girls up on the ironing-board and opened the letter. And this is what the letter said:

  DEAR MILLY-MOLLY-MANDY,

  I am sending you some paper dolls. I hope you will like them. I am coming to see you one day. Father says he will bring me when he comes to buy chickens from your uncle. I hope you will write to me. With love from

  MILLY

  Milly-Molly-Mandy was pleased!

  Mother said, “You must write and tell Milly-next-door to get her father to bring her over to tea with you.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy wrote a letter to Milly-next-door, on her best fancy notepaper, and posted it herself.

  Next Saturday Uncle said Mr Short was coming, over to fetch some chickens that afternoon. (Mr Short was Milly-next-door’s father.) So when Mother baked the cakes, which she always did on a Saturday morning, she made a little cherry cake specially for Milly-Molly-Mandy and Milly-next-door.

  And when the Muffin-man came past with his bell on the way down to the village Mother sent Milly-Molly-Mandy out to stop him. And Milly-Molly-Mandy ran and said, “Please, we want some muffins. I’ve got a little friend coming to tea with me!”