Racketty-Packetty House, as Told by Queen Crosspatch
Page 6
I wouldn't have it burned for worlds! Oh!please push the chair away and let me look at it. There are nodoll's houses like it anywhere in these days." And when thearm-chair was pushed aside she scrambled down on to her knees justas if she was not a little girl Princess at all.
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" she said. "How funny and dear! What a darling olddoll's house. It is shabby and wants mending, of course, but it isalmost exactly like one my Grandmamma had--she kept it among hertreasures and only let me look at it as a great, great treat."
Cynthia gave a gasp, for the little girl Princess's Grandmamma hadbeen the Queen and people had knelt down and kissed her hand andhad been obliged to go out of the room backwards before her.
The little girl Princess was simply filled with joy. She picked upMeg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Gustibus and Peter Piper as if theyhad been really a Queen's dolls.
"Oh! the darling dears," she said. "Look at their nice, queer facesand their funny clothes. Just--just like Grandmamma's dollies'clothes. Only these poor things do so want new ones. Oh! how Ishould like to dress them again just as they used to be dressed,and have the house all made just as it used to be when it was new."
"That old Racketty-Packetty House," said Cynthia, losing herbreath.
"If it were mine I should make it just like Grandmamma's and Ishould love it more than any doll's house I have. I never--never--never--saw anything as nice and laughing and good natured as thesedolls' faces. They look as if they had been having fun ever sincethey were born. Oh! if you were to burn them and their home I--Icould never forgive you!"
"I never--never--will,--your Highness," stammered Cynthia, quiteoverwhelmed. Suddenly she started forward.
"Why, there is the lost doll!" she cried out. "There is Lady Patsy.How did she get into Racketty-Packetty House?"
"Perhaps she went there to see them because they were so poor andshabby," said the little girl Princess. "Perhaps she likes thisone," and she pointed to Peter Piper. "Do you know when I pickedhim up their arms were about each other. Please let her stay withhim. Oh!" she cried out the next instant and jumped a little. "Ifelt as if the boy one kicked his leg."
And it was actually true, because Peter Piper could not help it andhe had kicked out his ragged leg for joy. He had to be very carefulnot to kick any more when he heard what happened next.
As the Princess liked Racketty-Packetty House so much, Cynthia gaveit to her for a present--and the Princess was really happy--andbefore she went away she made a little speech to the wholeRacketty-Packetty family, whom she had set all in a row in theragged old, dear old, shabby old drawing-room where they had had somuch fun.
"You are going to come and live with me, funny, good-naturedloves," she said. "And you shall all be dressed beautifully againand your house shall be mended and papered and painted and made aslovely as ever it was. And I am going to like you better than allmy other dolls' houses--just as Grandmamma said she liked hers."And then she was gone.
And every bit of it came true. Racketty-Packetty House was carriedto a splendid Nursery in a Palace, and Meg and Peg and Kilmanskegand Ridiklis and Gustibus and Peter Piper were made so gorgeousthat if they had not been so nice they would have grown proud. Butthey didn't. They only grew jollier and jollier and Peter Pipermarried Lady Patsy, and Ridiklis's left leg was mended and she waspainted into a beauty again--but she always remained the usefulone. And the dolls in the other dolls' houses used to make deepcurtsies when a Racketty-Packetty House doll passed them, and PeterPiper could scarcely stand it because it always made him want tostand on his head and laugh--and so when they were curtsied at--because they were related to the Royal Dolls House--they used torun into their drawing room and fall into fits of giggles and theycould only stop them by all joining hands together in a ring anddancing round and round and round and kicking up their heels andlaughing until they tumbled down in a heap.
[Transcriber's Note: See picture curtsies.jpg]
And what do you think of that for a story. And doesn't it prove toyou what a valuable Friend a Fairy is--particularly a Queen one?