CHAPTER 7

THE DOLLS HOUSE

That year in the summer mother was so kind to Alice and I. In fact, we were spoilt. She said we could have the empty hen house that stood in the meadow by the farm yard, to play in, as a big dolls house. We had a small one that was handed down to us no bigger than a big box. But it was missing. We had been looking for it a long time, but when we weren't looking for it we found it in the lodge we called the meal house, at the bottom of the granary. Someone had made it into a tool box. We were quite indignant when we recognized it, and ran at once to tell mother. It was the day after that that mother decided to give us the empty hen house to play in. We were so happy to have it. Mother gave us an old piece of coconut matting, some pretty pictures out of last years’ calendar, lace curtains, even a little old table two old chairs, and even a bowl and some soap, to wash our hands, near by was a stream where we could get some water. We thought how useful the nest boxes where, we had the bright idea of using them as cupboards for a towel and we even had a cake of soap. Also a cup each and plates. We would play at tea parties. The apples in the orchard were ripe at the time as it was our school holidays, and blackberries were ready too, and plums. So we used to go out and get all these for our pretending tea parties. I'm sure sister Alice like me could never forget the pleasure we found in playing in the hen house that we were allowed to have. But sad to say it didn't last long. It was our own fault as we had been warned to always shut the door to keep any inquisitive animals out. But once we forgot, alas! A big pig walked in, and we found her right inside. Lather was coming out of her mouth she was chewing our cake of soap. One glance was enough to see she had wrecked everything. What upset us most was that she had actually eaten our poor little rag dolls, all but the head and shoulders, how could we forgive her for doing such a dreadful tiling!! What helped us to get over this awful shock was having to go back to school, and mother put new bodies on our dollies heads and shoulders. Also a little girl at school told us that last Christmas, Father Christmas gave her a nice dollies pram so Alice and I thought if we prayed for Father Christmas to bring us a doll's pram we might get one this Christmas. We did wonder if God and father Christmas lived together we wouldn't be surprised.

But we didn't get our dolls pram. We told mother we had been praying for a dolls pram. She told us to try again next year. But next year, we forgot, we were not keen any more I suppose. In after years my mother told us she felt so sorry we hadn't told her. We were so keen on a doll's pram as all that.