Comet in Moominland

by Tove Jansson

  ‘Well!’ said Moominmamma. ‘And who is this little girl?’

  ‘It’s the Snork maiden,’ said Moomintroll, bringing her forward. ‘She was the one I rescued from the poisonous bush. And this is Snufkin who is one of the world’s wanderers. This is the Hemulen; the expert philatterist!’

  ‘Oh!’ said Moominpappa, ‘really?’ And then it dawned on him. ‘Why, yes,’ he said, ‘I remember collecting stamps in my youth. A very interesting hobby.’

  ‘It isn’t my hobby – it’s my work,’ retorted the Hemulen rudely. (He had slept badly.)

  ‘In that case,’ said Moominpappa, ‘perhaps you could give me your opinion of a stamp album that was blown here yesterday evening by the tornado.’

  ‘Stamp album, did you say?’ exclaimed the Hemulen, ‘that blew here?’

  ‘Why, yes,’ put in Moominmamma. ‘I made the dough for the bread last night, and this morning it was full of little bits of sticky paper.’

  ‘Sticky paper!’ screeched the Hemulen. ‘Those must be my rarest of rare specimens. Are they still there? Where are they? Surely in the name of all Hemulens you haven’t thrown them away?’

  ‘They’re all hanging up to dry,’ said Moominmamma, pointing to a washing line under the plum trees.

  The Hemulen rushed off.

  ‘Now there’s some life in him,’ said Sniff laughing. ‘But he wouldn’t run two steps if the comet were after him.’

  ‘Yes, the comet,’ said Moominmamma anxiously. ‘The Muskrat says that it will fall in my kitchen garden this evening. It’s most annoying because I’ve just weeded it.’

  ‘I suggest that we hold a meeting about it in Moomin-house,’ said the Snork. ‘I mean – if you don’t mind of course.’

  ‘No, no, of course not,’ said Moominpappa. ‘Come along in. Make yourselves at home!’

  ‘There are some fresh ginger-nuts,’ said Moominmamma, slightly flurried, putting out the new coffee cups with roses and lilies on them. ‘What a good thing you came home in time dears!’

  ‘Did you get the telegram that the house-troll sent?’ asked Sniff.

  ‘Yes,’ said Moominpappa, ‘but the letters were all topsy-turvey, and most of it was just exclamation marks. The house-troll was obviously too nervous to send off any telegrams.’

  Just then Moominmamma leaned out of the window and cried ‘Coffee!’ and they all trooped inside, except the Hemulen. He was busy spreading out all his stamps and sorting them into different piles, and he only muttered crossly that he hadn’t time.

  ‘Well,’ said the Snork, ‘now we can come to the point. Unfortunately I have lost the exercise book where I had written down exactly what to do about escaping from comets, but one thing stands out as clear as the nose on my face, and that is that we must find a sheltered place to hide in.’

  ‘You make such a fuss about it all,’ said his sister. ‘It’s quite simple. All we have to do is to creep into Moomin-troll’s cave and take our most precious belongings with us!’

  ‘And lots of food,’ said Sniff. ‘And it’s my cave, by-the-way!’

  ‘Good gracious me!’ exclaimed Moominmamma. ‘Have you got a cave all of your own?’

  This set Moomintroll and Sniff off on a long description of how they had found the cave, what a wonderful cave it was, and how it was an absolutely perfect hiding place. They both talked at the same time, each trying to speak louder than the other, and the result was that Sniff upset his coffee cup on the table cloth.

  ‘Really!’ exclaimed Moominmamma in exasperation. ‘It’s obvious that you’ve all been living like hooligans while you’ve been away. Sniff, you had better eat on the mat. And the cake basin is in the sink – you can take it with you if you like.’

  Sniff dived under the table covered with confusion, and the meeting continued.

  ‘I’ve always believed in letting everybody do his bit,’ said the Snork pompously. ‘We must all carry our things up to the cave as soon as possible, because it’s three o’clock already. Perhaps my sister and I could carry the bedclothes?’

  ‘That will be fine,’ said Moominmamma. ‘I’ll take the jam. Sniff dear, will you start emptying the drawers of the bureau, because all those things must be packed.’

  So began the biggest running and carrying and packing you ever saw. Moominpappa filled the wheelbarrow, and Moominmamma bustled about looking for string and newspaper. (It was like being evacuated to the country in wartime with only a few hours’ notice.)

  Over and over again Moominpappa pushed the wheelbarrow through the wood to the beach and unloaded it on the sand. Then Moomintroll and Snufkin hoisted everything up to the cave on a rope.

  Meanwhile the others were collecting all that it was possible to move in the house, down to the door-handles of the cupboards and the cords of the blinds.

  ‘I don’t intend to leave a single thing for that old comet,’ muttered Moominmamma, pulling the bath-tub through the door.’ Snork, dear, do run and pull the radishes in the kitchen garden, and Sniff, you can carry the cake up to the cave, but be very careful with it!’

  Moominpappa came puffing up with the wheelbarrow. ‘Hurry up, all of you!’ he said. ‘It will soon be getting dark, and the hole in the roof of the cave still has to be blocked up.’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ said Moominmamma. ‘Coming directly. I just want the shells round my rhubarb bed. And the best of the roses.’

  ‘No,’ said Moominpappa decidedly, ‘we’ll leave those behind anyway. Now get into the bath my dear, and I’ll wheel you up to the cave. Where is the Hemulen?’

  ‘He’s counting his stamps,’ said the Snork maiden. ‘Nothing else seems to interest him.’

  ‘Hullo! Hemul!’ shouted the Snork. ‘Hurry up for goodness sake. The comet will be here in a minute and then your stamps will most certainly be lost.’

  ‘Oh, heaven preserve me!’ exclaimed the Hemulen, and hopped straight into the bath-tub, where he sat firmly with his stamp album, refusing to budge.

  Then the whole party set off on the last journey up to the cave. It was gloomy and desolate on the shore, with the great gap that had been the sea in front of them, the dark red sky overhead, and behind, the forest panting in the heat. The comet was very near now. It glowed white hot and looked enormous as it rushed towards Moomin Valley.

  ‘Where’s the Muskrat?’ Moominmamma suddenly asked in a horrified voice.

  ‘He wouldn’t come,’ answered Moominpappa. ‘He said it was unnecessary and undignified for a philosopher to rush about like this. I had to leave him, but I let him keep the hammock.’

  ‘Oh, well,’ sighed Moominmamma. ‘It’s difficult to understand philosophers. Out of the way now children, pappa is going to hoist up the bath.’

  Moomintroll, Sniff and Snufkin heaved and shouted up in the cave, while Moominpappa and the Snorks pushed and gave orders from the sand, and the bath wobbled up and down, slipped and was heaved up again, until at last it was on the ledge outside the cave.

  Moominmamma had been sitting on the sand all this time mopping her forehead, and now she gave a great sigh and exclaimed: ‘What a move!’

  The Hemulen, of course, had taken no part in the removal of the bath apart from sitting in it. He had already crept into the cave and was arranging his stamps. ‘Always some fuss and hurry,’ he muttered, ‘if only I could make out what’s come over them all.’

  And while it got hotter and hotter and darker and darker the hands of the clock slowly crept nearer to seven.

  They couldn’t get the bath through the opening of the cave, and the Snork wanted to hold a meeting about it, but as there wasn’t time for that they decided to hoist it right up to the roof to stop up the opening there.

  Moominmamma made beds for them all on the soft sandy

  floor of the cave and lit the lamp, while Snufkin hung a blanket up in front of the door.

  ‘Do you think that will be enough protection?’ asked Moomintroll.

  Snufkin pulled a bottle out of his pocket and waved it triumphantly. ‘
Have you forgotten the underground sun-oil I got from the fire-spirit?’ he asked. ‘The last drop is just enough to paint the outside of the blanket, and then twenty comets won’t be able to burn it up!’

  ‘It won’t stain the blanket I hope?’ asked Moominmamma anxiously.

  Just then they heard a sniffing and rustling outside the cave, and a nose poked under the blanket, then came two black eyes and then a whole Muskrat.

  ‘Oh!’ exclaimed Sniff. ‘You came after all Uncle Muskrat?’

  ‘Yes, I found it difficult to think down there in that heat,’ said the Muskrat, lumbering off to a corner with great dignity.

  ‘Now we’re ready,’ said Moominpappa. ‘What’s the time?’

  ‘Twenty-five past seven,’ said the Snork.

  ‘Then we’ve got time to taste the cake,’ said Moominmamma. ‘Sniff, where did you put it?’

  ‘Somewhere over there,’ said Sniff, pointing to the corner where the Muskrat was sitting.

  ‘Where?’ asked Moominmamma. ‘I can’t see it. Musk-rat, have you seen a cake anywhere?’

  ‘I don’t bother myself over things like cakes,’ said the Muskrat, twisting his moustache solemnly. ‘I don’t see them, taste them or feel them in any way, ever.’

  ‘Yes, but where in the world has that cake got to?’ said Moominmamma in despair. ‘Sniff, you can’t have eaten it all on the way?’

  ‘It was too big,’ said Sniff innocently.

  ‘So you ate some of it!’ screamed Moomintroll. ‘Come on, own up!’

  ‘Only the star on the top,’ said Sniff, ‘and that was rather hard.’ He crawled under the mattress and hid himself.

  ‘Miserable children,’ said Moominmamma, sitting down on a chair and suddenly feeling rather tired.

  The Snork maiden looked sharply at the Muskrat. ‘Would you mind moving a moment, Uncle Muskrat?’ she asked.

  ‘Here I sit and here I stay,’ said the Muskrat.

  ‘There you sit on our cake,’ said the Snork maiden.

  Then the Muskrat got up, and oh dear, you never saw such a mess as there was on his bottom. And as for the cake…

  ‘That was unnecessary anyhow!’ piped Sniff.

  ‘My cake too,’ groaned Moomintroll. ‘In my honour!’

  ‘Now I shall be sticky for the rest of my life I suppose,’ said the Muskrat bitterly. ‘I only hope I can bear it like a man and a philosopher.’

  ‘Be quiet all of you,’ cried Moominmamma. ‘It’s still the same cake – just a different shape that’s all. Now bring up your plates and we’ll share it out all the same.’ And she

  cut the squashed cake into nine equal pieces and doled it out. Then she filled a basin with warm water and told the Muskrat to sit down in it.

  ‘This has completely disturbed my peace,’ he complained. ‘A philosopher should be protected against the rude happenings of everyday life.’

  ‘Never mind,’ said Moominmamma, consolingly. ‘You’ll soon feel better.’

  ‘But I do mind,’ said the Muskrat peevishly. ‘Never any peace…’ And he mumbled on.

  It grew hotter and hotter in the cave. They all sat in separate corners, and waited. Now and again there was a sigh or somebody passed an obvious remark. Otherwise there was silence.

  Suddenly Moomintroll jumped up.

  ‘We’ve forgotten the silk-monkey!’ he cried.

  ‘So we have,’ said Moominmamma. ‘What a dreadful thing! I saw her only yesterday chasing crabs.’

  ‘She must be rescued,’ said Moomintroll decidedly. ‘Does anybody know where she lives?’

  ‘She doesn’t live anywhere,’ said Moominpappa. ‘I’m afraid she must be left to her fate. We haven’t got time to look for her.’

  ‘Oh, please don’t go, dear Moomintroll!’ entreated the Snork maiden.

  ‘I must,’ he answered. ‘I’ll be back. And don’t worry!’

  ‘Take my watch so that you can keep an eye on the time,’ said the Snork. ‘And be as quick as you can. It’s a quarter past eight already.’

  ‘Then I’ve got twenty-seven minutes,’ said Moomintroll. He hugged his anxious mamma, swallowed the last bit of cake, and dived under the blanket.

  It was like walking into an enormous oven with the heat full on. The trees hung limp and motionless, while the comet burnt so brightly that you couldn’t look at it. Moomintroll ran across the sand and into the wood, shouting at the top of his voice: ‘Ahoy! Silk-monkey! Where are you? Silk-monkey!

  In the red gloom under the trees not a breath of life stirred: all the small creatures had hidden themselves underground and were cowering there, silent and afraid. Only Moomintroll ran through the wood. He stopped and called, then listened and ran on again. At last he stood still and looked at the watch. He only had twelve minutes left: he would have to go back.

  He gave one last yell, and this time to his joy a faint sound came back in reply. He put his paws to his mouth and called again, and the answer came nearer. A moment later the silk-monkey swung down from a tree in front of him.’ Well, ‘well, she chattered, ‘fancy meeting you. I was just wondering…’

  ‘We haven’t time to talk now,’ interrupted Moomintroll. ‘Just follow me to the cave as quickly as you can, otherwise something terrible will happen to us.’

  They set off as fast as they could, the silk-monkey laughing and screaming and asking questions without the faintest notion of what was happening. ‘Is it something exciting?’ she babbled, throwing herself from branch to branch in great glee. She thought it was all very amusing – some kind of race perhaps.

  Moomintroll had never run so fast in his life. Now and then he looked at the watch and that seemed to be going faster than usual as well. Only four minutes left!

  They came out on to the beach… three minutes! Oh

  how difficult it was to run on the sand. Moomintroll clutched the silk-monkey’s paw and together they made a last headlong dash.

  Moominmamma was waiting outside the cave, and when she caught sight of them she started waving her arms and shouting: ‘Quickly children! Run! Run!’

  They scrambled wildly up the rock, and Moominmamma caught hold of them and pushed them through the opening in front of her.

  ‘Oh, thank goodness!’ gasped the Snork maiden, and she slowly began to get her normal colour back, because she had been pink with worry for the last twenty minutes. ‘You got back in time – my own Moomintroll!’

  Then they all heard a dreadful sound outside – a great hissing roar.

  All of them except the Hemulen, who was occupied with his stamps, and the Muskrat who was stuck in the basin of hot water, threw themselves flat on the floor in a heap. The lamp went out and they were in complete darkness.

  The comet was diving headlong to earth. It was exactly forty-two minutes and four seconds past eight. There was a rush of air as if a million rockets were being let off at once, and the earth shook. The Hemulen fell on his face among the stamps, Sniff yelled at the top of his voice, and Snufkin pulled his hat even farther down over his nose for protection.

  The comet roared with its flaming tail right through the valley, across the forest and the mountains, and then disappeared again over the edge of the world.

  If it had come a tiny bit nearer to the earth I am quite sure that none of us would be here now. But it just gave a whisk of its tail and swept off to another solar system far away, and it has never been seen since.

  But in the cave they didn’t know all this. They thought everything had been burnt up or smashed to atoms when the comet came down, and that their cave was the only thing left in the whole world. They listened and listened, but all they heard was silence.

  ‘Mamma,’ said Moomintroll, ‘is it all over now?’

  ‘Yes, it’s over, my little Moomin-child,’ said his mother. ‘Now everything is all right, and you must go to sleep. You must all go to sleep, my dears. Don’t cry Sniff, there’s no danger now.’

  The Snork maiden was trembling. ‘Wasn’t it dreadful?’ she said.

/>   ‘Don’t think about it any more,’ said Moominmamma. ‘Cuddle up to me, little silk-monkey, and keep warm. I’m going to sing you all a lullaby.’ And this is what she sang:

  Snuggle up close, and shut your eyes tight,

  And sleep without dreaming the whole of the night.

  The comet is gone, and your mother is near

  To keep you from harm till the morning is here.

  And presently they dropped off to sleep, one by one, until at last it was quite quiet and peaceful in the cave.

  CHAPTER 12

  Which is about the end of the story.

  MOONMINTROLL was the first to wake up next morning. For a long time he couldn’t remember where he was, and when it all came back to him he got up at once, tiptoed cautiously to the mouth of the cave, gingerly lifted the blanket and looked out.

  What a sight met his eyes! The sky was no longer red, but a beautiful blue once again, and the morning sun shone in its usual place, looking as though it had been freshly polished. Moomintroll sat down and turned his face up to it, shutting his eyes and heaving a deep sigh of happiness.

  After a time the Snork maiden came creeping out of the cave and sat down beside him.

  ‘Well, the sky, the sun and the rocks are still here anyway,’ she said solemnly.

  ‘And look! The sea is coming back,’ whispered Moomintroll. And there it was rolling tirelessly in towards them, glittering and gleaming like soft blue silk, the same old sea that they had always loved!

  All the little sea creatures came out of the mud where they had taken refuge and darted happily up to the surface; the seaweed and water plants slowly began to grow towards the sun, and out to sea a flock of sea-gulls appeared and were soon circling over the beach.

  In the cave they were waking up one by one and blinking with surprise. The night seemed to them like a terrible black and red dream, and the Hemulen was really the only one who wasn’t amazed at the sunshine and blue sea. He just carried his stamps down on to the sand and said: ‘Now I’m going to put my watermarks in order for the seventh time, and woe-betide anyone who disturbs me – be he of the Moomin, Snork or Snufkin tribe.’