“Dear, dear!” said Aunty. “And meantime our roof will be getting worse and worse.” Then Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy said good morning to Mrs Critch, and went out through her little gate into the road again.
“Father will have to mend it now, won’t he, Aunty?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“It isn’t at all easy to thatch a roof,” said Aunty. “You have to know how. I wonder what we can do!”
They set off back home along the white road with the hedges each side, and Aunty said, “Well, there must be a way out, somehow.” And Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “I expect Father will know what to do.”
So they hurried along, holding their hats on.
As they passed the Moggses’ cottage they saw little-friend-Susan trying to hang a towel on the line, with the wind trying all the time to wrap her up in it.
Milly-Molly-Mandy called out, “Hullo, Susan! Our roof’s being blown off, and Mr Critch the Thatcher can’t come and mend it, so Father will have to. Do you want to come and see?” Little-friend-Susan was very interested, and as soon as she had got the towel up she came along with them.
When Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle heard their news they all looked as if they were saying, “Dear, dear!” to themselves. But Milly-Molly-Mandy looked quite pleased, and said, “Now you’ll have to mend the roof, won’t you Father?”
And Father looked at Uncle, and said, “Well, Joe. How about it?” And Uncle said, “Right, John!” in his big voice.
And then Father and Uncle buttoned their jackets (so that the wind shouldn’t flap them), and fetched ladders (to reach the roof with), and a rake (to comb the straw tidy with), and wooden pegs (with which to fasten it down). And then they put one ladder so that they could climb up to the thatched roof, and another ladder with hooks on the end so that they could climb up on the thatched roof; and then Father gathered up a big armful of straw, and he and Uncle set to work busily to mend the hole in the thatch as well as they could, till Mr Critch the Thatcher could come.
Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan, down below, set to work busily to collect the straw from the hedges and the flower-beds and the grass, piling it up in one corner, ready for Father when he came down for another armful. And they helped to hold the ladder steady, and handed up sticks for making the pattern round the edge of the thatch, and fetched things that Father or Uncle called out for, and were very useful indeed.
Soon the roof began to look much better.
Then Father fetched a big pair of shears, and he snip-snip-snipped the straggly ends of the straw all round Milly-Molly-Mandy’s little bedroom window up under the roof. (Milly-Molly-Mandy thought it was just like the nice white cottage having its hair cut!) And then Father and Uncle stretched a big piece of wire netting over the mended place, and fastened it down with pegs. (Milly-Molly-Mandy thought it was just like the nice white cottage having a hair-net put on and fastened with hairpins!)
And then the roof was all trim and tidy again, and they wouldn’t feel in any sort of a hurry for Mr Critch the Thatcher to come and thatch it properly.
Soon the roof began to look much better
“Isn’t it a lovely roof?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “I knew Father could do it!”
“Well, you can generally manage to do a thing when you have to, Milly-Molly-Mandy,” said Father, but he looked quite pleased with himself, and so did Uncle.
And when they saw what a nice snug roof they had now, so did Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy!
Milly-Molly-Mandy books
Adventures
Family
Friends
School Days
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
The stories in this collection first appeared in
Further Doings of Milly-Molly-Mandy (1932)
Milly-Molly-Mandy Again (1948)
Milly-Molly-Mandy & Co. (1955)
Published by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd
This edition published 2012 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2012 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com/childrenshome
ISBN 978-1-4472-1611-7 EPUB
Text and illustrations copyright © Joyce Lankester Brisley 1932, 1948, 1955
The right of Joyce Lankester Brisley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Publisher’s Note
The stories in this collection are reproduced in the form in which they appeared upon first publication in the UK by George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd.
All spellings remain consistent with these original editions.
Milly-Molly-Mandy’s Autumn Page 4