2018.02.24

Today is Saturday.

The ladies began on their third cups of coffee, and Mrs. Settergren said that it was not that she wanted to complain about her Ella, but she did break the china. A red head appeared over the stair rail. Pippi said that maybe they were wondering if Malin used to break any china. Pippi disappeared up the stairs as quickly as a jack-in-the-box. But now Mrs. Settergren’s patience had come to an end. She ran up the stairs, into the nursery, and up to Pippi, who had just begun to teach Tommy to stand on his head. Mrs. Settergren said to Pippi that she must never go there again when she couldn’t behave any better than that. Pippi looked at her in astonishment and her eyes slowly filled with tears. She said that was just what she had been afraid of and that she couldn’t behave properly. She said that it was no use to try; she would never learn; she should have stayed on the ocean. She curtsied to Mrs. Settergren, said goodbye to Tommy and Annika, and went slowly down the stairs. The ladies were now getting ready to go home too. Pippi sat down in the hall near the shelf where rubbers were kept and watched the ladies putting on their hats and coats.