[Illustration]

HOUSE-BUILDING AND REPAIRS.


Father is building a new house, but I've had one given to me for
my own;
Brick red, with a white window, and black where it ought to be glass,
and the chimney yellow, like stone.
Brother Bill made me the shelves with his tool-box, and the table I
had before, and the pestle-and-mortar;
And Mother gave me the jam-pot when it was empty; it's rather big, but
it's the only pot we have that will really hold water.
We--that is I and Jemima, my doll. (For it's a Doll's House, you know,
Though some of the things are real, like the nutmeg-grater, but not
the wooden plates that stand in a row.
_They_ came out of a box of toy tea-things, and I can't think what
became of the others;
But one never can tell what becomes of anything when one has brothers.)
Jemima is much smaller than I am, and, being made of wood, she is thin;
She takes up too much room inside, but she can lie outside on the roof
without breaking it in.
I wish I had a drawing-room to put her in when I want to really cook;
I have to have the kitchen-table outside as it is, and the
pestle-and-mortar is rather too heavy for it, and everybody
can look.
There's no front door to the house, because there's no front to have a
door in, and beside,
If there were, I couldn't play with anything, for I shouldn't know how