The Dolls’ House by Rumer Godden Page B

she had found Tottie a raffia shopping basket the size of a nut, and she made Tottie hang it up with her cloak in the hall. Then she went in to sit with Mr
Plantaganet. Apple was upstairs. He had been sent to bed early by Tottie so that he could not play with the lamp. Charlotte still said she had not put him on the chair, and Emily had lately given
up saying that she had. Apple was safely in bed, tucked up in his patchwork quilt so that only his round head showed. Emily had clipped his burnt fringe straight with nail scissors and his plush
had not been hurt at all. Darner lay quietly snugly in his kennel.
    ‘Shall we let them have a little music?’ asked Emily and she wound up the musical box. It went ‘tinkle, tinkle’ and Darner stirred in his dreams.
    Mr Plantaganet could not tell one of its tunes from the other. ‘I have to have words,’ said Mr Plantaganet. ‘Words help me to know what it is. Like those carols, Tottie. Do you
remember them?’ And he began to hum ‘God Bless the Master of This House’. ‘Do you remember them, Tottie?’
    ‘I remember everything,’ said Tottie, listening to the music.
    ‘Yes, I suppose you must, and for so long,’ said Mr Plantaganet. ‘Such a long time, Tottie.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Tottie.
    ‘Things come and things pass,’ said little Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘Everything, from trees to dolls,’ said Tottie.
    ‘Even for small things like us, even for dolls. Good things and bad things, but the good things have come back, haven’t they, Tottie?’ asked Mr Plantaganet anxiously.
    ‘Of course they have,’ said Tottie in her kind wooden voice.
    ‘Good things and bad. They were very bad,’ said Mr Plantaganet.
    ‘But they come and pass, so let us be happy now,’ said Tottie.
    ‘Without Birdie?’ asked Mr Plantaganet, his voice trembling.
    ‘Birdie would be happy. She couldn’t help it,’ said Tottie.
    And Birdie’s bright tinkling music went on in the dolls’ house and, on her hat that still hung in the hall, and on her feather broom, and on her bird and on her parasol, the colours
and patterns were still bright.

R UMER G ODDEN was born in England but brought up mainly in India. She became one of the UK’s most
distinguished and successful authors and wrote many well-known and much-loved books for both adults and children, including The Story of Holly and Ivy. The Diddakoi won the Whitbread
Children’s Book Award in 1972.
    She was awarded the OBE in 1993 and died in 1998, aged ninety.
    C HRISTIAN B IRMINGHAM studied illustration at Exeter College of Art. Since his graduation in 1991 he has established himself as
one of the most outstanding children’s book illustrators of his generation. He has been shortlisted for the Mother Goose Award, the Kurt Maschler Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal and the
Smarties Book Prize. Among his highly acclaimed picture books are The Night Before Christmas, Sleeping Beauty and The Classic Tales of Hans Christian Andersen. His line illustrations
are well-known from many best-selling novels by Michael Morpurgo.

Also by Rumer Godden
and published by Macmillan
    The Diddakoi
    The Story of Holly & Ivy
    Miss Happiness and Miss Flower
    The Fairy Doll
    Little Plum
    For older readers
    The Peacock Spring
    The Greengage Summer

With thanks to the Lilliput Museum of Antique Dolls and
Toys, Brading, Isle of Wight – C.B .

First published 1947 by Michael Joseph
    This edition published 2006 by Macmillan Children’s Books
    This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan Children’s Books
a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Basingstoke and Oxford
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
    ISBN 978-1-447-20634-7 EPUB
    Copyright © Rumer Godden 1947, 1962
Illustrations copyright © Christian Birmingham 2005
    The right of Rumer Godden and Christian Birmingham to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with