THE PLAY-HOUSE THE PLAY-HOUSE _Monday, I wash my dollies' clothes, And Tuesday, smoothly press them. Wednesday, I mend their little hose, And Thursday, neatly dress them. Friday, I play they're very ill, Saturday, something or other. Sunday, I say, "Lie still, I'm going to church with mother."_ WHEN I was walking in a garden the other day, I saw a play-house. And what do you suppose it was? A big tree with humpy roots which stuck out of the ground, and low branches which nearly touched the grass at the ends. You could not stand up straight in the house if you were more than three feet tall, but as the people who lived in the house were only about two feet eleven inches, they did not mind that. You should have seen the china-closet. It was under a bent root, and all the dishes were white with violet markings. One might have thought they were big and little and middling-sized clam-shells, if one had not seen them in a china-closet. There was a bedroom between two big roots. A doll was taking a nap there, not on a pine-pillow, but on a whole bed of pleasant-smelling pine needles which had dropped off a tree in the neighbourhood. The mistress of the house was in the kitchen cooking, and the kitchen, of course, was where the sun came through a break in the branches. One must have a patch of sun in a kitchen, for how can you bake without it? When I went into this kitchen, there was a cake baking, with an ornament on the top that looked quite like an acorn. I was invited to stay for lunch, and I will tell you what we had: First, there were brown-bread cutlets, and smooth white stone potatoes, and a wonderful salad made of maple leaves and pepper-grass. Then for dessert we had the cake I had seen baking, and milk. The cake had a brown layer made from the garden beds and a yellow layer made from the path, and was iced with white sand. You will guess that the brown bread cutlets and the milk were what people getting up plays call "practicable," which is just a grown-up word for "really and truly."