Milly-Molly-Mandy’s Adventures Read online

  Contents

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Has an Adventure

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Camps Out

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes to the Sea

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes on an Expedition

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Rides a Horse

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Minds a Baby

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Has an Adventure

  Once upon a time, one Saturday afternoon, Milly-Molly-Mandy had quite an adventure.

  There was a special children’s film showing at the cinema in the next village, and Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan were going to it, by bus, quite by themselves!

  “Keep together, and don’t talk to strangers,” said Mother, giving Milly-Molly-Mandy the money for the cinema and for the bus, there and back.

  “But supposing strangers speak to us?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy.

  “Always answer politely,” said Mother, “but no more than that.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy set off from the nice white cottage with the thatched roof, down the road with the hedges each side to the Moggses’ cottage where little-friend-Susan was waiting for her. And they walked on together to the cross-roads, feeling very important, to catch the bus.

  There was plenty of time, but they thought they had better run the last part of the way, to be on the safe side. But nobody was waiting at the cross-roads, so they wondered if they had missed the bus after all.

  Then one or two people came up and waited, so it couldn’t have gone. And presently it came in sight.

  And just as everybody was getting on who do you suppose came along and got on too? – Why, Billy Blunt!

  Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan took their seats and paid their half-fares, and pocketed the change carefully (three pennies for Milly-Molly-Mandy, a threepenny piece for little-friend-Susan). And then they sat looking out of the windows to make sure they didn’t get carried past the cinema.

  Billy Blunt had made for a seat right in front, looking as if he were quite used to doing this sort of thing himself. (But he couldn’t have been, really!) He managed to be first to get off the moment the bus stopped, so they didn’t actually see if he went into the cinema.

  Inside, it was so dark you couldn’t recognize anybody. Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan held hands tight, not to lose one another.

  It was all very exciting.

  And so was the film. They wished it needn’t end. When it was all over it seemed funny to come out into the daylight again and find the same ordinary world outside.

  They saw Billy Blunt coming away, talking with another boy. So they walked straight to the bus stop and began waiting. (The bus ran every hour, and if one had just gone they might be a long time getting home.)

  Suddenly little-friend-Susan said loudly, “My money!” and began rummaging in her coat-pocket.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Why? Where?” and began rummaging in her own. (But her three pennies were safe all right).

  “My threepenny piece!” said little-friend-Susan; “I had it here. . .”

  She looked in her right-hand pocket, then in her left, then in her hands. Then Milly-Molly-Mandy looked.

  Then they looked on the pavement, and in the gutter.

  “You must have dropped it in the cinema, Susan,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “Let’s go back and ask.”

  “But I didn’t,” said little-friend-Susan. “I felt it in my pocket as we came out.”

  So they looked all along the pavement. But still they couldn’t find it.

  “Well, we’ve just got to walk home,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy, at last. “You can’t go by yourself. We’ll have to walk together.” “It’s too far to walk,” said little-friend-Susan, nearly crying. Just then Billy Blunt came up to join the queue. Milly-Molly-Mandy said to him, “She’s lost her money!”

  Billy Blunt did not know what to say, so he said nothing.

  A gypsy woman standing near with a baby and a big basket said, “There now! Lost your money, have you, ducks?”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy said again, “We’ve got to walk home.”

  Billy Blunt said, “It’s too far.” Then he said, “Here, have mine. I’ll manage.”

  But Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan said together, “You can’t walk that far by yourself!”

  The gypsy woman began fumbling under her apron for her purse.

  “I may have just a spare copper or two,” she said. “Where does the little lady live? I’ll call on her ma, and she can pay me back some day!”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy, remembering what Mother said, answered politely, “No, thank you very much!” – when at that moment the bus came in sight.

  “She’s lost her money!”

  “Here!” said Billy Blunt, holding out his money.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan didn’t like to take it. They couldn’t think what to do.

  An old truck laden with empty cans and things was coming rattling down the road. It overtook the bus and was clattering past the bus-stop when Milly-Molly-Mandy suddenly started waving her arms wildly at it.

  “Cyril, stop! Cyril!” she shouted.

  The truck slowed down, and a tousled head looked back from the driver’s seat.

  “It’s Cyril!” Milly-Molly-Mandy told the others, excitedly. “He drives things to the station for Uncle sometimes!” She ran forward. “Oh, Cyril! May I ride home with you?” she asked.

  “You may not,” said Cyril. “In that get-up? – I’d have your ma after me. Anyhow, I’m not going by your house today – only to the cross-roads.”

  Little-friend-Susan pulled at Milly-Molly-Mandy’s sleeve.

  “But Milly-Molly-Mandy! You know we’ve got to keep together!”

  The bus was drawing up. People were beginning to get on.

  Billy Blunt asked Cyril quickly, “Can you take me?”

  “If you want,” said Cyril. “But hop on quick.”

  The bus was tooting for him to get out of the way.

  Billy Blunt pushed his money at little-friend-Susan, saying, “Go on – hurry!” Then he clambered into the truck beside Cyril, helped by Cyril’s very grubby hand, and off they went rattling down the road.

  “Now then, you two!” the bus-driver called out of his small side window, “are you coming with us or aren’t you? We haven’t got all day, you know.”

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan (full of smiles) rushed to scramble on to the bus. And off they went, after the truck, down the road, and along the winding leafy lanes.

  Billy Blunt was waiting at the cross-roads to see them arrive. He looked quite pleased with himself! (He had an oily smear down one leg and his hands were black.)

  “I got here quicker than you did,” was all he said, when they thanked him.

  And – do you know! – that threepenny piece of little-friend-Susan’s was found after all!

  It had worked through the small hole in her coat-pocket down into the lining. And she was able to work it out again and pay Billy Blunt back the next day.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Camps Out

  Once upon a time Milly-Molly-Mandy and Toby the dog went down to the village, to Miss Muggins’s shop, on an errand for Mother; and as they passed Mr Blunt’s corn-shop Milly-Molly-Mandy saw something new in the little garden at the side. It looked like a small, shabby sort of tent, with a slit in the top and a big checked patch sewn on the side.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy wondered what it was doing there. But she didn’t see Billy Blunt anywhere about, so she couldn’t ask him.

  When she came out of Miss Muggins’s shop she had another good look over the palings into the Blunts’s garden. And while she was looking Billy Blunt came out of their house door with some old
rugs and a pillow in his arms.

  “Hullo, Billy!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “What’s that tent-thing?”

  “It’s a tent,” said Billy Blunt, not liking its being called a “thing”.

  “But what’s it for?” asked Milly-Molly-Mandy.

  “It’s mine,” said Billy Blunt.

  “Yours? Your very own? Is it?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “Ooh, do let me come and look at it!”

  “You can if you want to,” said Billy Blunt. “I’m going to sleep in it tonight – camp out.”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy was very interested indeed. She looked at it well, outside and in. She could only just stand up in it. Billy Blunt had spread an old mackintosh for a ground sheet, and there was a box in one corner to hold a bottle of water and a mug, and his electric torch, and such necessary things; and when the front flap of the tent was closed you couldn’t see anything outside, except a tiny bit of sky and some green leaves through the tear in the top.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy didn’t want to come out a bit, but Billy Blunt wanted to put his bedding in.

  “Isn’t it beautiful! Where did you get it, Billy?” she asked.

  “My cousin gave it to me,” said Billy Blunt. “Used it when he went on cycling holidays. He’s got a new one now. I put that patch on, myself.”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy thought she could have done it better; but still it was quite good for a boy, so she duly admired it, and offered to mend the other place. But Billy Blunt didn’t think it was worth it, as it would only tear away again – and he liked a bit of air, anyhow.

  “Shan’t you feel funny out here all by yourself when everybody else is asleep?” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “Oh, I wish I had a tent too!” Then she said goodbye, and ran with Toby the dog back home to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof, thinking of the tent all the way.

  She didn’t see little-friend-Susan as she passed the Moggses’ cottage along the road; but when she got as far as the meadow she saw her swinging her baby sister on the big gate.

  “Hullo, Milly-Molly-Mandy! I was just looking for you,” said little-friend-Susan, lifting Baby Moggs down. And Milly-Molly-Mandy told her all about Billy Blunt’s new tent, and how he was going to sleep out, and how she wished she had a tent too.

  Little-friend-Susan was almost as interested as Milly-Molly-Mandy. “Can’t we make a tent and play in it in your meadow?” she said. “It would be awful fun!”

  So they got some bean poles and bits of sacking from the barn and dragged them down into the meadow. And they had great fun that day trying to make a tent; only they couldn’t get it to stay up properly.

  Next morning little-friend-Susan came to play “tents” in the meadow again. And this time they tried with an old counterpane, which Mother had given them, and two kitchen chairs; and they managed to rig up quite a good tent by laying the poles across the chair-backs and draping the counterpane over. They fastened down the spread-out sides with stones; and the ends, where the chairs were, they hung with sacks. And there they had a perfectly good tent, really quite big enough for two – so long as the two were small, and didn’t mind being a bit crowded!

  They were just sitting in it, eating apples and pretending they had no other home to live in, when they heard a “Hi” -ing from the gate; and when they peeped out there was Billy Blunt, with a great bundle in his arms, trying to get the gate open. So they ran across the grass and opened it for him.

  “What have you got? Is it your tent? Did you sleep out last night?” asked Milly-Molly-Mandy

  “Look here,” said Billy Blunt, “do you think your father would mind, supposing I pitched my tent in your field? My folk don’t like it in our garden – say it looks too untidy.”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy was quite sure Father wouldn’t mind. So Billy Blunt put the bundle down inside the gate and went off to ask (for of course you never camp anywhere without saying “please” to the owner first). And Father didn’t mind a bit, so long as no papers or other rubbish were left about.

  So Billy Blunt set up his tent near the others’, which was not too far from the nice white cottage with the thatched roof (because it’s funny what a long way off from everybody you feel when you’ve got only a tent round you at night!). And then he went home to fetch his other goods; and Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan sat in his tent, and wished and wished that their mothers would let them sleep out in the meadow that night.

  When Billy Blunt came back with his rugs and things (loaded up on his box on wheels) they asked him if it were a very creepy feeling to sleep out of doors.

  And Billy Blunt (having slept out once) said, “Oh, you soon get used to it,” and asked why they didn’t try it in their tent.

  So then Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan looked at each other, and said firmly, “Let’s ask!” So little-friend-Susan went with Milly-Molly-Mandy up to the nice white cottage with the thatched roof, where Mother was just putting a treacle-tart into the oven.

  She looked very doubtful when Milly-Molly-Mandy told her what they wanted to do. Then she shut the oven door, and wiped her hands, and said, well, she would just come and look at the tent they had made first. And when she had looked and considered, she said, well, if it were still very fine and dry by the evening perhaps Milly-Molly-Mandy might sleep out there, just for once. And Mother found a rubber ground-sheet and some old blankets and cushions, and gave them to her.

  Then Milly-Molly-Mandy went with little-friend-Susan to the Moggses’ cottage, where Mrs Moggs was just putting their potatoes on to boil.

  She looked very doubtful at first; and then she said, well, if Milly-Molly-Mandy’s mother had been out to see, and thought it was all right, and if it were a very nice, fine evening, perhaps little-friend-Susan might sleep out, just for once.

  So all the rest of the day the three were very busy, making preparations and watching the sky. And when they all went home for supper the evening was beautifully still and warm, without a single cloud.

  Then little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt crawled out

  So, after supper, they all met together again in the meadow, in the sunset. And they shut and tied up the meadow gate. (It was all terribly exciting!)

  And Mother came out, with Father and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty, to see that all was right, and their ground-sheets well spread under their bedding.

  Then Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan crawled into their tent, and Billy Blunt crawled into his tent. And presently Milly-Molly-Mandy crawled out again in her pyjamas, and ran about with bare feet on the grass with Toby the dog; and then little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt, in their pyjamas, crawled out and ran about too (because it feels so very nice, and so sort of new, to be running about under the sky in your pyjamas!).

  And Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty laughed, and looked on as if they wouldn’t mind doing it too, if they weren’t so grown up.

  Then Mother said, “Now I think it’s time you campers popped into bed. Goodnight!”

  And they went off home.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan called “Goodnight!” and crawled into one tent, and Billy Blunt caught Toby the dog and crawled into the other.

  And the trees outside grew slowly blacker and blacker until they couldn’t be seen at all; and the owls hooted; and a far-away cow mooed; and now and then Toby the dog wuffed, because he thought he heard a rabbit; and sometimes Milly-Molly-Mandy or little-friend-Susan squeaked, because they thought they felt a spider walking on them. And once Billy Blunt called out to ask if they were still awake, and they said they were, and was he? and he said of course he was.

  And then at last they all fell asleep.

  And in no time at all the sun was shining through their tents, telling them to wake up and come out, because it was the next day.

  And Billy Blunt and Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan DID enjoy that camping-out night!

  Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes to the Sea

  Once upon a time – wha
t do you think? – Milly-Molly-Mandy was going to be taken to the seaside!

  Milly-Molly-Mandy had never seen the sea in all her life before, and ever since Mother came back from her seaside holiday with her friend Mrs Hooker, and told Milly-Molly-Mandy about the splashy waves and the sand and the little crabs, Milly-Molly-Mandy had just longed to go there herself.

  Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty just longed for her to go too, because they knew she would like it so much. But they were all so busy, and then, you know, holidays cost quite a lot of money.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy played ‘seaside’ instead, by the little brook in the meadow, with little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt and the shells Mother had brought home for her. (And it was a very nice game indeed, but still Milly-Molly-Mandy did wish sometimes that it could be the real sea!)

  Then one day little-friend-Susan went with her mother and baby sister to stay with a relation who let lodgings by the sea. And little-friend-Susan wrote Milly-Molly-Mandy a postcard saying how lovely it was, and how she did wish Milly-Molly-Mandy was there; and Mrs Moggs wrote Mother a postcard saying couldn’t some of them manage to come down just for a day excursion, one Saturday?

  Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty thought something really ought to be done about that, and they talked it over, while Milly-Molly-Mandy listened with all her ears.

  But Father said he couldn’t go, because he had to get his potatoes up; Mother said she couldn’t go because it was baking day, and, besides, she had just had a lovely seaside holiday; Grandpa said he couldn’t go, because it was market day; Grandma said she wasn’t really very fond of train journeys; Uncle said he oughtn’t to leave his cows and chickens.

  But then they all said Aunty could quite well leave the sweeping and dusting for that one day.

  So Aunty only said it seemed too bad that she should have all the fun. And then she and Milly-Molly-Mandy hugged each other, because it was so very exciting.