“Oh!” she said, “there is that Racketty-Packetty old thing still. I had forgotten it. It must be carried down-stairs and burned. I will go and tell one of the footmen to come for it.”
Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg were in their attic and they all rushed out in such a hurry to get down-stairs that they rolled all the way down the staircase, and Peter Piper and Gustibus had to dart out of the drawing-room and pick them up, Ridiklis came staggering up from the kitchen quite out of breath.
“Oh! our house is going to be burned! Our house is going to be burned!” cried Meg and Peg clutching their brothers.
“Let us go and throw ourselves out of the window!” cried Kilmanskeg.
“I don’t see how they can have the heart to burn a person’s home!” said Ridiklis, wiping her eyes with her kitchen duster.
Peter Piper was rather pale, but he was extremely brave and remembered that he was the head of the family.
“Now, Lady Meg and Lady Peg and Lady Kilmanskeg,” he said, “let us all keep cool.”
“We shan’t keep cool when they set our house on fire,” said Gustibus. Peter Piper just snapped his fingers.
“Pooh!” he said. “We are only made of wood and it won’t hurt a bit. We shall just snap and crackle and go off almost like fireworks and then we shall be ashes and fly away into the air and see all sorts of things. Perhaps it may be more fun than anything we have done yet.”
“But our nice old house! Our nice old Racketty-Packetty House,” said Ridiklis. “I do so love it. The kitchen is so convenient—even though the oven won’t bake any more.”