When the dolls’ house was lifted by the nurse and carried into the corner behind the door, of course it was rather an exciting and shaky thing for Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Gustibus and Peter Piper (Ridiklis was out shopping). The furniture tumbled about and everybody had to hold on to anything they could catch hold of. As it was, Kilmanskeg slid under a table and Peter Piper sat down in the coal-box; but notwithstanding all this, they did not lose their tempers and when the nurse sat their house down on the floor with a bump, they all got up and began to laugh. Then they ran and peeped out of the windows and then they ran back and laughed again. [Transcriber’s Note: See picture fashionable_wives.jpg] “Well,” said Peter Piper, “we have been called Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg and Gustibus and Peter Piper instead of our grand names, and now we live in a place called Racketty-Packetty House. Who cares! Let’s join hands and have a dance.” And they joined hands and danced round and round and kicked up their heels, and their rags and tatters flew about and they laughed until they fell down; one on top of the other. It was just at this minute that Ridiklis came back. The nurse had found her under a chair and stuck her in through a window. She sat on the drawing-room sofa which had holes in its covering and the stuffing coming out, and her one whole leg stuck out straight in front of her, and her bonnet and shawl were on one side and her basket was on her left arm full of things she had got cheap at market. She was out of breath and rather pale through being lifted up and swished through the air so suddenly, but her saucer eyes and her funny mouth looked as cheerful as ever. “Good gracious, if you knew what I have just heard!” she said. They all scrambled up and called out together. “Hello! What is it?” “The nurse said the most awful thing,” she answered them. “When Cynthia asked what she should do with this old Racketty-Packetty House, she said, ‘Oh! I’ll put it behind the door for the present and then it shall be carried down-stairs and burned. It’s too disgraceful to be kept in any decent nursery.’” “Oh!” cried out Peter Piper. “Oh!” said Gustibus. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” said Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg. “Will they burn our dear old shabby house? Do you think they will?” And actually tears began to run down their cheeks. Peter Piper sat down on the floor all at once with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “I don’t care how shabby it is,” he said. “It’s a jolly nice old place and it’s the only house we’ve ever had.” “I never want to have any other,” said Meg. Gustibus leaned against the wall with his hands stuffed in his pockets. “I wouldn’t move if I was made King of England,” he said. “Buckingham Palace wouldn’t be half as nice.”