Peggy in Toyland

by Archibald Marshall

On the ground floor were a kitchen and a dining-room, on the first floor a drawing-room and the best bedroom, and on the top floor a servants’ room and a spare room. Wooden pointed them out as they walked up the terrace, and said that as long as Peggy stayed with her she should give her the best bedroom, because it had the best furniture in it, and use the spare room for herself.

It was just like Wooden to offer to do this, but Peggy said no, she wouldn’t hear of it. She could not see the furniture of the spare room from where they were, as it was too high up, but she was sure it was good enough for her.

It may seem a little odd that Wooden should have spoken as if they were going to stay in Toyland, if not for ever, at least for some time. For Peggy had understood that the dolls who were still played with by children only went to Toyland when it was night—“over there,” as they would have said. But it did not seem odd to her, and in fact she never thought about it. Once in Toyland, the dolls who inhabited that pleasant country behaved as if they always lived there. It seemed to come from the air of the place; and that explains why Peggy never once thought of going home again as long as she was there, any more than Wooden or any of the other dolls did.

The weather was fine and warm, which would have made it nice to have the front of the house open, although a little wanting in privacy. But Wooden said, “I should like you to go in through the front door, dear. It is a beautiful door, and it seems a pity not to use it. So I think I will have the front of the house shut.”

Two wooden servant dolls, a cook and a housemaid, dressed one in a blue, the other in a black frock, with snowy white caps and aprons, had been standing in front of the kitchen looking out for them. Wooden told them to shut the front of the house, and they came out and did so, pushing it back quite easily. For they were good servants and devoted to their mistress, and kept the hinges well oiled.

When the front of the house was shut it looked very handsome indeed. The door that Wooden was so proud of was inside a fine porch, and had a brass knocker on it. All the windows had little panes of glass, kept beautifully clean, and white curtains looped up inside them. And each of them had a neat iron railing in front of it to hold flowers. It was like a real house, and yet it was like a dolls’ house, too, which made it all the more fascinating.

They went up two steps under the porch, and Wooden knocked with the knocker, to show that it was a real knocker. The doll housemaid opened the door, and they went in. For the first time in her life, naturally, Peggy was inside a real dolls’ house, with the front shut and even the door shut. Hitherto she had only been able to see what it was like by peeping in through the windows; for of course you know that a dolls’ house can never be quite the same with its front open. It takes away from the make-believe. She felt frightfully pleased; and it really was nice, and not a bit like a real house, although everything in it was of an ordinary real size.

The Lord Chancellor had come in with them. He had told Wooden that he had had a lot of running about and should like to rest a little. But, of course, what he really wanted was to get away from the crowd, and go home later on when it should have dispersed. But Wooden said that it was an honour to entertain him in her own house, which pleased him, and by the time they had got inside he had recovered some of his spirits, and seemed ready to be as talkative as ever.

Wooden led the way up to the drawing-room, which had a carpet of a very large pattern and a wall paper with enormous roses on it. The furniture was beautifully made, but Peggy felt that she was really sitting on a dolls’ sofa and not on an ordinary one, although it was comfortable, and of an ordinary size. Nothing was quite the same. The mirrors had tin frames, the books on the tables were evidently toy books, with thick leaves and bindings that did not keep quite flat; and there were some packs of cards and some dominoes on another table looking exactly like those very tiny ones which you can buy in shops, but are so small that you do not want to play with them more than once.