And then she suddenly remembered her own errand!
And she said goodbye to Billy Blunt and ran across the road to the grocer’s to get the tin of cocoa for Mother. (The kippers, she noticed, were nearly sold out already.)
When she got home to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof she told Mother all about the Miss Thumbles, and also about the kippers at the grocer’s. Mother said:
“Yes! Father happened to be passing, and he saw them too. He’s just bought a dozen.”
So that evening, when Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty sat down to enjoy their kippers (Milly-Molly-Mandy had half a one, with the bones carefully picked out, on a slice of toast) they liked to think of Miss Thumble and the Other Miss Thumble enjoying their kippers too!
17
Milly-Molly-Mandy and a Wet Day
Once upon a time, one morning, when Milly-Molly-Mandy went off to school, it was raining and raining. (But she had on her rubber boots and raincoat and hood.)
When she got to the Moggs’s cottage there was little-friend-Susan (in rubber boots and raincoat and hood) watching for her at the door.
“Oh, what a nasty wet, rainy day!” said little-friend-Susan, running out to join her.
“Mother says, if we keep going it won’t hurt,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
So they kept going, trudging along together down the wet road with the wet hedges each side, very glad to have each other to squeal to when the cold raindrops dripped off their noses.
When they got to the duck-pond all the little ducks were flapping and quacking away as if quite enjoying such a nice wet, rainy day! When they got to the village Billy Blunt (in thick shoes and raincoat) was dashing from the corn-shop; and Miss Muggins’s niece Jilly (in new red rubber boots and her mackintosh over her head) was running from the draper’s shop. They hadn’t far to go, of course, but Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan arrived at school almost the same time, together with some other boys and girls who came by the red bus to the crossroads.
They all hung up their coats and hats and changed their shoes, flapping and quacking away together like a lot of little ducks, as if they too quite enjoyed the rainy day! (Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan were dry and warm as toast after their long walk.)
When morning school was over the rain had stopped for a bit. But everywhere was still sopping wet, and in the road outside the school gate was a great muddy puddle.
Milly-Molly-Mandy, and a few others who went home for dinner (some who lived a long way off ate theirs at school), rather enjoyed having to wade through. Billy Blunt chose the deepest place. But Miss Muggins’s Jilly, who tried to jump over, made a fine splash.
“It’s a good thing we’ve got our mackintoshes on!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“We ought to be ducks!” said little-friend-Susan.
“Road ought to be mended,” said Billy Blunt.
He looked around and picked up some stones which he threw into the puddle. Milly-Molly-Mandy threw in a few bits of broken slate, and little-friend-Susan a handful of leaves and twigs. But it didn’t make much difference.
“You’ll get yourselves muddy,” said Miss Muggins’s Jilly.
“We need more stuff,” said Billy Blunt.
So they looked about in hedges and ditches, picking up anything to throw in.
MISS MUGGINS’S JILLY . . . TRIED TO JUMP OVER
“Put ’em just here,” said Billy Blunt. “No sense throwing them all over the place.”
“I think I’d better go in now,” said Miss Muggins’s Jilly. “My aunty wouldn’t like me to get my new rubber boots wet.”
“I thought that’s what rubber boots were for,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“They’re wet already, anyhow,” said little-friend-Susan.
“Don’t stand there jabbering,” said Billy Blunt. “Get busy, or get out of the way.”
So Miss Muggins’s Jilly went off home. But Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt carried on, looking for things to throw into the puddle.
They found some nice bits of brick on the waste ground by the crossroads. Also a splendid lump of broken paving-stone; but it was too heavy to carry, and they had to leave it after a struggle.
Then they had to hurry home to their dinners, and Milly-Molly-Mandy (with farthest to go) only just wasn’t late for hers.
As soon as she could she hurried back to school, little-friend-Susan joining her on the way. But Billy Blunt was there already, adding fresh stones to mend the roadway. He had his box-on-wheels beside him.
“I got an idea while I was eating my pudding,” said Billy Blunt. “We ought to be able to fetch that bit of paving-stone in this!”
So, with the little cart rattling and bumping along between them, they ran across the waste ground by the crossroads.
And together they heaved and they pushed and they grunted, till they got the stone out of the long grass, on to the little cart.
And then they pulled and they pushed, and they grunted, till they got it wheeled over the rough ground into the roadway.
And then they heaved and they grunted (which always seems to help!) till they slid the stone out into the middle of the puddle, with a fine muddy splosh!
“That’s done it!” said Billy Blunt with satisfaction, wiping himself with some grass.
And then the bell rang, and they had to scurry in and tidy up.
When school was over everyone used the stepping-stones as they left, and kept dry and clean.
Then – what do you think? – as the bus that took some of the children home stopped for them at the crossroads a grey-haired lady got off, and came down to the school gate.
She asked Milly-Molly-Mandy, who was standing nearest:
“Has Miss Edwards come out yet? Would you mind telling her her mother’s here?”
Milly-Molly-Mandy was surprised. (She had never thought of Teacher as having a mother!) Miss Edwards came hurrying out, very pleased, to welcome the visitor and take her into her own cottage next door. And they both used the stepping-stones and were glad to find the road had been so nicely mended – because Mrs Edwards hadn’t any rubber boots on, only lady’s shoes and an umbrella.
“Well, now!” said Mother, when Milly-Molly-Mandy came running home to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof. “What have you been up to? Have you got wet?”
“No!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “We kept going, like you said, and I’m warm as anything!”
18
Milly-Molly-Mandy Makes Some Toffee
Once upon a time Milly-Molly-Mandy with little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt were in the village, planning how to spend their pennies to get the most sweets.
Miss Muggins’s shop had the usual jars of raspberry drops and aniseed balls; Mr Smale the grocer’s had coconut ice and caramels.
“But they go so quickly,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“And they’re expensive,” said little-friend-Susan.
“Sugar’s cheaper,” said Billy Blunt, his nose to the glass, “but not so interesting.”
“Mother makes toffee sometimes, with sugar,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “I wonder if we could!”
“How does your mother make it?” asked little-friend-Susan.
“She puts sugar, and butter, and some vinegar, in a frying-pan, and boils it up,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“Vinegar!” said Billy Blunt. “Can’t be nice.”
“It is then!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “It’s lovely!”
“Well, why don’t we buy sugar, and ask if we can make some ourselves?” said little-friend-Susan.
“If you think you know how,” said Billy Blunt. “Don’t want to waste things.”
So they all went into the shop and put their pennies on the counter, and Mr Smale the grocer weighed out sugar and handed it over. And they ran all the way to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof (where Milly-Molly-Mandy lived), into the kitchen where Mother was busy cooking.
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p; “Mother!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “May we make toffee all by ourselves? We’ve bought some sugar.”
“Yes,” said Billy Blunt.
“Please,” said little-friend-Susan.
Mother said: “Very well. You may use the stove after dinner, directly the washing-up is done, and I won’t watch you!”
So, soon after dinner, Billy Blunt and little-friend-Susan came running round again.
Milly-Molly-Mandy was all ready for them. Mother was at her sewing-machine, but she only glanced up to say hullo.
“You won’t take any notice of us, will you, Mother?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“No! I’m too busy,” said Mother.
So they set to work.
They tipped their sugar into the frying-pan, with a knob of butter and a spoonful of water to start it melting. Milly-Molly-Mandy stirred with a wooden spoon, little-friend-Susan found a dish for the toffee, and Billy Blunt greased it well.
“You don’t really put vinegar in it, do you?” he said.
“You do, don’t you, Mother?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
The sewing-machine stopped a moment. “I usually add a small spoonful, to lessen the sweetness,” said Mother. “There’s some in the larder.” And the machine rattled on again.
So Billy Blunt fetched the bottle, and they measured a spoonful into the pan.
“We have to try some in cold water to see when it’s done,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. (She always liked that part!)
So little-friend-Susan fetched a cupful, and they dripped a few drops in off the spoon. But it only made the water look dirty.
“It goes in hard balls when it’s done,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“Then it isn’t done,” said Billy Blunt.
“It hasn’t boiled properly,” said little-friend-Susan.
Presently Mother said:
THEY MEASURED A SPOONFUL INTO THE PAN
“There’s rather an odd smell, isn’t there?”
“You promised not to watch us!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“I’m not watching,” said Mother, “but I can’t help smelling.”
“It’s the vinegar,” said Billy Blunt.
“P’raps it’s getting done,” said little-friend-Susan.
So they tried a bit more in cold water. It tasted odd, but not done.
Presently Father came in from working in his vegetable garden.
“Hullo? What’s going on here?” he asked, sniffing.
“We’re making toffee!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“All by ourselves!” said little-friend-Susan.
“We bought our own sugar,” said Billy Blunt.
“What’s the flavouring?” asked Father. “Onion?” He got his seed labels from the mantelshelf and went out again.
They all laughed. Fancy onion in toffee! All the same – “It does smell sort of funny,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“P’raps the pan was oniony?” said little-friend-Susan.
“No!” said Mother, over her shoulder.
“It’s that vinegar,” said Billy Blunt again.
Suddenly Mother asked:
“Do you always read labels carefully when you cook? It’s one of the first rules.”
“I read that bottle,” said Billy Blunt. “It said vinegar.” And he brought the bottle to show her.
The label read – Garlic Vinegar!
“Ohhh!” exclaimed Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan, loudly.
Mother dropped her sewing.
“I should have remembered there were two sorts of vinegar in the larder,” she said, “but I so seldom use that smaller bottle. I wonder if you can cover up with some other flavour, peppermint perhaps?”
She found a tiny bottle in the cupboard.
So (reading the label with great care) they added a few drops of peppermint essence to the toffee, before turning it out into the greased dish to cool before cutting it up.
The rest of the afternoon, they played down by the stream, with Toby the dog. And, do you know, they all thought the toffee wasn’t really so bad! (Father said he had never tasted better garlic-toffee!) And it certainly lasted them a long while.
But I don’t fancy they will make any more like it – they read labels very carefully now!
19
Milly-Molly-Mandy Has American Visitors
Once upon a time Milly-Molly-Mandy felt rather excited.
Aunty had a letter with a foreign stamp on from her brother Tom, saying that he and his wife and children were coming over from America to visit their English relatives.
Aunty had not seen her brother Tom since he was quite young, and had never seen his wife, or their children, though they and Milly-Molly-Mandy had exchanged letters and paper dolls.
“Will Sallie and Lallie and Buddy come to stay here?” asked Milly-Molly-Mandy. “Where will they sleep?”
“We must think,” said Mother. “Your Uncle Tom and Aunty Sadie will have the spare room, of course, and Sallie and Lallie might squeeze together in your little room. Perhaps we can make up a bed on the floor for Buddy beside his parents.”
“But where will I sleep?” asked Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“You’ll have to have a little floor-bed too, beside Father and me,” said Mother.
Milly-Molly-Mandy thought that sounded rather fun. (Certainly nicer than wandering around all night with nowhere to sleep!)
“It won’t be for long,” said Aunty, folding up her letter, “there are other relatives to visit.”
Then everybody in the nice white cottage with the thatched roof got very busy. Father picked some of his best fruit and vegetables; Mother made lots of pies and cakes; and Grandpa groomed Twinkletoes and washed the pony-trap; Grandma crocheted a fine new tea-cosy; Uncle collected plenty of eggs from his chickens; Aunty cleaned and polished all the rooms; and Milly-Molly-Mandy helped where she could, and was very useful indeed.
When she told Billy Blunt about it, he grinned and said:
“You’ll have to learn to talk American, now!” (Which set Milly-Molly-Mandy wondering, until she remembered how she and Sallie and Lallie and Buddy had written to each other in English!)
Well, the important day came.
Uncle and Aunty went by bus to the railway station, to meet the train. And Grandpa, with Milly-Molly-Mandy and Twinkletoes and the pony-trap, went to meet the bus at the crossroads as it returned, to drive Sallie and Lallie and Buddy and their mother and the luggage home.
There wasn’t room in the pony-trap for everybody. So Uncle and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy all walked home together with Uncle Tom, through the village and along the road with hedges each side.
Uncle Tom looked round about him, saying “Well, this sure is a bit of the old country!” as they went.
When Milly-Molly-Mandy showed him the corn-shop where Billy Blunt lived, and the Moggs’s cottage where little-friend-Susan lived, Uncle Tom said, “You don’t say!” (though she had just said it!).
When they came to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof Uncle Tom said, “Well, this sure looks a picture!” (though it just looked like home to Milly-Molly-Mandy).
The new Aunty Sadie was helping Mother and Grandma and Aunty in the kitchen, when they got in, and Sallie and Lallie and Buddy were running about, all chattering together, and it all sounded very exciting!
The grown-ups sat down at the big table, and the young ones had a small table to themselves (there wasn’t room for everybody otherwise).
They talked about the big boat they had come over on, and about the big place they had come from (which was America, of course), and Uncle Tom told stories of Indians and horse-riding and deserts, and it was all terribly exciting!
They didn’t a bit want to go to bed at bedtime.
But that was exciting too, going to bed in new places – Sallie and Lallie in Milly-Molly-Mandy’s little attic room, Buddy in a makeshift bed in the spare room, and Milly-Molly-Mandy herself on a mattress on the floor in Father’s and Mother’s room.
She lay listening to the grown-ups’ talk rumbling on and on downstairs, until at last she fell asleep, and it was morning again.
After breakfast they went out to play in the yard, and Milly-Molly-Mandy showed her cousins the old tumbledown pigsty. (It was quite clean and empty, no pigs lived in it now.)
“This is my house,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy, “but you can come inside. We must shut the gate, to keep the lions out.”
“You don’t have lions,” said Buddy.
“Oh, we do!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “There’s one now! Quick! Hurry! Hurry!”
And they all rushed squealing into the pigsty, as Toby the dog came capering up to see what was going on. Milly-Molly-Mandy held the broken gate shut.
“We can’t come out till he goes away,” she said, “he might eat us!”
Presently Toby the dog went off to see what was moving round by the shed, and they all crept out to gather up a few windfall apples so that they wouldn’t starve!
They were just hurrying back with them to the sty, when they heard a frightful hooting noise. And a strange figure came leaping towards them.
(It was Billy Blunt with an old sack over one shoulder and a chicken’s tail-feather stuck in his hair!)
“It’s Indians! Run! Run!” shrieked Milly-Molly-Mandy.
And they all rushed screaming back into the sty and pushed the gate to, only just in time!
“You know, I think he may be quite a kind Indian, really,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy, then. “Would you like an apple?” And she held out a nice one over the gate.
THEY ALL RUSHED SCREAMING BACK INTO THE STY
“Wah!” said Billy Blunt, taking and biting it.
So they let him come in. And they all huddled together in the pigsty, eating windfall apples (to keep themselves from starving), and throwing the cores for the “lion” to run after outside.
More Milly-Molly-Mandy Page 9
