once upon a time there was a little girl. her name was merrimeg.
sometimes she was good, and sometimes she was naughty. but she was always merry.
one morning her mother gave her a little broom and told her to sweep the kitchen floor and her mother said, “now, merrimeg, be sure to sweep all the dust neatly into the dustpan, and carry it out to the cabbage garden. will you do that?”
“yes, mother,” said merrimeg.
“don’t sweep any dust into the corners,” said her mother; and she left merrimeg in the kitchen, and went into the front room to make the beds.
merrimeg swept and swept with her little[4] broom, and she made up a little song and sang it out loud, keeping time with the broom.
every little while her mother would call to her from the next room and say,——
“have you finished yet, merrimeg?”
“not yet, mother!” merrimeg would say, and then she would go on with her sweeping and singing.
she was very happy, but this wasn’t her day to be good; for she was in a great hurry to be out in the garden in the sunshine, and she forgot all about what her mother had said to her; so instead of wasting time on the dustpan, she swept all the dust into the nice clean fireplace, a very large fireplace, big enough to roast a pig in. an iron pot was hanging there, but there wasn’t any fire, and her mother had just cleaned off the hearth so that it was as spotless as new brick.
she swept the dust from under the table and chairs, and out of the corners, and everywhere. and every single bit of the dust she swept into the fireplace, and piled it up at the back on[5] the clean bricks, out of sight. and all the while she kept on singing.
she was stooping down into the fireplace, with her head right at the back, under the chimney, when her mother called to her from the next room and said,——
“have you finished now, merrimeg?”
“yes, mother!” said merrimeg. “i’m going out into the garden now!”
but she didn’t go out into the garden. instead of that,—just as she said, “i’m going out[6] into the garden now,” whack! she was knocked against the iron pot, and bang! she was tossed against the back of the fireplace, and whoof! she was whirled up into that black dirty chimney like a leaf in a wind.
and it was a wind, too! she was sucked up in a wind that was rushing up the chimney,—and such a wind! never had she been caught in a wind like that, not even in the wildest march weather. before she knew it, she was high up inside the chimney in the pitch dark, stuck fast, and the wind began to die down.
“mother!” she cried, at the top of her voice. but her mother couldn’t hear her; and all that merrimeg heard was a sound as if a great many people were laughing at her, a long way off.
it was pitch dark. but all around her, in the black soot of the chimney, were little sparks, like the sparks you see in the soot at the back of the fireplace when the fire is crackling on the hearth,—thousands of tiny sparks, and all of them getting dimmer as the wind died down more and more.
[7]suddenly the wind sprang up again, stronger and stronger, and the harder the wind blew the brighter the sparks burned. merrimeg had to hold on fast with her feet and back to keep from being blown out of the top of the chimney.
she could see better now, and she saw what these sparks were. there were thousands of little black imps, sitting along the edges of the bricks in the walls of the chimney; and each spark was the head of a little black imp. she had to look close to see them, they were so tiny, but there they were, sure enough. she could hear them laughing, and it sounded as if a great crowd of grown-up people were laughing fit to kill, a long, long way off.
every one of them was holding in his hands a wee mite of a bag with two handles, and when he would press these handles together a strong wind would come out of the bag and blow on his head, and make it burn bright like a spark of fire; and when he stopped pressing the handles of his wind bag his head would grow dim again. they were working away at a great rate, keeping their[8] heads alive, and the wind they made nearly blew merrimeg up out of the chimney.
she didn’t have much time to think about it, for all at once the imps stopped working at their wind bags, and the wind began to go down and their heads to grow dim, and before she knew what was coming merrimeg felt these little imps, thousands of them, pounce on her, all over her, as thick as flies on honey, over her hair, and face, and arms, and legs, and dress, everywhere, and they were scratching and pinching, so that she screamed out in fright, and nearly fell down the chimney, for there was no wind now to hold her up.
but just then, when all the sparks had nearly gone out, the terrible little creatures suddenly stopped scratching and pinching and began to pump away at their wind bags like mad; for in another second their sparks would have been out, and that would have been the end of them.
that was what saved merrimeg. the wind that sprang up from the wind bags was twice as[9] strong as it has been before. it caught her, and tore her loose, and picked her up, and whirled her up the chimney, right up to the top of it and out.
there she was, standing in the bright sunshine, on the roof of her own house, looking down into the cabbage garden.
it was a little house, only one story high, but it was too high for her to jump down to the ground; so she crawled to the edge of the roof, and sure enough there was the garden ladder standing against the front wall of the house, and it didn’t take her more than a minute to clamber down the ladder and run to the door.
she knocked on the door and waited for her mother to let her in.
the door opened, and her mother stood in the doorway looking at her. when she saw the little girl who was waiting on the step she raised both her hands in astonishment and opened her mouth wide.
“oh, mother!” cried merrimeg. “let me in, quick! i’m terrible sorry, and i’ve been up the[10] chimney, and i’ll never, never do so any more, indeed i won’t!”
“why, child,” said her mother, “who are you?”
“let me in, mother!”
“who are you, child?”
“who am i? i’m merrimeg, of course! let me in!”
her mother laughed. “merrimeg!” she cried, and laughed louder than before. “you! the idea! you must be crazy! why, child, you’re as black as ink! my merrimeg is as fair as a lily! i never saw you before!”
“oh, mother!” cried merrimeg. “i’m not black. i’m merrimeg, and i want to come in!”
“run away, child,” said her mother. “i’ve no time to bother with strange children now. run away home to your mother. i’m too busy to bother with you now.”
when she had said that, she went back into the house, and closed the door after her. merrimeg knocked at the door again and again, but it was[11] no use. her mother would not pay any attention.
she cried to herself and walked away down the village street. no one knew her. she stopped two or three times, when she met children whom she knew, but they laughed at her and mocked her. they called her “black face! black face!” and she ran away.
she came to the end of the village street and went into the woods. she sat down beside a pool of clear water, to rest. she looked down into the pool. she was black.
her dress was black too. wherever the imps had touched her (and they had touched her all over) she was as black as chimney soot. she lay down on the grass and cried.
then she jumped up and stooped over the pool to wash her face in the clear water. she scrubbed her face hard, and looked at it again in the water; and then she cried again, harder than before. her face was still black; it wouldn’t wash off!
she went on further into the woods, and she[12] really didn’t care what became of her; she wouldn’t care if she got lost and never came home any more; and if she never came home any more, oh! wouldn’t her mother be sorry! she stopped to cry for a few minutes, but she went on again pretty soon, and after a long, long while she found herself in a part of the woods where she had never been before.
she came to a place where there was a great bank of bright green moss under the trees. it was higher in the middle, something like a roof, and it was very soft and cool-looking, and merrimeg was very tired.
she threw herself down on the bed of moss.
“how soft it is!” she said to herself.
as she said this, she sank down deep into the moss. down she sank, deeper and deeper. she was frightened, and tried to jump up; but it was too late. the moss closed all over her, and she sank out of sight. she was gone.
where do you think she was? she was in a little house under the ground. the moss was the roof of the house, and she fell right down[13] through it into a little kitchen, where two gnomes were sitting at a table eating their dinner. she sat down plump on the floor, and stared at the gnomes.
[14]
“bless my soul!” said one of the gnomes
[15]“bless my soul!” said one of the gnomes.
“bless my soul too, brother!” said the other gnome.
“i’ll tell you what it is, brother nibby,” said the first gnome, “the roof’s broken in again.”
“i believe you’re right, brother malkin, i believe you’re right,” said the other gnome.
“what’ll we do with her?” said the gnome called malkin.
“whatever you say, brother,” said the gnome called nibby. “you always know best.”
“she’s all black,” said the first gnome.
“so she is, brother, so she is,” said the other gnome.
“but not quite all black,” said the first gnome.
“no, not quite,” said the other one. “how clever you are, brother malkin.”
“i see a white place behind her ear,” said brother malkin.
[16]“there’s a white place behind her ear, sure enough,” said brother nibby. “i wouldn’t have noticed it myself.”
“then why isn’t she white all over?” said brother malkin.
“ah! that’s the point!” said brother nibby. “why isn’t she?”
“because she’s never been thrown onto the great snow mountain,” said malkin.
“that’s it, that’s it, just what i was going to say,” said nibby.
“then we’d better throw her onto the great snow mountain,” said malkin.
“that’s a very clever idea, brother,” said nibby. “i don’t know why i didn’t think of it myself.”
“but suppose she doesn’t want to be white?” said malkin.
“that’s so,” said the other. “i never thought of that.”
“how will we find out?” said brother malkin.
“that’s the trouble,” said nibby. “how are we ever going to find out?”
[17]“how would it do to ask her?” said malkin.
“that’s a very good idea,” said brother nibby. “how you do think of things!”
“which one of us had better ask her?” said malkin.
“oh, that should be you, brother,” said nibby.
“i think you should be the one,” said malkin.
“oh, no indeed, brother malkin, no, no, no, no, no,——”
“i’ll tell you!” cried merrimeg, jumping to her feet, out of all patience with these gnomes. “i do want to be white! i do! i do!”
“i believe she wants to be white,” said brother malkin.
“i’m pretty sure of it,” said nibby.
“then you’d better tell her to come along with us,” said malkin.
“oh dear no, brother, i think you should be the one to tell her,” said brother nibby.
“no, you should be the one,” said malkin.
“no, you, brother malkin.”
“no, no; you, brother nibby.”
“goodness gracious me!” cried merrimeg,[18] more and more out of patience. “for mercy’s sake come along! don’t let’s stay here talking all day! let’s hurry, hurry!”
“she’s not very polite, brother,” said malkin.
“not very, indeed,” said nibby. “i noticed it myself.”
each of the gnomes took a lighted candle from the table; then they opened a door in the floor of the kitchen and went down a ladder, and merrimeg went down after them.
when they were at the bottom, in a dark tunnel, lit only by the candles carried by the gnomes, malkin stopped and said:
“we mustn’t forget to have that roof fixed.”
“no, we mustn’t forget that,” said nibby.
“oh, bother the roof,” said merrimeg to herself. “i wish we would get on.”
“did you hear what she said?” said malkin. “it sounded to me like something rude.”
“that’s the way it sounded to me, too,” said nibby.
“i think we ought to ask her if she’s rude or not,” said malkin.
[19]“yes, we ought to know that,” said nibby.
“because if she is, we oughtn’t to be out alone in the dark with her,” said malkin.
“no,” said nibby, “it wouldn’t be safe.”
“then suppose you ask her if she’s rude,” said malkin.
“you’re the one to ask her, brother,” said nibby.
“oh, dear me!” said merrimeg. “you don’t need to ask me. i’m not rude. only sometimes maybe i am, but i don’t mean it, and i wish you’d please hurry.”
“i guess it’s all right, brother nibby,” said malkin.
they came to a stream of water, flowing along underground in the dark, and a little boat was tied to a stake in the stream. merrimeg sat down at the back end of the boat, and the two gnomes sat down before her, each one with a paddle in his hand. the paddles began to dip in the water, and the little boat began to go swiftly up the stream.
“a little faster, brother,” said malkin.
[20]“very good, brother, very good,” said nibby.
with that, they began to paddle so fast that merrimeg positively could not see their paddles, and the candles went out, and then she could not see anything at all. she felt that she was rushing along like lightning, and she had to hold on to the sides of the boat.
“it’s getting colder now,” said malkin.
“so it is, brother, so it is,” said nibby.
merrimeg was so cold by this time that her teeth chattered.
“we ought to have asked her if she’d mind being cold,” said malkin. “we forgot to ask her that.”
“yes, we forgot to ask her that,” said nibby. “but it’s too late now.”
merrimeg’s legs and arms were nearly frozen. they were so stiff that she could not move them. she thought that she was freezing to death.
“we’re going up now,” said malkin.
“we are, sure enough, brother,” said nibby.
“now for a good push up over the waterfall, and we’ll be there,” said malkin.
[21]“yes, now for a good push,” said nibby.
they were going up and up, and merrimeg was getting stiffer and stiffer. she couldn’t move at all by this time.
a great roar of falling water came to her from just ahead, and “now!” cried malkin, and “all right!” cried nibby, and the boat turned straight up and climbed the side of the waterfall like an arrow, with the gnomes paddling for dear life.
“here we are!” cried malkin, and “here we are, brother!” cried nibby, and they came out of the side of the earth and paddled on quietly up the stream through a wide field of ice under a dark cloudy sky.
in front of them rose a great mountain of snow....
in front of them rose the top of a great mountain of snow.
“i don’t believe she can move,” said malkin.
“i’m pretty sure she can’t,” said nibby.
the boat stopped, and the gnomes got out on the ice and lifted out merrimeg between them. she could hear and see, but she was frozen so stiff that she could not move.
[22]“do you think we can throw that far?” said malkin.
“you’re so strong, brother, you’re so strong,” said nibby.
“then let’s try it,” said malkin.
they looked over at the top of the great snow mountain, and picked merrimeg up and swung her back and forth several times. then malkin cried “now!” and they gave her a mighty toss and fling and away she flew through the air towards the mountain of snow; and she lit on the very top of it, and sank down and down in the soft snow until she was out of sight.
“we mustn’t forget to fix the roof,” said malkin. “we’d better put some boards under the moss.”
“i suppose so, brother; you always know best,” said nibby.
“then let’s go home and attend to it,” said malkin.
up on the mountain top, merrimeg sank down deeper and deeper into the soft snow. it seemed to her that she was falling for hours, and that she[23] would never come to the bottom; but at last she broke through the bottom of the snow, and underneath was a dark river, and in it were floating blocks of thick ice, and merrimeg dropped right onto one of these blocks of ice as it was going along under her, and it carried her away down the dark stream, with a roof of snow over her head. then she grew so dizzy that she really didn’t know anything for a long time.
when she came to herself, she was floating along quietly on her block of ice through the woods, and the sun was shining and the birds were singing; and the ice had melted away so much that it would scarcely hold her. it was only a thin film under her, and she was getting wetter and wetter; and in another moment the ice struck a stone in the bottom and broke, and she was standing in the water up to her knees.
the water was cool and pleasant, and she was surprised to find that she wasn’t cold any longer, and that she could move as well as ever. she waded to the shore and walked on into the woods;[24] and she had not walked very far when she saw a bright green patch of moss under the trees. she knew that it was the roof of the gnomes’ house, and she wanted to see them again, for she was afraid she hadn’t been very polite to them, and she knew she ought to thank them. she threw herself down on the bed of moss, but it wouldn’t give way under her. the gnomes must have put something strong underneath to hold it up. anyway, she couldn’t break through.
she knew where she was now, and it didn’t take her long to reach the pool where she had tried to wash the black off her face. she stooped down over the pool and looked at herself in the clear water.
she was fair as a lily, and her cheeks were red as roses.
she jumped up singing and ran towards the village where she lived.
as she skipped down the village street, she was singing over and over again, “the mountain has made me white again! the mountain has made me white again!” and all the children playing[25] in the street stopped to stare at her, wondering what she meant, and some of them called after her, “merrimeg! merrimeg!” but she paid no attention. she ran home, skipping and dancing, and hurried through the cabbage garden and in at the kitchen door. her little broom was lying on the floor where she had left it. at the back of the fireplace was the pile of dust, exactly where she had swept it. she thought it was queer that the wind which had drawn her up the chimney hadn’t blown away the dust; but there it was. probably those chimney imps wanted to leave it where her mother would be sure to see it.
she snatched up the broom and swept the dust into the dustpan, and you can believe that she didn’t put her head into the fireplace, either; she reached in and swept the dust out into the dustpan and carried it out to the cabbage garden and emptied it. and as she came back into the kitchen her mother came in from the front room and said,——
“oh, here you are. where have you been so[26] long? while you were out there was a funny little black girl who came to the door and said she was merrimeg!”
“yes’m,” said merrimeg.
