The Exploits of Moominpappa (Moominpappa's Memoirs) by Tove Jansson Page B

and then suddenly one learns that one has had a mother as well!'
    'But that's natural, isn't it?' replied Moominmamma blandly. 'Aren't you glad to learn it, Sniff?'
    'Glad?' Sniff said and stopped in the middle of the floor. His frown disappeared. He stared at Moominpappa and suddenly he cried: 'Of course I'm happy! Did she have a button collection too?'
    'She had,' Moominpappa said.
    'A moment, please,' said Snufkin. 'Did I possibly have a-er-mother also?'
    'Yes, yes, of course,' exclaimed Moominpappa. 'I was just coming to it. Dear me, yes. The Mymble, of course!'
    'Then little My's my sister,' Snufkin said wonderingly.
    'Certainly, certainly,' replied Moominpappa. 'But dearest children, please let me finish this chapter. Still, they're my memoirs, you know, and I'm not very keen on genealogy.'
    'May he?' Moomintroll asked.
    'Well,' Sniff and Snufkin consented.
    'Thanks,' said Moominpappa and continued his reading.
    *
    The Muddler and the Fuzzy received wedding presents all through the day. At last the coffee tin was filled to the brim, and the rest of the buttons, stones, shells, door-knobs, and other things (too many to enumerate) had to be heaped beside it.

    The happy couple sat holding hands on the heap. 'It's grand to be married,' the Muddler exclaimed.
    'Possibly,' Hodgkins remarked. 'But listen, please. Just a detail. Why did you invite the Hemulen Aunt? And why the Niblings?'
    'Excuse me, but I was so afraid to hurt their feelings,' the Muddler said.
    'But the aunt?' I cried.
    'Well,' answered the Muddler, 'to be frank I haven't missed her terribly. But excuse me! I've such a guilty conscience! Remember I wished somebody would be kind enough to eat her?'
    'Mphm,' Hodgkins said. 'Yes. I see.'
    On the following day, when the packet boat was due to arrive, the pier, the hills, and the beaches were thronged with the Autocrat's subjects. Daddy Jones's throne was placed on the highest hill, and the Hemulic Brass Band were polishing their instruments.
    The Muddler and the Fuzzy sat holding hands in a special wedding boat, designed as a swan.
    Everybody was feeling excited and a little uneasy, because the rumours of the Hemulen Aunt's energy and terrific sense of duty had spread like wild-fire over the kingdom. And moreover everybody wondered if the Niblings would undermine the country and gnaw the woods to pieces. But nobody said a word about their apprehensions to the newly-wedded couple who sat peacefully sorting buttons in their boat.
    'Perhaps she could be scared off with thread and resin?' asked the Island Ghost. He was embroidering skulls on a teacosy for the Fuzzy.
    'Not she,' I replied.
    'We'll have a multiplication contest before evening,' the Joxter prophesied. 'And very possibly she'll remain over winter and make us ski!'
    'What's that?' the Mymble's daughter asked.
    'It's a way of overcoming the friction of atmospheric precipitation,' Hodgkins explained.
    'Dear me,' the Mymble said.
    'We'll die of it,' said little My.
    A great shout rose from the crowd.
    The packet boat was coming nearer.
    The Hemulic Band launched into the anthem 'Save Our Silly People' and the wedding swan put out to sea. Two Mymble kiddies fell into the water from pure excitement, the fog horns blared, and the Joxter lost his nerve and fled.
    Only then we noticed that the packet boat was empty, and it dawned upon us that it couldn't have held as many as seven thousand Niblings. Cries of relief mixed with disappointment were heard along the beach.
    One single little Nibling jumped down in the wedding swan that now turned back towards the quay.
    "What's this?' the Autocrat said. He hadn't been able to remain on his throne. 'Another party's spoiled! One single Nibling!'
    'It's our own old Nibling,' I said. 'He's carrying a big parcel.'
    'So she was eaten after all,' Hodgkins said.
    'Silence! Silence! Silence!' shouted Daddy Jones and blew his pocket fog horn. 'Make way for the Nibling ambassador!'
    The crowd made room for the bridal couple and