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Little Maid in Toyland

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<h1 class="faux">A LITTLE MAID IN TOYLAND</h1> <h2> BY ADAH LOUISE SUTTON</h2> <h2>CHAPTER I THE WALKING HOUSE</h2> THE doll’s house stood in the most convenient corner of the nursery, having, like Noah’s dove, found rest only after a somewhat varied and tempestuous experience. Sally had not been at all able to make up her mind just what location suited her best, and the house had patiently traveled, or, in other words, had been propelled by the united efforts of Bob and Sally—“The corporal pushed and the sergeant pulled”—the one dragging, the other pushing, from corner to corner and from side to side of the spacious room. Not a piece of furniture but had been moved out of the way that the doll’s house might stand in its place, and was as methodically moved back again when the building resumed its travels. Never did it remain in one place for longer than twenty-four hours, much to the disgust and terror of its inmates, who were frequently joggled from their chairs and tilted out of bed as their domicile renewed its pilgrimage. They concluded by naming it the Walking House, which certainly seemed appropriate enough under existing circumstances. Finally, when the Walking House had traveled around the nursery, Sally decided that the very best position was the one it had[5] at first occupied, a sunny spot between two windows, and at night lighted from above by a bracket from which depended four electric bulbs. To be sure, the dresser, to which this post of vantage had originally belonged, became very sulky at being deprived of her rights, and purposely twisted off one of her castors while in transit to the other side of the room. But as nothing in the world was easier than for John, the man of all work, to screw another castor in its place, nobody really minded it the least little bit. A great man by the name of Ruskin once said that “Architecture is frozen music.” Now the architecture of the Walking House was no description of music at all, and I have no doubt that the gentleman who admired Grecian architecture would have held up both hands in dismay at mentioning architecture and the Walking House in the same breath. Truth to tell, the building had been designed by Sally herself, and had been elaborated by John’s handy fingers from a number of good-sized boxes procured from the grocery man. The boxes diminished in size as the house soared upward, the whole terminating in a peaked roof under whose roomy gable Sally had planned and consummated an attic for her beloved dollies that would have put to shame the garret of many a grown-up housekeeper. All the rest of the rooms had been papered by the children’s deft fingers in neat little designs procured from Mr. Brouse, the[6] gentleman with a wooden leg who lived three blocks away and then around the corner and up one flight, as he himself was wont to describe it. And although he really did live up one flight as far as eating and drinking and sleeping were concerned, the shop was in reality only up one step—that most fascinating shop, from whose mysterious recesses might be procured rolls of the most delightful wall paper, which was surely invented and designed simply and solely for the decoration of doll houses. Mr. Brouse was an old soldier, according to his own account, and indeed was familiarly addressed as “Captain” by his intimate cronies. He had lost a limb in a mysterious battle, the name of which, as spoken by himself, Sally had never been able to discover in any one of several histories of the United States through which the little girl had patiently toiled in search of it. However, Sally had unbounded faith in her hero, for such she considered him to be; and her admiration was returned with interest by the retired “Captain” who, with his own hands—that, as Bob seriously remarked, had once wielded a sword—carried to the nursery a large pail of paste and assisted in hanging the wall paper, and many a difficult corner he had arranged with neatness and despatch. He had even tacked up tiny mouldings made from the slender strips of which wee gilt frames are fashioned. In fact, his work was a masterpiece of art, and Sally appreciated it hugely, making a shy[7] return in the way of fat pin-cushions and sprawling penwipers, and even a gorgeous silk needlebook, mysterious of design and most difficult of access as regarding certain wabbly strings and buttons, which, when once fastened, could never be persuaded to open themselves again, and behind whose secret fastnesses the needles comfortably and aimlessly rusted. So much for the papering of the rooms. When it came to finishing the attic, why, that was quite another thing. Sally calmly but firmly declared that it must be plastered, and plastered it was, but altogether without the assistance of Mr. Brouse, who declared that matters were growing altogether too complicated for him. And he politely retired, forgetting his pail of paste, however, into which nurse presently fell, much to the detriment of her best gloves which she had put on in order to appear unusually fine on her afternoon out. Nothing daunted, Sally flew to the cellar and routed out John, who was taking a bit of a nap in a cosy little den he had fixed for himself in the furnace room. John was surely an exception to most people, who are usually cranky at being wakened. He bobbed up smiling, and readily agreed to attend to plastering the attic of the Walking House. And in a much shorter time than Sally had really expected, the whole job was finished and the little room with its peaked ceiling looked exactly like a really truly attic. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus008.jpg" width-obs="455" height-obs="595" alt="Children watching man with peg-leg cut paper" /> <div class="caption">The “Captain” assisted in hanging the wall paper.</div> </div> The house, as before described, was built of good-sized boxes,[8] [9] [10] neatly put together with narrow cleats to hide the joinings, and the whole was painted a delicate gray, only the sloping roof being moss green. John had covered this roof with tiny shingles, and the effect of the whole was extremely attractive. It was divided in the middle by a broad hall, at the back of which was a wide stairway. John had rather demurred at the stairway, foreseeing that the making of it would be a troublesome piece of business. But Sally had stoutly insisted thereon, for how on earth could a doll descend from upper stories to lower without stairs? She would be forced to hurl herself out of the front windows,—called so by compliment since the whole front of the house stood open in one generous space—a proceeding extremely detrimental to china limbs. Sally was a matter-of-fact little soul, albeit she possessed a brilliant imagination. But she certainly builded better than she knew when she insisted on that staircase. John, as usual, gave in and the stairs became an accomplished fact. The lower floor of the Walking House consisted of a spacious dining-room on one side of the hall and a kitchen and laundry on the other. On the next floor were the drawing-room, library and music-room. On the third floor were three bed-rooms and a bath-room, and above all, the attic. On one side of the house and running across the front on the lower floor, John had built a veranda, on which a doll might enjoy[11] coolness and comfort on the hottest of days, while all the way up the other side ran a tiny fire-escape, which finally disappeared in a scuttle in the sloping roof. Bob, just then much interested in electricity, wired the whole house and connected it with the electric light chandelier which hung above it, so that every room was brilliantly lighted with electricity, and an electric bell at the front door gave notice whenever a friendly doll dropped in for afternoon tea. Sally’s one regret was that there was no cellar. The child had dreamed of a wee furnace and a fruit closet filled with jars of jam and jelly put up over a tiny electric stove. But the stove had been utterly impracticable, John had declared that it would be impossible to dig down through the floor of the room for the cellar, and practical nurse had pointed out the fact that nowhere could one find preserve jars tiny enough for the purpose. So Sally had given up the project, not without a sigh however. She had very, very realistic ideas, had Sally. One of her pet projects, confided to her governess, Miss Palmer, not without misgivings, had been to build a revolving house, one that could be “swung around” as the child, knowing nothing of pivots, had expressed it. This idea she had conceived to be applied not only to doll houses, but to real dwellings. “You could always have the sunshine wherever you wanted it,”[12] she had explained. “And wouldn’t it be fine to have it always right here in the nursery?” Miss Palmer had hesitated a little before replying. Indeed Sally’s theories often caused her to hesitate. However, she finally explained that the idea would be quite impossible, as all buildings of any size require a firm foundation. And she thereupon proceeded to explain the nature of the pivot, considering the opportunity a very fitting one. “Besides,” she concluded, “wouldn’t it be very selfish for us to keep all the sunshine on our side of the house all the time? What would become of Grandma and Bob?” Sally was quiet for a moment, thinking. “I didn’t mean to be selfish,” she whispered, snuggling her peachy cheek against her teacher’s shoulder. “I’m sure you didn’t, my dear,” returned Miss Palmer. And so it fell out that no architect, not even John, was ever requested to draw plans for a house that might revolve on a pivot. <hr class="chap" /> [13] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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