Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson Page B

sneezed again.
    At this his Mamma awoke.
    She hadn't heard the thunder of the breaking ice and never once the howls of the blizzards. Her house had been filled with restless guests, but neither they nor the alarm clock had been able to wake her.
    Now she opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, wide awake.
    Then she sat up in bed and said: 'You've caught a cold, Moomintroll.'
    'Mamma,' Moomintroll said between chattering teeth, 'if I were only sure it was the same squirrel and not another one.'
    Moominmamma hurried out to the kitchen to warm some syrup.
    'Nobody's washed the dishes,' Moomintroll cried wretchedly.
    'Oh, of course not,' said Moominmamma. 'Everything's going to be all right.'
    She found a few sticks of wood behind the slop-pail. She took a bottle of currant syrup from her secret cupboard, as well as a powder and a flannel scarf.
    When the water boiled she mixed a strong influenza medicine of sugar and ginger, and an old lemon that used to lie behind the tea-cosy on the topmost shelf but one.
    There was no tea-cosy, nor any teapot. But Moomin-mamma never noticed that. For safety's sake she mumbled a short charm over the influenza medicine. That was something her grandmother had taught her. Then she went back to the drawing-room and said: 'Please drink it as hot as you can.'
    Moomintroll drank and felt a mild warmth flowing through his tummy. 'Mamma,' he said, 'there's such a lot to explain to you...'
    'First take a nap,' Moominmamma said and wound the flannel around his throat.
    'Just one thing,' Moomintroll mumbled sleepily. 'Promise not to have a fire in the porcelain stove, because our ancestor's living there now.'
    'Of course not,' said Moominmamma.
    All at once Moomintroll felt warm and calm and free of responsibility. He sighed a little and burrowed his snout in the pillow. Then he fell asleep, away from it all.
    *

    Moominmamma sat on the verandah burning a strip of film with a magnifying glass. The film smoked and glowed, and a nice pungent smell was tickling her snout.
    The sun was so warm that the wet verandah steps were steaming, but the shadow beside them was ice-cold.

    'One really ought to get up a little earlier in the spring,' remarked Moominmamma.
    'You're very right,' said Too-ticky. 'Is he still asleep?' Moominmamma nodded.
    'You ought to have seen him jump the ice-floes!' Little My said proudly. 'And he had sat half the winter just whining and pasting transfers on the walls.'
    'I know, I've seen them,' said Moominmamma. 'He must have felt very lonely.'
    'Then he went and found some kind of an old ancestor of yours,' Little My continued.
    'Let him tell the story himself when he awakes,' said Moominmamma. 'I can see that lots of things have happened while I slept.'
    The film was finished, and she managed to burn a round, black hole in the verandah flooring as well.
    'I must get up before the others next spring,' Moominmamma said. 'How nice to be on your own for a bit and do what you like.'
    *
    When Moomintroll finally awoke, his throat wasn't sore any longer.
    He noticed that Moominmamma had taken the gauze off the chandelier and put up the window curtains. The furniture was moved back to its usual places, and the broken pane had been repaired with a piece of cardboard. Not a dust-wad was in sight.
    Only the ancestor's rubbish in front of the porcelain stove was untouched. Moominmamma had put up a tidy placard on it:

    From the kitchen came the cosy sounds of dishes being washed.
    'Shall I tell her about the Dweller Under the Sink?' Moomintroll thought. 'Perhaps I'd better not...' He lay for a while wondering whether he'd be ill a little longer and have Moominmamma nurse him a little more. But then he decided that it would be nicer still to take care of Moominmamma himself. He went out to the kitchen and said:
    'Let me show you the snow!'
    Moominmamma at once stopped washing dishes and they walked out into the sunlight together.
    'There's not so much left of it now,' Moomintroll