Comet in Moominland
desolate and silent, which towered on every side. The air was chilly.
    'And where is the Observatory?' asked Sniff.
    'We're going to look for it,' said Moomintroll. 'It's on the highest peak I believe. But first I should like to have some coffee.'
    'The kettle is still on the raft,' said Snufkin.
    Moomintroll loved coffee, and he rushed at once to the edge of the hole and looked down.
    'Oh deary me!' he lamented. 'The raft has floated off and I suppose it's gone down that awful hole by now.'
    'Well, never mind. We're not on it,' said Snufkin gaily. 'What's a kettle here or there when you're out looking for a comet!'
    'Are they very rare?' asked the Hemulen who thought they were still talking about moths.
    'Well, yes, I should think you could call them rare,' answered Snufkin. 'They appear about once in a hundred years.'
    'No!' exclaimed the Hemulen. 'Then I must catch one. What does it look like?'
    'Red probably. With a long tail,' answered Snufkin.
    The Hemulen took out a notebook and wrote this down. 'It must be the Snufsigalonica family,' he said seriously. 'One more question, my learned friends, what does this remarkable insect live on?'

    'On Hemulens,' said Sniff, giggling.
    The Hemulen went red in the face. 'Little animal,' he said sternly, 'that is not funny. I shall now leave - with grave doubts of your scientific knowledge.' And he put his jars in his pocket, picked up his butterfly-net, and lumbered off.
    Sniff doubled up with laughter when the Hemulen was out of earshot. 'How funny!' he exploded. 'The old chap thought we were talking about a beetle or something.'
    'It's wrong to be disrespectful to elderly gentlemen,' said Moomintroll severely, not, however, managing to keep a very straight face himself.
    But it was getting late, so they picked out the highest mountain and set off towards it.



CHAPTER 6
    This is about the adventure with the Eagle and the finding of the Observatory.
    I T was late evening. The age-old mountains towered into the sky, their dreaming heads lost in mist, and mist swirled in cold grey-white swathes in the chasms and valleys between. A sudden rift in the swirling vapour revealed once again the threatening sign of the comet cut by some unknown hand in a sheer wall of rock.
    Just below one of the peaks could be seen a solitary pinprick of light, and a closer look would have revealed that it was a little yellow silk tent lit up from inside. From the tent came the sound of Snufkin's mouth-organ, but in this desolate place it was a strange sound indeed. So strange that a hyena some way off, lifted up her nose and howled in the most melancholy fashion.
    One member at least of the party in the tent was startled out of his wits. 'What was that?' gasped Sniff.
    'Oh, nothing for you to worry about,' Snufkin reassured him. 'Listen, what about a story? Did I ever tell you about those Snorks I met a few months ago?'
    'No,' said Moomintroll eagerly. 'Whatever are Snorks?'



'Don't you really know what a Snork is?' said Snufkin in amazement. 'They must be the same family as you I should think, because they look the same, except that they aren't often white. They can be any colour in the world (like an Easter egg), and they change co lour when they get upset.'
    Moomintroll looked quite angry. ' Well !' he said. 'I've never heard of that branch of the family. A real Moomintroll is always white. Changing colour indeed! What an idea!'
    'Well, these Snorks were very much like you anyway,' said Snufkin calmly. 'One was pale green and the other was mauve. I met them the time I escaped from prison... But perhaps you don't want to hear that story?'
    'Oh yes! We do really,' piped Sniff, but Moomintroll only grunted.
    'Well, it was like this,' began Snufkin. 'I had picked a melon for dinner. There was a whole field full of them, you see, and I thought that one more or less wouldn't make any difference. But the moment I dug my teeth into it, a nasty ugly old man came out of a house nearby, and started to shout at

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