Pippi Longstocking

by Astrid Lindgren

Translated by Florence Lamborn

The beloved story of a spunky young girl and her hilarious

escapades.

Tommy and his sister Annika have a new neighbor, and her

name is Pippi Longstocking. She has crazy red pigtails, no

parents to tel her what to do, a horse that lives on her

porch, and a pet monkey named Mr. Nilsson. Whether

Pippi's scrubbing her floors, doing arithmetic, or stirring

things up at a fancy tea party, her flair for the outrageous

always seems to lead to another adventure.

Other books about Pippi Longstocking

Pippi Goes on Board

Pippi in the South Seas

1 Pippi Mov es into Villa Villekulla

Way out at the end of a tiny little town was an old overgrown

garden, and in the garden was an old house, and in the

house lived Pippi Long-stocking. She was nine years old,

and she lived there al alone. She had no mother and no

father, and that was of course very nice because there was

no one to tel her to go to bed just when she was having the

most fun, and no one who could make her take cod liver oil

when she much preferred caramel candy.

Once upon a time Pippi had had a father of whom she was

extremely fond. Natural y she had had a mother too, but that

was so long ago that Pippi didn't remember her at al . Her

mother had died when Pippi was just a tiny baby and lay in

a cradle and howled so that nobody could go anywhere

near her. Pippi was sure that her mother was now up in

Heaven, watching her little girl through a peephole in the

sky, and Pippi often waved up at her and cal ed, "Don't you

worry about me. I'l always come out on top."

Pippi had not forgotten her father. He was a sea captain

who sailed on the great ocean, and Pippi had sailed with

him in his ship until one day her father was blown overboard

in a storm and disappeared. But Pippi was absolutely

certain that he would come back. She would never believe

that he had drowned; she was sure he had floated until he

landed on an island inhabited by cannibals. And she

thought he had become the king of al the cannibals and

went around with a golden crown on his head al day long.

"My papa is a cannibal king; it certainly isn't every child who has such a stylish papa," Pippi used to say with

satisfaction. "And as soon as my papa has built himself a

boat he wil come and get me, and I'l be a cannibal

princess. Heigh-ho, won't that be exciting?"

Her father had bought the old house in the garden many

years ago. He thought he would live there with Pippi when

he grew old and

"So long, boys," she said and kissed each one on the

forehead. "Don't you worry about me. Il always come out on

top."

Two things she took with her from the ship: a little monkey

whose name was Mr. Nilssonhe was a present from her

fatherand a big suitcase ful of gold pieces. The sailors

stood upon the deck and watched as long as they could

see her. She walked straight ahead without looking back at

al , with Mr. Nilsson on her shoulder and her suitcase in her

hand.

"A remarkable child," said one of the sailors as Pippi

disappeared in the distance.

He was right. Pippi was indeed a remarkable child. The

most remarkable thing about her was that she was so

strong. She was so very strong that in the whole wide world

there was not a single police officer as strong as she. Why,

she could lift a whole horse if she wanted to! And she

wanted to. She had a horse of her own that she had bought

with one of her many gold pieces the day she came home

to Vil a Vil ekul a. She had always longed for a horse, and

now here he was, living on the porch When Pippi wanted to

drink her afternoon coffee there, she simply lifted him down

into the garden.

Beside Vil a Vil ekul a was another garden and another

house. In that house lived a father and mother and two

charming children, a boy and a girl. The boy's name was

Tommy and the girl's Annika. They were good, wel brought

up, and obedient children. Tommy would never think of

biting his nails, and he always did exactly what his mother

told him to do. Annika never fussed when she didn't get her

own way, and she always looked pretty in her little wel -

ironed cotton dresses; she took the greatest care not to get

them dirty. Tommy and Annika played nicely with each

other in their garden, but they had often wished for a

playmate. While Pippi was stil sailing on the ocean with her

father, they

On that lovely summer evening when Pippi for the first time

stepped over the threshold of Vil a Vil ekul a, Tommy and

Annika were not at home. They had gone to visit their

grandmother for a week; and so they had no idea that

anybody had moved into the house next door. On the first

day after they came home again they stood by the gate,

looking out onto the street, and even then they didn't know

that there actual y was a playmate so near. Just as they

were standing there considering what they should do and

wondering whether anything exciting was likely to happen

or whether it was going to be one of those dul days when

they couldn't think of anything to playjust then the gate of

Vil a Vil ekul a opened and a little girl stepped out. She was

the most remarkable girl Tommy and Annika had ever

seen. She was Miss Pippi Longstocking out for her

morning promenade. This is the way she looked:

Her hair, the color of a carrot, was braided in two tight

braids that stuck straight out. Her nose was the shape of a

very smal potato and was dotted al over with freckles. It

must be admitted that the mouth under this nose was a very

wide one, with strong white teeth. Her dress was rather

unusual. Pippi herself had made it. She had meant it to be

blue, but there wasn't quite enough blue cloth, so Pippi had

sewed little red pieces on it here and there. On her long thin

legs she wore a pair of long stockings, one brown and the

other black, and she had on a pair of black shoes that were

exactly twice as long as her feet. These shoes her father

had bought for her in South America so that Pippi would

have something to grow into, and she never wanted to wear

any others.

But the thing that made Tommy and Annika open their eyes

widest of al was the monkey sitting on the strange girl's

shoulder. It was a little monkey, dressed in blue pants,

yel ow jacket, and a white straw hat.

Pippi walked along the street with one foot on the sidewalk

and the other in the gutter. Tommy and Annika watched as

long as they could see her. In a little while she came back,

and now she was walking backward. That was because

she didn't want to turn around to get home. When she

reached Tommy's and Annika's gate she stopped.

The children looked at each other in silence. At last Tommy

spoke. "Why did you walk backward?"

"Why did I walk backward?" said Pippi. "Isn't this a free country? Can't a person walk any way she wants to? For

that matter, let me tel you that in Egypt everybody walks

that way, and nobody thinks it's the least bit strange."

"How do you know?" asked Tommy. "You've never been in Egypt, have you?"

"I've never been in Egypt? Indeed I have. That's one thing

you can be sure of. I have been al over the world and seen

many things stranger than people walking backward. I

wonder what you would have said if I had come along

walking on my hands the way they do in Farthest India."

"Now you must be lying," said Tommy.

Pippi thought a moment. "You're right," she said sadly, "I am lying."

"It's wicked to lie," said Annika, who had at last gathered up enough courage to speak.

"Yes, it's very wicked to lie," said Pippi even more sadly.

"But I forget it now and then. And how can you expect a little child whose mother is an angel and whose father is king of

a cannibal island and who herself has sailed on the ocean

al her lifehow can you expect her to tel the truth always?

And for that matter," she continued, her whole freckled face

lighting up, "let me tel you that in the Congo there is not a single person who tel s the truth. They lie al day long. Begin

at seven in the morning and keep on until sundown. So if I

should happen to lie now and then, you must try to excuse

me and to remember that it is only because I stayed in the

Congo a little too long. We can be friends anyway, can't

we?"

"Oh, sure," said Tommy and realized suddenly that this was not going to be one of those dul days.

"By the way, why couldn't you come and have breakfast with

me?" asked Pippi.

"Why not?" said Tommy. "Come on, let's go."

"Oh, yes, let's," said Annika.

"But first I must introduce you to Mr. Nilsson," said Pippi, and the little monkey took off his cap and bowed politely.

Then they al went in through Vil a Vil ekul a's tumbledown

garden gate, along the gravel path, bordered with old

moss-covered treesreal y good climbing trees they seemed

to beup to the house, and onto the porch. There stood the

horse, munching oats out of a soup bowl.

"Why do you have a horse on the porch?" asked Tommy.

Al horses he knew lived in stables.

"Wel ," said Pippi thoughtful y, "he'd be in the way in the kitchen, and he doesn't like the parlor."

Tommy and Annika patted the horse and then went on into

the house. It had a kitchen, a parlor, and a bedroom. But it

certainly looked as if Pippi had forgotten to do her Friday

cleaning that week. Tommy and Annika looked around

cautiously just in case the king of the Cannibal Isles might

be sitting in a corner somewhere. They had never seen a

cannibal king in al their lives. But there was no father to be

seen, nor any mother either.

Annika said anxiously, "Do you live here al alone?"

"Of course not!" said Pippi. "Mr. Nilsson and the horse live here too."

"Yes, but I mean don't you have any mother or father here?"

"No, not the least little tiny bit of a one," said Pippi happily.

"But who tel s you when to go to bed at night and things like that?" asked Annika.

"I tel myself," said Pippi. "First I tel myself in a nice friendly way; and then, if I don't mind, I tel myself again more

sharply; and if I stil don't mind, then I'm in for a

spankingsee?"

Tommy and Annika didn't see at al , but they thought maybe

it was a good way. Meanwhile they had come out into the

kitchen, and Pippi cried,

Now we're going to make a pancake, Now there's going to

be a pankee, Now we're going to fry a pankye.

Then she took three eggs and threw them up in the air. One

fel down on her head and broke so that the yolk ran into her

eyes, but the others she caught skil ful y in a bowl, where

they smashed to pieces.

"I always did hear that egg yolk was good for the hair," said Pippi, wiping her eyes. "You wait and seemine wil soon

begin to grow so fast it wil crackle. As a matter of fact, in

Brazil al the people go about with eggs in their hair. And

there are no bald-headed people. Only once was there a

man who was so foolish that he ate his eggs instead of

rubbing them on his hair. He became completely bald, and

when he showed himself on the street there was such a riot

that the police were cal ed out."

While she was speaking Pippi had neatly picked the

While she was speaking Pippi had neatly picked the

eggshel s out of the bowl with her fingers. Now she took a

bath brush that hung on the wal and began to beat the

pancake batter so hard that it splashed al over the wal s. At

last she poured what was left onto a griddle that stood on

the stove.

When the pancake was brown on one side she tossed it

halfway up to the ceiling, so that it turned right around in the

air, and then she caught it on the griddle again. And when it

was ready she threw it straight across the kitchen right onto

a plate that stood on the table.

"Eat!" she cried. "Eat before it gets cold!"

And Tommy and Annika ate and thought it a very good

pancake.

"Suppose you go home now," said Pippi, "so that you can come back tomorrow. Because if you don't go home you

can't come back, and that would be a shame."

Tommy and Annika agreed that it would indeed. So they

went homepast the horse, who had now eaten up al the

oats, and out through the gate of Vil a Vil ekul a. Mr. Nilsson

waved his hat at them as they left.

2 Pippi Is a Thing-Finder and Gets into a Fight

Annika woke up early the next morning. She jumped out of

bed and ran over to Tommy.

"Wake up, Tommy," she cried, pul ing him by the arm.

"Wake up and let's go and see that funny girl with the big

shoes."

Tommy was wide awake in an instant.

"I knew, even while I was sleeping, that something exciting

was going to happen today, but I didn't remember what it

was," he said as he yanked off his pajama jacket. Off they

went to the bathroom, washed themselves and brushed

their teeth much faster than usual, had their clothes on in a

twinkling, and a whole hour before their mother expected

them came sliding down the bannister and landed at the

breakfast

"What's going to happen today that you're in such a hurry?"

asked their mother.

"We're going to see the new girl next door," said Tommy.

"We may stay al day," said Annika.

That morning Pippi was busy making pepparkakora kind of

Swedish cookie. She had made an enormous amount of

dough and rol ed it out on the kitchen floor.

"Because," said Pippi to her little monkey, "what earthly use is a baking board when one plans to make at least five

hundred cookies?"

And there she lay on the floor, cutting out cookie hearts for

dear life.

"Stop climbing around in the dough, Mr. Nils-son," she said crossly just as the doorbel rang.

Pippi ran and opened the door. She was white as a mil er

from top to toe, and when she shook hands heartily with

Tommy and Annika a whole cloud of flour blew over them.

"So nice you cal ed," she said and shook her apronso there came another cloud of flour. Tommy and Annika got so

much in their throats that they could not help coughing.

"What are you doing?" asked Tommy.

"Wel , if I say that I'm sweeping the chimney, you won't

believe me, you're so clever," said Pippi. "Fact is, I'm baking. But I'l soon be done. You can sit on the woodbox

for a while."

Pippi could work fast, she could. Tommy and Annika sat

and watched how she went through the dough, how she

threw the cookies onto the cookie pans, and swung the

pans into the oven. They thought it was as good as a circus.

"Done I" said Pippi at last and shut the oven door on the last pans with a bang.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Tommy.

"I don't know what you are going to do," said Pippi, "but I know I can't lie around and be lazy. I am a Thing-Finder,

and when you're a Thing-Finder you don't have a minute to

spare."

"What did you say you are?" asked Annika.

"A Thing-Finder."

"What's that?" asked Tommy.

"Somebody who hunts for things, natural y. What else could

it be?" said Pippi as she swept al the flour left on the floor into a little pile.

"The whole world is ful of things, and somebody has to look

for them. And that's just what a Thing-Finder does," she

finished.

"What kind of things?" asked Annika.

"Oh, al kinds," said Pippi. "Lumps of gold, ostrich feathers, dead rats, candy snapcrackers, little tiny screws, and things

like that."

Tommy and Annika thought it sounded as if it would be fun

and wanted very much to be Thing-Finders too, although

Tommy did say he hoped he'd find a lump of gold and not a

little tiny screw.

"We shal see what we shal see," said Pippi. "One always finds something. But we've got to hurry up and get going so

that other Thing-Finders don't pick up al the lumps of gold

around here before we get them."

Al three Thing-Finders now set out. They decided that it

would be best to begin hunting around the houses in the

neighborhood, because Pippi said that although it could

perfectly wel happen that one might find a little screw deep

in the woods, stil the very best things were usual y found

where people were living.

"Though, for that matter," she said, "I've seen it the other way around too. I remember once when I was out hunting

for things in the jungles of Borneo. Right in the heart of the

forest, where no human being had ever before set foot,

what do you suppose I found? Why, a very fine wooden leg!

I gave it away later to a one-legged old man, and he said

that a wooden leg like that wasn't to be had for love or

money."

Tommy and Annika looked at Pippi to see just how a Thing-

Finder acted. Pippi ran from one side of the road to the

other, shaded her eyes with her hand, and hunted and

hunted. Sometimes she crawled about on her hands and

knees, stuck her hands in between the pickets of a fence,

and then said in a disappointed tone, "Oh, dear! I was sure

I saw a lump of gold."

"May we real y take everything we find?" asked Annika.

"Yes, everything that is lying on the ground," said Pippi.

Presently they came to an old man lying asleep on the lawn

outside his cottage.

"There," said Pippi, "that man is lying on the ground and we have found him. We'l take him!"

Tommy and Annika were utterly horrified.

"No, no, Pippi, we can't take an old gentleman! We couldn't

possibly," said Tommy. "Anyway, whatever would we do

with him?"

"What would we do with him? Oh, there are plenty of things

we could do with him. We could keep him in a little rabbit

hutch instead of a rabbit and feed him on dandelions. But if

you don't want to, I don't care. Though it does bother me to

think that some other Thing-Finder may come along and

grab him."

They went on. Suddenly Pippi gave a terrific yel . "Wel , I

never saw the like," she cried, as she picked up a large,

rusty old tin can from the grass. "What a find! What a find!

Cansthat's something you can never have too many of."

Tommy looked at the can doubtful y. "What can you use it

for?"

"Oh, you can use it in al sorts of ways," said Pippi. "One way is to put cookies in it. Then it becomes a delightful Jar

with Cookies. Another way is not to put cookies in it. Then it

becomes a Jar without Cookies. That certainly isn't quite so

delightful, but stil that's good too."

She examined the can, which was indeed rusty and had a

hole in the bottom.

"It looks almost as if this were a Jar without Cookies," she said thoughtful y. "But you can put it over your head and

pretend that it is midnight."

And that is just what she did. With the can on her head she

wandered around the block like a little metal tower and

never stopped until she stumbled over a low wire fence and

fel flat on her stomach. There was a big crash when the tin

can hit the ground.

"Now, see that!" said Pippi and took off the can. "If I hadn't had this thing on me, I'd have fal en flat on my face and hurt

myself terribly."

"Yes," said Annika, "but if you hadn't had the can on your head, then you wouldn't have tripped on the wire fence in

the first place."

Before she had finished speaking there was another

triumphant cry from Pippi, who was holding up an empty

spool of thread.

"This seems to be my lucky day," she said.

However, just at that moment the gate of one of the

cottages nearby opened and a boy came rushing out. He

looked scared, and that was no wonder, because head

over heels after him came five other boys. They soon

caught him and pushed him against the fence, and al five

began to punch and hit him. He cried and held his arms in

front of his face to protect himself.

"Give it to him! Give it to him!" cried the oldest and

strongest of the boys, "so that hel never dare to show

himself on this street again."

"Oh," said Annika, "it's Wil ie they're hurting. Oh, how can they be so mean?"

"It's that awful Bengt. He's always in a fight," said Tommy.

"And five against onewhat cowards!"

Pippi went up to the boys and tapped Bengt on the back

with her forefinger. "Hel o, there," she said. "What's the idea? Are you trying to make hash out of little Wil ie with al

five of you jumping on him at once?"

Bengt turned around and saw a little girl he had never seen

before: a wild-looking little stranger who dared to touch him.

For a while he stood and gaped at her in astonishment;

then a broad grin spread over his face. "Boys," he said,

"boys, let Wil ie alone and take a look at this girl. What a

babe!"

He slapped his knees and laughed, and in an instant they

had al flocked around Pippi, al except Wil ie, who wiped

away his tears and walked cautiously over to stand beside

Tommy.

"Have you ever seen hair like hers? Red as fire! And such

shoes," Bengt continued. "Can't I borrow one? I'd like to go out rowing and I haven't any boat." He took hold of one of

Pippi's braids but dropped it instantly and cried, "Ouch, I

burned myself."

Then al five boys joined hands around Pippi, jumping up

and down and screaming, "Redhead! Redhead!"

Pippi stood in the middle of the ring and smiled in the

friendliest way. Bengt had hoped she would get mad and

begin to cry. At least she ought to have looked scared.

When nothing happened he gave her a push.

"I don't think you have a very nice way with ladies," said Pippi. And she lifted him in her strong armshigh in the

airand carried him to a birch tree and hung him over a

branch. Then she took the next boy and hung him over

another branch. The next one she set on a gatepost outside

a cottage, and the next she threw right over a fence so that

he landed in a flower bed. The last of the fighters she put in

a tiny toy cart that stood by the road. Then Pippi, Tommy,

Annika, and Wil ie stood and looked at the boys for a while.

The boys were absolutely speechless with fright.

And Pippi said, "You are cowards. Five of you attacking

one boy! That's cowardly. Then you begin to push a

helpless little girl around. Oh, how mean!

"Come now, we'l go home," she said to Tommy and

Annika. And to Wil ie, "If they try to hurt you again, you come and tel me." And to Bengt, who sat up in the tree and didn't dare to stir, she said, "Is there anything else you have to

say about my hair or my shoes? If so, you'd better say it

now before I go home."

But Bengt had nothing more to say about Pippi's shoes or

about her hair either. So Pippi took her can in one hand

and her spool in the other and went away, fol owed by

Tommy and Annika.

When they were back home in Pippi's garden, Pippi said,

"Dear me, how awful! Here I found two beautiful things and

you didn't get anything. You must hunt a little more. Tommy,

why don't you look in that old hol ow tree? Old trees are

usual y about the best places of al for Thing-Finders."

Tommy said that he didn't believe he and Annika would

ever find anything, but to please Pippi he put his hand

slowly down into the hol ow tree trunk.

"Goodness!" he cried, utterly amazed, and pul ed out his hand. In it he held a little notebook with a leather cover. In a

special loop there was a little silver pencil.

"Wel , that's queer," said Tommy.

"Now, see that!" said Pippi. 'There's nothing so nice as being a Thing-Finder. It's a wonder there aren't more

people that take it up. They'l be tailors and shoemakers

and chimney sweeps, and such likebut Thing-Finders, no

indeed, that isn't good enough for them!"

And then she said to Annika, "Why don't you feel in that old

tree stump? One practical y always finds things in old tree

stumps."

Annika stuck her hand down in the stump and almost

immediately got hold of a red coral necklace. She and

Tommy stood open-mouthed for a long time, they were so

astonished. They thought that hereafter they would be

Thing-Finders every single day.

Pippi had been up half the night before, playing bal , and

now she suddenly felt sleepy. "I think I'l have to go and take a nap," she said. "Can't you come with me and tuck me

in?"

When Pippi was sitting on the edge of the bed, taking off

her shoes, she looked at them thoughtful y and said, "He

was going out rowing, he said, that old Bengt." She snorted

disdainful y. "I'l teach him to row, indeed I wil . Another

time."

"Say, Pippi," said Tommy respectful y, "why do you wear such big shoes?"

"So I can wiggle my toes, of course," she answered.

Then she crept into bed. She always slept with her feet on

the pil ow and her head way down under the quilt. "That's

the way they sleep in Guatemala," she announced. "And it's the only real way to sleep. See, like this, I can wiggle my

toes when I'm sleeping too.

"Can you go to sleep without a lul aby?" she went on. "I always have to sing to myself for a while; otherwise I can't

sleep a wink."

Tommy and Annika heard a humming sound under the quilt;

it was Pippi singing herself to sleep. Quietly and cautiously

they tiptoed out so that they would not disturb her. In the

doorway they turned to take a last look toward the bed.

They could see nothing of Pippi except her feet resting on

the pil ow. There she lay, wiggling her toes emphatical y.

Tommy and Annika ran home. Annika held her coral

necklace tightly in her hand.

"That certainly was strange," she said. "Tommy, you don't supposedo you suppose that Pippi had put these things in

place beforehand?"

"You never can tel ," said Tommy. "You just never can tel about anything when it comes to Pippi."

3 Pippi Plays Tag with Some Policemen

It soon became known throughout the little town that a nine-

year-old girl was living al by herself in Vil a Vil ekul a, and

al the ladies and gentlemen in the town thought this would

never do. Al children must have someone to advise them,

and al children must go to school to learn the multiplication

tables. So the ladies and gentlemen decided that the little

girl in Vil a Vil ekul a must immediately be placed in a

children's home. One lovely afternoon Pippi had invited

Tommy and Annika over for afternoon coffee and

pepparkakor. She had spread the party out on the front

steps. It was so sunny and beautiful there, and the air was

fil ed with the fragrance of the flowers in Pippi's garden. Mr.

Nilsson climbed around on the porch railing, and every now

and then the horse stuck out his head so that he'd be

invited to have a cookie.

"Oh, isn't it glorious to be alive?" said Pippi, stretching out her legs as far as she could reach.

Just at that moment two police officers in ful uniform came

in through the gate.

"Hurray!" said Pippi. "This must be my lucky day too!

Policemen are the very best things I know. Next to rhubarb

pudding." And with her face beaming she went to meet

them.

"Is this the girl who has moved into Vil a Vil ekul a?" asked one of the policemen.

"Quite the contrary," said Pippi. "This is a tiny little auntie who lives on the third floor at the other end of the town."

She said that only because she wanted to have a little fun

with the policemen, but they didn't think it was funny at al .

They said she shouldn't be such a smarty. And then they

went on to tel her that some nice people in the town were

arranging for her to get into a children's home.

"I already have a place in a children's home," said Pippi.

"What?" asked one of the policemen. "Has it been

arranged already then? What children's home?"

"This one," said Pippi haughtily. "I am a child and this is my home: therefore it is a children's home, and I have room

enough here, plenty of room."

"Dear child," said the policeman, smiling, "you don't understand. You must get into a real children's home and

have someone look after you."

"Is one al owed to bring horses to your children's home?"

asked Pippi.

"No, of course not," said the policeman.

"That's what I thought," said Pippi sadly. "Wel , what about monkeys?"

"Of course not. You ought to realize that."

"Wel then," said Pippi, "you'l have to get kids for your children's home somewhere else. I certainly don't intend to

move there."

"But don't you understand that you must go to school?"

"Why?"

"To learn things, of course."

"What sort of things?" asked Pippi.

"Al sorts," said the policeman. "Lots of useful thingsthe multiplication tables, for instance."

"I have got along fine without any pluttifikation tables for

nine years," said Pippi, "and I guess I'l get along without it from now on, too."

"Yes, but just think how embarrassing it wil be for you to be so ignorant. Imagine when you grow up and somebody

asks you what the capital of Portugal is and you can't

answer!"

"Oh, I can answer al right," said Pippi. "I'l answer like this:

'If you are so bound and determined to find out what the

capital of Portugal is, then, for goodness' sakes, write

directly to Portugal and ask.'"

"Yes, but don't you think that you would be sorry not to know it yourself?"

"Oh, probably," said Pippi. "No doubt I should lie awake nights and wonder and wonder, 'What in the world is the

capital of Portugal?' But one can't be having fun al the

time," she continued, bending over and standing on her

hands for a change. "For that matter, I've been in Lisbon

with my papa," she added, stil standing upside down, for

she could talk that way too.

But then one of the policemen said that Pippi certainly

didn't need to think she could do just as she pleased. She

must come to the children's home, and immediately. He

went up to her and took hold of her arm, but Pippi freed

herself quickly, touched him lightly, and said, "Tag!" Before he could wink an eye she had climbed up on the porch

railing and from there onto the balcony above the porch.

The policemen couldn't quite see themselves getting up the

same way, and so they rushed into the house and up the

stairs, but by the time they had reached the balcony Pippi

was halfway up the roof. She climbed up the shingles

almost as if she were a little monkey herself. In a moment

she was up on the ridgepole and from there jumped easily

to the chimney. Down on the balcony stood the two

policemen, scratching their heads, and on the lawn stood

Tommy and Annika, staring at Pippi.

"Isn't it fun to play tag? "cried Pippi. "And weren't you nice to come over. It certainly is my lucky day today too."

After the policemen had stood there a while wondering

what to do, they went and got a ladder, leaned it against

one of the gables of the house and then climbed up, first

one policeman and then the other, to get Pippi down. They

looked a little scared when they climbed out on the

ridgepole and, careful y balancing themselves, went step by

step, toward Pippi.

"Don't be scared," cried Pippi. "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just fun."

When the policemen were a few steps away from Pippi,

down she jumped from the chimney and, screeching and

laughing, ran along the ridgepole to the opposite gable. A

few feet from the house stood a tree.

"Now I'm going to dive," she cried and jumped right down into the green crown of the tree, caught hold of a branch,

swung back and forth a while, and then let herself fal to the

ground. Quick as a wink she dashed around to the other

side of the house and took away the ladder.

The policemen had looked a little foolish when Pippi

jumped, but they looked even more so when they had

balanced themselves backward along the ridgepole and

were about to climb down the ladder. At first they were very

angry at Pippi, who stood on the ground looking up at them,

and they told her in no uncertain terms to get the ladder and

be quick about it, or she would soon get something she

wasn't looking for.

"Why are you so cross at me?" asked Pippi reproachful y.

"We're just playing tag, aren't we?"

The policemen thought a while, and at last one of them

said, "Oh, come on, won't you be a good girl and put the

ladder back so that we can get down?"

"Of course I wil ," said Pippi and put the ladder back

instantly. "And when you get down we can al drink coffee

and have a happy time."

But the policemen were certainly tricky, because the minute

they were down on the ground again they pounced on Pippi

and cried, "Now you'l get it, you little brat!"

"Oh, no, I'm sorry. I haven't time to play any longer," said Pippi. "But it was fun."

Then she took hold of the policemen by their belts and

carried them down the garden path, out through the gate,

and onto the street. There she set them down, and it was

quite some time before they were ready to get up again.

"Wait a minute," she cried and ran into the kitchen and

came back with two cookie hearts. "Would you like a

taste?" she asked. "It doesn't matter that they are a little burned, does it?"

Then she went back to Tommy and Annika, who stood

there wide-eyed and just couldn't get over what they had

seen. And the policemen hurried back to the town and told

al the ladies and gentlemen that Pippi wasn't quite fit for a

children's home. (They didn't tel that they had been up on

the roof.) And the ladies and gentlemen decided that it

would be best after al to let Pippi remain in Vil a Vil ekul a,

and if she wanted to go to school she could make the

arrangements herself.

But Pippi and Tommy and Annika had a very pleasant

afternoon. They went back to their interrupted coffee party.

Pippi stuffed herself with fourteen cookies, and then she

said, "They weren't what I mean by real policemen. No

sirree! Altogether too much talk about children's homes and

pluttifikation and Lisbon."

Afterward she lifted the horse down on the ground and they

rode on him, al three. At first Annika was afraid and didn't

want to, but when she saw what fun Tommy and Pippi were

having, she let Pippi lift her up on the horse's back. The

horse trotted round and round in the garden, and Tommy

sang, "Here come the Swedes with a clang and a bang."

When Tommy and Annika had gone to bed that night

Tommy said, "Annika, don't you think it's good that Pippi

moved here?"

"Oh, yes," said Annika.

"I don't even remember what we used to play before she

came, do you?"

"Oh, sure, we played croquet and things like that," said Annika. "But it's lots more fun with Pippi around, I think. And with horses and things."

4 Pippi Goes to School

Of course Tommy and Annika went to school. Each

morning at eight o'clock they trotted off, hand in hand,

swinging their schoolbags.

At that time Pippi was usual y grooming her horse or

dressing Mr. Nilsson in his little suit. Or else she was taking

her morning exercises, which meant turning forty-three

somersaults in a row. Then she would sit down on the

kitchen table and, utterly happy, drink a large cup of coffee

and eat a piece of bread and cheese.

Tommy and Annika always looked longingly toward Vil a

Vil ekul a as they started off to school. They would much

rather have gone to play with Pippi. If only Pippi had been

going to school too; that would have been something else

again.

"Just think what fun we could have on the way home from

school," said Tommy.

"Yes, and on the way to school too," said Annika.

The more they thought about it the worse they felt to think

that Pippi did not go to school, and at last they determined

to try to persuade her to begin.

"You can't imagine what a nice teacher we have," said

Tommy artful y to Pippi one afternoon when he and Annika

had come for a visit at Vil a Vil ekul a after they had finished

their homework.

"If you only knew what fun it is in school!" Annika added. "I'd die if I couldn't go to school."

Pippi sat on a hassock, bathing her feet in a tub. She said

nothing but just wiggled her toes for a while so that the

water splashed around everywhere.

"You don't have to stay so very long," continued Tommy.

"Just until two o'clock."

"Yes, and besides, we get Christmas vacation and Easter

vacation and summer vacation," said Annika.

Pippi bit her big toe thoughtful y but stil said nothing.

Suddenly, as if she had made some decision, she poured

al the water out on the kitchen floor, so that Mr. Nilsson,

who sat near her playing with a mirror, got his pants

absolutely soaked.

"It's not fair!" said Pippi sternly without paying any attention to Mr. Nilsson's puzzled air about his wet pants. "It is

absolutely unfair! I don't intend to stand it!"

"What's the matter now?" asked Tommy.

"In four months it wil be Christmas, and then you'l have

Christmas vacation. But I, what'l I get?" Pippi's voice

sounded sad. "No Christmas vacation, not even the tiniest

bit of a Christmas vacation," she complained. "Something wil have to be done about that. Tomorrow morning I'l begin

school."

Tommy and Annika clapped their hands with delight.

"Hurrah! We'l wait for you outside our gate at eight

o'clock."

"Oh, no," said Pippi. "I can't begin as early as that. And besides, I'm going to ride to school."

And ride she did. Exactly at ten o'clock the next day she

lifted her horse off the porch, and a little later al the people

in the town ran to their windows to see what horse it was

that was running away. That is to say, they thought he was

running away, but it was only Pippi in a bit of a hurry to get

to school.

She gal oped wildly into the schoolyard, jumped off the

horse, tied him to a tree, and burst into the schoolroom with

such a noise and a clatter that Tommy and Annika and al

their classmates jumped in their seats.

"Hi, there," cried Pippi, waving her big hat. "Did I get here in time for pluttifikation?"

Tommy and Annika had told their teacher that a new girl

named Pippi Longstocking was coming, and the teacher

had already heard about Pippi in the little town. As she was

a very pleasant teacher, she had decided to do al she

could to make Pippi happy in school.

Pippi threw herself down on a vacant bench without having

been invited to do so, but the teacher paid no attention to

her heedless way. She simply said in a very friendly voice,

"Welcome to school, little Pippi. I hope that you wil enjoy

yourself here and learn a great deal."

"Yes, and I hope I'l get some Christmas vacation," said Pippi. "Thai is the reason I've come. It's only fair, you know."

"If you would first tel me your whole name," said the

teacher, "then I'l register you in school."

"My name is Pippilotta Delicatessa Window-shade

Mackrelmint Efraim's Daughter Longstocking, daughter of

Captain Efraim Longstocking, formerly the Terror of the

Sea, now a cannibal king. Pippi is real y only a nickname,

because Papa thought that Pippilotta was too long to say."

"Indeed?" said the teacher. "Wel , then we shal cal you Pippi too. But now," she continued, "suppose we test you a little and see what you know. You are a big girl and no

doubt know a great deal already. Let us begin with

arithmetic. Pippi, can you tel me what seven and five are?"

Pippi, astonished and dismayed, looked at her and said,

"Wel , if you don't know that yourself, you needn't think I'm going to tel you."

Al the children stared in horror at Pippi, and the teacher

explained that one couldn't answer that way in school.

"I beg your pardon," said Pippi contritely. "I didn't know that.

I won't do it again."

"No, let us hope not," said the teacher. "And now I wil tel you that seven and five are twelve."

"See that!" said Pippi. "You knew it yourself. Why are you asking then?"

The teacher decided to act as if nothing unusual were

happening and went on with her examination.

"Wel now, Pippi, how much do you think eight and four

are?"

"Oh, about sixty-seven," hazarded Pippi.

"Of course not," said the teacher. "Eight and four are twelve."

"Wel now, real y, my dear little woman," said Pippi, "that is carrying things too far. You just said that seven and five are

twelve. There should be some rhyme and reason to things

even in school. Furthermore, if you are so childishly

interested in that foolishness, why don't you sit down in a

corner by yourself and do arithmetic and leave us alone so

we can play tag?"

The teacher decided there was no point in trying to teach

Pippi any more arithmetic. She began to ask the other

children the arithmetic questions.

"Can Tommy answer this one?" she asked. "If Lisa has seven apples and Axel has nine apples, how many apples

do they have together?"

"Yes, you tel , Tommy," Pippi interrupted, "and tel me too, if Lisa gets a stomach-ache and Axel gets more stomach-ache, whose fault is it and where did they get hold of the

apples in the first place?"

The teacher tried to pretend that she hadn't heard and

turned to Annika. "Now, Annika, here's an example for you:

Gustav was with his schoolmates on a picnic. He had a

quarter when he started out and seven cents when he got

home. How much did he spend?"

"Yes, indeed," said Pippi, "and I also want to know why he was so extravagant, and if it was pop he bought, and if he

washed his ears properly before he left home."

The teacher decided to give up arithmetic altogether. She

thought maybe Pippi would prefer to learn to read. So she

took out a pretty little card with a picture of an ibex on it. In

front of the ibex's nose was the letter "i."

"Now, Pippi," she said briskly, "you'l see something jol y.

You see here an ibex. And the letter in front of this ibex is

cal ed i."

"That I'l never believe," said Pippi. "I think it looks exactly like a straight line with a little fly speck over it. But what I'd real y like to know is, what has the ibex to do with the fly

speck?"

The teacher took out another card with a picture of a snake

on it and told Pippi that the letter on that was an s.

"Speaking of snakes," said Pippi, "I'l never, ever forget the time I had a fight with a huge snake in India. You can't

imagine what a dreadful snake it was, fourteen yards long

and mad as a hornet, and every day he ate up five Indians

and then two little children for dessert, and one time he

came and wanted me for dessert, and he wound himself

around meuhhh!but I've been around a bit, I said, and hit

him in the head, bang, and then he hissed

uiuiuiuiuiuiuiuitch, and then I hit him again, and bingo! he

was dead, and, indeed, so that is the letter smost

remarkable!"

Pippi had to stop to get her breath. And the teacher, who

had now begun to think that Pippi was an unruly and

troublesome child, decided that the class should have

drawing for a while. Surely Pippi could sit stil and be quiet

and draw, thought the teacher. She took out paper and

pencils and passed them out to the children.

"Now you may draw whatever you wish," she said and sat

down at her desk and began to correct homework. In a little

while she looked up to see how the drawing was going. Al

the children sat looking at Pippi, who lay flat on the floor,

drawing to her heart's content.

"But, Pippi," said the teacher impatiently, "why in the world aren't you drawing on your paper?"

"I fil ed that long ago. There isn't room enough for my whole horse on that little snip of a paper," said Pippi. "Just now I'm working on his front legs, but when I get to his tail I

guess I'l have to go out in the hal ."

The teacher thought hard for a while. "Suppose instead we

al sing a little song," she suggested.

Al the children stood up by their seats except Pippi; she

stayed where she was on the floor. "You go ahead and

sing," she said. "I'l rest myself a while. Too much learning breaks even the healthiest."

But now the teacher's patience came to an end. She told al

the children to go out into the yard so she could talk to Pippi

alone.

When the teacher and Pippi were alone, Pippi got up and

walked to the desk. "Do you know what?" she said. "It was awful y jol y to come to school to find out what it was like.

But I don't think I care about going to school any more,

Christmas vacation or no Christmas vacation. There's

altogether too many apples and ibexes and snakes and

things like that. It makes me dizzy in the head. I hope that

you, Teacher, won't be sorry."

But the teacher said she certainly was sorry, most of al

because Pippi wouldn't behave decently; and that any girl

who acted as badly as Pippi did wouldn't be al owed to go

to school even if she wanted to ever so.

"Have I behaved badly?" asked Pippi, much astonished.

"Goodness, I didn't know that," she added and looked very sad. And nobody could look as sad as Pippi when she was

sad. She stood silent for a while, and then she said in a

trembling voice, "You understand, Teacher, don't you, that

when you have a mother who's an angel and a father who is

a cannibal king, and when you have sailed on the ocean al

your whole life, then you don't know just how to behave in

school with al the apples and ibexes."

Then the teacher said she understood and didn't feel

annoyed with Pippi any longer, and maybe Pippi could

come back to school when she was a little older. Pippi

positively beamed with delight. "I think you are awful y nice, Teacher. And here is something for you."

Out of her pocket Pippi took a lovely little gold watch and

laid it on the desk. The teacher said she couldn't possibly

accept such a valuable gift from Pippi, but Pippi replied,

"You've got to take it; otherwise I'l come back again

tomorrow, and that would be a pretty how-do-you-do."

Then Pippi rushed out to the schoolyard and jumped on her

horse. Al the children gathered around to pat the horse and

see her off.

"You ought to know about the schools in Argentina," said Pippi, looking down at the children. "That's where you

should go. Easter vacation begins three days after

Christmas vacation ends, and when Easter vacation is over

there are three days and then it's summer vacation.

Summer vacation ends on the first of November, and then

you have a tough time until Christmas vacation begins on

November 2. But you can stand that because there are at

least no lessons. It is strictly against the law to have lessons

in Argentina. Once in a while it happens that some

Argentine kid sneaks into a closet and sits there studying a

lesson, but it's just too bad for him if his mother finds him.

Arithmetic they don't have at al in the schools, and if there

is any kid who knows what seven and five are he has to

stand in the corner al daythat is, if he's foolish enough to let the teacher know that he knows. They have reading on

Friday, and then only if they have some books, which they

never have."

"But what do they do in school?" asked one little boy.

"Eat caramels," said Pippi decidedly. "There is a long pipe that goes from a caramel factory nearby directly into the

schoolroom, and caramels keep shooting out of it al day

long so the children have al they can do to eat them up."

"Yes, but what does the teacher do?" asked one little girl.

"Takes the paper off the caramels for the children, of

course," said Pippi. "You didn't suppose they did it

themselves, did you? Hardly. They don't even go to school

themselvesthey send their brothers." Pippi waved her big

hat.

"So long, kids," she cried gaily. "Now you won't see me for a while. But always remember how many apples Axel had

or you'l be sorry."

With a ringing laugh Pippi rode out through the gate so

wildly that the pebbles whirled around the horse's hoofs and

the windowpanes rattled in the schoolhouse.

5 Pippi Sits on the Gate and Climbs a Tree

Outside Vil a Vil ekul a sat Pippi, Tommy, and Annika.

Pippi sat on one gatepost, Annika on the other, and Tommy

sat on the gate. It was a warm and beautiful day toward the

end of August. A pear tree that grew close to the fence

stretched its branches so low down that the children could

sit and pick the best little red-gold pears without any trouble

at al . They munched and ate and spit pear cores out onto

the road.

Vil a Vil ekul a stood just at the edge of the little town, where

the street turned into a country road. The people in the little

town loved to go walking out Vil a Vil ekul a way, for the

country out there was so beautiful.

As the children were sitting there eating pears, a girl came

walking along the road from town. When she saw the

children she stopped and asked, "Have you seen my papa

go by?"

"M-m-m," said Pippi. "How did he look? Did he have blue eyes?" "Yes," said the girl.

"Medium large, not too tal and not too short?"

"Yes," said the girl.

"Black hat and black shoes?"

"Yes, exactly," said the girl eagerly.

"No, that one we haven't seen," said Pippi decidedly.

The girl looked crestfal en and went off without a word.

"Wait a minute," shrieked Pippi after her. "Was he bald-headed?"

"No, he certainly was not," said the girl crossly.

"Lucky for him!" said Pippi and spit out a pear core.

The girl hurried away, but then Pippi shouted, "Did he have

big ears that reached way down to his shoulders?"

"No," said the girl and turned and came running back in

amazement. "You don't mean to say that you have seen a

man walk by with such big ears?"

"I have never seen anyone who walks with his ears," said Pippi. "Al the people I know walk with their feet."

"Oh, don't be sil y! I mean have you real y seen a man who

has such big ears?"

"No," said Pippi, "there isn't anybody with such big ears. It would be ridiculous. How would they look? It isn't possible

to have such big ears. At least not in this country," she

added after a thoughtful pause. "Of course in China it's a

little different. I once saw a Chinese in Shanghai. His ears

were so big that he could use them for a cape. When it

rained he just crawled in under his ears and was as warm

and snug as you please. Of course his ears didn't have it so

good. If it was very bad weather he used to invite his friends

to camp under his ears. There they sat and sang sad songs

while the rain poured down. They liked him a lot because of

his ears. His name was Hai Shang. You should have seen

Hai Shang run to work in the morning. He always came

dashing in at the last minute because he loved to sleep

late, and you can't imagine how funny he looked, rushing in

with his ears flying behind him like two big golden sails."

The girl had stopped and stood open-mouthed listening to

Pippi. And Tommy and Annika forgot to eat any more

pears, they were so utterly absorbed in the story.

"He had more children than he could count, and the littlest

one was named Peter," said Pippi.

"Oh, but a Chinese baby can't be cal ed Peter," interrupted Tommy.

"That's just what his wife said to him, 'A Chinese baby can't be cal ed Peter.' But Hai Shang was dreadful y stubborn,

and he said that the baby should be cal ed Peter or

Nothing. And then he sat down in a corner and pul ed his

ears over his head and howled. And his poor wife had to

give in, of course, and the kid was cal ed Peter."

"Real y?" said Annika.

"It was the hatefulest kid in al Shanghai," continued Pippi.

"Fussy about his food, so that his mother was most

unhappy. You know, of course, that they eat swal ows' nests

in China? And there sat his mother, with a whole plate ful of

swal ows' nests, trying to feed him. 'Now, little Peter,' she

said, 'come, we'l eat a swal ow's nest for Daddy.' But Peter

just shut his mouth tight and shook his head. At last Hai

Shang was so angry that he said that no new food should

be prepared for Peter until he had eaten a swal ow's nest

for Daddy. And when Hai Shang said something, that was

that. The same swal ow's nest rode in and out of the kitchen

from May until October. On the fourteenth of July his mother

begged to be al owed to give Peter a couple of meatbal s,

but Hai Shang said no."

"Nonsense!" said the girl in the road.

"Yes, that's just what Hai Shang said," continued Pippi. "

'Nonsense,' he said, 'it's perfectly plain that the child can

eat the swal ow's nest if he'l only stop being so stubborn.'

But Peter kept his mouth shut tight from May to October."

"But how could he live?" asked Tommy, astonished.

"He couldn't live," said Pippi. "He died. Of Plain Common Ordinary Pigheadedness. The eighteenth of October. And

was buried the nineteenth. And on the twentieth a swal ow

flew in through the window and laid an egg in the nest,

which was standing on the table. So it came in handy after

al . No harm done," said Pippi happily. Then she looked

thoughtful y at the bewildered girl, who stil stood in the

road.

"Why do you look so funny?" asked Pippi. "What's the matter? You don't real y think that I'm sitting here tel ing lies, do you? Just tel me if you do," said Pippi threateningly and rol ed up her sleeves.

"Oh, no, indeed," said the girl, terrified. "I don't real y mean that you are lying, but"

"No?" said Pippi. "But it's just what I'm doing. I'm lying so my tongue is turning black. Do you real y think that a child

can live without food from May to October? To be sure, I

know they can get along without food for three or four

months al right. But from May to October! It's just foolish to

think that. You must know that's a lie. You mustn't let people

fool you so easily."

Then the girl left without turning around again.

"People wil believe anything," said Pippi to Tommy and

Annika. "From May until October! That's ridiculous!"

Then she cal ed after the girl, "No, we haven't seen your

papa. We haven't seen a single bald-headed person al

day. But yesterday seventeen of them went by. Arm in arm."

Pippi's garden was real y lovely. You couldn't say it was wel

kept, but there were wonderful grass plots that were never

cut, and old rose-bushes that were ful of white and yel ow

and pink rosesperhaps not such fine roses, but oh, how

sweet they smel ed! A good many fruit trees grew there too,

and, best of al , several ancient oaks and elms that were

excel ent for climbing.

The trees in Tommy's and Annika's garden were not very

good for climbing, and besides, their mother was always so

afraid they would fal and get hurt that they had never

climbed much. But now Pippi said, "Suppose we climb up

in the big oak tree?"

Tommy jumped down from the gate at once, delighted with

the suggestion. Annika was a little hesitant, but when she

saw that the trunk had nubbly places to climb on, she too

thought it would be fun to try.

A few feet above the ground the oak divided into two

branches, and right there was a place just like a little room.

Before long al three children were sitting there. Over their

heads the oak spread out its crown like a great green roof.

"We could drink coffee here," said Pippi. "I'l skip in and make a little."

Tommy and Annika clapped their hands and shouted,

"Bravo!"

In a little while Pippi had the coffee ready. She had made

buns the day before. She came and stood under the oak

and began to toss up coffee cups. Tommy and Annika

caught them. Only sometimes it was the oak that caught

them, and so two cups were broken. Pippi ran in to get new

ones. Next it was the buns' turn, and for a while the air was

ful of flying buns. At least they didn't break. At last Pippi

climbed up with the coffee pot in one hand. She had cream

in a little bottle in her pocket, and sugar in a little box.

Tommy and Annika thought coffee had never tasted so

good before. They were not al owed to drink it every

dayonly when they were at a party. And now they were at a

party. Annika spil ed a little coffee in her lap. First it was

warm and wet, and then it was cold and wet, but that didn't

matter to her.

When they had finished, Pippi threw the cups down on the

grass. "I want to see how strong the china they make these

days is," she said. Strangely enough, one cup and three

saucers held together, and only the spout of the coffee pot

broke off.

Presently Pippi decided to climb a little higher.

"Can you beat this?" she cried suddenly. "The tree is hol ow."

There in the trunk was a big hole, which the leaves had

hidden from the children's sight.

"Oh, may I climb up and look too?" cal ed Tommy. But there was no answer.

"Pippi, where are you?" he cried, worried.

Then they heard Pippi's voice, not from above but from way

down below. It sounded as if it came from under the ground.

"I'm inside the tree. It is hol ow clear down to the ground. If I peek out through a little crack I can see the coffee pot

outside on the grass."

"Oh, how wil you get up again?" cried Annika.

"I'm never coming up," said Pippi. "I'm going to stay here until I retire and get a pension. And you'l have to throw my

food down through that hole up there. Five or six times a

day."

Annika began to cry.

"Why be sorry? Why complain?" said Pippi. "You come down here too, and then we can play that we are pining

away in a dungeon."

"Never in this world!" said Annika, and to be on the safe side she climbed right down out of the tree.

"Annika, I can see you through the crack," cried Pippi.

"Don't step on the coffee pot; it's an old wel -mannered

coffee pot that never did anyone any harm. It can't help it

that it doesn't have a spout any longer."

Annika went up to the tree trunk, and through a little crack

she saw the very tip of Pippi's finger. This comforted her a

good deal, but she was stil worried.

"Pippi, can't you real y get up?" she asked.

Pippi's finger disappeared, and in less than a minute her

face popped out of the hole up in the tree.

"Maybe I can if I try very hard," she said and parted the foliage with her hands.

"If it's as easy as al that to get up," said Tommy, who was stil up in the tree, "then I want to come down and pine away a little too."

"Wait," said Pippi, "I think we'l get a ladder."

She crawled out of the hole and hurried down the tree. Then

she ran after a ladder, pushed it up the tree, and let it down

into the hole.

Tommy was wild to go down. It was difficult to climb to the

hole, because it was so high up, but Tommy was brave.

And he wasn't afraid to climb down into the dark hol ow in

the trunk. Annika watched him disappear and wondered if

she would ever see him again. She peeked in through the

crack.

"Annika," came Tommy's voice. "You can't imagine how wonderful it is here. You must come in too. It isn't the least

bit dangerous when you have a ladder to climb on. If you

only do it once, you'l never want to do anything else."

"Are you sure?" asked Annika.

"Absolutely," said Tommy.

With trembling legs Annika climbed up in the tree again,

and Pippi helped her with the last hard bit. She drew back

a little when she saw how dark it was in the tree trunk, but

Pippi held her hand and kept encouraging her.

"Don't be scared, Annika," she heard Tommy say from

down below. "Now I can see your legs, and I'l certainly

catch you if you fal ."

But Annika didn't fal . She reached Tommy safely, and a

moment later Pippi fol owed.

"Isn't it grand here?" said Tommy.

And Annika had to admit that it was. It wasn't nearly so dark

as she had thought, because light came in through the

crack. She peeked through and announced that she too

could see the coffee pot outside on the grass.

"We'l have this for our secret hiding place," said Tommy.

"Nobody wil know that we are here. And if they should

come and hunt around outside for us, we can see them

through the crack. And we'l have a good laugh."

"We can have a little stick and poke it out through the crack and tickle them, and then they'l think the place is haunted,"

said Pippi.

At this idea the children were so delighted that they hugged

each other, al three. Then they heard the "ding-dong" that meant the bel was ringing for dinner at Tommy's and

Annika's house.

"Oh, bother!" said Tommy. "Now we've got to go home. But we'l come over tomorrow as soon as we get back from

school."

"Do that," said Pippi.

And so they climbed up the ladder, first Pippi, then Annika,

and Tommy last. And then they climbed down out of the

tree, first Pippi, then Annika, and Tommy last.

6 Pippi Arranges a Picnic

"We don't have any school today because we're having

Scrubbing Vacation," said Tommy to Pippi.

"Scrubbing Vacation? Wel , I like that!" said Pippi. "Another injustice! Do I get any Scrubbing Vacation? Indeed I don't,

though goodness knows I need one. Just look at the kitchen

floor. But for that matter," she added, "now I come to think of it, I can scrub without any vacation. And that's what I

intend to do right now, Scrubbing Vacation or no Scrubbing

Vacation. I'd like to see anybody stop me! You two sit on

the kitchen table, out of the way."

Tommy and Annika obediently climbed up on the kitchen

table, and Mr. Nilsson hopped up after them and went to

sleep in Annika's lap.

Pippi heated a big kettle of water and without more ado

poured it out on the kitchen floor. She took off her big shoes

and laid them neatly on the bread plate. She tied two

scrubbing brushes on her bare feet and skated over the

floor, plowing through the water so that it splashed al

around her.

"I certainly should have been a skating princess," she said and kicked her left foot up so high that the scrubbing brush

broke a piece out of the overhead light.

"Grace and charm I have at least," she continued and

skipped nimbly over a chair standing in her way.

"Wel , now I guess it's clean," she said at last and took off the brushes.

"Aren't you going to dry the floor?" asked Annika.

"Oh, no, it can dry in the sun," answered Pippi. "I don't think it wil catch cold so long as it keeps moving."

Tommy and Annika climbed down from the table and

stepped across the floor very careful y so they wouldn't get

wet.

Out of doors the sun shone in a clear blue sky. It was one of

those radiant September days that make you feel like

walking in the woods. Pippi had an idea.

"Let's take Mr. Nilsson and go on a little picnic."

"Oh, yes, let's," cried Tommy and Annika.

"Run home and ask your mother, then," said Pippi, "and I'l be getting the picnic basket ready."

Tommy and Annika thought that was a good suggestion.

They rushed home and were back again almost

immediately, but Pippi was already waiting by the gate with

Mr. Nilsson on her shoulder, a walking stick in one hand,

and a big basket in the other.

The children walked along the road a little way and then

turned into a pasture where a pleasant path wound in and

out among the thickets of birch and hazel. Presently they

came to a gate on the other side of which was an even

more beautiful pasture, but right in front of the gate stood a

cow who looked as if nothing would persuade her to move.

Annika yel ed at her, and Tommy bravely went up and tried

to push her away, but she just stood there staring at the

children with her big cow eyes. To put an end to the matter,

Pippi set down her basket and lifted the cow out of the way.

The cow, looking very sil y, lumbered off into the hazel

bushes.

"How can cows be so bul -headed," said Pippi and jumped

over the gate.

"What a lovely, lovely wood!" cried Annika in delight as she climbed up on al the stones she could see. Tommy had

brought along a dagger Pippi had given him, and with it he

cut walking sticks for Annika and for himself. He cut his

thumb a little too, but that didn't matter.

"Maybe we ought to pick some mushrooms," said Pippi,

and she broke off a pretty, rosy one. "I wonder if it's

possible to eat it?" she continued. "At any rate, it isn't possible to drink itthat much I know; so there is no choice

except to eat it. Maybe it's possible."

She took a big bite and swal owed it. "It was possible," she announced, delighted. "Yes sirree, we'l certainly stew the

rest of this sometime," she said and threw it high over the

treetops.

"What have you got in your basket?" asked Annika. "Is it something good?"

"I wouldn't tel you for a thousand dol ars," said Pippi. "First we must find a good picnic spot."

The children eagerly began to look for such a place. Annika

found a large flat stone that she thought was satisfactory,

but it was covered with red ants. "I don't want to sit with

them," said Pippi, "because I'm not acquainted with them."

"And besides, they bite," said Tommy.

"Do they?" said Pippi. "Bite back then."

Then Tommy found a little clearing among the hazel

bushes, and he thought that would be a good place.

"Oh, no, that's not sunny enough for my freckles," said

Pippi, "and I do think freckles are so attractive."

Farther on they came to a hil that was easy to climb. On

one side of the hil was a nice sunny rock just like a little

balcony, and there they sat down.

"Now shut your eyes while I set the table," said Pippi.

Tommy and Annika squeezed their eyes as tightly shut as

possible. They heard Pippi opening the basket and rattling

paper.

"One, two, nineteennow you may look," said Pippi at last.

They looked, and they squealed with delight when they saw

al the good things Pippi had spread on the bare rock.

There were good sandwiches with meatbal s and ham, a

whole pile of sugared pancakes, several little brown

sausages, and three pineapple puddings. For, you see,

Pippi had learned cooking from the cook on her father's

ship.

"Aren't Scrubbing Vacations grand?" said Tommy with his

mouth ful of pancakes. "We ought to have them every day."

"No, indeed, I'm not that anxious to scrub," said Pippi. "It's fun, to be sure, but not every day. That would be too

tiresome."

At last the children were so ful they could hardly move, and

they sat stil in the sunshine and just enjoyed it.

"I wonder if it is hard to fly," said Pippi and looked dreamily over the edge of the rock. The rock sloped down very

steeply below them, and it was a long way to the ground.

"Down at least one ought to be able to learn to fly," she continued. "It must be harder to fly up. But you could begin

with the easiest way. I do think I'l try."

"No, Pippi," cried both Tommy and Annika. "Oh, dear, Pippi, don't do that!"

But Pippi was already standing at the edge.

"Fly, you foolish fly, fly, and the foolish fly flew," she said, and just as she said "flew" she lifted her arms and took off into the air. In half a second there was a thud. It was Pippi

hitting the ground. Tommy and Annika lay on their stomachs

and looked down at her, terrified.

Pippi got up and brushed off her knees. "I forgot to flap,"

she said joyful y, "and I guess I had too many pancakes in

my stomach."

At that moment the children noticed that Mr. Nilsson had

disappeared. He had evidently gone off on a little

expedition of his own. They remembered that they had last

seen him contentedly chewing the picnic backet to pieces,

but during Pippi's flying experiment they had forgotten him.

And now he was gone.

Pippi was so angry that she threw her shoe into a big deep

pool of water. "You should never take monkeys with you

anywhere," she said. "He should have been left at home to pick fleas off the horse. That would have served him right,"

she continued, wading out into the pool to get her shoe. The

water reached up to her waist.

"I might as wel take advantage of this and wash my hair,"

said Pippi and ducked her head under the water and kept it

there so long that the water began to bubble.

"There now, I've saved a visit to the hairdresser," she said contentedly when at last she came up for air. She stepped

out of the pool and put on her shoe. Then they went off to

hunt for Mr. Nilsson.

"Hear how it squishes when I walk," laughed Pippi. "It says

'klafs, klafs' in my dress and 'squish, squish' in my shoes.

Isn't that jol y? I think you ought to try it too," she said to Annika, who was walking along beside her, with her lovely

flaxen hair, pink dress, and little white kid shoes.

"Some other time," said the sensible Annika.

They walked on.

"Mr. Nilsson certainly can be exasperating," said Pippi.

"He's always doing things like this. Once in Arabia he ran

away from me and took a position as a maidservant to an

elderly widow. That last was a lie, of course," she added

after a pause.

Tommy suggested they al three go in different directions

and hunt. At first Annika didn't want to because she was a

little afraid, but Tommy said, "You aren't a 'fraidy cat, are you?" And, of course, Annika couldn't tolerate such an

insult, so off they al went.

Tommy went through a field. Mr. Nilsson he did not find, but

he did find something else. A bul ! Or to be more exact, the

bul found Tommy. And the bul did not like Tommy, for he

was a very cross bul who was not at al fond of children.

With his head down he charged toward Tommy, bel owing

fearful y. Tommy let out a terrified shriek that could be heard

al through the woods. Pippi and Annika heard it and came

running to see what was the matter. By that time the bul

had almost reached Tommy who had fal en head over heels

over a stump.

"What a stupid bul !" said Pippi to Annika, who was crying uncontrol ably. "He ought to know he can't act like that. He'l get Tommy's white sailor suit al dirty. I'l have to go and talk

some sense into the stupid animal."

And off she started. She ran up and pul ed the bul by the

tail. "Forgive me for breaking up the party," she said. Since she had given his tail a good hard pul , the bul turned

around and saw a new child to catch on his horns.

"As I was saying," went on Pippi, "forgive me for breaking up, and also forgive me for breaking off," and with that she

broke off one of the bul 's horns. "It isn't the style to have two horns this year," she said. "Al the better bul s have just one hornif any." And she broke off the other horn too.

As bul s have no feeling in their horns, this one didn't know

what she had done. He charged at Pippi, and if she had

been any other child there would have been nothing left but

a grease spot.

"Hey, hey, stop tickling me!" shrieked Pippi. "You can't imagine how ticklish I am! Hey, stop, stop, or I'l die

laughing!"

But the bul didn't stop, and at last Pippi jumped up on his

back to get a little rest. To be sure, she didn't get much,

because the bul didn't in the least approve of having Pippi

on his back. He dodged about madly to get her off, but she

clamped her knees and hung on. The bul dashed up and

down the field, bel owing so hard that smoke came out of

his nostrils. Pippi laughed and shrieked and waved at

Tommy and Annika, who stood a little distance away,

trembling like aspen leaves. The bul whirled round and

round, trying to throw Pippi.

"See me dancing with my little friend!" cried Pippi and kept her seat. At last the bul was so tired that he lay down on the

ground and wished that he'd never seen such a thing as a

child. He had never thought children amounted to much

anyway.

"Are you going to take a little nap now?" asked Pippi

politely. "Then I won't disturb you."

She got off his back and went over to Tommy and Annika.

Tommy had cried a little. He had a cut on one arm, but

Annika had bandaged it with her handkerchief so that it no

longer hurt.

"Oh, Pippi!" cried Annika excitedly.

"Sh, sh," whispered Pippi. "Don't wake the bul . He's sleeping. If we wake him he'l be fussy."

But the next minute, without paying any attention to the bul

and his nap, she was shrieking at the top of her voice, "Mr.

Nilsson, Mr. Nilsson, where are you? We've got to go

home."

And, believe it or not, there sat Mr. Nilsson up in a pine

tree, sucking his tail and looking very lonely. It wasn't much

fun for a little monkey to be left al alone in the woods. He

skipped down from the pine and up on Pippi's shoulder,

waving his little straw hat as he always did when he was

very happy.

"Wel , wel , so you aren't going to be a maidservant this

time?" said Pippi, stroking his back. "Oh, that was a lie, that's true," she continued. "But stil , if it's true, how can it be a lie?" she argued. "You wait and see, it's going to turn out that he was a maidservant in Arabia after al , and if that's

the case, I know who's going to make the meatbal s at our

house hereafter!"

And then they strol ed home, Pippi's dress stil going "klafs, klafs," and her shoes "squish, squish."

Tommy and Annika thought they had had a wonderful day in

spite of the bul , and they sang a song they had learned at

school. It was real y a summer song, but they thought it fitted

very wel even if it was now nearly autumn:

In the jolly summertime

Through field and wood we make our way.

Nobody's sad, everyone's gay.

We sing as we go, hol-lá, hol-1ó!

You who are young, Come join in our song.

Don't sit home moping all the day long.

Our song will swell

Through wood and dell

And up to the mountaintop as well.

In the jolly summertime

We sing as we go, hol-lá, hol-1ó.

Pippi sang too, but with slightly different words:

In the jolly summertime

Through field and wood I make my way.

I do exactly as I wish,

And when I walk it goes squish, squish,

Squish, squish. Squish, squish.

And my old shoe

It's really true

Sometimes says "chip" and sometimes "choo."

For the shoe is wet.

The bull sleeps yet.

And I eat all the rice pudding I can get.

In the jolly summertime

I squish wherever I go. Squish-oh! Squish-oh!

7 Pippi Goes to the Circus

A circus had come to the little town, and al the children

were begging their mothers and fathers for permission to

go. Of course Tommy and Annika asked to go too, and

their kind father immediately gave them some money.

Clutching it tightly in their hands, they rushed over to

Pippi's. She was on the porch with her horse, braiding his

tail into tiny pigtails and tying each one with red ribbon.

"I think it's his birthday today," she announced, "so he has to be al dressed up."

"Pippi," said Tommy, al out of breath because they had

been running so fast, "Pippi, do you want to go with us to

the circus?"

"I can go with you most anywhere," answered Pippi, "but whether I can go to the surkus or not I don't know, because I

don't know what a surkus is.

Does it hurt?"

"Sil y!" said Tommy. "Of course it doesn't hurt; it's fun.

Horses and clowns and pretty ladies that walk the

tightrope."

"But it costs money," said Annika, opening her smal fist to

"But it costs money," said Annika, opening her smal fist to see if the shiny half-dol ar and the quarters were stil there.

"I'm rich as a trol ," said Pippi, "so I guess I can buy a surkus al right. But it'l be crowded here if I have more

horses. The clowns and the pretty ladies I could keep in the

laundry, but it's harder to know what to do with the horses."

"Oh, don't be so sil y," said Tommy, "you don't buy a circus.

It costs money to go and look at it see?"

"Preserve us!" cried Pippi and shut her eyes tightly. "It costs money to look? And here I go around goggling al day

long. Goodness knows how much money I've goggled up

already!"

Then, little by little, she opened one eye very careful y, and it

rol ed round and round in her head. "Cost what it may," she said, "I must take a look!"

At last Tommy and Annika managed to explain to Pippi

what a circus real y was, and she took some gold pieces

out of her suitcase. Then she put on her hat, which was as

big as a mil stone, and off they al went.

There were crowds of people outside the circus tent and a

long line at the ticket window. But at last it was Pippi's turn.

She stuck her head through the window and stared at the

dear old lady sitting there.

"How much does it cost to look at you?" Pippi asked.

But the old lady was a foreigner who did not understand

what Pippi meant and answered in broken Swedish.

"Little girl, it costs a dol ar and a quarter in the grandstand and seventy-five cents on the benches and twenty-five cents

for standing room."

Now Tommy interrupted and said that Pippi wanted a

seventy-five-cent ticket. Pippi put down a gold piece and

the old lady looked suspiciously at it. She bit it too, to see if

it was genuine. At last she was convinced that it real y was

gold and gave Pippi her ticket and a great deal of change

in silver.

"What would I do with al those nasty little white coins?"

asked Pippi disgustedly. "Keep them and then I can look at

you twice. In the standing room."

As Pippi absolutely refused to accept any change, the lady

changed her ticket to one for the grandstand and gave

Tommy and Annika grandstand tickets too without their

having to pay a single penny. In that way Pippi, Tommy, and

Annika came to sit on some beautiful red chairs right next

to the ring. Tommy and Annika turned around several times

to wave to their schoolmates, who were sitting much farther

away.

"This is a remarkable place," said Pippi, looking around in astonishment. "But, see, they've spil ed sawdust al over the floor! Not that I'm overfussy myself, but that does look

careless to me."

Tommy explained that al circuses had sawdust on the floor

for the horses to run around in.

On a platform nearby the circus band suddenly began to

play a thundering march. Pippi clapped her hands wildly

and jumped up and down with delight.

"Does it cost money to hear too?" she asked. "Or can you do that for nothing? "

At that moment the curtain in front of the performers'

entrance was drawn aside, and the ringmaster in a black

frock coat, with a whip in his hand, came running in,

fol owed by ten white horses with red plumes on their

heads.

The ringmaster cracked his whip, and al the horses

gal oped around the ring. Then he cracked it again, and al

the horses stood stil with their front feet up on the railing

around the ring.

One of them had stopped directly in front of the children.

Annika didn't like to have a horse so near her and drew

back in her chair as far as she could, but Pippi leaned

forward and took the horse's right foot in her hands.

"Hel o, there," she said, "my horse sent you his best wishes. It's his birthday today too, but he has bows on his

tail instead of on his head."

Luckily she dropped the foot before the ringmaster cracked

his whip again, because then al the horses jumped away

from the railing and began to run around the ring.

When the act was over, the ringmaster bowed politely and

the horses ran out. In an instant the curtain opened again

for a coal-black horse. On its back stood a beautiful lady

dressed in green silk tights. The program said her name

was Miss Carmencita.

The horse trotted around in the sawdust, and Miss

Carmencita stood calmly on his back and smiled. But then

something happened; just as the horse passed Pippi's

seat, something came swishing through the airand it was

none other than Pippi herself. And there she stood on the

horse's back, behind Miss Carmencita. At first Miss

Carmencita was so astonished that she nearly fel off the

horse. Then she got mad. She began to strike out with her

hands behind her back to make Pippi jump off. But that

didn't work.

"Take it easy," said Pippi. "Do you think you're the only one who can have any fun? Other people have paid too, haven't

they?"

Then Miss Carmencita tried to jump off herself, but that

didn't work either, because Pippi was holding her tightly

around the waist. At that the audience couldn't help

laughing. They thought it was funny to see the lovely Miss

Carmencita held against her wil by a little red-headed

youngster who stood there on the horse's back in her

enormous shoes and looked as if she had never done

anything except perform in a circus.

But the ringmaster didn't laugh. He turned toward an

attendant in a red uniform and made a sign to him to go

and stop the horse.

"Is this act already over," asked Pippi in a disappointed tone, "just when we were having so much fun?"

"Horrible child!" hissed the ringmaster between his teeth.

"Get out of here!"

Pippi looked at him sadly. "Why are you mad at me?" she

asked. "What's the matter? I thought we were here to have

fun."

She skipped off the horse and went back to her seat. But

now two huge guards came to throw her out. They took hold

of her and tried to lift her up.

They couldn't do it. Pippi sat absolutely stil , and it was

impossible to budge her although they tried as hard as they

could. At last they shrugged their shoulders and went off.

Meanwhile the next act had begun. It was Miss Elvira about

to walk the tightrope. She wore a pink tul e skirt and carried

a pink parasol in her hand. With delicate little steps she ran

out on the rope. She swung her legs graceful y in the air and

did al sorts of tricks. It looked so pretty. She even showed

how she could walk backward on the narrow rope. But

when she got back to the little platform at the end of the

rope, there stood Pippi.

"What are you going to do now?" asked Pippi, delighted

when she saw how astonished Miss Elvira looked.

Miss Elvira said nothing at al but jumped down from the

rope and threw her arms around the ringmaster's neck, for

he was her father. And the ringmaster once more sent for

his guards to throw Pippi out. This time he sent for five of

them, but al the people shouted, "Let her stay! We want to

see the red-headed girl." And they stamped their feet and

clapped their hands.

Pippi ran out on the rope, and Miss Elvira's tricks were as

nothing compared with Pippi's. When she got to the middle

of the rope she stretched one leg straight up in the air, and

her big shoe spread out like a roof over her head. She bent

her foot a little so that she could tickle herself with it back of her ear.

The ringmaster was not at al pleased to have Pippi

performing in his circus. He wanted to get rid of her, and so

he stole up and loosened the mechanism that held the rope

taut, thinking surely Pippi would fal down.

But Pippi didn't. She set the rope a-swinging instead. Back

and forth it swayed, and Pippi swung faster and faster, until

suddenly she leaped out into the air and landed right on the

ringmaster. He was so frightened he began to run.

"Oh, what a jol y horse!" cried Pippi. "But why don't you have any pompoms in your hair?"

Now Pippi decided it was time to go back to Tommy and

Annika. She jumped off the ringmaster and went back to

her seat. The next act was about to begin, but there was a

brief pause because the ringmaster had to go out and get a

drink of water and comb his hair.

Then he came in again, bowed to the audience, and said,

"Ladies and gentlemen, in a moment you wil be privileged

to see the Greatest Marvel of al time, the Strongest Man in

the World, the Mighty Adolf, whom no one has yet been

able to conquer. Here he comes, ladies and gentlemen,

Al ow me to present to you the mighty adolf."

And into the ring stepped a man who looked as big as a

giant. He wore flesh-colored tights and had a leopard skin

draped around his stomach. He bowed to the audience and

looked very pleased with himself.

"Look at these muscles," said the ringmaster and

squeezed the Mighty Adolf's arm where the muscles stood

out like bal s under the skin.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have a very special

invitation for you. Who wil chal enge the Mighty Adolf in a

wrestling match? Which of you dares to try his strength

against the World's Strongest Man? A hundred dol ars for

anyone who can conquer the Mighty Adolf! A hundred

dol ars, ladies and gentlemen! Think of that! Who wil be the

first to try?"

Nobody came forth.

"What did he say?" asked Pippi.

"He says that anybody who can lick that big man wil get a

hundred dol ars," answered Tommy.

"I can," said Pippi, "but I think it would be too bad to, because he looks nice."

"Oh, no, you couldn't," said Annika, "he's the strongest man in the world."

"Man, yes," said Pippi, "but I am the strongest girl in the world, remember that."

Meanwhile the Mighty Adolf was lifting heavy iron weights

and bending thick iron rods in the middle just to show how

strong he was.

"Oh, come now, ladies and gentlemen," cried the

ringmaster, "is there real y nobody here who wants to earn

a hundred dol ars? Shal I real y be forced to keep this

myself?" And he waved a bil in the air.

"No, that you certainly won't be forced to do," said Pippi and stepped over the railing into the ring.

The ringmaster was absolutely wild when he saw her. "Get

out of here! I don't want to see any more of you," he hissed.

"Why do you always have to be so unfriendly?" said Pippi reproachful y. "I just want to fight with Mighty Adolf."

"This is no place for jokes," said the ringmaster. "Get out of here before the Mighty Adolf hears your impudent

nonsense."

But Pippi went right by the ringleader and up to Mighty

Adolf. She took his hand and shook it heartily.

"Shal we fight a little, you and I?" she asked.

Mighty Adolf looked at her but didn't understand a word.

"In one minute I'l begin," said Pippi.

And begin she did. She grabbed Mighty Adolf around the

waist, and before anyone knew what was happening she

had thrown him on the mat. Mighty Adolf leaped up, his face

absolutely scarlet.

"Atta girl, Pippi!" shrieked Tommy and Annika, so loudly that al the people at the circus heard it and began to

shriek, "Atta girl, Pippi!" too. The ringmaster sat on the railing, wringing his hands. He was mad, but Mighty Adolf

was madder. Never in his life had he experienced anything

so humiliating as this. And he certainly intended to show

that red-headed girl what kind of a man Mighty Adolf real y

was. He rushed at Pippi and caught her round the waist, but

Pippi stood firm as a rock.

"You can do better than that," she said to encourage him.

Then she wriggled out of his grasp, and in the twinkling of

an eye Mighty Adolf was on the mat again. Pippi stood

beside him, waiting. She didn't have to wait long. With a

roar he was up again, rushing at her.

"Tiddelipom and piddeliday," said Pippi.

Al the people in the tent stamped their feet and threw their

hats in the air and shouted, "Hurrah, Pippi!"

When Mighty Adolf came rushing at her for the third time,

Pippi lifted him high in the air and, with her arms straight

above her, carried him clear around the ring. Then she laid

him down on the mat again and held him there.

"Now, little fel ow," said she, "I don't think we'l bother about this any more. We'l never have any more fun than we've

had already."

"Pippi is the winner! Pippi is the winner!" cried al the people.

Mighty Adolf stole out as fast as he could, and the

ringmaster had to go up and hand Pippi the hundred

dol ars, although he looked as if he'd much prefer to eat

her.

"Here you are, young lady, here you are," he said. "One hundred dol ars."

'That thing!" said Pippi scornful y. "What would I want with that old piece of paper. Take it and use it to fry herring on if

you want to." And she went back to her seat.

"This is certainly a long surkus," she said to Tommy and Annika. "I think I'l take a little snooze, but wake me if they need my help with anything else."

And then she lay back in her chair and went to sleep at

once. There she lay and snored while the clowns, the sword

swal owers, and the snake charmers did their tricks for

Tommy and Annika and al the rest of the people at the

circus.

"Just the same, I think Pippi was best of al ," whispered Tommy to Annika.

8 Pippi Entertains Two Burglars

After Pippi's performance at the circus there was not a

single person in al the little town who did not know how

strong she was. There was even a piece about her in the

paper. But people who lived in other places, of course,

didn't know who Pippi was.

One dark autumn evening two tramps came walking down

the road past Vil a Vil ekul a. They were two bad thieves

wandering about the country to see what they could steal.

They saw that there was a light in the windows of Vil a

Vil ekul a and decided to go in to ask for a sandwich.

That evening Pippi had poured out al her gold pieces on

the kitchen floor and sat there counting them. To be sure,

she couldn't count very wel , but she did it now and then

anyway, just to keep everything in order.

". . . sixty-five, sixty-six, sixty-seven, sixty-eight, sixty-nine, sixty-ten, sixty-eleven, sixty-twelve, sixty-thirteen, sixty-sixteenwhew, it makes my throat feel like sixty! Goodness,

there must be some more numbers in the arithmetic oh,

yes, now I rememberone hundred four, one thousand. That

certainly is a lot of money," said Pippi.

There was a loud knock on the door.

"Walk in or stay out, whichever you choose!" shouted Pippi.

"I never force anyone against his wil ."

The door opened and the two tramps came in. You can

imagine that they opened their eyes when they saw a little

red-headed girl sitting al alone on the floor, counting

money.

"Are you al alone at home?" they asked craftily.

"Of course not," said Pippi. "Mr. Nilsson is at home too."

The thieves couldn't very wel know that Mr. Nilsson was a

monkey sleeping in a little green bed with a dol 's quilt

around his stomach. They thought the man of the house

must be named Mr. Nilsson and they winked at each other.

"We can come back a little later" is what they meant, but to Pippi they said, "We just came in to ask what your clock is."

They were so excited that they had forgotten al about the

sandwich.

"Great, strong men who don't know what a clock is!" said Pippi. "Where in the world were you brought up? The clock

is a little round thingamajig that says 'tick tack, tick tack,'

and that goes and goes but never gets to the door. Do you

know any more riddles? Out with them if you do," said Pippi

encouragingly.

The tramps thought Pippi was too little to tel time, so

without another word they went out again.

"I don't demand that you say 'tack' " [thanks in Swedish], shouted Pippi after them, "but you could at least make an

effort and say 'tick.' You haven't even as much sense as a

clock has. But by al means go in peace." And Pippi went

back to her counting.

No sooner were the tramps outside than they began to rub

their hands with delight. "Did you see al that money?

Heavenly day!" said one of them.

"Yes, once in a while luck is with us," said the other. "Al we need to do is wait until the kid and that Nilsson are asleep.

Then wel sneak in and grab the dough."

They sat down under an oak tree in the garden to wait. A

drizzling rain was fal ing; they were very hungry, so they

were quite uncomfortable, but the thought of al that money

kept their spirits up.

From time to time lights went out in other houses, but in

Vil a Vil ekul a they shone on. It so happened that Pippi was

learning to dance the shottische, and she didn't want to go

to bed until she was sure she could do it. At last, however,

the lights went out in the windows of Vil a Vil ekul a too.

The tramps waited quite a while until they were sure Mr.

Nilsson would have gone to sleep. At last they crept quietly

up to the kitchen door and prepared to open it with their

burglar tools. Meanwhile one of themhis name, as a matter

of fact, was Bloomjust happened to feel the doorknob. The

door was not locked!

"Wel , some people are smart!" he whispered to his

companion. 'The door is open!"

"So much the better for us," answered his companion, a

black-haired man cal ed Thunder-Karlsson by those who

knew him. Thunder-Karlsson turned on his pocket flashlight,

and they crept into the kitchen. There was no one there. In

the next room was Pippi's bed, and there also stood Mr.

Nilsson's little dol bed.

Thunder-Karlsson opened the door and looked around

careful y. Everything was quiet as he played his flashlight

around the room. When the light touched Pippi's bed the

two tramps were amazed to see nothing but a pair of feet

on the pil ow. Pippi, as usual, had her head under the

covers at the foot of the bed.

"That must be the girl," whispered Thunder-Karlsson to

Bloom. "And no doubt she sleeps soundly. But where in the

world is Nilsson, do you suppose?"

"Mr. Nilsson, if you please," came Pippi's calm voice from under the covers. "Mr. Nilsson is in the little green dol bed."

The tramps were so startled that they almost rushed out at

once, but then it suddenly dawned on them what Pippi had

said. That Mr. Nilsson was lying in a doll's bed! And now in

the light of the flashlight they could see the little bed and the

tiny monkey lying in it.

Thunder-Karlsson couldn't help laughing. "Bloom," he said,

"Mr. Nilsson is a monkey. Can you beat that?"

"Wel , what did you think he was?" came Pippi's calm voice from under the covers again. "A lawn mower?"

"Aren't your mother and father at home?" asked Bloom.

"No," said Pippi. 'They're gone. Completely gone."

Thunder-Karlsson and Bloom chuckled with delight.

"Listen, little girl," said Thunder-Karlsson, "come out so we can talk to you."

"No, I'm sleeping," said Pippi. "Is it more riddles you want?

If so, answer this one. What is it that goes and goes and

never gets to the door?"

Now Bloom went over and pul ed the covers off Pippi.

"Can you dance the schottische?" asked Pippi, looking at him gravely in the eye. "I can."

"You ask too many questions," said Thunder-Karlsson.

"Can we ask a few too? Where, for instance, is the money

you had on the floor a little while ago?"

"In the suitcase on top of the wardrobe," answered Pippi truthful y.

Thunder-Karlsson and Bloom grinned.

"I hope you don't have anything against our taking it, little friend," said Thunder-Karlsson.

"Certainly not," said Pippi. "Of course I don't."

Whereupon Bloom lifted down the suitcase.

"I hope you don't have anything against my taking it back,

little friend," said Pippi, getting out of bed and stepping

over to Bloom.

Bloom had no idea how it al happened, but suddenly the

suitcase was in Pippi's hand.

"Here, quit your fooling!" said Thunder-Karlsson angrily.

"Hand over the suitcase." He took Pippi firmly by the hand and tried to snatch back the booty.

"Fooling, fooling, too much fooling," said Pippi and lifted Thunder-Karlsson up on the wardrobe. A moment later she

had Bloom up there too. Then the tramps were frightened;

they began to see that Pippi was no ordinary girl. However,

the suitcase tempted them so much they forgot their fright.

"Come on now, both together," yel ed Thunder-Karlsson,

and they jumped down for the wardrobe and threw

themselves on Pippi, who had the suitcase in her hand.

Pippi gave each one a little poke with her finger, and they

shrank away into a corner. Before they had a chance to get

up again, Pippi had fetched a rope and quick as a flash

had bound the arms and legs of both burglars. Now they

sang a different tune.

"Please, please, miss," begged Thunder-Karlsson, "forgive us. We were only joking. Don't hurt us. We are just two

tramps who came in to ask for food."

Bloom even began to cry a bit.

Pippi put the suitcase neatly back on the wardrobe. Then

she turned to her prisoners. "Can either of you dance the

schottische?"

"Why, yes," said Thunder-Karlsson, "I guess we both can."

"Oh, what fun!" cried Pippi, clapping her hands. "Can't we dance a little? I've just learned, you know."

"Wel , certainly, by al means," said Thunder-Karlsson, a bit confused.

Pippi took some large scissors and cut the ropes that

bound her guests.

"But we don't have any music," she said in a worried voice.

Then she had an idea. "Can't you blow on a comb?" she

said to Bloom. "And I'l dance with him " She pointed to Thunder-Karlsson.

Oh, yes, Bloom could blow on a comb, al right. And blow

he did, so that you could hear it al through the house. Mr.

Nilsson sat up in bed, wide awake, just in time to see Pippi

whirling around with Thunder-Karlsson. She was dead

serious and danced as if her life depended on it.

At last Bloom said he couldn't blow on the comb any longer

because it tickled his mout. unmerciful y. And Thunder-

Karlsson, who had tramped the roads al day, began to feel

tired.

"Oh, please, just a little longer," begged Pippi, dancing on, and Bloom and Thunder-Karlsson could do nothing but

continue.

At three in the morning Pippi said, "I could keep on dancing

until Thursday, but maybe you're tired and hungry."

That was exactly what they were, though they hardly dared

to say so. Pippi went to the pantry and took out bread and

cheese and butter, ham and cold roast and milk; and they

sat around the kitchen tableBloom and Thunder-Karlsson,

and Pippiand ate until they were almost four-cornered.

Pippi poured a little milk into her ear. "That's good for

earache," she said.

"Poor thing, have you got an earache?" asked Bloom.

"No," said Pippi, "but I might get one."

Final y the two tramps got up, thanked Pippi for the food,

and begged to be al owed to say good-by.

"It was awful y jol y that you came. Do you real y have to go so soon?" said Pippi regretful y. "Never have I seen anyone who can dance the schottische the way you do, my sugar

pig," she said to Thunder-Karlsson. And to Bloom, "If you keep on practicing on the comb, you won't notice the

tickling."

As they were going out of the door Pippi came running after

them and gave them each a gold piece. 'These you have

honestly earned," she said.

9 Pippi Goes to a Coffee Party

Tommy's and Annika's mother had invited a few ladies to a

coffee party, and as she had done plenty of baking, she

thought Tommy and Annika might invite Pippi over at the

same time. The children would entertain each other and

give no trouble to anyone.

Tommy and Annika were overjoyed when their mother told

them and immediately dashed over to Pippi's to invite her.

Pippi was in the garden, watering the few flowers stil in

bloom with an old rusty watering can. As it was raining cats

and dogs that day Tommy told Pippi her watering seemed

hardly necessary.

"Yes, that's what you say," said Pippi grudgingly, "but I've lain awake al night thinking what fun it was going to be to

get up and water, and I'm not going to let a little rain stand

in my way."

Now Annika came forth with the delightful news about the

coffee party.

"A coffee party! Me!" cried Pippi, and she was so excited that she began to water Tommy instead of the rosebush

she intended to sprinkle. "Oh, what wil happen? Oh, I'm so

nervous. What if I can't behave myself?"

"Of course you can," said Annika.

"Don't you be too certain about that," said Pippi. "You can be sure I'l try, but I have noticed several times that people

don't think I know how to behave even when I'm trying as

hard as I can. At sea we were never so fussy about things

like that. But I promise that I'l take special pains today so

you won't have to be ashamed of me."

"Good," said Tommy, and he and Annika hurried home

again in the rain.

"This afternoon at three o'clock, don't forget," cried Annika, peeking out from under the umbrel a.

At three o'clock a very stylish young lady walked up the

steps of the Settergrens' house. It was Pippi Longstocking.

For this special occasion she had unbraided her pigtails,

and her red hair hung like a lion's mane around her. With

red crayon she had painted her mouth fiery red, and she

had blackened her eyebrows so that she looked almost

dangerous. With the crayon she had also painted her

fingernails, and she had put big green rosettes on her

shoes.

"I should imagine I'l be the most stylish person of al at this party," she said contentedly to herself as she rang the

doorbel .

In the Settergrens' living room sat three fine ladies, and with

them Tommy, Annika, and their mother. A wonderful coffee

table had been spread, and in the fireplace a fire was

burning brightly. The ladies were talking quietly with one

another, and Tommy and Annika were sitting on the sofa,

looking at an album. Everything was so peaceful.

Suddenly the peace was shattered.

Suddenly the peace was shattered.

"Atten-shun!" A piercing cry came from the hal , and the next minute Pippi Longstocking stood in the doorway. She

had cried out so loudly and so unexpectedly that the ladies

had jumped in their seats.

"Forward march!" came the next command, and Pippi, with

measured steps, walked up to Mrs. Settergren.

"Halt!" She stopped. "Arms forward, one, two," she cried and with both hands gripped one of Mrs. Settergren's and

shook it heartily.

"Knees bend!" she shrieked and curtsied prettily. Then she smiled at Mrs. Settergren and said in her ordinary voice,

"You see, I am real y very shy, so if I didn't give myself some commands I'd just stand in the hal and not dare to come

in."

Then she rushed up to the other ladies and kissed them on

the cheek.

"Charming, charming, upon my honor!" said she, for she

had once heard a stylish gentleman say that to a lady. Then

she sat down in the best chair she could find. Mrs.

Settergren had in tended the children to have their party up

in Tommy's and Annika's room, but Pippi stayed calmly in

her chair, slapped herself on the knee, and said, looking at

the coffee table, "That certainly looks good. When do we

begin?"

At that moment El a, the maid, came in with the coffee pot,

and Mrs. Settergren said, "Please come and have some

coffee."

"First!" cried Pippi and was up by the table in two skips.

She heaped as many cakes as she could onto a plate,

threw five lumps of sugar into a coffee cup, emptied half the

cream pitcher into her cup, and was back in her chair with

her loot even before the ladies had reached the table.

Pippi stretched her legs out in front of her and placed the

plate of cakes between her toes. Then she merrily dunked

cakes in her coffee cup and stuffed so many in her mouth at

once that she couldn't have uttered a word no matter how

hard she tried. In the twinkling of an eye she had finished al

the cakes on the plate. She got up, struck the plate as if

were a tambourine, and went up to the table to see if there

were any cakes left. The ladies looked disapprovingly at

her, but that didn't bother her. Chatting gaily, she walked

around the table, snatching a cake here and a cake there.

"It certainly was nice of you to invite me," she said. "I've never been to a coffee party before."

On the table stood a large cream pie, decorated in the

center with a piece of red candy. Pippi stood with her

hands behind her back and looked at it. Suddenly she bent

down and snatched the candy with her teeth. But she dived

down a little too hastily, and when she came up again her

whole face was covered with whipped cream.

"Goody!" laughed Pippi. "Now we can play blindman's buff, for we've certainly got a blind man al made to order ! I can't

see a thing!"

She stuck out her tongue and licked away the cream. "This

was indeed a dreadful accident," said she. "And the pie is al ruined now anyway, so I may as wel eat it al up at once."

She dug into it with the pie server, and in a few minutes the

whole pie had disappeared. Pippi patted her stomach

contentedly. Mrs. Settergren had gone out into the kitchen

so she knew nothing about the accident to the cream pie,

but the other ladies looked very sternly at Pippi. No doubt

they would have liked a little pie too. Pippi noticed that they

looked disappointed and decided to cheer them up.

"Now you mustn't feel bad about such a little accident," she said comfortingly. "The main thing is that we have our

health. And at a coffee party you should have fun."

She then picked up a sugar bowl and tipped al the lump

sugar in it out on the floor. "Wel , my goodness!" she cried.

"Now look what I've done!

How could I make such a mistake? I thought this was the

granulated sugar. Bad luck seems to fol ow me today."

Thereupon she took a sugar spoon out of another bowl and

began to sprinkle granulated sugar al over the floor. "I hope you notice," she said, "that this is the kind of sugar you sprinkle on things. So it's perfectly al right for me to do this.

Because why should there be the kind of sugar to sprinkle

on things if somebody doesn't go and sprinkle it?that's what

I'd like to know.

"Have you ever noticed what fun it is to walk on a floor that has had sugar sprinkled al over it?" she asked the ladies.

"Of course it's even more fun when you're barefoot," she added as she pul ed off her shoes and stockings. "You

ought to try it too, because nothing's more fun, believe me!"

At that moment Mrs. Settergren came in, and when she

saw the sugar al over the floor she took Pippi firmly by the

arm and led her over to the sofa to Tommy and Annika.

Then she went over to the ladies and invited them to have

more coffee. That the cream pie had disappeared only

made her happy, because she thought the ladies had liked

it so much that they had eaten it al .

Pippi, Tommy, and Annika sat talking quietly on the sofa.

The fire crackled on the hearth. The ladies drank their

coffee, and al was quiet and peaceful again. And as so

often happens at coffee parties, the ladies began to talk

about their servant problems. Apparently they had not been

able to get very good servants, for they were not at al

satisfied with them, and they agreed that it real y was better

not to have any servants at al . It was much more

satisfactory to do things yourself because then you at least

knew that things were done right.

Pippi sat on the sofa listening, and after the ladies had

been talking a while she said, "Once my grandmother had

a servant named Malin. She had chilblains on her feet, but

otherwise there was nothing wrong with her. The only

annoying thing was that as soon as company came she

would rush at them and bite their legs. And bark! Oh, how

she would bark! You could hear it al through the

neighborhood, but it was only because she was playful.

Only, of course, strangers didn't always understand that.

The dean's wife, an elderly woman, came to see

Grandmother once soon after Malin first came, and when

Malin came dashing at her and bit her in the ankle, the

dean's wife screamed so loudly that it scared Malin, so that

her teeth clamped together and she couldn't get them apart.

There she sat, stuck to the dean's wife's ankle until Friday.

And Grandmother had to peel the potatoes herself. But at

least it was wel done. She peeled so wel that when she

was done there were no potatoes leftonly peelings. But

after that Friday the dean's wife never came to cal on

Grandmother again. She just never could take a joke. And

poor Malin who was always so good-natured and happy!

Though for that matter she was a little touchy at times,

there's no denying that. Once when Grandmother poked a

fork in her ear she howled al day."

Pippi looked around and smiled pleasantly. "Yes, that was

Malin for you," she said and twiddled her thumbs.

The ladies acted as if they had heard nothing. They

continued to talk.

"If my Rosa were only clean," said Mrs. Berggren, "then maybe I could keep her. But she's a regular pig"

"Say, you ought to have seen Malin," Pippi interrupted.

"Malin was so outrageously dirty that it was a joy to see her, Grandmother said. For the longest time Grandmother

thought she had a very dark complexion but, honest and

true, it was nothing but dirt that would wash off. And once at

a bazaar at the City Hotel she got first prize for the dirt

under her nails. Mercy me, how dirty that girl was!" said

Pippi happily. Mrs. Settergren looked at her sternly.

"Can you imagine!" said Mrs. Granberg. "The other

evening when Britta was going out she borrowed my blue

satin dress without even asking for it. Isn't that dreadful?"

"Yes, indeed," said Pippi, "she certainly seems to be cut from the same piece of cloth as Malin, from what you say.

Grandmother had a pink undershirt that she was special y

fond of. But the worst of it was that Malin liked it too. And

every morning Grandmother and Malin argued about who

was to wear the undershirt. At last they decided it would be

fair to take turns and each wear it every other day. But

imagine how tricky Malin could be! Sometimes she'd come

running in when it wasn't her turn at al and say, 'No mashed

turnip today if I can't wear the pink woolen undershirt!' Wel ,

what was Grandmother to do? Mashed turnip was her very

favorite dish. There was nothing for it but to give Malin the

shirt. As soon as Malin got the shirt she went out into the

kitchen as nice as could be and began to mash turnip so

that it spattered al over the wal s."

There was silence for a little while, and then Mrs.

Alexandersson said, "I'm not absolutely certain but I strongly suspect that my Hulda steals. In fact I've noticed that things

disappear.".

"Malin," began Pippi, but Mrs. Settergren interrupted her.

"Children," she said decidedly, "go up to the nursery immediately!"

"Yes, but I was only going to tel that Malin stole too," said Pippi. "Like a raven! Everything she could lay her hands on.

She used to get up in the middle of the night and steal;

otherwise she couldn't sleep wel , she said. Once she stole

Grandmother's piano and tucked it into her own top bureau

drawer. She was very clever with her hands, Grandmother

said."

Tommy and Annika took hold of Pippi and pul ed her out of

the room and up the stairs. The ladies began on their third

cups of coffee, and

Mrs. Settergren said, "It's not that I want to complain about my El a, but she does break the china."

A red head appeared over the stair rail.

"Speaking of Malin," said Pippi, "maybe you are wondering if she used to break any china. Wel , she did. She set apart

one day a week just to break china. It was Tuesday,

Grandmother said. As early as five o'clock on Tuesday

morning you could hear this jewel of a maid in the kitchen,

breaking china. She began with the coffee cups and

glasses and little things like that and then went on to the

soup bowls and dinner plates, and she finished up with

platters and soup tureens. There was such a crash bang in

the kitchen al morning that it was a joy to hear it;

Grandmother said. And if Malin had any spare time late in

the afternoon, she would go into the drawing room with a

little hammer and knock down the antique East Indian

plates that were hanging on the wal s. Grandmother bought

new china every Wednesday," said Pippi and disappeared

up the stairs as quickly as a jack-in-the-box.

But now Mrs. Settergen's patience had come to an end.

She ran up the stairs, into the nursery, and up to Pippi, who

had just begun to teach Tommy to stand on his head.

"You must never come here again," said Mrs. Settergren,

"if you can't behave any better than this."

Pippi looked at her in astonishment and her eyes slowly

fil ed with tears. "That's just what I was afraid of," she said.

"That I couldn't behave properly. It's no use to try; I'l never learn. I should have stayed on the ocean."

She curtsied to Mrs. Settergren, said good-by to Tommy

and Annika, and went slowly down the stairs.

The ladies were now getting ready to go home too. Pippi

sat down in the hal near the shelf where rubbers were kept

and watched the ladies putting on their hats and coats.

"Too bad you don't like your maids," said she. "You should have one like Malin. Grandmother always said there was

nobody like her. Imagine! One Christmas when Malin was

going to serve a little roast pig, do you know what she did?

She had read in the cookbook that roast pig must be

served with fril ed paper in the ears and an apple in the

mouth. But poor Malin didn't understand that it was the pig

who was supposed to have the apple. You should have

seen her when she came in on Christmas Eve with her best

apron on and a big Gravenstein apple in her mouth. 'Oh,

Malin, you're crazy!' Grandmother said to her, and Malin

couldn't say a word in her own defense, she could only

wiggle her ears until the fril ed paper rustled. To be sure,

she tried to say something, but it just sounded like blubb,

blubb, blubb. And of course she couldn't bite people in the

leg as she usual y did, and it would be a day when there

was a lot of company. Poor little Malin, it wasn't a very

happy Christmas Eve for her," said Pippi sadly.

The ladies were now dressed and said a last good-by to

Mrs. Settergren. And Pippi ran up to her and whispered,

"Forgive me because I couldn't behave myself. Good-by!"

Then she put on her large hat and fol owed the ladies.

Outside the gate their ways parted. Pippi went toward Vil a

Vil ekul a and the ladies in the other direction.

When they had gone a little way they heard someone

panting behind them. It was Pippi who had come racing

back.

"You can imagine that Grandmother mourned when she lost

Malin. Just think, one Tuesday morning when Malin had had

time to break only about a dozen teacups she ran away and

went to sea. And Grandmother had to break the china

herself that day. She wasn't used to it, poor thing, and she

got blisters al over her hands. She never saw Malin again.

And that was a shame because she was such an excel ent

maid, Grandmother said."

Pippi left, and the ladies hurried on, but when they had

gone a couple of hundred feet, they heard Pippi, from far

off, yel ing at the top of her lungs, "she never swept under

the beds !"

10 Pippi Acts as a Lifesav er

One Sunday afternoon Pippi sat wondering what to do.

Tommy and Annika had gone to a tea party with their

mother and father, so she knew she couldn't expect a visit

from them.

The day had been fil ed with pleasant tasks. She had got up

early and served Mr. Nilsson fruit juice and buns in bed. He

looked so cute sitting there in his light blue nightshirt,

holding the glass in both hands. Then she had fed and

groomed the horse and told him a long story of her

adventures at sea. Next she had gone into the parlor and

painted a large picture on the wal paper. The picture

represented a fat lady in a red dress and a black hat. In one

hand she held a yel ow flower and in the other a dead rat.

Pippi thought it a very beautiful picture; it dressed up the

whole room. Then she had sat down in front of her chest

and looked at al her birds' eggs and shel s, and thought

about the wonderful places where she and her father had

col ected them, and about al the pleasant little shops al

over the world where they had bought the beautiful things

that were now in the drawers of her chest. Then she had

tried to teach Mr. Nilsson to dance the schottische, but he

didn't want to learn. For a while she had thought of trying to

teach the horse, but instead she had crept down into the

woodbox and pul ed the cover down. She had pretended

she was a sardine in a sardine box, and it was a shame

Tommy and Annika weren't there so they could have been

sardines too.

sardines too.

Now it had begun to grow dark. She pressed her little pug

nose against the windowpane and looked out into the

autumn dusk. She remembered that she hadn't been riding

for a couple of days and decided to go at once. That would

be a nice ending to a pleasant Sunday.

Accordingly she put on her big hat, fetched Mr. Nilsson from

a corner where he sat playing marbles, saddled the horse,

and lifted him down from the porch. And off they went, Mr.

Nilsson on Pippi and Pippi on the horse.

It was quite cold and the roads were frozen, so there was a

good crunchy sound as they rode along. Mr. Nilsson sat on

Pippi's shoulder and tried to catch hold of some of the

branches of the trees as they went by, but Pippi rode so

fast that it was no use. Instead, the branches kept boxing

him in the ears, and he had a hard time keeping his straw

hat on his head.

Pippi rode through the little town, and people pressed

anxiously up against the wal s when she came storming by.

The town had a market square, of course. There were

several charming old one-story buildings and a little yel ow-

painted town hal . And there was also an ugly wretch of a

building, newly built and three stories high. It was cal ed

"The Skyscraper" because it was tal er than any of the other houses in town.

On a Sunday afternoon the little town was always quiet and

peaceful, but suddenly the quiet was broken by loud cries.

"The Skyscraper's burning! Fire! Fire!"

People came running excitedly from al directions. The fire

engine came clanging down the street, and the little

children who usual y thought fire engines were such fun now

cried from fright because they were sure their own houses

would catch fire too. The police had to hold back the

crowds of people gathering in the square so that the fire

engine could get through. The flames came leaping out of

the windows of the Skyscraper, and smoke and sparks

enveloped the firemen who were courageously trying to put

out the fire. The fire had started on the first floor but was

quickly spreading to the upper stories.

Suddenly the crowd saw a sight that made them gasp with

horror. At the top of the house was a gable, and in the

gable window, which a little child's hand had just opened,

stood two little boys cal ing for help. "We can't get out

because somebody has built a fire on the stairs," cried the

older boy.

He was five and his brother a year younger. Their mother

had gone out on an errand, and there they stood, al alone.

Many of the people in the square began to cry, and the fire

chief looked worried. There was, of course, a ladder on the

fire truck, but it wouldn't reach anywhere near to the little

boys. To get into the house to save the children was

impossible. A wave of despair swept over the crowd in the

square when they realized there was no way to help the

children. And the poor little things just stood up there and

cried. It wouldn't be long now before the fire reached the

attic.

In the midst of the crowd in the square sat Pippi on her

horse. She looked with great interest at the fire engine and

wondered if she should buy one like it. She liked it because

it was red and because it made such a fearful noise as it

went through the streets. Then she looked at the fire and

she thought it was fun when a few sparks fel on her.

Presently she noticed the little boys up in the attic. To her

astonishment they looked as if they weren't enjoying the fire

at al . That was more than she could understand, and at last

she had to ask the crowd around her, "Why are the children

crying?"

First she got only sobs in answer, but final y a stout

gentleman said, "Wel , what do you think? Don't you

suppose you'd cry yourself if you were up there and couldn't

get down?"

"I never cry," said Pippi. "But if they want to get down, why doesn't somebody help them?"

"Because it isn't possible, of course," said the stout

gentleman.

Pippi thought for a while. Then she asked, "Can anybody

bring me a long rope?"

"What good would that do?" asked the stout gentleman.

"The children are too smal to get down the rope, and, for

that matter, how would you ever get the rope up to them?"

"Oh, I've been around a bit," said Pippi calmly. "I want a rope."

There was not a single person who thought it would do any

good, but somehow or other Pippi got her rope.

Not far from the gable of the Skyscraper grew a tal tree.

The top of it was almost level with the attic window, but

between the tree and the window was a distance of almost

three yards. And the trunk of the tree was smooth and had

no branches for climbing on. Even Pippi wouldn't be able to

climb it.

The fire burned. The children in the window screamed. The

people in the square cried.

Pippi jumped off the horse and went up to the tree. Then

she took the rope and tied it tightly to Mr. Nilsson's tail.

"Now you be Pippi's good boy," she said. She put him on

the tree trunk and gave him a little push. He understood

perfectly what he was supposed to do. And he climbed

obediently up the tree trunk. Of course it was no trouble at

al for a little monkey to do that.

The people in the square held their breath and watched Mr.

Nilsson. Soon he had reached the top of the tree. There he

sat on a branch and looked down at Pippi. She beckoned

to him to come down again. He did so at once, climbing

down on the other side of the branch, so that when he

reached the ground the rope was looped over the branch

and hung down double with both ends on the ground.

"Good for you, Mr. Nilsson," said Pippi. "You're so smart you can be a professor any time you wish." She untied the

knot that had fastened the rope to Mr. Nilsson's tail.

Nearby, a house was being repaired, and Pippi ran over

and got a long board. She took the board in one hand, ran

to the tree, grasped the rope in her free hand, and braced

her feet against the trunk of the tree. Quickly and nimbly she

climbed up the trunk, and the people stopped crying in

astonishment. When she reached the top of the tree she

placed the board over a stout branch and then careful y

pushed it over to the window sil . And there lay the board

like a bridge between the top of the tree and the window.

The people down in the square stood absolutely silent.

They were so tense they couldn't say a word. Pippi stepped

out on the board. She smiled pleasantly at the two boys in

the gabled window. "Why do you look so sad?" she asked.

"Have you got a stomach-ache?"

She ran across the board and hopped in at the window.

"My, it seems warm in here," she said. "You don't need to make any more fire in here today, that I can guarantee. And

at the most four sticks in the stove tomorrow, I should think."

Then she took one boy under each arm and stepped out on

the board again.

"Now you're real y going to have some fun," she said. "It's almost like walking the tight rope."

When she got to the middle of the board she lifted one leg

in the air just as she had done at the circus. The crowd

below gasped, and when a little later Pippi lost one of her

shoes several old ladies fainted. However, Pippi reached

the tree safely with the little boys. Then the crowd cheered

so loudly that the dark night was fil ed with noise and the

sound drowned out the crackling of the fire.

Pippi hauled up the rope, fastened one end securely to a

branch and tied the other around one of the boys. Then she

let him down slowly and careful y into the arms of his waiting

mother, who was beside herself with joy when she had him

safe. She held him close and hugged him, with tears in her

eyes.

But Pippi yel ed, "Untie the rope, for goodness' sake!

There's another kid up here, and he can't fly either."

So the people helped to untie the rope and free the little

boy. Pippi could tie good knots, she could indeed. She had

learned that at sea. She pul ed up the rope again, and now

it was the second boy's turn to be let down.

Pippi was alone in the tree. She sprang out on the board,

and al the people looked at her and wondered what she

was going to do. She danced back and forth on the narrow

board. She raised and lowered her arms graceful y and

sang in a hoarse voice that could barely be heard down in

the square:

The fire is burning,

It's burning so bright,

The flames are leaping and prancing.

It's burning for you,

It's burning for me,

It's burning for all who are dancing!

As she sang she danced more and more wildly until many

people covered their eyes in horror for they were sure she

would fal down and kil herself. Flames came leaping out of

the gable window, and in the firelight people could see

Pippi plainly. She raised her arms to the night sky, and

while a shower of sparks fel over her she cried loudly,

"Such a jol y, jol y fire!"

She took one leap and caught the rope. "Look out!" she

cried and same sliding down the rope like greased

lightning.

"Three cheers for Pippi Longstocking! Long may she live!"

cried the fire chief.

"Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray! Hip, hip, hurray!" cried al the peoplethree times. But there was one person there who

cheered four times. It was Pippi Longstocking.

11 Pippi Celebrates Her Birthday

One day Tommy and Annika found a letter in their mailbox.

It was addressed to TMMY and ANIKA, and when they

opened it they found a card which read:

TMMY AND ANIKA ARE INVITED TO PIPPI's

TOMORO TO HER BERTHDAY PARTY.

DRES: WARE WATEVER YOU LIK.

Tommy and Annika were so happy they began to skip and

dance. They understood perfectly wel what was printed on

the card although the spel ing was a little unusual. Pippi had

had a great deal of trouble writing it. To be sure, she had

not recognized the letter i in school the day she was there,

but al the same she could write a little. When she was

sailing on the ocean one of the sailors on her father's ship

used to take her up on deck in the evening now and then

and try to teach her to write. Unfortunately Pippi was not a

very patient pupil. Al of a sudden she would say, "No,

Fridolf"that was his name "no, Fridolf, bother al this learning! I can't study any more now because I must climb

the mast to see what kind of weather we're going to have

tomorrow."

So it was no wonder the writing didn't go so wel now. One

whole night she sat struggling with that invitation, and at

dawn, just as the stars were paling in the sky over Vil a

Vil ekul a, she tiptoed over to Tommy's and Annika's house

and dropped the letter into their mailbox.

As soon as Tommy and Annika came home from school

they began to get al dressed up for the party. Annika asked

her mother to curl her hair, and her mother did, and tied it

with a big pink satin bow. Tommy combed his hair with

water so that it would lie al nice and smooth. He certainly

didn't want any curls. Then Annika wanted to put on her very

best dress, but her mother thought she'd better not for she

was seldom neat and clean when she came home from

Pippi's; so Annika had to be satisfied with her next best

dress. Tommy didn't care what suit he wore so long as he

looked nice.

Of course they had bought a present for Pippi. They had

taken the money out of their own piggy banks, and on the

way home from school had run into the toy shop on Main

Street and bought a very beautifulwel , what they had

bought was a secret for the time being. There it lay,

wrapped in green paper and tied with a great deal of string,

and when they were ready Tommy took the package, and

off they went, fol owed by their mother's warning to take

good care of their clothes. Annika was to carry the package

part of the way, and they were both to hold it when they

handed it to Pippithat they had agreed upon.

It was already November, and dusk came early. When

Tommy and Annika went in through the gate of Vil a

Vil ekul a they held each other's hands tightly, because it

was quite dark in Pippi's garden and the wind sighed

mournful y through the bare old trees. "Seems like fal ," said Tommy. It was so much pleasanter to see the lighted

windows in Vil a Vil ekul a and to know that they were going

to a birthday party.

Ordinarily Tommy and Annika rushed in through the kitchen

door, but this time they went to the front door. The horse

was not on the porch. Tommy gave a lively knock on the

door. From inside came a low voice:

Who comes in the dark night

On the road to my house?

Is it a ghost or just

A poor little mouse?

"No, no, Pippi, it's us," shrieked Annika. "Open the door!"

Pippi opened the door.

"Oh, Pippi, why did you say that about a ghost? I was so

scared," said Annika and completely forgot to congratulate

Pippi.

Pippi laughed heartily and opened the door to the kitchen.

How good it was to come in where it was light and warm!

The birthday party was to be in the kitchen, because that

was the pleasantest room in the house. There were only

two other rooms on the first floor, the parlorin which there

was only one piece of furnitureand Pippi's bedroom. The

kitchen was large and roomy, and Pippi had scrubbed it

until it shone. She had put rugs on the floor and a large new

cloth on the table. She had embroidered the cloth herself

with flowers that certainly looked most remarkable, but

Pippi declared that such flowers grew in Farthest India, so

of course that made them al right. The curtains were drawn

and the fire burned merrily. On the woodbox sat Mr.

Nilsson, banging pot lids together. In a corner stood the

horse, for he too had been invited to the party.

Now at last Tommy and Annika remembered that they were

supposed to congratulate Pippi. Tommy bowed and Annika

curtsied, and then they handed Pippi the green package

and said, "May we congratulate you and wish you a happy

birthday?" Pippi thanked them and eagerly tore the

package open. And there was a music box! Pippi was wild

with delight. She patted Tommy and she patted Annika and

she patted the music box and she patted the wrapping

paper. She wound up the music box, and with much

plinking and plonking out came a melody that was probably

supposed to be "Ack, du käre Augustin."

Pippi wound and wound and seemed to forget everything

else. But suddenly she remembered something. "Oh, my

goodness, you must have your birthday presents tool" she

said.

"But it isn't our birthday," said Tommy and Annika.

Pippi stared at them in amazement. "No, but it's my

birthday, isn't it? And so I can give birthday presents too,

can't I? Or does it say in your schoolbooks that such a thing

can't be done? Is it something to do with that old

pluttifikation that makes it impossible?"

"Oh, of course it's possible," said Tommy. "It just isn't customary. But for my part, I'd be very glad to have a

present."

"Me too," said Annika.

Pippi ran into the parlor and brought back two packages

from the chest. When Tommy opened his he found a little

ivory flute, and in Annika's package was a lovely brooch

shaped like a butterfly. The wings of the butterfly were set

with blue and red and green stones.

When they had al had their birthday presents it was time to

sit down at the table, where there were al sorts of cakes

and buns. The cakes were rather peculiar in shape, but

Pippi declared they were just the kind of cakes they had in

China.

Pippi served hot chocolate with whipped cream, and the

children were just about to begin their feast when Tommy

said, "When Mamma and Papa have a party the gentlemen

always get cards tel ing them what ladies to take in to

dinner. I think we ought to have cards too."

"Okay," said Pippi.

"Although it wil be kind of hard for us because I'm the only gentleman here," added Tommy doubtful y.

"Fiddlesticks," said Pippi. "Do you think Mr. Nilsson is a lady, maybe?"

"Oh, of course not, I forgot Mr. Nilsson," said Tommy, and he sat down on the woodbox and wrote on a card:

Mr. Settergren will have the pleasure of

taking Miss Longstocking in to dinner.

"Mr. Settergren, that's me," said he with satisfaction and showed Pippi the card. Then he wrote on the next card:

Mr. Nilsson will have the pleasure of taking

Miss Settergren in to dinner.

"Okay, but the horse must have a card too," said Pippi

decidedly, "even if he can't sit at the table."

So Tommy, at Pippi's dictation, wrote:

The horse will have the pleasure of

remaining in the corner where he will be

served cakes and sugar.

Pippi held the card under the horse's nose and said, "Read

this and see what you think of it."

As the horse had no objection to make, Tommy offered

Pippi his arm, and they walked to the table. Mr. Nilsson

showed no intention of offering his arm to Annika, so she

took a firm hold of him and lifted him up to the table. But he

didn't want to sit on a chair; he insisted on sitting right on

the table. Nor did he want any chocolate with whipped

cream, but when Pippi poured water in his cup he took it in

both his hands and drank.

Annika and Tommy and Pippi ate and ate, and Annika said

that if these cakes were the kind they had in China, then

she intended to move to China when she grew up.

When Mr. Nilsson had emptied his cup he turned it upside

down and put it on his head. When Pippi saw that, she did

the same, but as she had not drunk quite al her chocolate a

little stream ran down her forehead and over her nose. She

caught it with her tongue and lapped it al up.

"Waste not, want not," she said.

Tommy and Annika licked their cups clean before they put

them on their heads.

When everybody had had enough and the horse had had

his share, Pippi took hold of al four corners of the

tablecloth and lifted it up so that the cups and plates

tumbled over each other as if they were in a sack. Then she

stuffed the whole bundle in the woodbox.

"I always like to tidy up a little as soon as I have eaten," she said.

Then it was time for games. Pippi suggested that they play

a game cal ed "Don't touch the floor." It was very simple.

The only thing one had to do was walk al around the

kitchen without once stepping on the floor. Pippi skipped

around in the twinkling of an eye, and even for Tommy and

Annika it was quite easy. You began on the drainboard,

and if you stretched your legs enough it was possible to

step onto the back of the stove. From the stove to the

woodbox, and from the woodbox to the hat shelf, and down

onto the table, and from there across two chairs to the

corner cupboard. Between the corner cupboard and the

drainboard was a distance of several feet, but, luckily, there

stood the horse, and if you climbed up on him at the tail end

and slid off at the head end, making a quick turn at exactly

the right moment, you landed exactly on the drain-board.

When they had played this game for a while, and Annika's

dress was no longer her next-best dress but her next-next-

next-best one, and Tommy had become as black as a

chimney sweep, then they decided to think up something

else.

"Suppose we go up in the attic and visit the ghosts,"

suggested Pippi.

Annika gasped. "A-a-are there real y ghosts in the attic?"

she asked.

"Are there ghosts? Mil ions!" said Pippi. "It's just swarming with al sorts of ghosts and spirits. You trip over them

wherever you walk. Shal we go up?"

"Oh, Pippi!" said Annika and looked reproachful y at her.

"Mamma says there aren't any such things as ghosts and

goblins," said Tommy boldly.

"And wel she might," said Pippi, "because there aren't any anywhere else. Al the ghosts in the world live in my attic.

And it doesn't pay to try to make them move. But they aren't

dangerous. They just pinch you in the arm so you get black

and blue, and they howl, and they play ninepins with their

heads."

"Dododo they real y play n-n-ninepins with their heads?"

"Sure, that's just what they do," said Pippi. "Come on, let's go up and talk with them. I'm good at playing n-n-ninepins."

Tommy didn't want to show that he was frightened, and in a

way he real y did want to see a ghost. That would be

something to tel the boys at school! Besides, he consoled

himself with the thought that the ghosts probably wouldn't

dare to hurt Pippi. He decided to go along. Poor Annika

didn't want to go under any circumstances, but then she

happened to think that a little tiny ghost might sneak

downstairs while she was sitting alone in the kitchen. That

decided the matter. Better to be with Pippi and Tommy

among thousands of ghosts than alone in the kitchen with

even the tiniest little ghost child.

Pippi went first. ,She opened the door to the attic stairs. It

was pitch-dark there. Tommy took a firm grip on Pippi, and

Annika took an even firmer grip on Tommy, and so they

went up. The stairs creaked and squeaked with every step.

Tommy began to wonder if it wouldn't have been better to

stay down in the kitchen, and Annika didn't need to

wondershe was sure of it. At last they came to the top of the

stairs and stood in the attic. It was pitch-dark there too,

except where a little moonbeam shone on the floor. There

were sighs and mysterious noises in every corner when the

wind blew in through the cracks.

"Hi, al you ghosts!" shrieked Pippi.

But if there was any ghost there he certainly didn't answer.

"Wel , I might have known," said Pippi, "they've gone to a council meeting of the Ghost and Goblin Society."

Annika sighed with relief and hoped that the meeting would

last a long time. But just then an awful sound came from

one of the corners of the attic.

"Whoo-ooo-ooo!" it said, and a moment later Tommy saw

something come rushing toward him in the dimness. He felt

it brush his forehead and saw something disappear through

a little window that stood open.

He shrieked to high heaven, "A ghost! A ghost!"

And Annika shrieked with him.

"That poor thing wil be late for the meeting," said Pippi. "If it was a ghost. And not an owl. For that matter, there aren't

any ghosts," she continued after a while. "If anybody insists that there are ghosts, I'l tweak him in the nose."

"Yes, but you said so yourself," said Annika.

"Is that so? Did I?" said Pippi. "Wel , then I'l certainly tweak my own nose."

And she took a firm grip on her nose and tweaked it.

After that Tommy and Annika felt a little calmer. In fact they

were now so courageous that they ventured to go up to the

window and look out over the garden. Big dark clouds

sailed through the sky and did their best to hide the moon.

And the wind sighed in the trees.

Tommy and Annika turned around. But thenoh, horrorsthey

saw a white figure coming toward them.

"A ghost!" shrieked Tommy wildly.

Annika was so scared she couldn't even shriek. The ghost

came nearer and nearer. Tommy and Annika hugged each

other and shut their eyes.

But then they heard the ghost say, "Look what I found!

Papa's nightshirt in an old sea chest over here. If I hem it up

around the bottom I can wear it."

Pippi came up to them with the nightshirt dangling around

her legs.

"Oh, Pippi, I could have died of fright," said Annika.

"But nightshirts aren't dangerous," Pippi assured her. "They don't bite anybody except in self-defense."

Pippi now decided to examine the sea chest thoroughly.

She lifted it up and carried it over to the window and

opened the cover, so that what little moonlight there was fel

on the contents of the chest. There were a great many old

clothes, which she threw out on the attic floor. There were a

telescope, a few books, three pistols, a sword, and a bag

of gold pieces.

"Tiddelipom and piddeliday," said Pippi contentedly.

"It's so exciting!" said Tommy.

Pippi gathered everything in the nightshirt, and down they

went into the kitchen again. Annika was perfectly satisfied

to leave the attic.

"Never let children handle firearms," said Pippi and took a pistol in each hand and prepared to fire. "Otherwise some

accident can easily happen," she said, shooting off both

pistols at once. "That was a good bang," she announced

and looked up in the ceiling. The bul ets had made two

holes.

"Who knows?" she said hopeful y. "Perhaps the bul ets have gone right through the ceiling and hit some ghosts in

the legs. That wil teach them to think twice before they set

out to scare any innocent little children again. Because

even if there aren't any ghosts, they don't need to go round

scaring folks out of their wits, I should think. Would you each

like a pistol?" she asked.

Tommy was enchanted, and Annika also very much wanted

a pistol, provided it wasn't loaded.

"Now we can organize a robber band if we want to," said

Pippi. She held the telescope up to her eyes. "With this I

can almost see the fleas in South America, I think," she

continued. "And it'l be good to have if we do organize a

robber band."

Just then there was a knock at the door. It was Tommy's

and Annika's father, who had come to take them home. It

was long past their bedtime, he said. Tommy and Annika

hurried to say thank you, bid Pippi good-by, and col ect al

their belongings, the flute, the brooch, and the pistols.

Pippi fol owed her guests out to the porch and watched

them disappear through the garden. They turned around to

wave. The light from inside shone on her. There she stood

with her stiff red braids, dressed in her father's nightshirt

which bil owed around her feet. In one hand she held a

pistol and in the other the sword. She saluted with it.

When Tommy and Annika and their father reached the gate

they heard her cal ing. They stopped to listen. The wind

whistled through the trees so they could just barely hear

what she said.

"I'm going to be a pirate when I grow up," she cried. "Are you?"

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Astrid Lindgren (1907-2002) was born in Sweden. After

col ege, she worked in a newspaper office and a Swedish

publishing house. Pippi Longstocking was original y

published in Swedish in 1950, and was later translated into

many other languages. It was fol owed by two sequels,

Pippi Goes on Board (1957) and Pippi in the South Seas

(1959). Astrid Lindgren was the first children's book writer

to win the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (1978).

She also won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal (1958),

the highest international award in children's literature. She

has two children.