2018.01.15

Today is Monday.

When they had finished, Pippi threw the cups down on the grass. She told Tommy and Annika that she just wanted to see how strong the china they made these days was. Strangely enough, one cup and three saucers held together, and only the spout of the coffee pot broke off. Presently Pippi decided to climb a little higher. There in the trunk was a big hole, which the leaves had hidden from the children's sight. Tommy asked Pippi if he might climb up and looked at the hole, but there was no answer. Tommy asked where Pippi was, worried. Then they heard Pippi's voice, not from above but from way down below. It sounded as if it came from under the ground. Pippi told them that she was inside the tree and it was hollow clear down to the ground, and if she peeked out through a little crack she could see the coffee pot outside on the grass. Annika asked Pippi how she could get up again. Pippi told Annika that she was never coming up and she was going to stay there until she retired and got a pension and she asked the children that they had to throw her food down through that hole up there five or six times a day.