Read Online Mary-Mary by Joan G. Robinson - Free Book Online Page A

said, no, there was no need, because luckily he didn’t have to wash the clothes; he only had to drive the van from house to house to collect the boxes.
    When the laundry-man had driven away again, Mother made a hot chocolate drink and called all the children in from the garden.
    Miriam, Martyn, Mervyn, and Meg came in, stamping the snow from their boots and blowing on their cold fingers.
    â€œWell, how did you all get on?” said Mother.
    â€œWe haven’t finished yet,” said Miriam. “We spent such a lot of time looking for the burglar.”
    â€œThere wasn’t any burglar,” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œHow do
you
know?” said the others.
    â€œBecause I know who it was,” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œLook here—
do
you know anything about it?” said Martyn.

    â€œOf course I do,” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œWho was it, then?”
    â€œI told you,” said Mary-Mary. “It was the snow gi—”
    â€œOh, yes, I know all about your old snow giant,” said Martyn. “But who was it really?”
    â€œMe, of course,” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œBut they were huge, great footprints!” said Miriam.
    â€œI know,” said Mary-Mary. “I had Father’s boots on. That’s why I was being a snow giant, and I
did
sit down in the middle of the lawn and I
did
eat some snow.”
    â€œWell,
you might have told us!” said Martyn.
    â€œWell, really,” said Mother. “I do think you’re all rather silly. Mary-Mary tried to tell you over and over again, but you just wouldn’t listen.”
    â€œYes, but she kept on talking about a snow giant,” they said; “and we knew there was no such thing.”
    â€œBut there
is
,” said Mary-Mary, “and if you don’t believe me go into the sitting-room and have a look.”
    â€œInto the
sitting
-room!” said Mother. “Oh, Mary-Mary, what
have
you been doing? Surely you haven’t brought a whole lot of snow into the house! Oh, dear! Oh, dear!”
    And she ran along the passage, with the others all following, and opened the door into the sitting-room. Then Mary-Mary heard Mother laughing and laughing, and she heard the others all saying, “Oh, my goodness!” “How did she do it?” “Isn’t it huge?” and “ I bet some one helped her!”
    Then Mary-Mary began laughing too, and ran after them all. And when she saw her snow giant smiling in at the window with his twiggy mouth and his pebble eyes and his green-leaf hair sticking out from under the woolly cap she laughed more than ever, because he really did look so splendid and surprising.
    â€œWell,” said Mother, “I think you’ll all have to agree that Mary-Mary’s snow giant is quite the best thing in the garden!”
    And they all had to agree that he was, and Mary-Mary was so pleased with herself that she turned head over heels nine times running, all round the sitting-room floor.
    â€œThe trouble with Mary-Mary is she’s much too big for her boots,” said Martyn.
    â€œOh, no!” said Mary-Mary, surprised. “The boots were much too big for me.”
    So there was a snow giant in Mary-Mary’s garden,
after all,
and that is the end of the story.

3
Mary-Mary Finds a Primrose
    ONE day Mary-Mary had nothing special to do. So she went all round the house to see what everyone else was doing.
    Mother was looking inside a trunk in the box-room.
    â€œWhat are you looking for?” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œI’m looking for dust-sheets,” said Mother. “I need them to cover the furniture to keep it clean while I’m sweeping.”
    Mary-Mary thought that was rather dull; so she said, “Oh,” and went away to find out what Miriam was doing.
    Miriam was in the bedroom, looking at her face very hard in the looking-glass. She looked first this way and then that way, squinting down her nose.
    â€œWhat are you looking