The Dolls’ House Read Online Free PDF Page A

round the edges,’ said Mother. ‘And what do you think? Shall we make Apple a patchwork quilt for his
cot?’
    ‘Could you make the patches small enough?’ asked Emily. Mother thought she could.
    ‘It is getting better and better and better,’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘Yes!’ said Birdie.
    ‘Yes, but you must go on wishing,’ said Tottie. ‘You mustn’t leave off wishing.’
    ‘While I am in this cleaning mood,’ said Charlotte, ‘I am going to wash the windows. What shall we do about curtains?’ asked Charlotte.
    ‘They should be lace,’ said Mother.
    Then Emily spoke. ‘They must be real lace,’ said Emily.
    Mr Plantaganet smiled.
    ‘Real lace is very expensive,’ said Mother.
    ‘I shall get my money box,’ answered Emily.
    ‘Get mine too,’ said Charlotte.
    ‘What is the difference between real lace and not-real lace?’ whispered Birdie.
    ‘It is made by hand and not by machine,’ said Tottie slowly, ‘and it shows the care that was taken to make it, and besides being fine, it is strong, every least bit of it, and
it looks different and it feels different. You would know the difference if you saw the two together.’
    ‘Do you think I would?’ asked Birdie humbly. ‘Real things and not-real things, they seem the same to me. My bird and its songs –’ She knew one was real and one was
not, but she could not say now which was which.
    Emily came back with the money boxes. They were rather empty; hers had a threepenny bit, a half-crown and a florin and a sixpenny bit in it. ‘Five shillings and threepence,’ said
Emily. Charlotte’s had a florin, sixpence, four three-penny bits, and a penny. ‘Three shillings and sevenpence,’ said Emily, ‘eight and tenpence altogether. That might be
enough but – there are other things we want as well,’ said Emily. There was a gleam in her eyes as she looked at the old couch and chairs.
    ‘I shall measure the windows,’ said Charlotte and she measured them with Mother’s tape measure. They were six inches long. ‘Six inches, and there are four windows. Four
times six is twenty-four, twenty-four inches, and twenty-seven inches is three-quarters of a yard. We should have to buy three-quarters of a yard of that real lace,’ said Charlotte.
‘And we should have three inches over. We could make a lace apron for Tottie.’
    ‘Yes, but we need a new couch and chairs.’
    The couch and chairs, now they were stripped, certainly looked in very bad repair; their wooden arms and legs were scratched and stained and they had no stuffing left on their seats and backs at
all.
    ‘Not a little patch of that red velvet,’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘There are others in the shops,’ said Charlotte uncertainly.
    ‘Yes, ordinary ones,’ said Emily scornfully.
    ‘Wouldn’t – wouldn’t ordinary ones do?’ Charlotte was a little like Birdie. She was happy with ordinary things, but Emily was not.
    ‘This dolls’ house is special,’ said Emily. ‘You know it is, Charlotte. It is an antique,’ said Emily.
    ‘What is an an—what she said then?’ asked Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘Yes, what is it?’
    ‘What is it, Tottie?’
    ‘Old things are antiques,’ said Tottie. ‘Things that have lasted for many years, usually because they were beautifully made of good materials in the beginning.’
    ‘Like real lace,’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘Yes, and usually they have been given great care or they would not have lasted all that time,’ said Tottie.
    ‘Like the dolls’ house?’ asked Birdie. ‘It is an antique. Emily said so.’
    ‘Are you an antique, Tottie?’ asked Apple suddenly.
    ‘I suppose I am,’ said Tottie.
    ‘I know what would look very beautiful on that holly-green carpet,’ Emily was saying slowly. ‘Do you know, Charlotte?’
    ‘What?’ asked Charlotte.
    ‘Do you remember looking at that shop in Wigmore Street?’ said Emily, ‘where they had that little set of dolls’ house chairs and couch? They were very old and they were