Nya hyss av Emil i Lönneberga (1972)

Many years ago, a little boy named Michel lived at Katthult Farm in Lönneberga. At five years old, he got into new scrapes almost every day, much to the distress of the village residents. The adults often mistook Michel’s mishaps for deliberate pranks, simply because their consequences caused so much trouble for his parents and the people of Lönneberga. One day, the villagers brought Michel’s mother a bag of money they had collected to send Michel to America, hoping things would be quieter in the village without him. But Michel’s mother was outraged and threw the money at their feet. She loved her son and knew that he never meant any harm; often, what happened was simply an accident. Although Michel was usually locked in the woodshed by his father whenever he had done something again, he had practically made it a second home. Sometimes, then, he would lock himself in and bolt the door from the inside when his father wanted to punish him yet again. That way, he could carve his little wooden figures in peace. Over time, he had made quite a large collection of them. Michel’s mother also wrote down his daily mishaps—which people took for pranks—in a blue notebook, and that, too, had become quite a sizeable collection. Lina, the maid on the farm, did not like Michel very much, but Alfred, the farmhand, was quite different. The two were fond of each other. Michel’s little sister Ida also stood up for her big brother. One evening, Michel went to the lake with Alfred to catch crayfish. He had really only wanted to placate his father, because earlier that day he had put the paint bucket where his father would have to step in it. But, as usual, Michel managed to do that clumsily too: the many crayfish crawled out of the bowl and spread throughout the house. So one of them pinched his father’s foot early the next morning. Still, they had enough to eat for three days, and Michel was even able to sell a few crayfish tails in the village. On the last Wednesday in October, Michel, his parents, Ida, Alfred, and Lina go to the traditional market in Vimmerby. Only Krösa-Maja stays home to look after the farm. The market is a lively place. Michel’s mother has brought eggs and wool to sell. Michel and his father look around the livestock market, and Michel takes a liking to a horse. But his father thinks it is too expensive, so someone else buys Lukas. Michel’s family has been invited to lunch at Mrs. Petrell’s. Across the way is the mayor’s house, and Michel immediately makes friends with his son, Gottfried. Gottfried has stilts, and Michel tries walking on them. It ends in a minor disaster: he falls through Mrs. Petrell’s window, headfirst into the soup tureen. Mrs. Petrell immediately faints, and when Michel’s parents go looking for water and take ages to come back, Michel pours the rest of the blueberry soup over her face. Michel’s father is so furious that he grabs the boy by the ears and shakes him back and forth. Afterward, he goes straight to the market to get a new windowpane and repairs the damage his son has caused. In the meantime, Michel runs out of the house and back to the market. He arrives just as Lukas’s new owner is about to have the horse shod. Since Lukas will not stand still, Michel bets the owner that he can get the horse to let itself be shod. He succeeds, and from then on the horse belongs to Michel, who proudly rides back to Mrs. Petrell’s house. Unfortunately, the mayor’s son persuades him to ride the horse into his father’s house and then set off the fireworks that have been prepared, which gets him into trouble again. Everyone in town now thinks that the long-expected comet is crashing into the earth. On the way home, Michel’s father is proud of his son for the first time. Michel may have scared Mrs. Petrell and half of Vimmerby nearly to death with his pranks, but he has got a horse for nothing. His father’s pride fades a few days later, when Michel accidentally locks him in the outhouse, causing him to miss a fine meal. After Alfred frees Anton Svensson, Michel quickly escapes to the woodshed. Shortly before Christmas, the first snow falls. During their evening carving, Alfred injures his thumb, and the wound develops into blood poisoning. Michel tenderly looks after his best friend. When Alfred starts to run a fever, Michel thinks he needs to be taken to the doctor in Mariannelund, but the snowstorm makes that impossible. Michel refuses to accept that. He secretly harnesses Lukas to the horse-drawn sleigh and sets off for Mariannelund early in the morning with Alfred. Although the horse is young and strong and knows the way to town from before, it gets stuck on the snowdrift-covered road. Fortunately, there is a farm nearby, and Michel goes to fetch the farmer for help. The farmer pulls the sleigh out of the snowdrift but refuses to lend Michel a fresh horse for the rest of the journey. Michel has to continue with Lukas and begins to run out of strength. The snowstorm lashes his face, and he does not know how he will manage. Michel is desperate, but a horse-drawn snowplow comes to his rescue and clears the road to Mariannelund. Alfred is treated just in time. The doctor sends all his waiting patients home and devotes himself entirely to the seriously ill Alfred. Michel does not leave Alfred’s side and even stays when his hand has to be cut open. A few days later, the two return home, and the people of Mariannelund have now seen Michel’s heroic side, too. In a letter the doctor has sent with them, it says that Michel’s parents can be proud of their son. Anton Svensson, however, has worries of his own just then: he has a stomachache. To ease it, he has put a hot pot lid on his belly. Michel wants to reheat the lid, which has cooled down, on the kitchen stove. As so often, he means well but goes too far: he lets it get really hot and puts it on his sleeping father’s belly.