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+ PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+ "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+ <head>
+ <title>
+ Racketty-Packetty House, by H. Burnett
+ </title>
+ <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+ body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+ P { text-indent: 2em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
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+ .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
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+ .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+ .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;}
+ div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+ pre { font-family: Times; font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
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+ </head>
+ <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Racketty-Packetty House, by Frances H. Burnett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Racketty-Packetty House
+
+Author: Frances H. Burnett
+
+Release Date: August 11, 2004 [EBook #8574]
+Last Updated: October 24, 2012
+Last Updated: September 17, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE ***
+
+
+
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger from the text file of Nicole Apostola
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+ <h2>
+ Racketty-Packetty House, by H. Burnett
+ </h2>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="fairy.jpg (5K)" src="images/fairy.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h1>
+ RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE
+ </h1>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ As told by Queen Crosspatch
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ By Frances Hodgson Burnett
+ </h2>
+ <h3>
+ Author of &ldquo;Little Lord Fauntleroy&rdquo;
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="dance.jpg (15K)" src="images/dance.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ With illustrations by Harrison Cady
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Now this is the story about the doll family I liked and the doll family I
+ didn&rsquo;t. When you read it you are to remember something I am going to tell
+ you. This is it: If you think dolls never do anything you don&rsquo;t see them
+ do, you are very much mistaken. When people are not looking at them they
+ can do anything they choose. They can dance and sing and play on the piano
+ and have all sorts of fun. But they can only move about and talk when
+ people turn their backs and are not looking. If any one looks, they just
+ stop. Fairies know this and of course Fairies visit in all the dolls&rsquo;
+ houses where the dolls are agreeable. They will not associate, though,
+ with dolls who are not nice. They never call or leave their cards at a
+ dolls&rsquo; house where the dolls are proud or bad tempered. They are very
+ particular. If you are conceited or ill-tempered yourself, you will never
+ know a fairy as long as you live.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Queen Crosspatch.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br /><br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="frontispiece.jpg (46K)" src="images/frontispiece.jpg"
+ width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <h2>
+ RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE
+ </h2>
+ <p>
+ <br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Racketty-Packetty House was in a corner of Cynthia&rsquo;s nursery. And it was
+ not in the best corner either. It was in the corner behind the door, and
+ that was not at all a fashionable neighborhood. Racketty-Packetty House
+ had been pushed there to be out of the way when Tidy Castle was brought
+ in, on Cynthia&rsquo;s birthday. As soon as she saw Tidy Castle Cynthia did not
+ care for Racketty-Packetty House and indeed was quite ashamed of it. She
+ thought the corner behind the door quite good enough for such a shabby old
+ dolls&rsquo; house, when there was the beautiful big new one built like a castle
+ and furnished with the most elegant chairs and tables and carpets and
+ curtains and ornaments and pictures and beds and baths and lamps and
+ book-cases, and with a knocker on the front door, and a stable with a pony
+ cart in it at the back. The minute she saw it she called out:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! what a beautiful doll castle! What shall we do with that untidy old
+ Racketty-Packetty House now? It is too shabby and old-fashioned to stand
+ near it.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In fact, that was the way in which the old dolls&rsquo; house got its name. It
+ had always been called, &ldquo;The Dolls&rsquo; House,&rdquo; before, but after that it was
+ pushed into the unfashionable neighborhood behind the door and ever
+ afterwards&mdash;when it was spoken of at all&mdash;it was just called
+ Racketty-Packetty House, and nothing else.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="tidyshire_castle.jpg (40K)" src="images/tidyshire_castle.jpg"
+ width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Of course Tidy Castle was grand, and Tidy Castle was new and had all the
+ modern improvements in it, and Racketty-Packetty House was as
+ old-fashioned as it could be. It had belonged to Cynthia&rsquo;s Grandmamma and
+ had been made in the days when Queen Victoria was a little girl, and when
+ there were no electric lights even in Princesses&rsquo; dolls&rsquo; houses. Cynthia&rsquo;s
+ Grandmamma had kept it very neat because she had been a good housekeeper
+ even when she was seven years old. But Cynthia was not a good housekeeper
+ and she did not re-cover the furniture when it got dingy, or re-paper the
+ walls, or mend the carpets and bedclothes, and she never thought of such a
+ thing as making new clothes for the doll family, so that of course their
+ early Victorian frocks and capes and bonnets grew in time to be too shabby
+ for words. You see, when Queen Victoria was a little girl, dolls wore
+ queer frocks and long pantalets and boy dolls wore funny frilled trousers
+ and coats which it would almost make you laugh to look at.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But the Racketty-Packetty House family had known better days. I and my
+ Fairies had known them when they were quite new and had been a birthday
+ present just as Tidy Castle was when Cynthia turned eight years old, and
+ there was as much fuss about them when their house arrived as Cynthia made
+ when she saw Tidy Castle.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Cynthia&rsquo;s Grandmamma had danced about and clapped her hands with delight,
+ and she had scrambled down upon her knees and taken the dolls out one by
+ one and thought their clothes beautiful. And she had given each one of
+ them a grand name.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;This one shall be Amelia,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And this one is Charlotte, and this
+ is Victoria Leopoldina, and this one Aurelia Matilda, and this one
+ Leontine, and this one Clotilda, and these boys shall be Augustus and
+ Rowland and Vincent and Charles Edward Stuart.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For a long time they led a very gay and fashionable life. They had parties
+ and balls and were presented at Court and went to Royal Christenings and
+ Weddings and were married themselves and had families and scarlet fever
+ and whooping cough and funerals and every luxury. But that was long, long
+ ago, and now all was changed. Their house had grown shabbier and shabbier,
+ and their clothes had grown simply awful; and Aurelia Matilda and Victoria
+ Leopoldina had been broken to bits and thrown into the dust-bin, and
+ Leontine&mdash;who had really been the beauty of the family&mdash;had been
+ dragged out on the hearth rug one night and had had nearly all her paint
+ licked off and a leg chewed up by a Newfoundland puppy, so that she was a
+ sight to behold. As for the boys; Rowland and Vincent had quite
+ disappeared, and Charlotte and Amelia always believed they had run away to
+ seek their fortunes, because things were in such a state at home. So the
+ only ones who were left were Clotilda and Amelia and Charlotte and poor
+ Leontine and Augustus and Charles Edward Stuart. Even they had their names
+ changed.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="ridiklis.jpg (38K)" src="images/ridiklis.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After Leontine had had her paint licked off so that her head had white
+ bald spots on it and she had scarcely any features, a boy cousin of
+ Cynthia&rsquo;s had put a bright red spot on each cheek and painted her a turned
+ up nose and round saucer blue eyes and a comical mouth. He and Cynthia had
+ called her, &ldquo;Ridiklis&rdquo; instead of Leontine, and she had been called that
+ ever since. All the dolls were jointed Dutch dolls, so it was easy to
+ paint any kind of features on them and stick out their arms and legs in
+ any way you liked, and Leontine did look funny after Cynthia&rsquo;s cousin had
+ finished. She certainly was not a beauty but her turned up nose and her
+ round eyes and funny mouth always seemed to be laughing so she really was
+ the most good-natured looking creature you ever saw.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Charlotte and Amelia, Cynthia had called Meg and Peg, and Clotilda she
+ called Kilmanskeg, and Augustus she called Gustibus, and Charles Edward
+ Stuart was nothing but Peter Piper. So that was the end of their grand
+ names.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The truth was, they went through all sorts of things, and if they had not
+ been such a jolly lot of dolls they might have had fits and appendicitis
+ and died of grief. But not a bit of it. If you will believe it, they got
+ fun out of everything. They used to just scream with laughter over the new
+ names, and they laughed so much over them that they got quite fond of
+ them. When Meg&rsquo;s pink silk flounces were torn she pinned them up and
+ didn&rsquo;t mind in the least, and when Peg&rsquo;s lace mantilla was played with by
+ a kitten and brought back to her in rags and tags, she just put a few
+ stitches in it and put it on again; and when Peter Piper lost almost the
+ whole leg of one of his trousers he just laughed and said it made it
+ easier for him to kick about and turn somersaults and he wished the other
+ leg would tear off too.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You never saw a family have such fun. They could make up stories and
+ pretend things and invent games out of nothing. And my Fairies were so
+ fond of them that I couldn&rsquo;t keep them away from the dolls&rsquo; house. They
+ would go and have fun with Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Gustibus and
+ Peter Piper, even when I had work for them to do in Fairyland. But there,
+ I was so fond of that shabby disrespectable family myself that I never
+ would scold much about them, and I often went to see them. That is how I
+ know so much about them. They were so fond of each other and so
+ good-natured and always in such spirits that everybody who knew them was
+ fond of them. And it was really only Cynthia who didn&rsquo;t know them and
+ thought them only a lot of old disreputable looking Dutch dolls&mdash;and
+ Dutch dolls were quite out of fashion. The truth was that Cynthia was not
+ a particularly nice little girl, and did not care much for anything unless
+ it was quite new. But the kitten who had torn the lace mantilla got to
+ know the family and simply loved them all, and the Newfoundland puppy was
+ so sorry about Leontine&rsquo;s paint and her left leg, that he could never do
+ enough to make up. He wanted to marry Leontine as soon as he grew old
+ enough to wear a collar, but Leontine said she would never desert her
+ family; because now that she wasn&rsquo;t the beauty any more she became the
+ useful one, and did all the kitchen work, and sat up and made poultices
+ and beef tea when any of the rest were ill. And the Newfoundland puppy saw
+ she was right, for the whole family simply adored Ridiklis and could not
+ possibly have done without her. Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg could have
+ married any minute if they had liked. There were two cock sparrows and a
+ gentleman mouse, who proposed to them over and over again. They all three
+ said they did not want fashionable wives but cheerful dispositions and a
+ happy, home. But Meg and Peg were like Ridiklis and could not bear to
+ leave their families&mdash;besides not wanting to live in nests, and hatch
+ eggs&mdash;and Kilmanskeg said she would die of a broken heart if she
+ could not be with Ridiklis, and Ridiklis did not like cheese and crumbs
+ and mousy things, so they could never live together in a mouse hole. But
+ neither the gentleman mouse nor the sparrows were offended because the
+ news was broken to them so sweetly and they went on visiting just as
+ before. Everything was as shabby and disrespectable and as gay and happy
+ as it could be until Tidy Castle was brought into the nursery and then the
+ whole family had rather a fright.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="mouse.jpg (49K)" src="images/mouse.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It happened in this way:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When the dolls&rsquo; house was lifted by the nurse and carried into the corner
+ behind the door, of course it was rather an exciting and shaky thing for
+ Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Gustibus and Peter Piper (Ridiklis was out
+ shopping). The furniture tumbled about and everybody had to hold on to
+ anything they could catch hold of. As it was, Kilmanskeg slid under a
+ table and Peter Piper sat down in the coal-box; but notwithstanding all
+ this, they did not lose their tempers and when the nurse sat their house
+ down on the floor with a bump, they all got up and began to laugh. Then
+ they ran and peeped out of the windows and then they ran back and laughed
+ again.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="fashionable_wives.jpg (46K)" src="images/fashionable_wives.jpg"
+ width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said Peter Piper, &ldquo;we have been called Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg
+ and Gustibus and Peter Piper instead of our grand names, and now we live
+ in a place called Racketty-Packetty House. Who cares! Let&rsquo;s join hands and
+ have a dance.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And they joined hands and danced round and round and kicked up their
+ heels, and their rags and tatters flew about and they laughed until they
+ fell down; one on top of the other.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It was just at this minute that Ridiklis came back. The nurse had found
+ her under a chair and stuck her in through a window. She sat on the
+ drawing-room sofa which had holes in its covering and the stuffing coming
+ out, and her one whole leg stuck out straight in front of her, and her
+ bonnet and shawl were on one side and her basket was on her left arm full
+ of things she had got cheap at market. She was out of breath and rather
+ pale through being lifted up and swished through the air so suddenly, but
+ her saucer eyes and her funny mouth looked as cheerful as ever.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Good gracious, if you knew what I have just heard!&rdquo; she said. They all
+ scrambled up and called out together.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Hello! What is it?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;The nurse said the most awful thing,&rdquo; she answered them. &ldquo;When Cynthia
+ asked what she should do with this old Racketty-Packetty House, she said,
+ &lsquo;Oh! I&rsquo;ll put it behind the door for the present and then it shall be
+ carried down-stairs and burned. It&rsquo;s too disgraceful to be kept in any
+ decent nursery.&rsquo;&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried out Peter Piper.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Gustibus.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! Oh! Oh!&rdquo; said Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg. &ldquo;Will they burn our dear
+ old shabby house? Do you think they will?&rdquo; And actually tears began to run
+ down their cheeks.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Peter Piper sat down on the floor all at once with his hands stuffed in
+ his pockets.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t care how shabby it is,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a jolly nice old place and
+ it&rsquo;s the only house we&rsquo;ve ever had.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I never want to have any other,&rdquo; said Meg.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Gustibus leaned against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t move if I was made King of England,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Buckingham
+ Palace wouldn&rsquo;t be half as nice.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had such fun here,&rdquo; said Peg. And Kilmanskeg shook her head from
+ side to side and wiped her eyes on her ragged pocket-handkerchief. There
+ is no knowing what would have happened to them if Peter Piper hadn&rsquo;t
+ cheered up as he always did.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I say,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;do you hear that noise?&rdquo; They all listened and heard a
+ rumbling. Peter Piper ran to the window and looked out and then ran back
+ grinning.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the nurse rolling up the arm-chair before the house to hide it, so
+ that it won&rsquo;t disgrace the castle. Hooray! Hooray! If they don&rsquo;t see us
+ they will forget all about us and we shall not be burned up at all. Our
+ nice old Racketty-Packetty House will be left alone and we can enjoy
+ ourselves more than ever&mdash;because we sha&rsquo;n&rsquo;t be bothered with Cynthia&mdash;Hello!
+ let&rsquo;s all join hands and have a dance.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So they all joined hands and danced round in a ring again and they were so
+ relieved that they laughed and laughed until they all tumbled down in a
+ heap just as they had done before, and rolled about giggling and
+ squealing. It certainly seemed as if they were quite safe for some time at
+ least. The big easy chair hid them and both the nurse and Cynthia seemed
+ to forget that there was such a thing as a Racketty-Packetty House in the
+ neighborhood. Cynthia was so delighted with Tidy Castle that she played
+ with nothing else for days and days. And instead of being jealous of their
+ grand neighbors the Racketty-Packetty House people began to get all sorts
+ of fun out of watching them from their own windows. Several of their
+ windows were broken and some had rags and paper stuffed into the broken
+ panes, but Meg and Peg and Peter Piper would go and peep out of one, and
+ Gustibus and Kilmanskeg would peep out of another, and Ridiklis could
+ scarcely get her dishes washed and her potatoes pared because she could
+ see the Castle kitchen from her scullery window. It was <i>so</i>
+ exciting!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="ridiklis_cooking.jpg (39K)" src="images/ridiklis_cooking.jpg"
+ width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The Castle dolls were grand beyond words, and they were all lords and
+ ladies. These were their names. There was Lady Gwendolen Vere de Vere. She
+ was haughty and had dark eyes and hair and carried her head thrown back
+ and her nose in the air. There was Lady Muriel Vere de Vere, and she was
+ cold and lovely and indifferent and looked down the bridge of her delicate
+ nose. And there was Lady Doris, who had fluffy golden hair and laughed
+ mockingly at everybody. And there was Lord Hubert and Lord Rupert and Lord
+ Francis, who were all handsome enough to make you feel as if you could
+ faint. And there was their mother, the Duchess of Tidyshire; and of course
+ there were all sorts of maids and footmen and cooks and scullery maids and
+ even gardeners.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;We never thought of living to see such grand society,&rdquo; said Peter Piper
+ to his brother and sisters. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite a kind of blessing.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;It&rsquo;s almost like being grand ourselves, just to be able to watch them,&rdquo;
+ said Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg, squeezing together and flattening their
+ noses against the attic windows.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ They could see bits of the sumptuous white and gold drawing-room with the
+ Duchess sitting reading near the fire, her golden glasses upon her nose,
+ and Lady Gwendolen playing haughtily upon the harp, and Lady Muriel coldly
+ listening to her. Lady Doris was having her golden hair dressed by her
+ maid in her bed-room and Lord Hubert was reading the newspaper with a
+ high-bred air, while Lord Francis was writing letters to noblemen of his
+ acquaintance, and Lord Rupert was&mdash;in an aristocratic manner&mdash;glancing
+ over his love letters from ladies of title.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="duchess.jpg (50K)" src="images/duchess.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Kilmanskeg and Peter Piper just pinched each other with glee and squealed
+ with delight.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t it fun,&rdquo; said Peter Piper. &ldquo;I say; aren&rsquo;t they awful swells! But
+ Lord Francis can&rsquo;t kick about in his trousers as I can in mine, and
+ neither can the others. I&rsquo;ll like to see them try to do this,&rdquo;&mdash; and
+ he turned three summersaults in the middle of the room and stood on his
+ head on the biggest hole in the carpet&mdash;and wiggled his legs and
+ wiggled his toes at them until they shouted so with laughing that Ridiklis
+ ran in with a saucepan in her hand and perspiration on her forehead,
+ because she was cooking turnips, which was all they had for dinner.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;You mustn&rsquo;t laugh so loud,&rdquo; she cried out. &ldquo;If we make so much noise the
+ Tidy Castle people will begin to complain of this being a low neighborhood
+ and they might insist on moving away.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! scrump!&rdquo; said Peter Piper, who sometimes invented doll slang&mdash;
+ though there wasn&rsquo;t really a bit of harm in him. &ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t have them
+ move away for anything. They are meat and drink to me.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;They are going to have a dinner of ten courses,&rdquo; sighed Ridiklis, &ldquo;I can
+ see them cooking it from my scullery window. And I have nothing but
+ turnips to give you.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Who cares!&rdquo; said Peter Piper, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s have ten courses of turnips and
+ pretend each course is exactly like the one they are having at the
+ Castle.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I like turnips almost better than anything&mdash;almost&mdash;perhaps not
+ quite,&rdquo; said Gustibus. &ldquo;I can eat ten courses of turnips like a shot.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go and find out what their courses are,&rdquo; said Meg and Peg and
+ Kilmanskeg, &ldquo;and then we will write a menu on a piece of pink tissue
+ paper.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="peter_piper.jpg (46K)" src="images/peter_piper.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And if you&rsquo;ll believe it, that was what they did. They divided their
+ turnips into ten courses and they called the first one&mdash;&ldquo;Hors
+ d&rsquo;oeuvres,&rdquo; and the last one &ldquo;Ices,&rdquo; with a French name, and Peter Piper
+ kept jumping up from the table and pretending he was a footman and
+ flourishing about in his flapping rags of trousers and announcing the
+ names of the dishes in such a grand way that they laughed till they nearly
+ died, and said they never had had such a splendid dinner in their lives,
+ and that they would rather live behind the door and watch the Tidy Castle
+ people than be the Tidy Castle people themselves.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And then of course they all joined hands and danced round and round and
+ kicked up their heels for joy, because they always did that whenever there
+ was the least excuse for it&mdash;and quite often when there wasn&rsquo;t any at
+ all, just because it was such good exercise and worked off their high
+ spirits so that they could settle down for a while.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This was the way things went on day after day. They almost lived at their
+ windows. They watched the Tidy Castle family get up and be dressed by
+ their maids and valets in different clothes almost every day. They saw
+ them drive out in their carriages, and have parties, and go to balls. They
+ all nearly had brain fever with delight the day they watched Lady
+ Gwendolen and Lady Muriel and Lady Doris, dressed in their Court trains
+ and feathers, going to be presented at the first Drawing-Room.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After the lovely creatures had gone the whole family sat down in a circle
+ round the Racketty-Packetty House library fire, and Ridiklis read aloud to
+ them about Drawing-Rooms, out of a scrap of the Lady&rsquo;s Pictorial she had
+ found, and after that they had a Court Drawing-Room of their own, and they
+ made tissue-paper trains and glass bead crowns for diamond tiaras, and
+ sometimes Gustibus pretended to be the Royal family, and the others were
+ presented to him and kissed his hand, and then the others took turns and
+ he was presented. And suddenly the most delightful thing occurred to Peter
+ Piper. He thought it would be rather nice to make them all into lords and
+ ladies and he did it by touching them on the shoulder with the
+ drawing-room poker which he straightened because it was so crooked that it
+ was almost bent double. It is not exactly the way such things are done at
+ Court, but Peter Piper thought it would do&mdash; and at any rate it was
+ great fun. So he made them all kneel down in a row and he touched each on
+ the shoulder with the poker and said:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Rise up, Lady Meg and Lady Peg and Lady Kilmanskeg and Lady Ridiklis of
+ Racketty-Packetty House-and also the Right Honorable Lord Gustibus Rags!&rdquo;
+ And they all jumped up at once and made bows and curtsied to each other.
+ But they made Peter Piper into a Duke, and he was called the Duke of Tags.
+ He knelt down on the big hole in the carpet and each one of them gave him
+ a little thump on the shoulder with the poker, because it took more thumps
+ to make a Duke than a common or garden Lord.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="duke.jpg (43K)" src="images/duke.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The day after this another much more exciting thing took place. The nurse
+ was in a bad temper and when she was tidying the nursery she pushed the
+ easy chair aside and saw Racketty-Packetty House.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;there is that Racketty-Packetty old thing still. I had
+ forgotten it. It must be carried down-stairs and burned. I will go and
+ tell one of the footmen to come for it.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg were in their attic and they all rushed out in
+ such a hurry to get down-stairs that they rolled all the way down the
+ staircase, and Peter Piper and Gustibus had to dart out of the
+ drawing-room and pick them up, Ridiklis came staggering up from the
+ kitchen quite out of breath.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! our house is going to be burned! Our house is going to be burned!&rdquo;
+ cried Meg and Peg clutching their brothers.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Let us go and throw ourselves out of the window!&rdquo; cried Kilmanskeg.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see how they can have the heart to burn a person&rsquo;s home!&rdquo; said
+ Ridiklis, wiping her eyes with her kitchen duster.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Peter Piper was rather pale, but he was extremely brave and remembered
+ that he was the head of the family.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Now, Lady Meg and Lady Peg and Lady Kilmanskeg,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;let us all
+ keep cool.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;We shan&rsquo;t keep cool when they set our house on fire,&rdquo; said Gustibus.
+ Peter Piper just snapped his fingers.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Pooh!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We are only made of wood and it won&rsquo;t hurt a bit. We
+ shall just snap and crackle and go off almost like fireworks and then we
+ shall be ashes and fly away into the air and see all sorts of things.
+ Perhaps it may be more fun than anything we have done yet.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;But our nice old house! Our nice old Racketty-Packetty House,&rdquo; said
+ Ridiklis. &ldquo;I do so love it. The kitchen is so convenient&mdash;even though
+ the oven won&rsquo;t bake any more.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And things looked most serious because the nurse really was beginning to
+ push the arm-chair away. But it would not move and I will tell you why.
+ One of my Fairies, who had come down the chimney when they were talking,
+ had called me and I had come in a second with a whole army of my Workers,
+ and though the nurse couldn&rsquo;t see them, they were all holding the chair
+ tight down on the carpet so that it would not stir.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And I&mdash;Queen Crosspatch&mdash;myself&mdash;flew downstairs and made
+ the footman remember that minute that a box had come for Cynthia and that
+ he must take it upstairs to her nursery. If I had not been on the spot he
+ would have forgotten it until it was too late. But just in the very nick
+ of time up he came, and Cynthia sprang up as soon as she saw him.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="footman.jpg (29K)" src="images/footman.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried out, &ldquo;It must be the doll who broke her little leg and was
+ sent to the hospital. It must be Lady Patsy.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And she opened the box and gave a little scream of joy for there lay Lady
+ Patsy (her whole name was Patricia) in a lace-frilled nightgown, with her
+ lovely leg in bandages and a pair of tiny crutches and a trained nurse by
+ her side.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ That was how I saved them that time. There was such excitement over Lady
+ Patsy and her little crutches and her nurse that nothing else was thought
+ of and my Fairies pushed the arm-chair back and Racketty-Packetty House
+ was hidden and forgotten once more.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The whole Racketty-Packetty family gave a great gasp of joy and sat down
+ in a ring all at once, on the floor, mopping their foreheads with anything
+ they could get hold of. Peter Piper used an antimacassar.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! we are obliged to you, Queen B-bell&mdash;Patch,&rdquo; he panted out, &ldquo;But
+ these alarms of fire are upsetting.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;You leave them to me,&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;and I&rsquo;ll attend to them. Tip!&rdquo; I
+ commanded the Fairy nearest me. &ldquo;You will have to stay about here and be
+ ready to give the alarm when anything threatens to happen.&rdquo; And I flew
+ away, feeling I had done a good morning&rsquo;s work.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Well, that was the beginning of a great many things, and many of them were
+ connected with Lady Patsy; and but for me there might have been
+ unpleasantness.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Of course the Racketty-Packetty dolls forgot about their fright directly,
+ and began to enjoy themselves again as usual. That was their way. They
+ never sat up all night with Trouble, Peter Piper used to say. And I told
+ him they were quite right. If you make a fuss over trouble and put it to
+ bed and nurse it and give it beef tea and gruel, you can never get rid of
+ it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Their great delight now was Lady Patsy. They thought she was prettier than
+ any of the other Tidy Castle dolls. She neither turned her nose up, nor
+ looked down the bridge of it, nor laughed mockingly. She had dimples in
+ the corners of her mouth and long curly lashes and her nose was saucy and
+ her eyes were bright and full of laughs.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="house.jpg (45K)" src="images/house.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;She&rsquo;s the clever one of the family,&rdquo; said Peter Piper. &ldquo;I am sure of
+ that.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ She was treated as an invalid at first, of course, and kept in her room;
+ but they could see her sitting up in her frilled nightgown. After a few
+ days she was carried to a soft chair lay the window and there she used to
+ sit and look out; and the Racketty-Packetty House dolls crowded round
+ their window and adored her.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After a few days, they noticed that Peter Piper was often missing and one
+ morning Ridiklis went up into the attic and found him sitting at a window
+ all by himself and staring and staring.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! Duke,&rdquo; she said (you see they always tried to remember each other&rsquo;s
+ titles). &ldquo;Dear me, Duke, what are you doing here?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I am looking at her,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m in love. I fell in love with her
+ the minute Cynthia took her out of her box. I am going to marry her.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;But she&rsquo;s a lady of high degree,&rdquo; said Ridiklis quite alarmed.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;That&rsquo;s why she&rsquo;ll have me,&rdquo; said Peter Piper in his most cheerful manner.
+ &ldquo;Ladies of high degree always marry the good looking ones in rags and
+ tatters. If I had a whole suit of clothes on, she wouldn&rsquo;t look at me. I&rsquo;m
+ very good-looking, you know,&rdquo; and he turned round and winked at Ridiklis
+ in such a delightful saucy way that she suddenly felt as if he <i>was</i>
+ very good-looking, though she had not thought of it before.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Hello,&rdquo; he said all at once. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just thought of something to attract
+ her attention. Where&rsquo;s the ball of string?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Cynthia&rsquo;s kitten had made them a present of a ball of string which had
+ been most useful. Ridiklis ran and got it, and all the others came running
+ upstairs to see what Peter Piper was going to do. They all were delighted
+ to hear he had fallen in love with the lovely, funny Lady Patsy. They
+ found him standing in the middle of the attic unrolling the ball of
+ string.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;What are you going to do, Duke?&rdquo; they all shouted.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Just you watch,&rdquo; he said, and he began to make the string into a rope
+ ladder&mdash;as fast as lightning. When he had finished it, he fastened
+ one end of it to a beam and swung the other end out of the window.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;From her window,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;she can see Racketty-Packetty House and I&rsquo;ll
+ tell you something. She&rsquo;s always looking at it. She watches us as much as
+ we watch her, and I have seen her giggling and giggling when we were
+ having fun. Yesterday when I chased Lady Meg and Lady Peg and Lady
+ Kilmanskeg round and round the front of the house and turned summersaults
+ every five steps, she laughed until she had to stuff her handkerchief into
+ her mouth. When we joined hands and danced and laughed until we fell in
+ heaps I thought she was going to have a kind of rosy-dimpled, lovely
+ little fit, she giggled so. If I run down the side of the house on this
+ rope ladder it will attract her attention and then I shall begin to do
+ things.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ He ran down the ladder and that very minute they saw Lady Patsy at her
+ window give a start and lean forward to look. They all crowded round their
+ window and chuckled and chuckled as they watched him.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="chuckled.jpg (56K)" src="images/chuckled.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ He turned three stately summersaults and stood on his feet and made a
+ cheerful bow. The Racketty-Packettys saw Lady Patsy begin to giggle that
+ minute. Then he took an antimacassar out of his pocket and fastened it
+ round the edge of his torn trousers leg, as if it were lace trimming and
+ began to walk about like a Duke&mdash;with his arms folded on his chest
+ and his ragged old hat cocked on one side over his ear. Then the
+ Racketty-Packettys saw Lady Patsy begin to laugh. Then Peter Piper stood
+ on his head and kissed his hand and Lady Patsy covered her face and rocked
+ backwards and forwards in her chair laughing and laughing.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Then he struck an attitude with his tattered leg put forward gracefully
+ and he pretended he had a guitar and he sang right up at her window.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;From Racketty-Packetty House I come, It stands, dear Lady, in a slum, A
+ low, low slum behind the door The stout arm-chair is placed before, (Just
+ take a look at it, my Lady).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;The house itself is a perfect sight, And everybody&rsquo;s dressed like a
+ perfect fright, But no one cares a single jot And each one giggles over
+ his lot, (And as for me, I&rsquo;m in love with you).
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t make up another verse, And if I did it would be worse, But I
+ could stand and sing all day, If I could think of things to say, (But the
+ fact is I just wanted to make you look at me).&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And then he danced such a lively jig that his rags and tags flew about
+ him, and then he made another bow and kissed his hand again and ran up the
+ ladder like a flash and jumped into the attic.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ After that Lady Patsy sat at her window all the time and would not let the
+ trained nurse put her to bed at all; and Lady Gwendolen and Lady Muriel
+ and Lady Doris could not understand it. Once Lady Gwendolen said haughtily
+ and disdainfully and scornfully and scathingly:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;If you sit there so much, those low Racketty-Packetty House people will
+ think you are looking at them.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I am,&rdquo; said Lady Patsy, showing all her dimples at once. &ldquo;They are such
+ fun.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And Lady Gwendolen swooned haughtily away, and the trained nurse could
+ scarcely restore her.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When the castle dolls drove out or walked in their garden, the instant
+ they caught sight of one of the Racketty-Packettys they turned up their
+ noses and sniffed aloud, and several times the Duchess said she would
+ remove because the neighborhood was absolutely low. They all scorned the
+ Racketty-Packettys&mdash;they just <i>scorned</i> them.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ One moonlight night Lady Patsy was sitting at her window and she heard a
+ whistle in the garden. When she peeped out carefully, there stood Peter
+ Piper waving his ragged cap at her, and he had his rope ladder under his
+ arm.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Hello,&rdquo; he whispered as loud as he could. &ldquo;Could you catch a bit of rope
+ if I threw it up to you?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; she whispered back.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Then catch this,&rdquo; he whispered again and he threw up the end of a string
+ and she caught it the first throw. It was fastened to the rope ladder.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Now pull,&rdquo; he said.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ She pulled and pulled until the rope ladder reached her window and then
+ she fastened that to a hook under the sill and the first thing that
+ happened&mdash;just like lightning&mdash;was that Peter Piper ran up the
+ ladder and leaned over her window ledge.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Will you marry me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I haven&rsquo;t anything to give you to eat and I
+ am as ragged as a scarecrow, but will you?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="marry.jpg (41K)" src="images/marry.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ She clapped her little hands.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I eat very little,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And I would do without anything at all, if
+ I could live in your funny old shabby house.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;It is a ridiculous, tumbled-down old barn, isn&rsquo;t it?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But every
+ one of us is as nice as we can be. We are perfect Turkish Delights. It&rsquo;s
+ laughing that does it. Would you like to come down the ladder and see what
+ a jolly, shabby old hole the place is?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! do take me,&rdquo; said Lady Patsy.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So he helped her down the ladder and took her under the armchair and into
+ Racketty-Packetty House and Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Ridiklis and
+ Gustibus all crowded round her and gave little screams of joy at the sight
+ of her.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ They were afraid to kiss her at first, even though she was engaged to
+ Peter Piper. She was so pretty and her frock had so much lace on it that
+ they were afraid their old rags might spoil her. But she did not care
+ about her lace and flew at them and kissed and hugged them every one.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I have so wanted to come here,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s so dull at the Castle I
+ had to break my leg just to get a change. The Duchess sits reading near
+ the fire with her gold eye-glasses on her nose and Lady Gwendolen plays
+ haughtily on the harp and Lady Muriel coldly listens to her, and Lady
+ Doris is always laughing mockingly, and Lord Hubert reads the newspaper
+ with a high-bred air, and Lord Francis writes letters to noblemen of his
+ acquaintance, and Lord Rupert glances over his love letters from ladies of
+ title, in an aristocratic manner&mdash;until I could <i>scream</i>. Just
+ to see you dears dancing about in your rags and tags and laughing and
+ inventing games as if you didn&rsquo;t mind anything, is such a relief.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="rupert.jpg (40K)" src="images/rupert.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ She nearly laughed her little curly head off when they all went round the
+ house with her, and Peter Piper showed her the holes in the carpet and the
+ stuffing coming out of the sofas, and the feathers out of the beds, and
+ the legs tumbling off the chairs. She had never seen anything like it
+ before.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;At the Castle, nothing is funny at all,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;And nothing ever
+ sticks out or hangs down or tumbles off. It is so plain and new.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;But I think we ought to tell her, Duke,&rdquo; Ridiklis said. &ldquo;We may have our
+ house burned over our heads any day.&rdquo; She really stopped laughing for a
+ whole minute when she heard that, but she was rather like Peter Piper in
+ disposition and she said almost immediately.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! they&rsquo;ll never do it. They&rsquo;ve forgotten you.&rdquo; And Peter Piper said:
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t let&rsquo;s think of it. Let&rsquo;s all join hands and dance round and round
+ and kick up our heels and laugh as hard as ever we can.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And they did&mdash;and Lady Patsy laughed harder than any one else. After
+ that she was always stealing away from Tidy Castle and coming in and
+ having fun. Sometimes she stayed all night and slept with Meg and Peg and
+ everybody invented new games and stories and they really never went to bed
+ until daylight. But the Castle dolls grew more and more scornful every
+ day, and tossed their heads higher and higher and sniffed louder and
+ louder until it sounded as if they all had influenza. They never lost an
+ opportunity of saying disdainful things and once the Duchess wrote a
+ letter to Cynthia, saying that she insisted on removing to a decent
+ neighborhood. She laid the letter in her desk but the gentleman mouse came
+ in the night and carried it away. So Cynthia never saw it and I don&rsquo;t
+ believe she could have read it if she had seen it because the Duchess
+ wrote very badly&mdash;even for a doll.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And then what do you suppose happened? One morning Cynthia began to play
+ that all the Tidy Castle dolls had scarlet fever. She said it had broken
+ out in the night and she undressed them all and put them into bed and gave
+ them medicine. She could not find Lady Patsy, so <i>she</i> escaped the
+ contagion. The truth was that Lady Patsy had stayed all night at
+ Racketty-Packetty House, where they were giving an imitation Court Ball
+ with Peter Piper in a tin crown, and shavings for supper&mdash;because
+ they had nothing else, and in fact the gentleman mouse had brought the
+ shavings from his nest as a present.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="gentleman_mouse.jpg (37K)" src="images/gentleman_mouse.jpg"
+ width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Cynthia played nearly all day and the Duchess and Lady Gwendolen and Lady
+ Muriel and Lady Doris and Lord Hubert and Lord Francis and Lord Rupert got
+ worse and worse.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ By evening they were all raging in delirium and Lord Francis and Lady
+ Gwendolen had strong mustard plasters on their chests. And right in the
+ middle of their agony Cynthia suddenly got up and went away and left them
+ to their fate&mdash;just as if it didn&rsquo;t matter in the least. Well in the
+ middle of the night Meg and Peg and Lady Patsy wakened all at once.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Do you hear a noise?&rdquo; said Meg, lifting her head from her ragged old
+ pillow.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="noise.jpg (44K)" src="images/noise.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Yes, I do,&rdquo; said Peg, sitting up and holding her ragged old blanket up to
+ her chin.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Lady Patsy jumped up with feathers sticking up all over her hair, because
+ they had come out of the holes in the ragged old bed. She ran to the
+ window and listened.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! Meg and Peg!&rdquo; she cried out. &ldquo;It comes from the Castle. Cynthia has
+ left them all raving in delirium and they are all shouting and groaning
+ and screaming.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Meg and Peg jumped up too.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s go and call Kilmanskeg and Ridiklis and Gustibus and Peter Piper,&rdquo;
+ they said, and they rushed to the staircase and met Kilmanskeg and
+ Ridiklis and Gustibus and Peter Piper coming scrambling up panting because
+ the noise had wakened them as well.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ They were all over at Tidy Castle in a minute. They just tumbled over each
+ other to get there&mdash;the kind-hearted things. The servants were every
+ one fast asleep, though the noise was awful. The loudest groans came from
+ Lady Gwendolen and Lord Francis because their mustard plasters were
+ blistering them frightfully.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Ridiklis took charge, because she was the one who knew most about illness.
+ She sent Gustibus to waken the servants and then ordered hot water and
+ cold water, and ice, and brandy, and poultices, and shook the trained
+ nurse for not attending to her business&mdash;and took off the mustard
+ plasters and gave gruel and broth and cough syrup and castor oil and
+ ipecacuanha, and everyone of the Racketty-Packettys massaged, and soothed,
+ and patted, and put wet cloths on heads, until the fever was gone and the
+ Castle dolls all lay back on their pillows pale and weak, but smiling
+ faintly at every Racketty-Packetty they saw, instead of turning up their
+ noses and tossing their heads and sniffing loudly, and just <i>scorning</i>
+ them.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Lady Gwendolen spoke first and instead of being haughty and disdainful,
+ she was as humble as a new-born kitten.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! you dear, shabby, disrespectable, darling things!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Never,
+ never, will I scorn you again. Never, never!&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="shabby.jpg (45K)" src="images/shabby.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;That&rsquo;s right!&rdquo; said Peter Piper in his cheerful, rather slangy way. &ldquo;You
+ take my tip-never you scorn any one again. It&rsquo;s a mistake. Just you watch
+ me stand on my head. It&rsquo;ll cheer you up.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And he turned six summersaults&mdash;just like lightning&mdash;and stood
+ on his head and wiggled his ragged legs at them until suddenly they heard
+ a snort from one of the beds and it was Lord Hubert beginning to laugh and
+ then Lord Francis laughed and then Lord Hubert shouted, and then Lady
+ Doris squealed, and Lady Muriel screamed, and Lady Gwendolen and the
+ Duchess rolled over and over in their beds, laughing as if they would have
+ fits.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! you delightful, funny, shabby old loves!&rdquo; Lady Gwendolen kept saying.
+ &ldquo;To think that we scorned you.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;They&rsquo;ll be all right after this,&rdquo; said Peter Piper. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing
+ cures scarlet fever like cheering up. Let&rsquo;s all join hands and dance round
+ and round once for them before we go back to bed. It&rsquo;ll throw them into a
+ nice light perspiration and they&rsquo;ll drop off and sleep like tops.&rdquo; And
+ they did it, and before they had finished, the whole lot of them were
+ perspiring gently and snoring as softly as lambs.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When they went back to Racketty-Packetty House they talked a good deal
+ about Cynthia and wondered and wondered why she had left her scarlet fever
+ so suddenly. And at last Ridiklis made up her mind to tell them something
+ she had heard.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;The Duchess told me,&rdquo; she said, rather slowly because it was bad news&mdash;&ldquo;The
+ Duchess said that Cynthia went away because her Mama had sent for her&mdash;and
+ her Mama had sent for her to tell her that a little girl princess is
+ coming to see her to-morrow. Cynthia&rsquo;s Mama used to be a maid of honor to
+ the Queen and that&rsquo;s why the little girl Princess is coming. The Duchess
+ said&mdash;&rdquo; and here Ridiklis spoke very slowly indeed, &ldquo;that the nurse
+ was so excited she said she did not know whether she stood on her head or
+ her heels, and she must tidy up the nursery and have that
+ Racketty-Packetty old dolls&rsquo; house carried down stairs and burned, early
+ to-morrow morning. That&rsquo;s what the Duchess <i>said</i>&mdash;&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg clutched at their hearts and gasped and
+ Gustibus groaned and Lady Patsy caught Peter Piper by the arm to keep from
+ falling. Peter Piper gulped&mdash;and then he had a sudden cheerful
+ thought.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Perhaps she was raving in delirium,&rdquo; he said.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;No, she wasn&rsquo;t,&rdquo; said Ridiklis shaking her head, &ldquo;I had just given her
+ hot water and cold, and gruel, and broth, and castor oil, and ipecacuanha
+ and put ice almost all over her. She was as sensible as any of us.
+ To-morrow morning we shall not have a house over our heads,&rdquo; and she put
+ her ragged old apron over her face and cried.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="apron.jpg (43K)" src="images/apron.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;If she wasn&rsquo;t raving in delirium,&rdquo; said Peter Piper, &ldquo;we shall not have
+ any heads. You had better go back to the Castle tonight, Patsy.
+ Racketty-Packetty House is no place for you.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Then Lady Patsy drew herself up so straight that she nearly fell over
+ backwards.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I&mdash;will&mdash;<i>never</i>&mdash;leave you!&rdquo; she said, and Peter
+ Piper couldn&rsquo;t make her.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You can just imagine what a doleful night it was. They went all over the
+ house together and looked at every hole in the carpet and every piece of
+ stuffing sticking out of the dear old shabby sofas, and every broken
+ window and chair leg and table and ragged blanket&mdash; and the tears ran
+ down their faces for the first time in their lives. About six o&rsquo;clock in
+ the morning Peter Piper made a last effort.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="together.jpg (42K)" src="images/together.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s all join hands in a circle,&rdquo; he said quite faintly, &ldquo;and dance
+ round and round once more.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But it was no use. When they joined hands they could not dance, and when
+ they found they could not dance they all tumbled down in a heap and cried
+ instead of laughing and Lady Patsy lay with her arms round Peter Piper&rsquo;s
+ neck.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Now here is where I come in again&mdash;Queen Crosspatch&mdash;who is
+ telling you this story. I always come in just at the nick of time when
+ people like the Racketty-Packettys are in trouble. I walked in at seven
+ o&rsquo;clock.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Get up off the floor,&rdquo; I said to them all and they got up and stared at
+ me. They actually thought I did not know what had happened.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;A little girl Princess is coming this morning,&rdquo; said Peter Piper, and our
+ house is going to be burned over our heads. This is the end of
+ Racketty-Packetty House.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;No, it isn&rsquo;t!&rdquo; I said. &ldquo;You leave this to me. I told the Princess to come
+ here, though she doesn&rsquo;t know it in the least.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A whole army of my Working Fairies began to swarm in at the nursery
+ window. The nurse was working very hard to put things in order and she had
+ not sense enough to see Fairies at all. So she did not see mine, though
+ there were hundreds of them. As soon as she made one corner tidy, they ran
+ after her and made it untidy. They held her back by her dress and hung and
+ swung on her apron until she could scarcely move and kept wondering why
+ she was so slow. She could not make the nursery tidy and she was so
+ flurried she forgot all about Racketty-Packetty House again&mdash;especially
+ as my Working Fairies pushed the arm-chair close up to it so that it was
+ quite hidden. And there it was when the little girl Princess came with her
+ Ladies in Waiting. My fairies had only just allowed the nurse to finish
+ the nursery.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Ridiklis and Gustibus and Peter Piper and
+ Lady Patsy were huddled up together looking out of one window. They could
+ not bear to be parted. I sat on the arm of the big chair and ordered my
+ Working Fairies to stand ready to obey me the instant I spoke.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The Princess was a nice child and was very polite to Cynthia when she
+ showed her all her dolls, and last but not least, Tidy Castle itself. She
+ looked at all the rooms and the furniture and said polite and admiring
+ things about each of them. But Cynthia realized that she was not so much
+ interested in it as she had thought she would be. The fact was that the
+ Princess had so many grand dolls&rsquo; houses in her palace that Tidy Castle
+ did not surprise her at all. It was just when Cynthia was finding this out
+ that I gave the order to my Working Fairies.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Push the arm-chair away,&rdquo; I commanded; &ldquo;very slowly, so that no one will
+ know it is being moved.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So they moved it away&mdash;very, very slowly and no one saw that it had
+ stirred. But the next minute the little girl Princess gave a delightful
+ start.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! what is that!&rdquo; she cried out, hurrying towards the unfashionable
+ neighborhood behind the door.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Cynthia blushed all over and the nurse actually turned pale. The
+ Racketty-Packettys tumbled down in a heap beneath their window and began
+ to say their prayers very fast.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;It is only a shabby old doll&rsquo;s house, your Highness,&rdquo; Cynthia stammered
+ out. &ldquo;It belonged to my Grandmamma, and it ought not to be in the nursery.
+ I thought you had had it burned, Nurse!&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Burned!&rdquo; the little girl Princess cried out in the most shocked way. &ldquo;Why
+ if it was mine, I wouldn&rsquo;t have it burned for worlds! Oh! please push the
+ chair away and let me look at it. There are no doll&rsquo;s houses like it
+ anywhere in these days.&rdquo; And when the arm-chair was pushed aside she
+ scrambled down on to her knees just as if she was not a little girl
+ Princess at all.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! Oh! Oh!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;How funny and dear! What a darling old doll&rsquo;s
+ house. It is shabby and wants mending, of course, but it is almost exactly
+ like one my Grandmamma had&mdash;she kept it among her treasures and only
+ let me look at it as a great, great treat.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Cynthia gave a gasp, for the little girl Princess&rsquo;s Grandmamma had been
+ the Queen and people had knelt down and kissed her hand and had been
+ obliged to go out of the room backwards before her.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The little girl Princess was simply filled with joy. She picked up Meg and
+ Peg and Kilmanskeg and Gustibus and Peter Piper as if they had been really
+ a Queen&rsquo;s dolls.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Oh! the darling dears,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Look at their nice, queer faces and
+ their funny clothes. Just&mdash;just like Grandmamma&rsquo;s dollies&rsquo; clothes.
+ Only these poor things do so want new ones. Oh! how I should 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.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;That old Racketty-Packetty House,&rdquo; said Cynthia, losing her breath.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;If it were mine I should make it just like Grandmamma&rsquo;s and I should love
+ it more than any doll&rsquo;s house I have. I never&mdash;never&mdash; never&mdash;saw
+ anything as nice and laughing and good natured as these dolls&rsquo; faces. They
+ look as if they had been having fun ever since they were born. Oh! if you
+ were to burn them and their home I&mdash;I could never forgive you!&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;I never&mdash;never&mdash;will,&mdash;your Highness,&rdquo; stammered Cynthia,
+ quite overwhelmed. Suddenly she started forward.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Why, there is the lost doll!&rdquo; she cried out. &ldquo;There is Lady Patsy. How
+ did she get into Racketty-Packetty House?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;Perhaps she went there to see them because they were so poor and shabby,&rdquo;
+ said the little girl Princess. &ldquo;Perhaps she likes this one,&rdquo; and she
+ pointed to Peter Piper. &ldquo;Do you know when I picked him up their arms were
+ about each other. Please let her stay with him. Oh!&rdquo; she cried out the
+ next instant and jumped a little. &ldquo;I felt as if the boy one kicked his
+ leg.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And it was actually true, because Peter Piper could not help it and he had
+ kicked out his ragged leg for joy. He had to be very careful not to kick
+ any more when he heard what happened next.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ As the Princess liked Racketty-Packetty House so much, Cynthia gave it to
+ her for a present&mdash;and the Princess was really happy&mdash;and before
+ she went away she made a little speech to the whole Racketty-Packetty
+ family, whom she had set all in a row in the ragged old, dear old, shabby
+ old drawing-room where they had had so much fun.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ &ldquo;You are going to come and live with me, funny, good-natured loves,&rdquo; she
+ said. &ldquo;And you shall all be dressed beautifully again and your house shall
+ be mended and papered and painted and made as lovely as ever it was. And I
+ am going to like you better than all my other dolls&rsquo; houses&mdash;just as
+ Grandmamma said she liked hers.&rdquo; And then she was gone.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And every bit of it came true. Racketty-Packetty House was carried to a
+ splendid Nursery in a Palace, and Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Ridiklis
+ and Gustibus and Peter Piper were made so gorgeous that if they had not
+ been so nice they would have grown proud. But they didn&rsquo;t. They only grew
+ jollier and jollier and Peter Piper married Lady Patsy, and Ridiklis&rsquo;s
+ left leg was mended and she was painted into a beauty again&mdash;but she
+ always remained the useful one. And the dolls in the other dolls&rsquo; houses
+ used to make deep curtsies when a Racketty-Packetty House doll passed
+ them, and Peter Piper could scarcely stand it because it always made him
+ want to stand on his head and laugh&mdash;and so when they were curtsied
+ at&mdash; because they were related to the Royal Dolls House&mdash;they
+ used to run into their drawing room and fall into fits of giggles and they
+ could only stop them by all joining hands together in a ring and dancing
+ round and round and round and kicking up their heels and laughing until
+ they tumbled down in a heap.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <div class="fig" style="width:60%;">
+ <img alt="curtsies.jpg (41K)" src="images/curtsies.jpg" width="100%" />
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <br /><br />
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And what do you think of that for a story. And doesn&rsquo;t it prove to you
+ what a valuable Friend a Fairy is&mdash;particularly a Queen one?
+ </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg&rsquo;s Racketty-Packetty House, by Frances H. Burnett
+
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+</pre>
+ </body>
+</html>
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