You're Out of Your Mind, Mardie

It can be fun because of simple things like delousing, four small girls can have great fun getting rid of bugs in their hair. It can be sad when Madicken wears her new sandals to a spring bonfire and loses one of them. It’s even more sad, of course, when Mia, her schoolmate, is spanked by the headmaster, or when Alva, June Hill’s beloved Alva, crying at the ball because the mayor’s wife is so horrible to her. Madicken can’t stand things like that, because she has a heart of gold, and disapproves of anything unjust. And how she loves Abbe! That’s why she offers him her seat, when she is offered a chance to fly – imagine, flying in a real aeroplane! – for the first time. “You’re out of your mind, Madicken” says Lisabet, “and you’ve always been mad”. Perhaps she’s right. But Madicken “has lust for life” just like
Uncle Nilsson. And that’s what life is like at June Hill; sometimes fun and some-
times sad.