Mirror | rorriM

‘Then I’ll tell your fortune,’ Sniff persisted. ‘Perhaps you’ve got one of those lucky stars shining on you.’

‘Thanks,’ said Moomintroll bitterly. ‘I’ve had just about enough of stars. With or without tails.’

Sniff sighed deeply and sat for a long time disconsolately watching the strange landscape, with his nose between his paws. Suddenly his eye was caught by something out of the ordinary. it looked like a yellow ice cream cornet upside down, and was the first brightly coloured thing they had seen for a week. It was down by the edge of the water, and had what looked like a flag flying on top.

As Moomintroll and Sniff got nearer they heard quite unmistakable sounds of music, and it was cheerful music too. They strained their ears excitedly, drifting slowly nearer. At last they could see it was a tent, and gave a shout of joy.

The music stopped, and out of the tent came a snufkin with a mouth-organ in his hand. He had a feather in his old green hat and cried: ‘Ahoy! Ship ahoy!’

Moomintroll caught hold of the rudder and the raft swung towards land.

‘Off with the painter!’ shouted Snufkin, hopping eagerly up and down. ‘Fancy that! What Fun! Coming all this way just to see me!’

‘Well – we didn’t exactly,’ began Moomintroll, clambering ashore.

‘Never mind!’ answered Snufkin, ‘The main thing is that you’re here. You’ll stay the night, won’t you?’

‘We should love to,’ said Moomintroll. ‘We haven’t seen a soul since we left home, and that was ages ago. Why in the world do you live here in this desert?’

‘I’m a tramp, and I live all over the place,’ answered Snufkin. ‘I wander about and when I find a place that I like I put up my tent and play my mouth-organ.’

‘Certainly I do,’ said Snufkin. ‘Look as that black velvet tree with the beautiful grey colours beyond; look at the mountains that are deep purple-red in the distance! And sometimes a big blue buffalo comes to look at himself in the river.’

‘You aren’t by any chance – er – a painter?’ asked Moomintroll rather shyly.

‘Or perhaps a poet?’ suggested Sniff.

‘I am everything!’ said Snufkin, putting on the kettle.

…