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

for?” said Mary-Mary.
    Miriam said crossly, “I’m not looking for anything. I can see it, and it looks awful.”
    â€œWhat does?” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œThis spot on my nose,” said Miriam. “I must ask Mother what to do about it.”

    Mary-Mary thought that was rather dull too; so she said, “Oh,” and went away to find out what Martyn was doing.
    Martyn was scrabbling about in the cupboard under the stairs.
    â€œWhat are you looking for?” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œI’m looking for a piece of rope,” said Martyn. “I want to practise jumping.”
    â€œOh, yes,” said Mary-Mary. “I’ll jump with you.”
    â€œNo,” said Martyn. “I want to do high-jumping. I’m going to practise for the school sports. You can’t jump, but you can watch.”
    Mary-Mary thought that would be very dull too; so she went away to find out what Mervyn was doing.
    Mervyn was searching through the toy cupboard.
    â€˜What are you looking for?” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œI’m looking for my motor-boat,” said Mervyn. “Now the ice has melted on the pond I want to mend it so that I can sail it.”
    Mary-Mary thought it would be dull watching Mervyn look for his boat; so she went away to find out what Meg was doing.
    Meg was playing the piano downstairs.
    â€œThat’s nice,” thought Mary-Mary, “I can dance and sing to the music and pretend I’m a theatre lady.”
    So she opened the door and danced into the room on tiptoe, with her arms spread out very gracefully on either side of her and her eyes closed, so as to look as if she thought the music was very sweet and beautiful. But because her eyes were shut she didn’t see where she was going; so she tripped over the hearthrug and fell in the middle of the floor with a big bump.
    Meg stopped playing the piano and looked round crossly without saying anything. Then she looked back at the music on the piano and stared at it hard.
    Mary-Mary got up and stood ready to dance again, with her skirt held out on each side and her right foot pointed in front of her. But Meg just went on staring hard at the music.
    â€œWhat are you looking for?” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œI’m looking for the place,” said Meg.
    â€œWhat place?” said Mary-Mary.
    â€œThe place I’d got to when you came in and interrupted me,” said Meg. “Now, go away. You can see I’m busy, and I’ve still got to do my scales.”
    Mary-Mary thought that even a theatre lady would find it rather dull to try to dance to scales; so she went away and found Moppet, who was sitting on her pillow, looking over the top of the eiderdown with bright beady black eyes.

    â€œEveryone seems to be looking for something,” said Mary-Mary to Moppet. “We’d better go and look for something too.”
    â€œWhat shall we look for?” she asked in Moppet’s tiny, squeaky voice.
    â€œAnything,” said Mary-Mary. “It doesn’t matter what. If we don’t know what we’re looking for we might find something really nice.”
    So she carried Moppet downstairs and out into the garden. They walked all the way round the garden, but couldn’t see anything special at all; so then Mary-Mary said in Moppet’s voice, “Don’t let’s look for anything big; let’s look for something very, very small—about my size.”
    â€œAll right,” she said. And she put Moppet in her pocket and crawled along the flower-bed on her hands and knees, trying to make herself as small as Moppet.
    And that was how she found the primrose.
    It was growing all by itself, half hidden under dead leaves, one pretty little pale-yellow primrose.
    â€œI do believe it’s the only flower in the garden,” said Mary-Mary. “And
I
found it! I must go and tell the others.”
    She found Mother in the sitting-room, covering the tables and chairs