Pippi Longstocking

Pippi is enjoying a productive Sunday afternoon and decides to end it by taking her horse for a ride through town. On her way, she comes across a fire burning in a recently built three-story building. The building is seen as an atrocity by the town, but they worry that the fire is bound to catch their own homes next. When two small boys peek out the window on the top level and cry out, the townspeople panic and the firefighters are unsure what to do. Having no ladder long enough for such a tall building, they are at a loss. Pippi takes it upon herself to save the boys herself. First, she strings a rope in a tree with Mr. Nilsson’s help. Next, she takes a wooden board up the tree and pins it between the tree and the window of the building. She walks across the board like she did the tightrope at the circus, picks up the boys, and brings them safely over to the tree. One by one, she lowers them down with the rope, much to their mother’s and the rest of the town’s relief. Before coming down herself, Pippi performs some tricks and sings a song: “The fire is burning, It’s burning so bright” (142).