Keeping House

MARGARET s

MAHY

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Keeping

House

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MARGARET MAHY

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Keeping House

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WENDY SMITH no time to keep house. She at a famous club singing songs she writes, tap-dancing, and playing the trombone. When she gets home, she is too Lizzie Firkin has

—

works every night

sweep the

tired to

Her house mess.

The

parrot

is

is

a

floor or clean the cupboards.

rough-and-tumble, topsy-turvy

cat sleeps in the breadbox

and the

molting. Bottles of hair dye clutter

the piano and cobwebs cling to the curtains.

Desperate for help, Lizzie

Robin Puckertucker, the Wonder Housekeeper, only to find, before he arrives, that she is better at keeping house than she ever imagined.

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In the tradition of their previous collabo-

such as Making Friends and The Bloodand-Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak, Margaret Mahy twice winner of the rations,

—

Carnegie Medal

Smith foibles

in

England

—

and

Wendy

keep readers in stitches over the of one exceedingly messy musician. will

<££ a Junior Library Guild selecchosen as an outstanding book for boys and girls (E Group). This

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Mahy, Margaret Keeping house

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Mahy for younger children

Also by Margaret

Nonstop Nonsense Quentin Blake

illustrated by

The Blood-and-Thunder Adventure on Hurricane Peak Wendy Smith

illustrated by

Making Friends Wendy Smith

illustrated by

(Margaret

McElderry Books)

K.

Text copyright

©

All rights reserved.

No

Mahy Wendy Smith

1991 by Margaret

©

Illustrations copyright

1991 by

book may be reproduced or

part of this

transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage

and

retrieval system, without permission in writing

A Vanessa produced

ftom the Publisher.

Hamilton Book

with Gyldendal, Copenhagen for

in association

Margaret K. McElderry Books

Macmillan Publishing Company

866 Third Avenue

New

York,

NY

10022

Canada,

Collier Macmillan

Inc.

1200 Eglinton Avenue East Suite 200

Don

Mills,

Ontario

First

M3C3N1

Edition

Printed in Portugal 10

9

8

6

7

CIP

is

5

4

3

available.

ISBN 0-689-50515-9

2

1

MARGARET MAHY

Keeping House J£ FFERSON

PARK ELE

LIBRARY

Illustrated

by

WENDY SMITH Margaret K. McElderry Books

NEW YORK

'

The house It

Lizzie Firkin, the songwriter, lived in

was particularly untidy.

was a rough-and-tumble house - unwashed, undusted, and

topsy-turvy.

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Lizzie Firkin couldn't

mess. She had

to

even walk across her own

jump from one bare

floor because of the

spot to another.

the cupboards, a thousand things with sharp corners of her. So

she nailed the cupboards shut.

The

cat

When

fell

"I

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look at

i

t

.

me

i-i

like

u .»! Lizzie that!

have to write songs and practice the

trombone."

out on top

and

the parrot watched her scornfully.

«n Don

she opened

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Every night

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Lizzie Firkin

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put on the tights she had painted herself,

then - hey ho - off and away she went to a famous nightclub where she sang and tap-danced and played the trombone until the roosters started to crow.

It

was good fun.

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But playing the trombone every night always made tired to

Lizzie Firkin

too

sweep away dust and cobwebs, to pick up anything off the

floor, or to tidy

the cupboards.

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"I'm quite worn out," she told the cat and the parrot one day.

"The house

is

so topsy-turvy that I've decided to send for

Puckertucker, the

Robin

Wonder Housekeeper."

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She looked up the number and telephoned immediately. "This

is

a recorded message," said a voice.

cleaning houses, trying to address

when you hear

please

up yourself!"

"Robin Puckertucker

a fortune. Please leave your

the tone and Robin

tomorrow morning. And trying to tidy

make

make

will

is

out

name and

rush 'round early

sure you don't spoil things by

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u

C?

No

fear of that,

thought

Lizzie Firkin,

recording her

name and

address

on the answering machine. She did an hour's trombone practice, dyed her hair extra designs

on her

clothes, then - hey

ho -

off

red, painted a

the famous nightclub, where she danced and sang and played the

trombone

until the roosters started to crow.

few

and away she went to

Lizzie Firkin

as usual,

came home very

and blinked

lay scattered like

late, as usual.

She switched on the

at her untidy house, as usual.

autumn

leaves over the floor.

the breadbox, asleep on the sliced bread.

The

light,

Unsuccessful songs

The

cat was curled

parrot was molting.

up

in

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The vacuum around

cleaner sulked under the

itself, like

a

stairs, its

cordwound

sadly

dog that has given up hope of ever being taken

walk. Bottles of hair dye stood shoulder to shoulder, like soldiers,

of the piano.

for a

on top

"Oh

dear!" exclaimed Lizzie Firkin.

"How

Robin Puckertucker think of the cat asleep those parrot feathers?

I'd

in

the

better tidy up - just a

Wonder Housekeeper won't know how

What will breadbox? Or of all

messy

it all is.

little bit

terribly untidy

I

- so the really

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am."

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Mil l$L>

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shooed the cat out of the breadbox.

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She picked up the unsuccessful songs and put

She tossed the empty

them

cat-food cans into

the garbage

in a folder.

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The

roosters were

still

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crowing when she

stopped and looked around.

pail.

"Good, but not quite good enough," she

know

Puckertucker must never

might

kill

a

how

just

said,

untidy

and yawned. "Robin I

can

be.

good housekeeper."

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The shock

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Lizzie

picked up

and folded them

all

carefully.

the newspapers

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She vacuumed the

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floor,

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dusted the piano,

shined up her trombone,

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wiped the

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table,

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cleaned the bathtub,

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and threw out the

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stale

in the refrigerator.

soup

By now the sun was looking over the

hill. It

showed up every spot on

the windows, every cobweb on the curtains, and every smear on the floor. Lizzie Firkin

his perch.

yawned

But she polished the

away the cobwebs. The house next door. yawning.

so hard that she nearly sucked the parrot off

spiders

Lizzie's eyes

floor,

washed the windows, and brushed

packed their bags and moved to the

were almost shut, and she could not stop

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"I

mustn't

muttered

let

as she

Robin Puckertucker know how untidy shook the crumbs off the

grandfather clock out by the gate, and

cat,

I

really

am," she

dusted the parrot, put the

wound up the

garbage

pail.

Then

she tumbled into her big chair - quite, quite exhausted.

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Out by the dashing young

gate the grandfather clock struck nine. In

man

bounded

wearing an apron with a smile painted on

it.

a

"Are you the trombone player who he asked, looking around

And no wonder

in

is

particularly untidy at

home?"

astonishment.

he was taken aback.

from the front door to the back door.

Lizzie Firkin's

It

house sparkled

shone from ceiling to

floor.

cat purred; even the parrot looked smartly groomed.

"And who

are you?" asked Lizzie Firkin, too tired to be surprised.

The

,

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"I

am Robin

Puckertucker," replied the young man, gazing around

him. Then, sounding distinctly disappointed, he added, particularly tidy for

me

to do!"

house you have. Alas, there

is

nothing

"What left

a

But

Lizzie Firkin did

chair, snoring musically

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not answer. She was already sound asleep in her

and dreaming of trombones.

"Horrakapotchkin!" cried Robin Puckertucker in despair to the parrot.

"They

all

send for me, and then they become scared that

1

will

how messy they really are and tidy everything up themselves. never make a fortune if things go on like this. But why," he asked

find out

curiously, "are the cupboards

all

nailed shut?"

I'll

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Snatching up the soup

nailed shut for three years.

A

he pried open a door that had been

thousand things with sharp corners

fell

on

top of him.

"Oh

joy!

Housework

at last!"

happily from the bottom of the their

yffllV!

IS^/

ladle,

I

cupboards from

/.

now

Robin Puckertucker cried pile. "I shall insist

on, and

I

shall

make

faintly but

on everyone opening

a fortune after all!"

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Making Friends

MARGARET MAHY

^

Wendy Smith

illustrated by

Mrs. de Vere

and

hairy.

is

small.

Her dog,

Mr. Derry

Oberon, looks

is

a

likes

Titania,

that really matters.

.

pairs possibly

by Margaret

of course, everything

is,

.

huge

tiny feather duster.

What can two such unlikely have in common? In a story Mahy, the answer

is

but his dog,

large,

.

Margaret Mahy's humorous text and

^

Wendy

Smith's charming, full-color

trations

combine to make an irresistible book about the perils and joys of

qj picture

illus-

friendship.

What

the Critics

Have Said About

Making Friends "Adults and children alike will delight in this warm, comforting story as they root for the

<£

inevitable pairing of the thoroughly engaging

hero and heroine." Publishers

Weekly

1 s Jacket illustration copyright

^

©

1991 by

Wendy Smith

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