Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson

friends pushed their way through the veranda and burst the door open, they found a very happy Hemulen who had already eaten up one-seventh of the Mameluke.
    'You wretch!' said the Snork. 'How can I weigh my fish now?'
    'Weigh me and add it on,' suggested the Hemulen. It was one of his brighter days.
    'Now we'll burn up the jungle,' said Moominpappa. And they carried out all the rubbish from the house and made a bigger bonfire than anyone had ever seen in the valley before.
    The Mameluke was baked whole in the embers and eaten up from tip to tail. But long afterwards

    there were quarrels about how long he had been: had he stretched from the bottom of the veranda steps to the wood-shed, or only as far as the lilac bushes?



Chapter six
    In which Thingumy and Bob, bringing a mysterious suitcase and followed by the Groke, come into the story, and in which the Snork leads a Court Case.
    EARLY one morning at the beginning of August Thingumy and Bob came walking over the mountain, and stopped just where Sniff had found the Hobgoblin's Hat. Thingumy wore a red cap and Bob carried an enormous suitcase. They had come a very long way and were rather tired, so they rested for a bit and looked down over the Valley of the Moomins, where the smoke from Moominhouse was rising between the silver poplars and plum trees.
    'Smoke,' said Thingumy
    'Foke means smood,' said Bob nodding. And they began to wander down to the valley talking in the strange way that Thingumies and Bobs do talk. (It isn't clear to everyone, but the main thing is that they understand each other.)
    Very cautiously they tiptoed up to the house and stood shyly by the front steps. 'Do you think we could go in?' asked Thingumy. 'It depends,' said Bob. 'Don't be frightened if they're gross and crumpy.'
    'Shall we dock on the knoor?' suggested Thingumy. 'But imagine if somebody comes out and screams!'
    Just then Moominmamma stuck her head out of the window and shouted: 'Coffee!'
    Thingumy and Bob were so dreadfully frightened that they jumped into the opening of the potato-cellar.
    'Oh!' said Moominmamma with a start, 'I believe those were mice disappearing into the cellar. Sniff, run down with a little milk for them.' Then she caught sight of the suitcase which stood by the steps. 'Luggage, too,' thought Moominmamma. 'Dear me - then they've come to stay.' And she went off to look for Moominpappa to ask him to put up two more beds - very, very small ones. Meanwhile Thingumy and Bob had dug themselves into the potatoes so that only their eyes could be seen, and there they waited in terror for what might happen to them.
    'Anyway I can fell smood,' muttered Thingumy.
    'Somebody's coming,' whispered Bob. 'Sot a nound!'
    The cellar door creaked and at the top of the steps stood Sniff with a lantern in one paw and a saucer of milk in the other.
    'Hi! where are you?' he shouted.
    Thingumy and Bob crept still farther down and held on to each other tight.
    'Will you have some milk?' said Sniff.
    'Don't nake any totice,' whispered Bob.
    'If you think I'm going to stand here half the day,' said Sniff angrily, 'you're mistaken. I suppose you don't know any better. Silly old mice who haven't the sense to come in by the front door!'
    'Milly old souse yourself!' retorted Thingumy and Bob, who were seriously upset by this.
    'Oh! So they're foreigners,' thought Sniff. 'I'd better fetch Moominmamma.' And he locked the cellar door and ran into the kitchen.
    'Well? Did they like the milk?' Moominmamma asked.
    'They talk a foreign language,' said Sniff. 'Nobody can understand what they say.'
    'What's it like?' asked Moomintroll, who was shelling peas with the Hemulen.
    '"Milly old souse yourself!"' said Sniff.
    Moominmamma sighed. 'This is going to be a nice mix-up,' she said. 'How shall I be able to find out what they want for pudding on their birthday, or how many pillows they like to have?'
    'We'll soon learn their language,' said Moomintroll.' It sounds easy.'
    'I think I understand them,' said