It was such fun to be going to the Downs! Milly-Molly-Mandy had been taken there once before by Mrs Green (with little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt this time), and she had thought it was just the best place in the whole world for a picnic, so it was very nice to be going there again.
The little girl Jessamine and Milly-Molly-Mandy sat close together in the front seat beside Mrs Green (who drove beautifully), so that they could all see everything and talk about it together.
And they kept on seeing things all the way along. Once a partridge flew out from behind a hedge; and once a rabbit ran along in front of the car for quite a way; and once, when they were going very slowly because it was such a pretty lane with so much to see, they saw a little brown moor-hen taking her baby chicks over the road ahead of them! Mrs Green quietly stopped the car so that they could watch, and the little mother moor-hen hurried across with three babies, and then two more followed her; and, after quite a long pause, another little fluffy ball went scurrying across the road in a great hurry, and they all went through a gap in the hedge out of sight.
“He nearly got left behind, didn’t he?” said Mrs Green, starting the car again; and they went on, all talking about the little moor-hen family out for a walk, and wondering where they were going.
Then presently in the road ahead they saw a bus (not the red bus that passed their village, though). And standing in the road or sitting on the grass by the side of the road were a lot of school-children (but none that Milly-Molly-Mandy knew). So Mrs Green had to slow down while they got out of the way.
As they passed they saw that the bus driver was under the bus doing something to the machinery, and the children were looking rather disappointed, and a lady who seemed to be their teacher (but not one from Milly-Molly-Mandy’s school) was looking rather worried.
So Mrs Green stopped and called back, “Can we help at all?”
And the lady who seemed to be their teacher (she was their teacher) came to the side of the car, while all the children crowded round and looked on.
And the lady who was their teacher said they had all been invited to a garden-party, but the bus hired to take them kept on stopping and now it wouldn’t move at all, and the lady who was their teacher didn’t know quite what to do.
ALL THE CHILDREN CROWDED ROUND AND LOOKED ON
And then one little girl with a little pigtail said in a high little voice, “We’ve all got our best dresses on for the garden-party, and now we shan’t be able to go-o-o!”
It did seem a pity.
Mrs Green said, “How many are there of you?”
And the lady who was their teacher said, “Sixteen, including myself.”
Then Mrs Green got out and looked at her car and at all the children, and considered things. And Milly-Molly-Mandy and the little girl Jessamine sat and looked at Mrs Green and at all the children, and wondered what could be done about it. And all the children stood and looked at Mrs Green and at each other, and thought that something would be done about it, somehow.
Then Mrs Green turned to Milly-Molly-Mandy and the little girl Jessamine and said, “Shall we have our tea on the Downs or see if we can take these children to their garden-party?”
And Milly-Molly-Mandy and the little girl Jessamine of course said (both together), “Take them to the garden-party!”
So Mrs Green said, “I don’t know if we can manage it, but let’s see if we can all pack in!”
So everybody in great excitement tried to make themselves as small as possible, and clambered in and squeezed and shifted and sat in each other’s laps and stood on each other’s toes. But still it didn’t seem possible for the last two to get into the car.
Mrs Green said, “This won’t do!” and she got out again and thought a bit.
And then she picked out the two smallest children and lifted them up and into the folded hood at the back of the car, and she and the lady who was their teacher tied them safely in with the belt of a coat and a stout piece of string. And there they sat above all the other children, with toes together, like babes in a cradle!
And it was Milly-Molly-Mandy and the little girl with the little pigtail who were the smallest children (and weren’t they just glad!).
So everybody was in, and Mrs Green slowly drove the laden car away; and Milly-Molly-Mandy and the little girl with the little pigtail waved from their high seat to the bus driver, who stood smiling at them and wiping his oily hands on an oily rag.
Mrs Green drove very slowly and carefully until they came to the big house where the garden-party was to be. And then everybody got out, except Milly-Molly-Mandy and the little girl with the little pigtail, who had to wait to be lifted down.
The lady who was giving the garden-party was very grateful that they had been brought, as she had prepared such a lot of good things for them. And all the children were so grateful too that they stood and cheered and cheered and cheered as the car drove off with just Mrs Green and the little girl Jessamine and Milly-Molly-Mandy inside.
“Wasn’t that fun!” said Mrs Green.
“Won’t they enjoy their garden-party!” said the little girl Jessamine.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all have ridden in the hood?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
There wasn’t time now to go to the Downs for their picnic, but they found a field and spread it out there in the sunshine (and there was a cherry cake with lots of cherries in it!).
And they had such a good time. Milly-Molly-Mandy thought that field must be the best place in the world, after all, for a picnic; so it was very nice indeed that they had gone there.
4
Milly-Molly-Mandy Gets a Surprise
Once upon a time, after morning school, Milly-Molly-Mandy saw Mrs Green (the lady who lived in the Big House with the iron railings, which wasn’t far from the school) just getting out of her motor-car; and her little girl Jessamine was with her.
And when the little girl Jessamine saw Milly-Molly-Mandy she said, “Hullo, Milly-Molly-Mandy! We’ve just come back from the town. Mother’s been to the hairdresser’s and had her hair cut off!”
So when Milly-Molly-Mandy got home to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof, and was having dinner with Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty, she told them the news. And Mother and Grandma and Aunty were quite interested. Mother felt her “bun” and said, “I wonder what I should look like with my hair short!”
Father said, “I like you best as you are.”
And Grandpa said, “Nonsense, Polly!”
And Grandma said, “You’d always have to be going to the barber’s.”
And Uncle said, “You’ll be wanting us to have our beards bobbed next!”
And Aunty said, “It wouldn’t suit you!”
But Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Oh, do, Mother! Just like me! And then you’d look like my sister!” She looked at Mother carefully, trying to see her with short hair, and added, “I think you’d make a nice sister. DO, Mother!”
Mother laughed and said, “Oh, it wants a lot of thinking about, Milly-Molly-Mandy!”
The next evening Mother took a new cream cheese down the road to the Moggs’ cottage, and Milly-Molly-Mandy ran with her. And when Mother had given the cream cheese to Mrs Moggs she said, “Mrs Moggs, what do you think about my having my hair off?” And when Mrs Moggs had thanked Mother for the cream cheese she said, “Never! it would be a shame to cut your hair off. I wonder how it would suit me!”
Mother said, “Let’s go and have it done together!” And Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Yes, do!” But Mrs Moggs wouldn’t.
It was very windy, and going back up the road again Mother lost her comb, and they couldn’t find it as it was getting dark and it was probably in among the grasses under the hedge. So Mother went indoors with her hair quite untidy, and she said, “Now, if I had short hair that would not have happened!”
But Father said again, “You’re much nicer as you are.”
And Grandpa said again, “Nonsense, Po
lly, you, the mother of a big girl like Milly-Molly-Mandy!”
But Grandma said, “It would be very comfortable.”
And Uncle said, “You can always grow it again if you want to!”
And Aunty said, “Well, it wouldn’t suit ME!”
Mother’s eyebrows said, “Shall I?” to Milly-Molly-Mandy, and Milly-Molly-Mandy’s head said, “Yes!” quite decidedly.
The next day Father said he had to drive into the town to buy some gardening tools which he couldn’t get at Mr Blunt’s shop in the village; and Mother said she would like to go too. (Milly-Molly-Mandy thought Father and Mother had a sort of smiley look, almost as if they had a little secret between them.)
So Father and Mother drove off in the pony-trap together. And when Milly-Molly-Mandy was walking home from school that afternoon with little-friend-Susan she suddenly began to wonder if Mother was going to have her hair cut off in the town, like the little girl Jessamine’s mother did. And she was in such a hurry to get home and see if Mother had come back that as soon as they came to the Moggs’ cottage she said “Goodbye” at once to little-friend-Susan, without stopping to look in at her baby sister, or stand and talk or anything, and ran all the rest of the way home.
And when she got into the kitchen there was Mother sitting by the fire making toast for tea; and Grandma and Aunty were looking at her in an amused sort of way all the time they were putting cups on the table or buttering the toast.
For Mother’s hair was short like Milly-Molly-Mandy’s; and she looked so nice, and yet quite motherly still, that Milly-Molly-Mandy was as pleased as pleased!
“Has Father seen you?” she asked.
And Mother and Grandma and Aunty all laughed and said, “Yes.”
Milly-Molly-Mandy wondered why they laughed quite like that.
Then Mother said, “Ring the bell outside the back door, Milly-Molly-Mandy, to tell the men-folk tea is ready.” So Milly-Molly-Mandy rang the bell loudly, and she could hear the men-folk’s voices round by the barn. She wondered what they were laughing at.
Then everybody sat down to tea, and Milly-Molly-Mandy couldn’t keep her eyes off Mother’s hair. Mother looked so nice, and sort of smiley; Milly-Molly-Mandy couldn’t think what she was smiling at so, as she put sugar in the cups. Uncle looked sort of smiley, too, down in his beard – everybody was looking sort of smiley!
Milly-Molly-Mandy looked round the table in surprise.
And then she saw there was a strange man sitting in Father’s place! And she was so surprised that she stared hard, while everybody watched her and laughed outright.
And then Mother patted her shoulder, and said, “Wasn’t Father naughty? He went and had his beard cut off while I was having my hair done!”
And the “strange man” who was Father stroked his chin, and said, “Don’t you think I look very nice shingled too, Milly-Molly-Mandy?”
It was quite a long time before Milly-Molly-Mandy was able to say anything. And then she wanted to know what Father and Mother thought of each other.
And Father said, “I told you before, I like her best just as she is – so I do!”
MILLY-MOLLY-MANDY WAS SATIFIED
And Mother said, “I’ll like him best as he is – when I get used to it!”
And when Milly-Molly-Mandy had tried how it felt kissing Father without his beard she said in a satisfied way, “I think everybody’s nicest as they are, really, aren’t they?”
And Aunty, poking a hairpin back in her own hair, quite agreed.
5
Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes on an Expedition
Once upon a time it was a Monday-bank-holiday. Milly-Molly-Mandy had been looking forward to this Monday-bank-holiday for a long time, more than a week, for she and Billy Blunt had been planning to go for a long fishing expedition on that day.
It was rather exciting.
They were to get up very early, and take their dinners with them, and their rods and lines and jam-jars, and go off all on their own along by the brook, and not be back until quite late in the day.
Milly-Molly-Mandy went to bed the night before with all the things she wanted for the expedition arranged beside her bed – a new little tin mug (to drink out of), and a bottle (for drinking water), and a large packet of bread-and-butter and an egg and a banana (for her dinner), and a jam-jar (to carry the fish in), and a little green fishing net (to catch them with), and some string and a safety-pin (which it is always useful to have), and her school satchel (to put things in). For when you are going off for the whole day you want quite a lot of things with you.
When Milly-Molly-Mandy woke up on Monday-bank-holiday morning she thought to herself, “Oh, dear! It is a grey sort of day – I do hope it isn’t going to rain!”
But anyhow she knew she was going to enjoy herself, and she jumped up and washed and dressed and put on her hat and the satchel strap over her shoulder.
And then the sunshine came creeping over the trees outside, and Milly-Molly-Mandy saw that it had only been a grey day because she was up before the sun – and she felt a sort of little skip inside, because she was so very sure she was going to enjoy herself!
Just then there came a funny gritty sound like a handful of earth on the window pane, and when she put her head out there was Billy Blunt, eating a large piece of bread-and-butter and grinning up at her, looking very businesslike with rod and line and jam-jar and bulging satchel.
Milly-Molly-Mandy called out of the window in a loud whisper, “Isn’t it a lovely day? I’m just coming!”
And Billy Blunt called back in a loud whisper, “Come on! Hurry up! It’s getting late.”
So Milly-Molly-Mandy hurried up like anything, and picked up her things and ran creeping downstairs, past Father’s and Mother’s room, and Grandpa’s and Grandma’s room, and Uncle’s and Aunty’s room. And she filled her bottle at the tap in the scullery, and took up the thick slice of bread-and-butter which Mother had left between two plates ready for her breakfast, and unlocked the back door and slipped out into the fresh morning air.
And there they were, off on their Monday-bank-holiday expedition!
“Isn’t it lovely!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy, with a little hop.
“Umm! Come on!” said Billy Blunt.
So they went out of the back gate and across the meadow to the brook, walking very business-likely and enjoying their bread-and-butter very thoroughly.
“We’ll go that way,” said Billy Blunt, “because that’s the way we don’t generally go.”
“And when we come to a nice place we’ll fish,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.
“But that won’t be for a long way yet,” said Billy Blunt.
OFF ON THEIR MONDAY-BANK-HOLIDAY EXPEDITION
So they went on walking very business-likely (they had eaten their bread-and-butter by this time) until they had left the nice white cottage with the thatched roof a long way behind, and the sun was shining down quite hotly.
“It seems like a real expedition when you have the whole day to do it in, doesn’t it?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “I wonder what the time is now!”
“Not time for dinner yet,” said Billy Blunt. “But I could eat it.”
“So could I,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “Let’s have a drink of water.” So they each had a little tin mug full of water, and drank it very preciously to make it last, as the bottle didn’t hold much.
The brook was too muddy and weedy for drinking, but it was a very interesting brook. One place, where it had got rather blocked up, was just full of tadpoles – they caught ever so many with their hands and put them in the jam-jars, and watched them swim about and wiggle their little black tails and open and shut their little black mouths. Then farther on were lots of stepping-stones in the stream, and Milly-Molly-Mandy and Billy Blunt had a fine time scrambling about from one to another.
Billy Blunt slipped once, with one foot into the water, so he took off his boots and socks and tied them round his neck. And it looked so nice that Milly-Molly-Mandy took off one b
oot and sock and tried it too. But the water and the stones were so-o cold that she put them on again, and just tried to be fairly careful how she went. But even so she slipped once, and caught her frock on a branch and pulled the button off, and had to fasten it together with a safety-pin. (So wasn’t it a good thing she had brought one with her?)
Presently they came to a big flat mossy stone beside the brook. And Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “That’s where we ought to eat our dinners, isn’t it? I wonder what the time is now!”
Billy Blunt looked round and considered; and then he said, “Somewhere about noon, I should say. Might think about eating soon, as we had breakfast early. Less to carry, too.”
And Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Let’s spread it out all ready, anyhow! It’s a lovely place here.”
So they laid the food out on the flat stone, with the bottle of water and little tin mug in the middle, and it looked so good and they felt so hungry that, of course, they just had to set to and eat it all up straight away.
And it did taste nice!
And the little black tadpoles in the glass jam-jars beside them swam round and round, and wiggled their little black tails and opened and shut their little black mouths; till at last Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “We’ve taken them away from their dinners, haven’t we? Let’s put them back now.”
And Billy Blunt said, “Yes. We’ll want the pots for real fishes soon.”
So they emptied the tadpoles back into the brook where they wiggled away at once to their meals.
“Look! There’s a fish!” cried Milly-Molly-Mandy, pointing. And Billy Blunt hurried and fetched his rod and line, and settled to fishing in real earnest.
Further Doings of Milly-Molly-Mandy Page 2
