Chapter 9 Pippi goes to tea

Tommy and Annika's mother invited some of the ladies to her house for tea, and when there was so much pastry baked, she asked Tommy and Annika to invite Pippi too.This way, she thought, she wouldn't have to worry about dealing with her two children. Tommy and Annika were overjoyed when they heard that Pippi was invited, and immediately went to Pippi's house to invite them.Pippi was walking up and down her orchard, watering the few poor flowers that were left with an old rusty watering can.It was raining that day, and Tommy told Pippi that he didn't think the effort was necessary at all.

"You're right," said Pippi angrily, "but I can't sleep all night, just waiting to get up and water the flowers. Such a little rain will never stop me!" At this moment Annika broke the startling news of asking her to tea. "Tea...me?!" Pippi yelled, so excited that she didn't water the roses but watered Tommy. "Oh, what's going to happen? Help! I'm so nervous! What if I'm rude?" "Of course you won't be rude," said Annika. "Don't be so sure," said Pippi, "you may believe that I will try my best not to be rude, but I often find that, even though I have never been more polite, people still think I am rude. We never pay attention to such things at sea. But I promise, I'll try to be as polite as I can today so you won't be ashamed of me."

"Okay," said Tommy, and he and Annika went home through the rain. "It's three o'clock this afternoon, don't forget!" cried Annika, poking her head out from under the umbrella. At three o'clock that afternoon a very elegant young lady came up the settergren's steps.This very elegant lady is the eldest sister Pipi.To be different, she unbraided her braids, and the red hair fell over her shoulders like a lion's mane.She had chalked her lips purple, and her eyebrows so black it was scary.She also painted her nails pink and tied green bows on her shoes.

"I think I'm the prettiest of all the guests," she muttered triumphantly when she rang the bell. In the drawing room of the Settergrens sat three noble ladies, Tommy and Annika, their mother.A sumptuous refreshment was set on the table, and a log was burning roaringly in the fireplace.The ladies talked softly to each other, and Tommy and Annika sat on the sofa looking at a photo album.It's very quiet inside. But the silence was suddenly broken. "stand at attention!" There was a harsh cry in the hall, and then Pippi was already standing on the sill of the living room door.Her yell was so loud that the ladies jumped out of their seats in fright.

"Go!" said again, and Pippi was walking towards Mrs. Settgren. "Stand!" She stopped. "Hands out, one, two!" she cried, taking one of Mrs. Settgren's in both of hers, and shaking them warmly. "Salute!" she cried, curtseying gracefully. When this was done, she leaned over to Mrs. Settgren and spoke in her usual voice. "It's really because I'm too shy. If I don't call out the password, I will keep standing in the hallway and don't listen to my feet. I dare not come in." Pippi then threw herself on the other wives and kissed their faces.

"Speaking of conscience, it's so pretty, so pretty," she said.She had heard that saying once from a very pompous gentleman to a lady.Then she sat down in the nicest chair she had seen.Mrs Settergren would have liked the children to have tea in Tommy and Annika's room, but Pippi sat still, patting her knees, and fixed her eyes on the tea-table, and said: "These things look really good. When do you start eating them?" Then Yara, the maid, came in with the coffee pot, and Mrs. Settgren said: "How about we start with dessert now?" "Come on, I'll be the first." Pippi yelled, and walked to the table in two steps.She tried her best to fill the pan with biscuits, threw five sugar cubes into the coffee cup, and poured half a tub of cream into it, then returned to her chair with coffee and snacks.But the ladies hadn't come to the table yet.

Pippi straightened his legs, and put the pan of pancakes on the toes of his feet.Then she threw pieces of cake into the coffee cup with relish, her mouth was so full that she couldn't speak.She ate the whole pan of pancakes in no time.She stood up, beat the basin like a tambourine, and went to the table to see if there was any more.The ladies looked at her with distaste, but she paid no attention.Gossiping happily, she circled the table, taking a cake here and a cake there. "I'm very grateful for having me," she said. "I haven't been out for tea yet." On the table is a big cream cake with a red candy embedded in the middle.Pippi stood there with his hands behind his back, looking at it.When she bent over suddenly, she had picked up the candy with her teeth.But she lowered her head too quickly, and when she raised it up, her whole face was covered in cream.

"Ha ha ha," laughed Pippi, "now we can play hide and seek, because we have the blind man ready. I can see nothing!" She stuck out her tongue and licked the cream all over her face. "Oh, it's too bad," she said, "the cake's all ruined anyway, and I'll have to clean it up right away." She walks the talk.She picked up the spoon and attacked the cake, and the cake disappeared in a flash.Pippi rubbed her belly contentedly.Mrs. Settgren went into the kitchen for a while and knew nothing about the cake.The other wives looked at Pippi sternly.Maybe they want cake too?Seeing their disappointment, Pippi decided to cheer them up.

"You mustn't be sorry for such little things," she reassured them. "The most important thing is your health. You must be happy at tea." As she spoke, she took the sugar bowl from the table and sprinkled a lot of sugar on the floor. "Did you know that walking on a floor sprinkled with sugar is the best fun?" she asked the ladies. "It's more fun to walk barefoot," she said, taking off her shoes and socks, "I think you should take a walk too, there is nothing better than this feeling, you can take my word for it. " Mrs. Settgren just walked in at that moment.As soon as she saw the sugar sprinkled on the floor, she grabbed Pippi firmly by the arm and drew her to Tommy and Annika's sofa.Then she went to sit with the ladies and poured them another cup of coffee.The big cake was gone, she just felt happy.She thought her guests liked it too much.So eat everything.

Pippi, Tommy, and Annika chat softly on the sofa.The fire crackled and crackled in the grate.The ladies drank their second cup of coffee, and all was quiet again.As ladies often do at tea, they talked of their maids.There seems to be none that are particularly good. These ladies are picky and picky, and they are not satisfied with this, and they are not satisfied with that. Pippi sat on the sofa and listened, then broke in after a while and said: "My grandma used to have a maid named Marlene. There was nothing wrong with her, except she got chilblains on her feet. The only bad thing was that whenever strangers came, she would jump on them and bite their legs and curse! Oh! Oh, she drives so fiercely! When she swears, the neighbors can hear her. But she just does it for fun. But strangers don't always understand. Once, the wife of an old vicar in the parish went to see her grandma. At that time, Marlene had just Come on. Marlene rushed over and bit her calf with her teeth. When she screamed, Marlene clenched her teeth even more in fright, and couldn't let go. For a whole week, she couldn't do without this pastor. Ma'am, until Friday. So grandma has to peel the potatoes herself. She doesn't peel them badly, but when she finishes peeling, there are no potatoes, just potato skins. After this Friday, the pastor's wife will never see grandma again. She's no joke. But Marlene, she's funny and jovial! Still, she can lose her temper sometimes, and it's true. She got mad once when Grandma touched her ear with a fork. a whole day."

Pippi looked around at everyone and laughed friendly. "That's right, Marlene is that kind of person." She said and twirled her two thumbs. The ladies didn't seem to hear anything, and went on talking about their maids. "If my Rosa was clean at work," said Mrs. Belgren, "I might ask her to help. But she's not clean." "Then you should see Marlene," Pippi interrupted again, "Marlene is so dirty, it's horrible to see. Grandma said she thought Marlene was a black girl because her skin was so dark, but all of them were Dirty, it won't turn black once washed. Unfortunately and distressed, I can't bear to meet a sloppy girl!" Pippi said happily. Mrs. Settgren gave her a hard look. "Can you imagine," said Mrs. Granberg, "that my Britta was going out one night and borrowed my blue silk dress without saying a word to me, isn't it too much? " "Oh," said Pippi, "I said she and Marlene came out of the same mold. Grandma has a pink vest, which she likes best. The trouble is that Marlene likes it too. Every morning Granny and Marlene both had to fight over who should wear the vest that day. In the end, they agreed that each of them should wear it for a day, which was fair. But even so, Marlene still caused trouble! Sometimes on days when she wasn't wearing it at all, She would also come up and say, "I won't be making mashed radish today if I don't wear that pink furry vest!" Oh, what about grandma? She loves mashed radish. So Marlene put on a vest! She As soon as I put on the vest, I didn’t know how sweet it was, and I started to make radish puree in the kitchen, and it was so vigorously mixed that it even stained the wall.” There was a moment of silence.Then Madame Alexanderson said: "Though I cannot say for sure, something is missing, and I suspect my Hulda has taken it." "Marlene..." Pippi spoke again, but Mrs. Settgren quickly put on a straight face and said: "Children go upstairs at once!" "Okay . . . but I was about to say that Marlene takes things too," said Pippi, "like a magpie that takes people's things! Much and fast! She used to get up in the middle of the night and take a thing or two, she said She couldn't sleep without it. Once she took Grandma's grand piano and stuffed it in the top drawer of her chest of drawers. Grandma said she had really good hands." Then Tommy and Annika took Pippi by the hand and pulled her upstairs.The ladies continued their tea, and Mrs. Settgren said: "I can't really complain about my Ella, but she breaks a lot of pots." At the top of the stairs, the redhead poked out again. "As for my Marlene," said Pippi, "you might wonder if she breaks pots, eh? I tell you, she breaks pots and all! She breaks them one day a week. It's Tuesday, Grandma said it. You could hear the girl breaking things in the kitchen around five o'clock on a Tuesday morning. She started with the light things like teacups and glasses, then she broke the deep plates, then the shallow ones, and finally the big ones. The whole morning in the kitchen was crackling and bang-ping-ping-pong. Grandma often said it was God’s blessing. If Marlene was free in the afternoon, she would take a mallet and go into the living room to knock on the ancient East Indian plates hanging on the wall. It was broken on Tuesday. Grandma bought a new one on Wednesday.” Pippi said, like a golden figure toy, the figure popped out when the lid was opened, and disappeared when the lid was closed. At this point Mrs. Settgren could bear it no longer.She ran upstairs, into the children's room, and came to Pippi who was beginning to teach Tommy the dragonfly upside down. "You're so rude, don't come again," said Mrs. Settgren. Pippi looked at her in amazement, and tears slowly filled his eyes. "Exactly. I should have known I was going to be rude!" she said. "I can't change it if I want to. I just can't learn how to be polite. I should stay at sea." Then she curtsied to Mrs. Settgren, said good-bye to Tommy and Annika, and went slowly downstairs. At this time the ladies also took their leave.Pippi sat by the umbrella rack in the hall and watched them put on their hats and coats. "It's a pity you don't like your maids," she said. "You ought to have someone like Marlene! Grandma keeps saying you'll never find a better girl than her. Just think of Marlene roasting a whole pig one time at Christmas, you know What about her? She read in the cookbook that a Christmas roast pig comes out with some crepe paper and an apple in its mouth. Poor Marlene doesn't understand, it's the pig's mouth stuffed with an apple. You should see See how she came in on Christmas Eve, wearing a starched white apron, with a red apple in her mouth. Grandma said to her: 'Marlene, what a fool you are!' Of course, Marlene couldn't say a word Answer. She just twisted her ears, and the paper in her mouth rustled. She tried to speak, but the sound was blah blah blah. Of course, she could no longer bite people's legs according to the old custom, but today There were so many strangers at night! That Christmas Eve, alas, poor little Marlene had no fun at all," said Pippi sadly. The ladies had dressed for their departure, and said good-bye to Mrs. Settgren for the last time.Pippi ran up to her and said softly: "I'm sorry I was rude! Goodbye!" Then she put on her big hat, and followed the ladies out.They parted ways outside, with Pippi heading towards Villekulla, and the ladies in the opposite direction. The ladies had already walked for a while, when they suddenly heard someone huffing and panting behind them.It turned out that Pippi came running. "You can bet that Granny has been thinking about her since she lost Marlene. Just think of it, Marlene went out to sea one Tuesday morning before breaking a dozen teacups. So Granny had to break the cups and pans that day. What. She can't beat, poor grandma, her hands are blistered. She never saw Marlene again. Grandma said, what a treat, how nice it is to be with such a first-class girl?" Then Pippi left, and the ladies hurried on.But after walking a hundred yards, they heard Pippi's voice screaming desperately from a distance: "She—never—never—cleaned—under the—bed—the—ma——Lin!"