Pippi in the South Seas Page 5

Captain Longstocking bought snuff.

  A fine, newly built little hut under a cocoanut

  tree was ready for Pippi. There was plenty of room

  for Tommy and Annika too. But before they could go

  into the hut to wash up, Captain Longstocking wanted

  to show them something. He took Pippi by the arm and led

  her back down to the beach.

  "Here," he said, pointing with a thick forefinger. This was

  the place where I floated ashore the time I was

  blown into the sea."

  The Kurrekurredutts had put up a monument

  to commemorate the strange event. The stone bore an

  inscription which read, in Kurrekurredutt words:

  Over the great wide sea came our fat white

  chief. This is the place where he floated ashore

  at the time when the breadfruit trees were in bloom.

  May he remain just as fat and magnificent as when

  he came.

  In a voice trembling with emotion Captain

  Long-stocking read the inscription'out loud for

  Pippi and Tommy and Annika. Then he blew his

  nose with gusto.

  When the sun had begun to go down and was

  ready to disappear in the endless embrace of the South

  Seas, the drums of the Kurrekurredutts summoned

  everyone to the royal square, which was situated

  in the middle of the village. There stood King

  Efraim's fine throne of bamboo, bedecked with red

  hibiscus flowers. He sat on it when he ruled.

  For Pippi the Kurrekurredutts had made a

  smaller throne which stood next to her father's. In a

  great hurry they had also put together two little bamboo

  chairs for Tommy and Annika.

  The roar of the drums grew louder and louder as King

  Efraim mounted his throne with great dignity. He had

  taken off his corduroy suit and was dressed in

  royal regalia, with a crown on his head, a straw

  skirt around his waist, a necklace of shark's

  teeth around his neck, and heavy bracelets around his

  ankles. With great majesty, Pippi took her

  place on her throne. She was still wearing the same

  loincloth around her middle, but she had stuck some red

  and white flowers in her hair to be a bit more

  festive. Annika had done the same. But not

  Tommy. Nothing could make Tommy stick flowers

  in his hair.

  King Efraim had been away from his ruling duties

  for quite a while, and now he started to rule with all his

  might. In the meantime the little Kurre-kurredutt children

  came closer and closer to Pippi's throne. They were

  filled with awe to think that she

  was a princess. When they reached the throne they all

  threw themselves down on their knees before her, touching the

  ground with their foreheads.

  Pippi quickly hopped down from her throne. "What's

  all this?" she asked. "Do you play

  hunting-for-treasure" down here too? Wait and

  let me play with you." She got down on her

  knees and started to nose around on the ground. "There

  seem to have been other treasure hunters here before us,"

  she said after a while. "There isn't as much as a pin

  here, that's for sure."

  She got back up on her throne. Hardly had she

  sat down when all the children bowed their heads to the ground

  again.

  "Have you lost something?" said Pippi. "In any

  case it isn't there, so you might as well get

  up."

  Luckily Captain Longstocking had been on the

  island long enough for the Kurrekurredutts to learn some of

  his language. Naturally they didn't know the meaning

  of such difficult words as "postal money order" and

  "brigadier general," but they had picked up a lot

  just the same. Even the children knew the most common

  expressions, such as "leave that alone" and similar

  ones. A little boy by the name of Momo could

  speak the Captain's language quite well, because he

  used to spend a good deal of time at the huts of the

  crew, listening to the men

  talking. A pretty little girl named Moana was also

  able to understand the language quite well.

  Now Momo was trying to explain to Pippi why they were

  on their knees in front of her.

  "You be very fine princess," he said.

  "I no be very fine princess," said Pippi in

  broken Kurrekurredutt. "I be really only

  Pippi Longstocking, and now I'm through with this throne

  business."

  She hopped down off her throne. And King Efraim

  hopped down off his, because now he was finished with

  ruling for the day.

  The sun sank like a red ball of fire in the South

  Seas and soon the sky was bright with stars. The

  Kurrekurredutts lighted a huge fire in the

  royal square, and King Efraim and Pippi and

  Tommy and Annika and the crew from the

  Hoptoad

  sat down in the grass and watched the

  Kurrekurredutts dance around the fire. The muffled

  rumble of the drums, the exciting dance, the strange

  perfumes from thousands of exotic flowers in the

  jungle, the glimmering stars above their heads-everything

  made Tommy and Annika feel very strange. The

  waves of the sea were ceaselessly pounding in the

  background.

  "I think that this is a very fine island," said Tommy

  afterward, when he and Pippi and Annika

  had crawled into their beds in their cozy little hut under the

  cocoanut tree.

  "I think so too," said Annika. "Don't you,

  Pippi?" Pippi was lying there quietly with her

  feet on her pillow as was her habit.

  "M-m-m," she said dreamily. "Just listen to the

  roar of the waves. Remember, I said, "Maybe

  I'll like it so much on Kurrekurredutt Island that

  I'll feel like staying there forever"?"

  would have been much nicer to have really dark skin because white

  sand on a dark background looked so funny. But

  when Pippi had dug herself down in the sand up to her

  neck, so that only a freckled face and two red

  pigtails stuck out, that looked quite funny too.

  All the children settled themselves down in a circle

  to talk to her.

  Tell us about the children in the northern land you come from,"

  said Momo to the freckled face.

  They love pluttification" said Pippi.

  "It's called

  multiplication,"

  said Annika. "And besides," she said, somewhat miffed,

  "no one can say that we

  love

  it."

  "Northern children love pluttification," Pippi

  insisted stubbornly. "Northern children become

  frantic if northern children don't every day get a

  large dose of pluttification."

  She didn't have the strength to continue in broken

  Kurrekurredutt, but switched over to her own

  language.

  "If

  you hear a northern child cry, you can be sure that the

  school has burned down or that a school holiday

  has been declared or that the teacher has forgotten

  to give the children homework in pluttification. And

  let's not even talk abou
t the summer vacation. That

  brings on such tears and wailing that you wish you were dead

  when you hear it. No one

  is dry-eyed when the school gate slams shut for the

  summer. All the children slowly head for home, singing

  sad songs, and they can't keep themselves from

  sobbing when they think that it will be several months before they

  can get any pluttification to do again. Yes, it's a

  misery, the like of which you can't imagine," said Pippi

  and sighed deeply.

  "Bah!" said Tommy and Annika.

  Momo didn't quite understand what pluttification was and

  wanted to have a more detailed explanation. Tommy was

  just about to explain it, but Pippi got in ahead of

  him.

  "Yes, you see, it's like this-seven times seven

  equals a hundred and two. Fun, eh?"

  "It most certainly is

  not

  one hundred and two," said Annika.

  "No, because seven times seven is forty-nine," said

  Tommy.

  "Remember that we're on Kurrekurredutt

  Island now," said Pippi. "Here we have an

  entirely different and much more flourishing climate, so

  seven times seven gets to be much more here."

  "Bah I" said Tommy and Annika again.

  The arithmetic lesson was interrupted by Captain

  Longstocking, who came to announce that he and the whole

  crew and all the Kurrekurredutts were going off

  to another island for a couple of days to

  Pippi Talks Sense to a Shark

  81 hunt wild boar. Captain Longstocking was in

  the mood for some fresh boar steak. The

  Kurrekurredutt women were also to go along, to scare

  out the boar with wild cries. That meant that the children would

  be staying behind alone on the island.

  "I hope you won't be sad because of this?" said

  Captain Longstocking.

  "I'll give you three guesses," said Pippi.

  "The day I hear that some children are sad because they have

  to take care of themselves without grownups, that day I'll

  learn the whole pluttification table backward,

  I'll swear to that."

  "That's my girl," said Captain Longstocking.

  Then he and all his grown-up subjects armed with

  shields and arrows got into their big canoes and

  paddled away from Kurrekurredutt Island.

  Pippi rounded her hands into a megaphone and shouted

  after them, "May peace be with you! But if you aren't

  back by my fiftieth birthday I'll send out an

  S.o.s. over the radio!"

  When they were alone Pippi and Tommy and Annika

  and Momo and Moana and all the other children looked

  happily at one another. They were going to have a whole

  wonderful South Sea island all to themselves for

  several days.

  "What are we going to do?" said Tommy and

  Annika.

  Pippi in the South Seas

  "First well get our breakfast down from the trees,"

  said Pippi. Like a flash she was in a cocoanut

  tree, shaking cocoanuts down. Momo and the other

  Kurrekurredutt children gathered breadfruit and

  bananas. Pippi made a fire on the beach and

  over it she roasted the wonderful breadfruit. All

  the children settled around in a circle and had a

  substantial breakfast consisting of roasted

  breadfruit, cocoanut milk, and bananas.

  There were no horses on Kurrekurredutt Island,

  so all the native children were very much interested in

  Pippi's horse. Those who dared went for a ride

  on him. Moana said that one day she would like to go to the

  northern land where there were such strange animals.

  Mr. Nilsson wasn't anywhere in evidence. He

  had gone off on an excursion to the jungle, where he

  had met some relatives.

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

  Annika when riding on the horse was no longer any

  fun.

  "Northern children want to see fine

  caves-yes? comno?" wondered Momo.

  "Northern children most certainly want to see fine

  caves-yes, yes," said Pippi.

  Kurrekurredutt Island was a coral island. On

  the south side the high coral cliffs plunged

  straight into

  the sea, and there were the most wonderful caves which had

  been dug out by the waves. Some were down at the water

  line and filled with water, but there were others higher up

  in the cliffs and there the Kurrekurredutt children were

  accustomed to play. In the largest cave they kept a

  big supply of cocoanuts and other delicacies.

  To get there was quite an undertaking. First they had to climb

  carefully down the steep side of the cliff and hang

  on to the rocks which jutted out. Otherwise they could

  easily have plunged down into the sea. Any place

  else on the island that wouldn't have mattered. But at this

  particular spot there were plenty of sharks who liked

  to eat little children. In spite of this danger, the

  Kurrekurredutt children had fun diving for oysters, but

  then someone always had to stand guard and shout "Shark!

  Shark!" as soon as they spotted a fin in the distance.

  In the big cave the Kurrekurredutt children also

  kept a supply of shimmering pearls which they

  had found in the oysters. They used them to play marbles

  withand they had no idea that they would be worth any amount

  of money in Europe or America. Captain

  Longstocking used to take along a few pearls now

  and then when he went off to buy snuff. He would

  trade the pearls for things he thought his subjects

  needed, but on the whole he felt that the

  Pippi in the South Seas

  Kurrekurredutts were well off as they were. And

  thechildren gaily continued to play marbles with thepearls., ,

  Annika was horror-stricken when Tommy said to her

  that she would have to climb along the cliff to the big

  cave. The first part wasn't so bad. There was quite a

  broad ledge to walk on, but it gradually got

  narrower and the last few feet to the cave you had

  to scramble and climb and hang on as best you could.

  "Never!" said Annika. "Never."

  To climb along a cliff where there was hardly anything

  to hold on to, and below, a sea filled with sharks

  waiting for you to fall down! That wasn't Annika's

  idea of fun.

  Tommy was annoyed. "No one should bring sisters

  along to the South Seas," he said as he scrambled

  along the cliff wall. "Look at me!

  You only have to go like this-was

  There was a loud

  plop,

  as Tommy fell into the water. Annika screamed.

  Even the Kurrekurredutt children were terrified.

  "Shark! Shark!" they cried and pointed out toward the

  sea. There a fin was clearly visible above the

  surface, heading rapidly in the direction of

  Tommy.

  There was another

  ptop.

  That was Pippi jumping in. She reached Tommy about

  the same time as the shark did. Terrified, Tommy

  was screaming at

  the top of his lungs. He felt the shark's sharp


  teeth scrape against his leg. But just at that instant

  Pippi grabbed the bloodthirsty beast with both hands

  and lifted him out of the water.

  "Don't you have any shame in you?" she asked. The

  shark looked around, surprised and ill at ease.

  He wasn't able to breathe above the surface.

  "Promise never to do that again and I'll let you go,"

  said Pippi gravely. With all her force she

  flung him far out into the sea. He lost no

  time in getting away from there and decided to head for the

  Atlantic Ocean.

  In the meantime Tommy had managed to scramble up

  on a small plateau, and he sat there trembling

  all over. His leg was bleeding. Then Pippi came

  up. She behaved very strangely. First she lifted

  Tommy up in the air, and then she hugged him so hard

  that he lost his breath. Then all of a sudden she let

  go of him and sat down on the cliff. She put her

  head in her hands. She cried. Pippi cried!

  Tommy and Annika and all the Kurrekurredutt

  children looked at her, surprised and frightened.

  "You cry because Tommy almost eaten up?" said

  Momo.

  "No," Pippi answered crossly, and wiped her

  eyes. I cry because poor little hungry shark no

  get breakfast today."

  Talks Sense to Jim and Buck

  The shark's teeth had only scratched Tommy's

  leg, and when he had calmed down he still wanted

  to continue the climb to the big cave. Pippi twisted

  strands of hibiscus fiber into a stout rope and tied

  it to a stone. Then, lightly as a mountain goat, she

  hopped over to the cave and secured the other end of the

  rope there. Now even Annika dared

  to climb to the cave. When you had a steady rope

  to hang on to, it was easy.

  It was a wonderful cave, and so big that all the children

  were able to get inside without any trouble.

  'This cave is almost better than our hollow oak

  at Villa Villekulla," said Tommy.

  "No, not better, but just as good," said Annika, who

  felt a lump in her throat at the thought of the oak and

  didn't want to admit that anything could be better.

  Momo showed the visitors how much cocoanut

  and breadfruit were stored in the cave. One would be

  able to live there for several weeks without starving to death.

  Moana showed them a hollow bamboo cane filled

  with the most beautiful pearls. She gave Pippi and

  Tommy and Annika each a handful.

  "Nice marbles you have to play marbles with in this country,"

  said Pippi.

  It was delightful to sit at the opening of the cave and

  look out over the sea glittering in the sunlight. And

  it was great fun to lie on one's tummy and spit

  into the water. Tommy announced a contest in

  longdistance spitting. Momo was terribly good at

  it. But he still wasn't able to beat Pippi. She had

  a way of forcing the spit through her front teeth which no

  one could imitate.

  "If it's drizzling over in New Zealand today,"

  said Pippi, "it's my fault."

  Tommy and Annika didn't do so well.

  "Northern children no can spit," said Momo with a

  superior air. He didn't quite consider Pippi as

  being one of the northern children.

  "So northern children can't spit?" said Pippi. "You

  don't know what you're talking about. That is taught

  to them in school from the first grade. Long-distance

  spitting and altitude spitting and sprint spitting.

  You ought to see Tommy's and Annika's teacher!

  Man, can she spit! She won first

  prize in sprint spitting. The whole town cheers

  when she runs around spitting to beat the band."

  "Bah!" said Tommy and Annika.

  Pippi raised her hand to shield her eyes from the

  glare and looked out to sea. "I see a ship out

  there," she said. "A tiny steamer. I wonder what

  it's doing in these parts."

  And she had reason to wonder!

  The steamer was heading toward Kurrekurredutt Island

  at a good clip. On board there were several South

  Sea islanders and two white men. Their names were

  Jim and Buck. They were dirty, coarse-looking

  men who looked like real bandits. And that is

  exactly what they were.

  Once when Captain Longstocking was in the shop where

  he bought snuff, Jim and Buck had been there

  too. They had seen Captain Longstocking put a

  couple of unusually large and beautiful pearls on

  the counter and had heard him say that on

  Kurrekurredutt Island the children used pearls like these

  to play marbles with. Since that day they had only one

  goal and that was to go to the island and try to get pearls.

  They knew that Captain Long-stocking was very strong,

  and they also had a healthy respect for the crew of the

  Hoptoad.

  They therefore decided to take advantage of an

  opportunity when all the men were away on a hunt.

  Pippi Talks Sense to Jim and Buck

  Now their chance had come. Hiding behind an island close

  by, they had seen through their binoculars Captain

  Longstocking, his crew, and all the

  Kurrekurredutts paddle away from the island. They