The Doll's House

When dear old Mrs. Hay went back to town after staying with the Burnells she sent the children a doll's house. It was so big that the Carter and Pat carried it into the courtyard, and there it stayed, propped up on two wooden boxes beside the feed-room door. No harm could come to it; it was summer.And perhaps the smell of paint would have gone off by the time it had to betaken in. For, really, the smell of paint coming from that doll's house ("Sweetof old Mrs. Hay, of course; most sweet and generous!")—but the smell of paintwas quite enough to make any one seriously ill, in Aunt Beryl's opinion. Evenbefore the sacking was taken off. There stood the doll's house, a dark, oily, spinach green, picked out withbright yellow. It's two solid little chimneys, glued onto the roof, were paintedred and white, and the door, gleaming with yellow varnish, was like a little slabof toffee. Four windows, real windows, were divided into panes by a broadstreak of green. There was actually a tiny porch, too, painted yellow, with biglumps of congealed paint hanging along the edge.But perfect, perfect little house! Who could possibly mind the smell? It was part of the joy, part of the newness."Open it quickly, some one!"The hook at the side was stuck fast. Pat pried it open with his penknife, and the whole house front swung back, and—there you were, gazing at one and the same moment into the drawing-room and dining room, the kitchen and two bedrooms. That is the way for a house to open! Why don't all houses open like that? How much more exciting than peering through the slit of a door into a mean little hall with a hat stand and two umbrellas! That is—isn't it?—whatyou long to know about a house when you put your hand on the knocker.Perhaps it is the way God opens houses at dead of night when He is taking a  quiet turn with an angel. . . ."O-oh!" The Burnell children sounded as though they were in despair. Itwas too marvelous; it was too much for them. They had never seen anything so beautiful.All the rooms were papered. There were pictures on the walls, painted on the paper, with gold frames complete. Red carpet covered all the floors except the kitchen; red plush chairs in the drawing room, green in the dining room; tables, beds with real bedclothes, a cradle, a stove, a dresser with tiny plates and one big jug. But what Kezia liked more than anything, what she liked frightfully, was the lamp. It stood in the middle of the dining room table, an exquisite little amber lamp with a white globe. It was even filled already for lighting, though, of course, you couldn't light it.

 But there was something inside that looked like oil, and that moved when you shook it.The father and mother dolls, who sprawled very stiff as though they hadfainted in the drawing room, and their two little children asleep upstairs, were really too big for the doll's house. They didn't look as though they belonged.But the lamp was perfect. It seemed to smile at Kezia, to say, "I live here." The the lamp was real

1.carter: delivery person.