Then she pinned up Peggy’s sleeves to her shoulders, and together they undressed the doll (which was a baby one, in long white robes), and laid its clothes in a heap on a chair.
Peggy would have liked to wash them all at once, but Janet told her that washerwomen did things one at a time, so she consented to do this. The doll’s long, tucked white robe was the first to go into the tub. It was not indeed very white, for it had got rather dirty on the railway journey.
“Rub it all over with soap, Miss Peggy,” Janet said, and Peggy rubbed on the soap as hard as she could. How the water fluffed up! it almost filled the tub, and Peggy had to part the frothy suds away with her hand to see to rub the cloth. After the robe had been well washed, Janet gave Peggy a basin full of clean water to rinse the soap out of it, and then she took a ball like a big blue cherry, wrapped it in a bit of muslin, and shook it about in the water. The water became bright blue too!
“Now, Miss Peggy, put the robe in,” said Janet. Peggy was afraid to do it; she thought it would come out bright blue. But Janet assured her it would only have a nice bluish look that would make the white whiter; and Peggy believed her, and dipped the robe in the blue. It came out as white and nice as possible.
Then Janet hung it before the kitchen stove to dry, and Peggy saw that on the stove Janet had put the dearest little iron to heat.
“Am I to iron it out my own self, Janet?” she asked.
“Oh yes, Miss Peggy, that you are.”
It took only a few minutes for the frock to dry, and then Janet put a blanket with a sheet over it upon the lid of a large box, and gave the box to Peggy for an ironing table.
The little iron was not at all difficult to manage, and Peggy found that it was delightful to squeeze all the creases out of her doll’s robe. It looked as good as new when it was done.