Topsy and Bingo were nearly as much excited as Charlie. Bingo ran in and out of the door and barked and barked. But Topsy climbed up the wall and in at the window and he did this again and again.
Then Charlie’s Mother and his Auntie came to look at the beautiful house. And, my goodness! they were surprised that Charlie and his Daddy had built a house that looked exactly like a real house.
And Charlie’s Mother said, “Now, we will go back to the house and we will bring Charlie’s little chairs and his table, and I will get a rag rug that is in the attic; then the house will be furnished and Charlie can live in it with Topsy and Bingo and Jane.”
So that is what they did! And Charlie’s Auntie hung some curtains across the window and tied them with blue ribbon, and his mother put the rag rug on the floor, and placed the furniture around the room so that it looked most cozy and most comfortable.
Well, just when everybody was standing and admiring the house, Jane the cat came up, and she looked at the house for a minute. Then she walked straight in at the door and lay down on the rug, and she purred and purred as loud as she could purr, because she liked Charlie’s house so tremendously. But Topsy jumped in at the window and he walked around the house and sat down on every one of the little chairs and even on the table, but when he jumped into the express cart, which was in the corner of the house, he liked it so much that he curled up and went to sleep. But Bingo was the most excited of all—he dashed around and around the house, and he jumped up in the air and barked and barked and BARKED!
The next day, when the builders were at work again, Charlie climbed up on the gate and called out to the builder who had given him the bricks, “Good morning, Mr. Builder! I have finished my house!”
The builder was most interested and he came over to look at the house that Charlie had built.
He said, “Did you build that house all by yourself?”
And Charlie said, “Yes, I built that house all by myself, and my Daddy helped me.”
