d to grow in the centre
of the room, but every morning they sawed the trunk through, level with
the floor. By tea-time it was always about two feet high, and then they
put a door on top of it, the whole thus becoming a table; as soon as
they cleared away, they sawed off the trunk again, and thus there was
more room to play. There was an enormous fireplace which was in almost
any part of the room where you cared to light it, and across this Wendy
stretched strings, made of fibre, from which she suspended her washing.
The bed was tilted against the wall by day, and let down at 6.30, when
it filled nearly half the room; and all the boys except Michael slept in
it, lying like sardines in a tin. There was a strict rule against
turning round until one gave the signal, when all turned at once.
Michael should have used it also; but Wendy would have a baby, and he
was the littlest, and you know what women are, and the short and the
long of it is that he was hung up in a basket.

It was rough and simple, and not unlike what baby bears would have made
of an underground house in the same circumstances. But there was one
recess in the wall, no larger than a bird-cage, which was the private
apartment of Tinker Bell. It could be shut off from the rest of the
home by a tiny curtain, which Tink, who was most fastidious, always kept
drawn when dressing or undressing. No woman, however large, could have
had a more exquisite boudoir and bedchamber combined. The couch, as she
always called it, was a genuine Queen Mab, with club legs; and she
varied the bedspreads according to what fruit-blossom was in season. Her
mirror was a Puss-in-boots, of which there are now only three,
unchipped, known to the fairy dealers; the wash-stand was Pie-crust and
reversible, the chest of drawers an authentic Charming the Sixth, and
the carpet and rugs of the best (the early) period of Margery and Robin.
There was a chandelier from Tiddly winks for the look of the thing, but
of course she lit the residence herself. Tink was very contemptuous of
the rest of the house, as indeed was perhaps inevitable; and her
chamber, though beautiful, looked rather conceited, having the
appearance of a nose permanently turned up.

I suppose it was all especially entrancing to Wendy, because those
rampagious boys of hers gave her so much to do. Really there were whole
weeks when, except perhaps with a stocking in the evening, she was never
above ground. The cooking, I can tel