More of Milly-Molly-Mandy Read online

  Contents

  1 Milly-Molly-Mandy Gets Up Early

  2 Milly-Molly-Mandy Has a Surprise

  3 Milly-Molly-Mandy Gets Up a Tree

  4 Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes to a Concert

  5 Milly-Molly-Mandy Has her Photo Taken

  6 Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes to the Pictures

  7 Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes for a Picnic

  8 Milly-Molly-Mandy Looks for a Name

  9 Milly-Molly-Mandy Gets Locked In

  10 Milly-Molly-Mandy’s Mother Goes Away

  11 Milly-Molly-Mandy Goes to the Sea

  12 Milly-Molly-Mandy Finds a Nest

  13 Milly-Molly-Mandy Has Friends

  About the Author

  1

  Milly-Molly-Mandy

  Gets Up Early

  Once upon a time, one beautiful summer morning, Milly-Molly-Mandy woke up very early.

  She knew it was very early, because Father and Mother were not moving (Milly-Molly-Mandy’s cot-bed was in one corner of Father’s and Mother’s room). And she knew it was a beautiful summer morning, because the cracks around the window-blinds were so bright she could hardly look at them.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy (whose full name was really Millicent Margaret Amanda) knelt up on the foot of her cot-bed and softly lifted one corner of the blind, and peeped out.

  And it was the most beautiful, quiet summer morning that ever was.

  The doves in the dove-cote were saying “Coo-roo-o-o!” to each other, in a soft, lazy sort of way; and the hens round the hen-house in the field were saying “Ker-ruk-ruk!” to each other, in a soft, busy sort of way; and Old Marmaduke the cock was yelling “Doodle-doo!” to everybody, at the top of his voice, only it sounded soft because he was right the other side of the barn.

  “Well!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy to herself. “It’s much too beautiful a morning to stay in bed till breakfast-time. I think I’ll get up very, very quietly, so’s not to wake Father and Mother.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy slid out of bed very, very quietly, and she slid into her socks, and into her clothes as far as her petticoat.

  And then she crept to the wash-stand, but she didn’t think she could manage the big water-jug without waking Father and Mother. So she took up her shoes and her pink-striped cotton frock, and she creepy-crept to the door and opened it, only making just one tiny little click.

  And then she creepy-crept down the stairs, without disturbing Grandpa or Grandma or Uncle or Aunty, into the kitchen.

  It looked funny and dark in the kitchen, for the curtains were still drawn. Topsy the cat jumped off Grandma’s chair and came yawning and stretching to meet her, and Milly-Molly-Mandy had to stoop down and let Topsy the cat dab her little cold nose very, very lightly against her warm cheek, for “Good morning”.

  And then Milly-Molly-Mandy went into the scullery to wash.

  But when she turned on the tap she suddenly thought of the brook at the bottom of the meadow. So she just washed her hands and neck and saved her face to wash in the brook. And then she put on her frock and shoes and softly unlocked the back door, and slipped outside.

  It really was a most beautiful fresh morning, full of little bird-voices; and Toby the dog was making little thumping noises in his kennel, because he had heard her and was excited to think somebody was up.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy ran and let him off the chain, but she held his collar and whispered, “Hush, Toby! Hush, Toby!” very sternly, until they got as far as the meadow.

  Then she let him go, and Toby the dog barked and capered, and Milly-Molly-Mandy, with the breeze in her hair, ran hoppity-skip down to the brook through the long grass and dewdrops that sparkled all colours in the sun.

  The water looked so lovely and clear and cold, rippling over the stones, that Milly-Molly-Mandy couldn’t decide all at once which was the nicest spot to wash her face in. So she was walking along beside it a little way, when suddenly whom should she see in the next field but little-friend-Susan, up early too.

  “Su-san!” called Milly-Molly-Mandy.

  “Milly-Molly-Mandy!” called little-friend-Susan. “There’re mushrooms in this field!”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy and Toby the dog ran and clambered through the railings into the next field. And there were mushrooms in that field, for Milly-Molly-Mandy nearly trod on one straight away. Only she just didn’t – she picked it and ran to show it to little-friend-Susan and say, “Fancy you being up so early, Susan!” And little-friend-Susan ran to show Milly-Molly-Mandy her three mushrooms and say, “Fancy you being up so early, Milly-Molly-Mandy!”

  “THERE’RE MUSHROOMS IN THIS FIELD!”

  Then they searched all over the field together, but they didn’t find any more mushrooms. And then they came to another field, and suddenly whom should they see in the middle of the other field but Billy Blunt, up early too.

  “Bil-ly!” called Milly-Molly-Mandy.

  “Mushrooms!” called Billy Blunt.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan and Toby the dog ran and clambered over the stile into the other field, and went to show Billy Blunt their mushrooms and say, “Fancy you being up so early, Billy!” And Billy Blunt came to show them his two mushrooms and say, “Fancy anybody stopping in bed!”

  And then they found quite a lot of mushrooms growing together in one patch, and they all gave a gasp and a shout and set to work picking in great excitement.

  When they had finished gathering whom should they see coming into the field with a basket over his arm but a shabby boy who had run in a race with Billy Blunt at a fête last Bank Holiday (and beaten him!).

  He seemed to be looking for mushrooms too; and as he came near Milly-Molly-Mandy smiled at him a bit, and he smiled a bit back. And little-friend-Susan said, “Hullo!” and he said, “Hullo!” And Billy Blunt said, “Plenty of mushrooms here.” And the boy said, “Are there?”

  Then Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Look what we’ve got!” And the boy looked.

  And then little-friend-Susan said, “How many’ve you got?” And the boy showed his basket, but there weren’t many in it.

  And then Billy Blunt said, “What are you going to do with them?”

  And the boy said, “Sell them to Mr Smale the Grocer, if I can get enough. If not, we eat them, my grandad and I. Only we’d rather have the money.”

  Then Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Let’s help to get the basket full!”

  So they spread about over the field and looked everywhere for mushrooms, and they really got quite a lot; but the basket wasn’t full. Then Billy Blunt and Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan looked questioningly at each other and at their own heap of mushrooms, and then they nodded to each other and piled them all into the basket.

  “My word!” said the boy, with a beaming face. “Won’t Grandad be pleased today!” Then he thanked them all very much and said goodbye and went off home.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy and little-friend-Susan and Billy Blunt felt very satisfied with their morning’s work. They had enjoyed it so much that they made plans to get up early another morning and go mushrooming together, with baskets – for themselves, this time.

  And then they all said “Goodbye” till they should meet again for school, and Milly-Molly-Mandy called Toby the dog, and they went off home to their breakfast.

  And it wasn’t until she got in that Milly-Molly-Mandy remembered she had never washed her face in the brook after all, and she had to go up and do it in a basin in the ordinary way!

  2

  Milly-Molly-Mandy

  Has a Surprise

  Once upon a time Milly-Molly-Mandy was helping Mother to fetch some pots of jam down from the little storeroom.

  Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandm
a and Uncle and Aunty and Milly-Molly-Mandy between them ate quite a lot of jam, so Mother (who made all the jam) had to keep the pots upstairs because the kitchen cupboard wouldn’t hold them all.

  The little storeroom was up under the thatched roof, and it had a little square window very near to the floor, and the ceiling sloped away on each side so that Father or Mother or Grandpa or Grandma or Uncle or Aunty could stand upright only in the very middle of the room. (But Milly-Molly-Mandy could stand upright anywhere in it.)

  When Mother and Milly-Molly-Mandy had found the jams they wanted (strawberry jam and blackberry jam and ginger jam), Mother looked round the little storeroom and said, “It’s a pity I haven’t got somewhere else to keep my jam-pots!”

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Why, Mother, I think this is a very nice place for jam-pots to live in!”

  And Mother said, “Do you?”

  But a few days later Father and Mother went up to the little storeroom together and took out all the jam-pots and all the shelves that held the jam-pots and Father stood them down in the new shed he was making outside the back door, while Mother started cleaning out the little storeroom.

  Milly-Molly-Mandy helped by washing the little square window – “So that my jam-pots can see out!” Mother said.

  The next day Milly-Molly-Mandy came upon Father in the barn, mixing colour-wash in a bucket. It was a pretty colour, just like a pale new primrose, and Milly-Molly-Mandy dabbled in it with a bit of stick for a while, and then she asked what it was for.

  And Father said, “I’m going to do over the walls and ceiling of the little storeroom with it.” And then he added, “Don’t you think it will make the jam-pots feel nice and cheerful?”

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy said she was sure the jam-pots would just love it! (It was such fun!)

  A little while afterwards Mother sent Milly-Molly-Mandy to the village to buy a packet of green dye at Mr Smale the Grocer’s shop. And then Mother dyed some old casement curtains a bright green for the little storeroom window. “Because,” said Mother, “the window looks so bare from outside.”

  And while she was about it she said she might as well dye the coverlet on Milly-Molly-Mandy’s little cot-bed (which stood in one corner of Father’s and Mother’s room), as the pattern had washed nearly white. So Milly-Molly-Mandy had a nice new bedspread, instead of a faded old one.

  The next Saturday, when Grandpa came home from market, he brought with him in the back of the pony-trap a little chest of drawers, which he said he had “picked up cheap.” He thought it might come in useful for keeping things in, in the little storeroom.

  And Mother said, yes, it would come in very useful indeed. So (as it was rather shabby) Uncle, who had been painting the door of the new shed with apple-green paint, painted the little chest of drawers green too, so that it was a very pretty little chest of drawers indeed.

  “Well,” said Uncle, “that ought to make any jam-pot taste sweet!”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy began to think the little storeroom would be almost too good just for jam-pots.

  Then Aunty decided she and Uncle wanted a new mirror in their room, and she asked Mother if their little old one couldn’t be stored up in the little storeroom. And when Mother said it could, Uncle said he might as well use up the last of the green paint, so that he could throw away the tin. So he painted the frame of the mirror green, and it looked a very pretty little mirror indeed.

  “Jam-pots don’t want to look at themselves,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. She thought the mirror looked much too pretty for the little storeroom.

  “Oh well – a mirror helps to make the room lighter,” said Mother.

  Then Milly-Molly-Mandy came upon Grandma embroidering a pretty little wool bird on either end of a strip of coarse linen. It was a robin, with a brown back and a scarlet front. Milly-Molly-Mandy thought it was a pretty cloth: and she wanted to know what it was for.

  And Grandma said, “I just thought it would look nice on the little chest of drawers in the little storeroom.” And then she added, “It might amuse the jam-pots!”

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy laughed, and begged Grandma to tell her what the pretty cloth really was for. But Grandma would only chuckle and say it was to amuse the jam-pots.

  The next day, when Milly-Molly-Mandy came home from school, Mother said, “Milly-Molly-Mandy, we’ve got the little storeroom in order again. Now, would you please run up and fetch me a pot of jam?”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy said, “Yes, Mother. What sort?”

  And Father said, “Blackberry.”

  And Grandpa said, “Marrow-ginger.”

  And Grandma said, “Red-currant.”

  And Uncle said, “Strawberry.”

  And Aunty said, “Raspberry.’

  But Mother said, “Any sort you like, Milly-Molly-Mandy!”

  Milly-Molly-Mandy thought something funny must be going to happen, for Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty all looked as if they had got a laugh down inside them. But she ran upstairs to the little storeroom.

  And when she opened the door . . . she saw . . .

  Her own little cot-bed with the green coverlet on, just inside. And the little square window with the green curtains blowing in the wind. And a yellow pot of nasturtiums on the sill. And the little green chest of drawers with the robin cloth on it. And the little green mirror hanging on the primrose wall, with Milly-Molly-Mandy’s own face reflected in it.

  And then Milly-Molly-Mandy knew that the little storeroom was to be her very own little bedroom, and she said, “O-h-h-h!” in a very hushed voice, as she looked all round her room.

  SHE SAID, “OH-H-H-H!” IN A VERY HUSHED VOICE

  Then suddenly she tore downstairs back into the kitchen, and just hugged Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty; and they all said she was their favourite jam pot and pretended to eat her up!

  And Milly-Molly-Mandy didn’t know how to wait till bedtime, because she was so eager to go to sleep in the little room that was her Very Own!

  3

  Milly-Molly-Mandy

  Gets Up a Tree

  Once upon a time Milly-Molly-Mandy saw a ladder leaning against the branch of a tree just past the duck-pond at the corner of the village.

  It was a nice long ladder and a nice big branch and a nice green spreading tree, and Milly-Molly-Mandy thought how nice to climb the ladder and sit on the branch in the spreading tree and see how much she could see up there!

  So she climbed the ladder very carefully, and then she sat on the branch, with the green leaves tickling her legs and flipping up and down on her hat.

  It was such a nice place – she could see right down the village street as far as the crossroads (where the red bus was just passing). And she could see right up the white road, with the hedges each side, as far as the nice white cottage with the thatched roof (where she lived with Father and Mother and Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle and Aunty). And she could see at one glance the whole of the duck-pond (where three ducks were waggling their tails and making gabbly sounds in the water with their beaks).

  Milly-Molly-Mandy wished she could stay up there all day, only she thought perhaps she had better be getting down now. But she just waited until a cart had passed, and then she just waited until the Grocer’s boy had gone out of sight with his basket of groceries. And then she turned carefully to climb down the ladder again.

  But Milly-Molly-Mandy had never noticed that the man who left the ladder there had come and fetched it while the cart was rattling past (not dreaming there was anyone up in the tree).

  She only saw that the ladder was ab-so-lute-ly gone!

  Milly-Molly-Mandy sat and held on and thought. It had felt so nice being up in the tree while she thought she could get down from it any minute; it was very funny, but it didn’t feel a little bit nice directly she found she couldn’t.

  THE LADDER WAS AB-SO-LUTELY GONE!

  “If I shouted as loud as ever I can, somebody might hear,” thought Milly-Mo
lly-Mandy, “only I’d have to scream so loud they might think I was in trouble, and I’m not really. I only want to get down.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy held on and thought some more. “Somebody’s sure to go by soon,” thought Milly-Molly-Mandy, “and then I’ll ask them please to help me down.”

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy sat and tried to remember how nice the tree was before she found she couldn’t get out of it. And while she was thinking that she saw a nest on a branch with a little bird peeping out of it.

  “It’s all right, Mrs Bird,” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “I won’t frighten you. I’m glad you’re here to keep me company.”

  And then she saw a little red lady-bird on a leaf. “Hullo, Mrs Lady-bird!” said Milly-Molly-Mandy. “You don’t mind being up in a tree, do you? I expect you like it quite a lot.” And somehow the tree seemed nicer again.

  Presently a horse came slowly clip-clopping along from the crossroads, led by a man, and they walked down the village street; and Milly-Molly-Mandy got all ready to call out politely as soon as they came near enough. But the man turned off by the forge, and the horse clip-clopped after him, to have some new shoes put on.

  Next Milly-Molly-Mandy saw Mrs Jakes, the Postman’s wife, come out into her back garden and hang up a towel. Milly-Molly-Mandy waved, but Mrs Jakes didn’t see her, and went in and shut the door.

  Presently Milly-Molly-Mandy saw old Mr Hubble step out of the baker’s shop, and come walking along with his stick. Old Mr Hubble always walked about all day saying, “Fine morning!” to everybody he met. But when he met Milly-Molly-Mandy he always pretended to give her a little poke with his stick, and it made Milly-Molly-Mandy feel rather shy, as she didn’t know quite what to answer to that – she just used to smile a bit and run as hard as she could on her way.

  So Milly-Molly-Mandy watched old Mr Hubble and his stick coming along towards her down the street, and wondered if he would see her. And when he didn’t, she suddenly felt shy, thinking of his stick, and didn’t want to call out as he went past (though a moment afterward she wished she had, for she didn’t really think he would poke her with his stick up there).