Funny Little Socks Read online

  DOLLS AT HOUSEKEEPING.

  OF all the sweet little ten-year old maidens that ever laughed anddanced through their happy lives, I don't suppose one had such awonderful doll's house, or such a fine family of dolls, as Lina. Let medescribe the family and their residence.

  In one of the upper rooms of Lina's house you would see, if you happenedto walk in, another whole house built. It is two stories high: its frontis red brick; and a flight of brown stone steps, made of sand-paperglued over wood, leads up to the entrance. It has real sashes in thewindows, which open French fashion; a silver door-plate, with the nameof "Montague" upon it; and a little mat, about as large as a halfdollar, on the upper step! If we could make ourselves as small as dolls,we might walk in, and find out that the hall has a dark wood floor, somecunning little pictures hanging on the wall, a noble black walnutstaircase, and is lighted with a real little hall lamp.

  The parlor, on one side of this hall, has a velvet carpet on the floor,satin chairs and sofas, a centre table covered with tiny books, anetagere full of ornaments, and a wicker-work flower stand filled withflowers. Real little mantel and pier glasses are over the fire place,and between the front windows, which are hung with elegant lacecurtains; and there is, besides, a piano-forte, a gold chandelier stuckfull of china wax-candles, and a little clock that can wind up--thoughas to its going, that has to be imagined, for it obstinately representsthe time as a quarter to twelve, morning, noon, and night!

  On the opposite side of the hall is the dining-room. It is furnishedwith a fine side-board, holding a silver tea-set and some tiny glassgoblets and decanters; a round table, which is abominably disorderly, itmust be confessed, being spread with a table cloth all awry, and coveredwith a grand dinner of wooden chickens and vegetables of various sorts;a mould of yellow-glass jelly, and a pair of fancy fruit dishes, made ofcream candy. The dining-room chairs, with real leather seats, arescattered about, and there is even the daily newspaper thrown down onthe floor, where the master of the house may have left it! Up stairsthere are three bedrooms, furnished in the same fashionable style; and,in short, such an elegant doll's house is not to be found anywhere butin a French toy shop. This one was brought from Paris by Lina's elderbrother, and set up in this very room last Christmas as a surprise forhis dear little sister. But it is time I should describe the family wholived in this elegant mansion. So, little reader, if you will only takefast hold of the end of the author's pen, shut up your eyes tight, andthen open them very quick on this page, heigh! presto! you and she willbe turned into little personages just the size of dolls, able to walk upthe brown stone steps, enter the house, and take a peep at the Montaguefamily.

  On a lounge by the parlor fire sits an elegant lady, who is ratherskimpy about the wig, and therefore holds the honorable post of mamma tothe family; as this circumstance, combined with her looking excessivelyinky about the nose, gives her a somewhat aged and anxious appearance.She wears a blue silk dress with five flounces, a lace cap, and a watchand chain; and her name is Mrs. Charles Augustus Montague. Her husband,_Mr._ Charles Augustus, is a china doll with a crop of rather scrubbyflaxen hair, which can be combed and brushed as much as Lina chooses.Although he is so rich, he has only one suit of clothes, and must evengo to parties in a pair of checked gingham trowsers, a red vest, and ablue coat with brass buttons! He is supposed to be down town at present,which circumstance is represented by his being unceremoniously thrustinto a corner upside down.

  Several smaller wax and china boys and girls represent the family of theill-used Mr. Montague; but the belle of the whole doll-community is hiseldest daughter, Miss Isabella Belmont Montague. She is a waxen younglady of the most splendid description; her hair is arranged like theempress', whom, indeed, she greatly resembles; her feet and hands are ofwax, and she has more dresses than I can possibly count. I am afraid youwill scarcely believe me, but she actually has a real little ermine muffand tippet, a pair of india-rubbers, an umbrella, a camels' hair shawl,and _real corsets_! and was won, with all her wardrobe, at one of theraffles in the great Union Bazaar. You went there, didn't you--youcunning little kitten? and saw all the dolls? I hope you got one too, soI do, certainly!

  LINA MAKING DOLLS' CLOTHES.]

  Besides the Montague family, there is a numerous colony of other dolls;but they, poor things, live in any corner where Lina chooses to putthem; and all day Sunday are shut up in a dark closet, with nothing todo but count their fingers and toes, if they can contrive to see them;though they have nearly as fine a wardrobe--for Lina's great amusement,next to playing with the whole colony, is to make new dresses for them.

  One Saturday afternoon, Lina was playing with her dolls in the babyhouse, with two of her little neighbors, Minnie and Maggie Elliott, tokeep her company. It was a dark, rainy sort of day; but what differencedid that make to the children? _They_ never wanted to make a parcel ofstupid morning calls, or go out shopping and spend all their money onsilly finery; no--they were full of their play in the house, and didn'tcare a doll's shoe-string how hard it rained.

  "Oh, dear!" said Lina at last; "seems to me this play is getting verystupid! I wish we knew something else to play at but everlasting'house!'"

  "I'll tell you what would be great fun!" said little Minnie, lookingwise. "You know, Lina, we spent a week once in the country with 'AliceNightcaps;' and her sister, 'Aunt Fanny's' daughter, showed us such anice, funny play! Instead of our being mothers, and aunts, and fathers,and the dolls our children, the dolls were all the people themselves,and we moved them about and spoke for them."

  "Yes, it was such a nice plan!" said Maggie; "you can't think, Lina.Suppose we divide these dolls into families, and play that Miss IsabellaBelmont Montague was going to be married, and all about it."

  "Oh, yes! yes! that will be splendid!" cried Lina. "Whom will youmanage, Maggie?"

  "I'd rather have Miss Isabella," said Maggie.

  "And I want Mr. Morris," said Minnie. "He shall be the lover."

  "Very well, then I'll make the father and mother talk," said Lina,generously taking the less splendid dolls, without a word of meancomplaint, such as "There, you hateful thing, you always want the best;"or, "I _do_ wish I could do as I like with _my own_ dolls!" forgettingthat company must be allowed to take the best always. The other dollswere equally divided between the children, and then Lina exclaimed, witha delighted little skip in the air, "Now, we are all ready to begin!Come, girls, what time shall it be?"

  "Oh, have them at breakfast!" chimed both the little visitors; and so,in defiance of the parlor clock, the time of day was supposed to beeight in the morning. The children, with many little chuckling pauses,while they considered what to do next, twitched the unlucky table clothstraight, put the tea-set on the table, and gave the family a woodenbeefsteak for breakfast, and a large plateful of wooden buttered toast,which came from a box full of such indigestible dainties. Then theyfished Mr. Charles Augustus Montague out of the corner, and set himupright in a chair at the head of the table, with his newspaper fastenedin his hands, by having a couple of large pins stuck through it andthem. The points of the pins showed on the other side, and looked as ifhe had a few extra finger nails growing on the backs of his hands. Quitea curiosity he'd have been for Barnum's Museum, wouldn't he? youprecious little old toad.

  Mrs. Montague was seated behind the tea-tray, and Miss Isabella wasreclining on a sofa up stairs, as if she was too lazy to come down whenthe rest of the family did. As the front door was only large enough forthe dolls, the whole back of the house came away. Lina and her visitorsdelightedly sat down cross-legged on the floor behind it, and the playbegan, the children talking for the dolls.

  * * * * *

  MRS. MONTAGUE. (Lina speaks for her in a fine voice.) I wish you wouldlay down your paper a moment, Charles; I want to speak to you.

  MR. M. Well, my dear, I am listening.

  MRS. M. No, you are not; put down the paper! [As this couldn't very wellbe done by the gentleman himself, Maggie twitched i
t away for him, andthrew it under the table.]

  MRS. M. Now, Charles, I must say I think it is high time Isabella wasmarried. She is most six months old, I declare! and it strikes me we hadbetter see if we can find her a husband.

  MR. M. What you say is very sensible, my dear; so I will call to-day onmy friend Mr. Morris, and invite him to dinner. Perhaps they will fallin love with each other.

  MRS. M. Oh! but is he handsome, Mr. Montague?

  MR. M. Handsome! I should rather think so! Why, he is nearly two feethigh, with curly black hair; a nose that can be seen at the side--whichis more than yours can be, Mrs. Montague--and eyes which open and shutof themselves when he lies down or sits up. Then he is a SeventhRegimenter, too, and always wears his uniform; which makes him look