FullReads

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.

“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!