How Peppy settled in the Chicken Villa
On the outskirts of a small Swedish city settled nine-year-old girl Peppy Longstocking. Peppy's mother died when she was very young. The girl did not remember her at all and believed that her mother was an angel.
Peppy is sure that her mother lives now in the sky and looks from there through a small hole at her daughter.
Dad Peppy was the captain of the sea. During a terrible storm, it was washed away by a wave from the deck. Peppy, however, is sure that her dad did not drown, but ended up on the island, "where many, many blacks live," and became the Negro king. One day he will build a boat, take Peppy to his island, and she will become a Negro princess.
All her life, Peppy traveled with his father through the seas. When he disappeared into the sea, the girl said goodbye to the crew of the ship, took her monkey Mr. Nilson, a large suitcase full of gold coins and went to live in the Chicken Villa - an old house with a deserted garden, which Peppy's father bought to live there in old age.
Peppy is an unusual girl. She is so strong that she raises the horse that she bought on the day of her arrival. The horse lives on the terrace of the house, and Peppy takes it to the garden every day.
Next to Villa Chicken lived a respectable family with two very well-bred children - Tommy and Annika. They were very surprised to see a strange girl coming out of the neighboring house with carrot-red pigtails and a nose of potatoes, dressed in huge black shoes and long stockings of different colors, with a monkey on her shoulder.
The children quickly became friends, and soon Peppy was already treating new friends with pancakes and giving them beautiful trinkets brought from distant lands.
How Peppy gets into a fight
The next morning, Tommy and Annika woke up early to meet Peppy as soon as possible. Having treated the children with home-made cakes, Peppy suggested that they work as “dealers”.
A dialer is one who always brings order to everything. ‹...› After all, an abyss of all kinds of different things is scattered on the earth. Someone must keep order.
The children went outside and began to pick up everything that was lying on the ground. Peppy entertained her friends with amusing inventions about the customs of other countries.
Suddenly, friends saw a little girl who was offended by five boys from a nearby street. Peppy stood up for her and threw all the boys at the nearest trees and fences.
Then Peppy invited Tommy and Annike to look into the hollow of the tree and under the rotten stump. The children found very nice things there and were delighted, although they suspected that they had been planted by the good Peppy.
How Peppy plays with cops
Soon, adults learned that Peppy lives completely alone and does not go to school. They decided that "this little girl should be sent to an orphanage." One morning, when Peppy, Tommy, and Annika were drinking coffee with rolls on the porch of the villa, "the gate opened and two policemen in uniform entered the garden."
Oh! - exclaimed Peppy. - What a happy day! More than anything - of course, after rhubarb cream - I love cops.
The police said that Peppy should go to the orphanage, but the girl refused - she suspected that neither the horse nor the monkey would be taken there. The policeman decided to take the girl by force and tried to grab her hand, but Peppy began to play with him in little balls.
The police finally got angry and decided to grab the naughty girl, but she took them by their belts, dragged them out into the street and treated them with buns as a consolation. After that, the adults left Peppy alone.
How Peppy goes to school
Tommy and Annika, of course, went to school.The children really wanted Peppy to attend school with them, and often told how interesting they were in the lessons and fun on vacation. Peppy considered it unfair that she would never have a Christmas break, and once went to school on horseback.
A sweet and kind teacher did her best to make Peppy enjoy school, but the girl kept her from teaching lessons all day. She called the teacher to “you” and constantly interrupted her, told ridiculous tales and could not calm down in any way, although she really wanted to and was worried because of her bad manners.
You see, Freken, when your mother is an angel, and your father is a Negro king, and you yourself have sailed the whole life through the seas, you don’t know how to behave in school.
The teacher realized that she could not cope with Peppy, and let her go, asking the girl to come to school when she was a little older.
How Peppy climbs into the hollow
A huge old oak tree grew in Peppy's garden. Once friends decided to drink coffee with rolls on the branches of a tree. Climbing onto an oak tree, the guys found a hollow that turned out to be very deep and spacious. Through the cracks in the bark from the hollow, the lawn in front of the oak was visible.
The children decided that this hollow would become their hiding place, where you can hide if there are uninvited guests.
How Peppy arranges an excursion
Tommy and Annika's school closed on a sanitary day. Having learned about this, Peppy decided to arrange a sanitary day in her villa. She poured a whole pot of hot water on the kitchen floor and brushed it.
Having cleaned up, the girl invited her friends to arrange a tour of the surroundings. Peppy put the picnic food in the basket, put it on Mr. Nilson's shoulder, and the guys set off. Soon they arranged a halt on the top of a small hill and for a long time feasted on the various goodies prepared by Peppy, who had learned to cook with a ship chef.
Only after lunch did the guys realize that Mr. Nilson had disappeared. When the children began to search for the monkey, Tommy proposed a split. Soon, the boy came across a huge bull.
The bull saw Tommy. And Tommy did not like the bull. It was an evil bull, and he could not stand children.
A furious beast rushed at the boy, lifted him to the horns and threw him very high. Peppy ran to the bull and pulled his tail strongly. The bull turned and “saw a girl whom he also wanted to pull up on its horns”, but he did not succeed - Peppy broke off both horns of the bull and then rode on it for a long time in the meadow. Finally, the bull was tired and lay on the grass, "dreaming of only one thing: so that all the children would disappear from the face of the earth."
The children found Mr. Nilson and returned home, singing a song they had learned at school. Peppy did not know the song, but she also sang along, inventing words on the go.
How Peppy goes to the circus
Once a circus arrived in the city. Tommy and Annika asked their parents for money for tickets and went to Peppy to invite her with them. Having difficulty realizing that she had to pay for the performance, Peppy took a gold coin from her suitcase. At the circus box office, the girl refused to take change, and the ticket operator gave the children three tickets to the best places.
What a strange yurt? Asked Peppy, looking at the circus in surprise. - And someone scattered sawdust on the floor. I'm not so clean, but really, that's too much!
Not quite understanding what a circus is, Peppy decided to also have some fun in the arena. First, she rode a circus horse, and then walked along the rope after an elegant lady. The director of the circus was furious because the audience liked Peppy's performance much more than the tricks of his artists, but he could not get the girl out of the circus.
Finally, a strong man entered the arena, and the director offered one hundred crowns to the one who would defeat him. Peppy could not sit still, she went out and quickly put the strong man on the shoulder blades, but refused the money.
Then the girl decided that the circus was boring, and peacefully slept through the rest of the performance. Tommy and Annika looked at clowns, sword-swatters and gutta-percha people, but in the end they decided that Peppy performed better than anyone else.
How thieves get to Peppy
After the incident in the circus, everyone in the city found out about Peppy's extraordinary power, but people from other places did not suspect what an unusual girl this was. Once, two tramps passed by the Chicken Villa.
These were real thieves - they wandered around the country to look out for where something could be stolen.
The tramps decided to go to Peppy to ask for some food, looked out the window and saw that the girl was sitting in front of a pile of gold coins, trying to count them. From Peppy, they learned that the girl lives with Mr. Nilson and thought that this is the owner of the house.
The thieves decided to wait until everyone in the villa fell asleep and steal the gold. They waited a long time in the rain, and Peppy at that time learned to dance a twist. Finally, the thieves entered the house and realized that Mr. Nilson was just a little monkey. Having decided that they had nothing to fear, the tramps tried to take Peppy's case with coins, but she instantly threw them on the closet.
The bandits got scared and began to ask Peppy for mercy. In response, the girl made one thug dance a twist with her, and the other accompanied him on a comb with tissue paper. Then the girl fed the thieves and gave everyone a gold coin - they honestly earned them.
How Peppy is invited for a cup of coffee
One day, Tommy and Annika's mom invited some noble ladies for coffee and called Peppy, hoping that the children would go about their business and not stop the ladies from gossiping. Peppy is dressed to the nines.
She brightly painted her lips with red chalk, and smeared her eyebrows with soot so thickly that she looked just awesome.
As it turned out, Peppy did not know how to behave at the table. In the blink of an eye, she ate a bunch of sweets, including a huge cream cake, and sprinkled granulated sugar on the living room floor. Then she heard the ladies scolding their maidservants, and began to interrupt them, talking about the strange maid of her nonexistent grandmother.
Finally, the patience of the mistress of the house burst, and she forbade Peppy to come to visit them. An upset girl left the house with the ladies. Despite the grief and resentment, she still managed to finish her story on the go.
How Peppy Saves Two Babies
Peppy once went for a ride on horseback. Arriving at the main square, she saw that a fire started in the tallest house in the town - a three-story “skyscraper”. Suddenly, in the attic, under the very roof, a window opened and people were horrified to see two little boys in it. They cried and called for help, but they could no longer be saved.
The fire was raging, the children in the attic window were screaming, people in the square were crying.
Realizing that the children would not get out on their own, Peppy decided to save them. She forced Mr. Nilson to climb a tree with a smooth trunk growing next to a burning house and tie a long rope to a branch. Taking the board with her, the girl climbed the rope and laid it on the fork in the branches. The board reached the windowsill of the attic. Peppy walked in and soon walked out with the boys in her arms.
Having let the children down from the tree on the rope, Peppy returned to the board and began to dance on it, as in a circus. Flames erupted from the burning house, the crowd below shouted Peppy “Hurray!”, And the girl was happy.
How Peppy Celebrates His Birthday
In the fall, Peppy decided to celebrate her birthday and invited Tommy and Annika to him.
She sat all night, writing an invitation letter. And when it began to grow light, and the last stars went out, Peppy put the envelope in the drawer on the door.
Children gave her a large music box. Peppy also made gifts to friends and made a wonderful celebration for them. At first, the children drank chocolate with whipped cream, rolls and biscuits, which Peppy baked. Then they played the game "Don't Step On The Floor", after which the elegant clothes of Tommy and Annika were no longer so elegant.
When it got completely dark, the children climbed into the attic to visit the ghosts living there. In the attic, Peppy found a chest with three pistols, a spyglass and a bag of gold.She gave Tommy one gun. The children had fun until late in the evening until they came to dad Tommy and Annika and took them home.
