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, an etagere full of ornaments, and a wicker-work flower stand filled with flowers. Real little mantel and pier gla.s.ses are over the fire place, and between the front windows, which are hung with elegant lace curtains; and there is, besides, a piano-forte, a gold chandelier stuck full of china wax-candles, and a little clock that can wind up--though as to its going, that has to be imagined, for it obstinately represents the time as a quarter to twelve, morning, noon, and night!
On the opposite side of the hall is the dining-room. It is furnished with a fine side-board, holding a silver tea-set and some tiny gla.s.s goblets and decanters; a round table, which is abominably disorderly, it must be confessed, being spread with a table cloth all awry, and covered with a grand dinner of wooden chickens and vegetables of various sorts; a mould of yellow-gla.s.s jelly, and a pair of fancy fruit dishes, made of cream candy. The dining-room chairs, with real leather seats, are scattered about, and there is even the daily newspaper thrown down on the floor, where the master of the house may have left it! Up stairs there are three bedrooms, furnished in the same fashionable style; and, in short, such an elegant doll"s house is not to be found anywhere but in a French toy shop. This one was brought from Paris by Lina"s elder brother, and set up in this very room last Christmas as a surprise for his dear little sister. But it is time I should describe the family who lived in this elegant mansion. So, little reader, if you will only take fast hold of the end of the author"s pen, shut up your eyes tight, and then open them very quick on this page, heigh! presto! you and she will be turned into little personages just the size of dolls, able to walk up the brown stone steps, enter the house, and take a peep at the Montague family.
On a lounge by the parlor fire sits an elegant lady, who is rather skimpy about the wig, and therefore holds the honorable post of mamma to the family; as this circ.u.mstance, combined with her looking excessively inky 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 watch and chain; and her name is Mrs. Charles Augustus Montague. Her husband, _Mr._ Charles Augustus, is a china doll with a crop of rather scrubby flaxen 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 even go to parties in a pair of checked gingham trowsers, a red vest, and a blue coat with bra.s.s b.u.t.tons! He is supposed to be down town at present, which circ.u.mstance is represented by his being unceremoniously thrust into a corner upside down.
Several smaller wax and china boys and girls represent the family of the ill-used Mr. Montague; but the belle of the whole doll-community is his eldest daughter, Miss Isabella Belmont Montague. She is a waxen young lady of the most splendid description; her hair is arranged like the empress", whom, indeed, she greatly resembles; her feet and hands are of wax, and she has more dresses than I can possibly count. I am afraid you will scarcely believe me, but she actually has a real little ermine m.u.f.f and 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 the raffles in the great Union Bazaar. You went there, didn"t you--you cunning little kitten? and saw all the dolls? I hope you got one too, so I do, certainly!
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 put them; and all day Sunday are shut up in a dark closet, with nothing to do 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 amus.e.m.e.nt, next to playing with the whole colony, is to make new dresses for them.
One Sat.u.r.day afternoon, Lina was playing with her dolls in the baby house, with two of her little neighbors, Minnie and Maggie Elliott, to keep her company. It was a dark, rainy sort of day; but what difference did that make to the children? _They_ never wanted to make a parcel of stupid morning calls, or go out shopping and spend all their money on silly finery; no--they were full of their play in the house, and didn"t care a doll"s shoe-string how hard it rained.
"Oh, dear!" said Lina at last; "seems to me this play is getting very stupid! I wish we knew something else to play at but everlasting "house!""
"I"ll tell you what would be great fun!" said little Minnie, looking wise. "You know, Lina, we spent a week once in the country with "Alice Nightcaps;" and her sister, "Aunt f.a.n.n.y"s" daughter, showed us such a nice, 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 Isabella Belmont Montague was going to be married, and all about it."
"Oh, yes! yes! that will be splendid!" cried Lina. "Whom will you manage, 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 mean complaint, 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!" forgetting that company must be allowed to take the best always. The other dolls were equally divided between the children, and then Lina exclaimed, with a 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 be eight in the morning. The children, with many little chuckling pauses, while they considered what to do next, twitched the unlucky table cloth straight, put the tea-set on the table, and gave the family a wooden beefsteak for breakfast, and a large plateful of wooden b.u.t.tered toast, which came from a box full of such indigestible dainties. Then they fished Mr. Charles Augustus Montague out of the corner, and set him upright in a chair at the head of the table, with his newspaper fastened in his hands, by having a couple of large pins stuck through it and them. The points of the pins showed on the other side, and looked as if he had a few extra finger nails growing on the backs of his hands. Quite a curiosity he"d have been for Barnum"s Museum, wouldn"t he? you precious little old toad.
Mrs. Montague was seated behind the tea-tray, and Miss Isabella was reclining on a sofa up stairs, as if she was too lazy to come down when the rest of the family did. As the front door was only large enough for the dolls, the whole back of the house came away. Lina and her visitors delightedly sat down cross-legged on the floor behind it, and the play began, the children talking for the dolls.
MRS. MONTAGUE. (Lina speaks for her in a fine voice.) I wish you would lay 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 well be done by the gentleman himself, Maggie twitched it away for him, and threw it under the table.]
MRS. M. Now, Charles, I must say I think it is high time Isabella was married. She is most six months old, I declare! and it strikes me we had better see if we can find her a husband.
MR. M. What you say is very sensible, my dear; so I will call to-day on my friend Mr. Morris, and invite him to dinner. Perhaps they will fall in 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 feet high, with curly black hair; a nose that can be seen at the side--which is more than yours can be, Mrs. Montague--and eyes which open and shut of themselves when he lies down or sits up. Then he is a Seventh Regimenter, too, and always wears his uniform; which makes him look very genteel.
MRS. M. Oh, I am sure he must be lovely! Do bring him to dinner this very day.
Here Maggie made the dining-room door open, and in walked Miss Isabella.
She wore a pink merino morning dress, open in front, to show her embroidered petticoat, a pair of bronze slippers with pink bows, and a net with steel beads in it. Maggie set her down hard in one of the chairs, and pushed her up to the table; while Minnie, who moved the n.i.g.g.e.r boy doll, who waited on table, picked him up by his woolly top-knot, from the floor, where he had tumbled, and made him hand the young lady a cup of tea. Then Maggie began:
MISS ISABELLA. Dear me, mamma! this tea"s as cold as a stone! I wish you would have breakfast a little later; as I"m so tired when I come home from a party, that I can"t think of getting up at seven o"clock.
MRS. M. But you must get up, my love. Besides, we want plenty of time to-day, so"s we can be ready; for we are going to have company to dinner.
ISABELLA. Who is coming, mamma?
MRS. M. Mr. Morris, my dear.
ISABELLA. Oh, I am so glad!
MRS. M. Yes, you"re going to be married to-morrow, my dear; we will invite all our relations and friends, and you must have a white satin wedding dress; you certainly must.
ISABELLA. How nice! S"pose we go out and buy it now.
MRS. M. We can"t go to-day; it"s our _eceptin_ (reception) day, you know.
MR. M. Well, I "spect I must go down town. Good-by, my dears. I shall certainly ask Mr. Morris to dinner. He"s a very nice young man for a small dinner party.
So the children made Mr. Montague kiss his wife and daughter; which they did by b.u.mping his china nose against their cheeks, until it nearly made a dent in the wax; and then pranced him down the front steps, and put him in his corner again.
Then Minnie"s doll came in. She took up Mr. Morris, a composition doll, in a Seventh Regiment uniform, who had been bought at a fair, and began moving him across the floor until he was opposite the door. Then she commenced talking.
MR. MORRIS. Why, I declare! here is Mr. Montague"s house. I think I will go in and make a call.
And he ran up the steps, and pretended to ring the bell; but as it was only a handle, Lina rang the dinner bell instead.
MR. MORRIS. It"s very funny they don"t answer the bell!
(Ting-a-ling-ling.) Come! make haste, I want to get in.
Here Minnie took up Toby, the black boy, carried him to the front door, and kindly opened it for him.
TOBY. Laws, ma.s.sa! is dat you? I was jus" tastin" de jolly, to be sure it was good for dinner! so I couldn"t come no sooner.
MR. MORRIS. Is Miss Isabella Belmont Montague at home?
TOBY. Yes, ma.s.sa, de ladies is to hum; walk in de parlor.
So Mr. Morris came in (with Minnie"s hand behind him), and sat down on the sofa. It was rather small for him, and he covered it up so much that there wasn"t a bit of room for Miss Isabella, when she came down. Maggie had dressed her meanwhile in her green silk skirt, which had real little three-cornered pockets, with an embroidered pocket handkerchief sticking out of one, and her white tucked waist.
Up jumped Mr. Morris, and made her such an elegant bow, that his cap, which he was obliged to keep on all the time, in consequence of the strap being glued fast under his chin, fell all to one side; and looked as if the top of his head had accidentally come off and been stuck on crooked.
MR. MORRIS. Good morning, Miss Isabella; how do you do?