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diff --git a/8574.txt b/8574.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5feb520 --- /dev/null +++ b/8574.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1452 @@ +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: November 10, 2012 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE *** + + + + +Produced by Nicole Apostola + + + + +RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE +As told by Queen Crosspatch + +By +Frances Hodgson Burnett +Author of "Little Lord Fauntleroy" + +With illustrations by Harrison Cady + +[Transcribers note: see frontispiece.jpg, dance.jpg and fairy.jpg] + + + +Now this is the story about the doll family I liked and the doll +family I didn'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'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' +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' 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. + +Queen Crosspatch. + + + +RACKETTY-PACKETTY HOUSE + +Racketty-Packetty House was in a corner of Cynthia'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'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' +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: + +"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." + +In fact, that was the way in which the old dolls' house got its +name. It had always been called, "The Dolls' House," before, but +after that it was pushed into the unfashionable neighborhood behind +the door and ever afterwards--when it was spoken of at all--it was +just called Racketty-Packetty House, and nothing else. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture tidyshire_castle.jpg] + +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'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' dolls' houses. Cynthia'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. + +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. + +Cynthia'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. + +"This one shall be Amelia," she said. "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." + +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--who +had really been the beauty of the family--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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture ridiklis.jpg] + +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'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, "Ridiklis" 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'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. + +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. + +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's pink silk +flounces were torn she pinned them up and didn't mind in the least, +and when Peg'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. + +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't keep them away from the dolls' +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't know them and thought them only a +lot of old disreputable looking Dutch dolls--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'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'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--besides +not wanting to live in nests, and hatch eggs--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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture mouse.jpg] + +It happened in this way: + +When the dolls' 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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture fashionable_wives.jpg] + +"Well," said Peter Piper, "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's join hands and have a dance." + +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. + +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. + +"Good gracious, if you knew what I have just heard!" she said. They +all scrambled up and called out together. + +"Hello! What is it?" + +"The nurse said the most awful thing," she answered them. "When +Cynthia asked what she should do with this old Racketty-Packetty +House, she said, 'Oh! I'll put it behind the door for the present +and then it shall be carried down-stairs and burned. It's too +disgraceful to be kept in any decent nursery.'" + +"Oh!" cried out Peter Piper. + +"Oh!" said Gustibus. + +"Oh! Oh! Oh!" said Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg. "Will they burn our +dear old shabby house? Do you think they will?" And actually tears +began to run down their cheeks. + +Peter Piper sat down on the floor all at once with his hands +stuffed in his pockets. + +"I don't care how shabby it is," he said. "It's a jolly nice old +place and it's the only house we've ever had." + +"I never want to have any other," said Meg. + +Gustibus leaned against the wall with his hands stuffed in his +pockets. + +"I wouldn't move if I was made King of England," he said. +"Buckingham Palace wouldn't be half as nice." + +"We've had such fun here," 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't cheered up as he always did. + +"I say," he said, "do you hear that noise?" They all listened and +heard a rumbling. Peter Piper ran to the window and looked out and +then ran back grinning. + +"It's the nurse rolling up the arm-chair before the house to hide +it, so that it won't disgrace the castle. Hooray! Hooray! If they +don'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--because we sha'n't +be bothered with Cynthia--Hello! let's all join hands and have a +dance." + +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 _so_ exciting! + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture ridiklis_cooking.jpg] + +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. + +"We never thought of living to see such grand society," said Peter +Piper to his brother and sisters. "It's quite a kind of blessing." + +"It's almost like being grand ourselves, just to be able to watch +them," said Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg, squeezing together and +flattening their noses against the attic windows. + +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--in an aristocratic manner--glancing over his love letters from +ladies of title. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture duchess.jpg] + +Kilmanskeg and Peter Piper just pinched each other with glee and +squealed with delight. + +"Isn't it fun," said Peter Piper. "I say; aren't they awful swells! +But Lord Francis can't kick about in his trousers as I can in mine, +and neither can the others. I'll like to see them try to do this,"-- +and he turned three summersaults in the middle of the room and +stood on his head on the biggest hole in the carpet--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. + +"You mustn't laugh so loud," she cried out. "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." + +"Oh! scrump!" said Peter Piper, who sometimes invented doll slang-- +though there wasn't really a bit of harm in him. "I wouldn't have +them move away for anything. They are meat and drink to me." + +"They are going to have a dinner of ten courses," sighed Ridiklis, +"I can see them cooking it from my scullery window. And I have +nothing but turnips to give you." + +"Who cares!" said Peter Piper, "Let's have ten courses of turnips +and pretend each course is exactly like the one they are having at +the Castle." + +"I like turnips almost better than anything--almost--perhaps not +quite," said Gustibus. "I can eat ten courses of turnips like a +shot." + +"Let's go and find out what their courses are," said Meg and Peg +and Kilmanskeg, "and then we will write a menu on a piece of pink +tissue paper." + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture peter_piper.jpg] + +And if you'll believe it, that was what they did. They divided +their turnips into ten courses and they called the first one--"Hors +d'oeuvres," and the last one "Ices," 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. + +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--and quite often when +there wasn'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. + +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. + +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'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-- +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: + +"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!" 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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture duke.jpg] + +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. + +"Oh!" she said, "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." + +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. + +"Oh! our house is going to be burned! Our house is going to be +burned!" cried Meg and Peg clutching their brothers. + +"Let us go and throw ourselves out of the window!" cried +Kilmanskeg. + +"I don't see how they can have the heart to burn a person's home!" +said Ridiklis, wiping her eyes with her kitchen duster. + +Peter Piper was rather pale, but he was extremely brave and +remembered that he was the head of the family. + +"Now, Lady Meg and Lady Peg and Lady Kilmanskeg," he said, "let us +all keep cool." + +"We shan't keep cool when they set our house on fire," said +Gustibus. Peter Piper just snapped his fingers. + +"Pooh!" he said. "We are only made of wood and it won'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." + +"But our nice old house! Our nice old Racketty-Packetty House," +said Ridiklis. "I do so love it. The kitchen is so convenient--even +though the oven won't bake any more." + +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't see +them, they were all holding the chair tight down on the carpet so +that it would not stir. + +And I--Queen Crosspatch--myself--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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture footman.jpg] + +"Oh!" she cried out, "It must be the doll who broke her little leg +and was sent to the hospital. It must be Lady Patsy." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh! we are obliged to you, Queen B-bell--Patch," he panted out, +"But these alarms of fire are upsetting." + +"You leave them to me," I said, "and I'll attend to them. Tip!" I +commanded the Fairy nearest me. "You will have to stay about here +and be ready to give the alarm when anything threatens to happen." +And I flew away, feeling I had done a good morning's work. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture house.jpg] + +"She's the clever one of the family," said Peter Piper. "I am sure +of that." + +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. + +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. + +"Oh! Duke," she said (you see they always tried to remember each +other's titles). "Dear me, Duke, what are you doing here?" + +"I am looking at her," he answered. "I'm in love. I fell in love +with her the minute Cynthia took her out of her box. I am going to +marry her." + +"But she's a lady of high degree," said Ridiklis quite alarmed. + +"That's why she'll have me," said Peter Piper in his most cheerful +manner. "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't look at me. I'm very good-looking, you know," and he +turned round and winked at Ridiklis in such a delightful saucy way +that she suddenly felt as if he _was_ very good-looking, though she +had not thought of it before. + +"Hello," he said all at once. "I've just thought of something to +attract her attention. Where's the ball of string?" + +Cynthia'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. + +"What are you going to do, Duke?" they all shouted. + +"Just you watch," he said, and he began to make the string into a +rope ladder--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. + +"From her window," he said, "she can see Racketty-Packetty House +and I'll tell you something. She'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." + +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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture chuckled.jpg] + +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--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. + +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. + + "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). + + "The house itself is a perfect sight, + And everybody'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'm in love with you). + + "I can'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)." + +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. + +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: + +"If you sit there so much, those low Racketty-Packetty House people +will think you are looking at them." + +"I am," said Lady Patsy, showing all her dimples at once. "They are +such fun." + +And Lady Gwendolen swooned haughtily away, and the trained nurse +could scarcely restore her. + +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--they just +_scorned_ them. + +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. + +"Hello," he whispered as loud as he could. "Could you catch a bit +of rope if I threw it up to you?" + +"Yes," she whispered back. + +"Then catch this," 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. + +"Now pull," he said. + +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--just like lightning--was that Peter Piper ran up the +ladder and leaned over her window ledge. + +"Will you marry me," he said. "I haven't anything to give you to +eat and I am as ragged as a scarecrow, but will you?" + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture marry.jpg] + +She clapped her little hands. + +"I eat very little," she said. "And I would do without anything at +all, if I could live in your funny old shabby house." + +"It is a ridiculous, tumbled-down old barn, isn't it?" he said. +"But every one of us is as nice as we can be. We are perfect +Turkish Delights. It's laughing that does it. Would you like to +come down the ladder and see what a jolly, shabby old hole the +place is?" + +"Oh! do take me," said Lady Patsy. + +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. + +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. + +"I have so wanted to come here," she said. "It'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--until I could _scream_. Just to see you dears +dancing about in your rags and tags and laughing and inventing +games as if you didn't mind anything, is such a relief." + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture rupert.jpg] + +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. + +"At the Castle, nothing is funny at all," she said. "And nothing +ever sticks out or hangs down or tumbles off. It is so plain and +new." + +"But I think we ought to tell her, Duke," Ridiklis said. "We may +have our house burned over our heads any day." 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. + +"Oh! they'll never do it. They've forgotten you." And Peter Piper +said: + +"Don't let's think of it. Let's all join hands and dance round and +round and kick up our heels and laugh as hard as ever we can." + +And they did--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't +believe she could have read it if she had seen it because the +Duchess wrote very badly--even for a doll. + +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 _she_ 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--because they had nothing else, and +in fact the gentleman mouse had brought the shavings from his nest +as a present. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture gentleman_mouse.jpg] + +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. + +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--just as if it didn't matter in +the least. Well in the middle of the night Meg and Peg and Lady +Patsy wakened all at once. + +"Do you hear a noise?" said Meg, lifting her head from her ragged +old pillow. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture noise.jpg] + +"Yes, I do," said Peg, sitting up and holding her ragged old +blanket up to her chin. + +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. + +"Oh! Meg and Peg!" she cried out. "It comes from the Castle. +Cynthia has left them all raving in delirium and they are all +shouting and groaning and screaming." + +Meg and Peg jumped up too. + +"Let's go and call Kilmanskeg and Ridiklis and Gustibus and Peter +Piper," 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. + +They were all over at Tidy Castle in a minute. They just tumbled +over each other to get there--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. + +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--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 _scorning_ them. + +Lady Gwendolen spoke first and instead of being haughty and +disdainful, she was as humble as a new-born kitten. + +"Oh! you dear, shabby, disrespectable, darling things!" she said. +"Never, never, will I scorn you again. Never, never!" + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture shabby.jpg] + +"That's right!" said Peter Piper in his cheerful, rather slangy +way. "You take my tip-never you scorn any one again. It's a +mistake. Just you watch me stand on my head. It'll cheer you up." + +And he turned six summersaults--just like lightning--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. + +"Oh! you delightful, funny, shabby old loves!" Lady Gwendolen kept +saying. "To think that we scorned you." + +"They'll be all right after this," said Peter Piper. "There's +nothing cures scarlet fever like cheering up. Let's all join hands +and dance round and round once for them before we go back to bed. +It'll throw them into a nice light perspiration and they'll drop +off and sleep like tops." And they did it, and before they had +finished, the whole lot of them were perspiring gently and snoring +as softly as lambs. + +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. + +"The Duchess told me," she said, rather slowly because it was bad +news--"The Duchess said that Cynthia went away because her Mama +had sent for her--and her Mama had sent for her to tell her that a +little girl princess is coming to see her to-morrow. Cynthia's +Mama used to be a maid of honor to the Queen and that's why the +little girl Princess is coming. The Duchess said--" and here +Ridiklis spoke very slowly indeed, "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' house carried down stairs and burned, early to-morrow +morning. That's what the Duchess _said_--" + +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--and then he had a sudden +cheerful thought. + +"Perhaps she was raving in delirium," he said. + +"No, she wasn't," said Ridiklis shaking her head, "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," and she put her ragged old apron over her face and cried. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture apron.jpg] + +"If she wasn't raving in delirium," said Peter Piper, "we shall not +have any heads. You had better go back to the Castle tonight, +Patsy. Racketty-Packetty House is no place for you." + +Then Lady Patsy drew herself up so straight that she nearly fell +over backwards. + +"I--will--_never_--leave you!" she said, and Peter Piper couldn't +make her. + +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-- +and the tears ran down their faces for the first time in their +lives. About six o'clock in the morning Peter Piper made a last +effort. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture together.jpg] + +"Let's all join hands in a circle," he said quite faintly, "and +dance round and round once more." + +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's neck. + +Now here is where I come in again--Queen Crosspatch--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'clock. + +"Get up off the floor," I said to them all and they got up and +stared at me. They actually thought I did not know what had +happened. + +"A little girl Princess is coming this morning," said Peter Piper, +and our house is going to be burned over our heads. This is the end +of Racketty-Packetty House." + +"No, it isn't!" I said. "You leave this to me. I told the Princess +to come here, though she doesn't know it in the least." + +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--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. + +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. + +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' +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. + +"Push the arm-chair away," I commanded; "very slowly, so that no +one will know it is being moved." + +So they moved it away--very, very slowly and no one saw that it had +stirred. But the next minute the little girl Princess gave a +delightful start. + +"Oh! what is that!" she cried out, hurrying towards the +unfashionable neighborhood behind the door. + +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. + +"It is only a shabby old doll's house, your Highness," Cynthia +stammered out. "It belonged to my Grandmamma, and it ought not to +be in the nursery. I thought you had had it burned, Nurse!" + +"Burned!" the little girl Princess cried out in the most shocked +way. "Why if it was mine, I wouldn't have it burned for worlds! Oh! +please push the chair away and let me look at it. There are no +doll's houses like it anywhere in these days." 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. + +"Oh! Oh! Oh!" she said. "How funny and dear! What a darling old +doll's house. It is shabby and wants mending, of course, but it is +almost exactly like one my Grandmamma had--she kept it among her +treasures and only let me look at it as a great, great treat." + +Cynthia gave a gasp, for the little girl Princess'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. + +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's dolls. + +"Oh! the darling dears," she said. "Look at their nice, queer faces +and their funny clothes. Just--just like Grandmamma's dollies' +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." + +"That old Racketty-Packetty House," said Cynthia, losing her +breath. + +"If it were mine I should make it just like Grandmamma's and I +should love it more than any doll's house I have. I never--never-- +never--saw anything as nice and laughing and good natured as these +dolls' 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--I +could never forgive you!" + +"I never--never--will,--your Highness," stammered Cynthia, quite +overwhelmed. 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 and +shabby," said the little girl Princess. "Perhaps she likes this +one," and she pointed to Peter Piper. "Do you know when I picked +him up their arms were about each other. Please let her stay with +him. Oh!" she cried out the next instant and jumped a little. "I +felt as if the boy one kicked his leg." + +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. + +As the Princess liked Racketty-Packetty House so much, Cynthia gave +it to her for a present--and the Princess was really happy--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. + +"You are going to come and live with me, funny, good-natured +loves," she said. "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' houses--just as Grandmamma said she liked hers." +And then she was gone. + +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't. They only grew jollier and jollier and Peter Piper +married Lady Patsy, and Ridiklis's left leg was mended and she was +painted into a beauty again--but she always remained the useful +one. And the dolls in the other dolls' 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--and so when they were curtsied at-- +because they were related to the Royal Dolls House--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. + +[Transcriber's Note: See picture curtsies.jpg] + +And what do you think of that for a story. And doesn't it prove to +you what a valuable Friend a Fairy is--particularly a Queen one? + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Racketty-Packetty House, by Frances H. 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