ver.

"Good gracious, if you knew what I have just heard!" she said. They
all scrambled up and called out together.

"Hello! What is it?"

"The nurse said the most awful thing," she answered them. "When
Cynthia asked what she should do with this old Racketty-Packetty
House, she said, 'Oh! I'll put it behind the door for the present
and then it shall be carried down-stairs and burned. It's too
disgraceful to be kept in any decent nursery.'"

"Oh!" cried out Peter Piper.

"Oh!" said Gustibus.

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" said Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg. "Will they burn our
dear old shabby house? Do you think they will?" And actually tears
began to run down their cheeks.

Peter Piper sat down on the floor all at once with his hands
stuffed in his pockets.

"I don't care how shabby it is," he said. "It's a jolly nice old
place and it's the only house we've ever had."

"I never want to have any other," said Meg.

Gustibus leaned against the wall with his hands stuffed in his
pockets.

"I wouldn't move if I was made King of England," he said.
"Buckingham Palace wouldn't be half as nice."

"We've had such fun here," said Peg. And Kilmanskeg shook her head
from side to side and wiped her eyes on her ragged pocket-handkerchief.
There is no knowing what would have happened to them if Peter Piper
hadn't cheered up as he always did.

"I say," he said, "do you hear that noise?" They all listened and
heard a rumbling. Peter Piper ran to the window and looked out and
then ran back grinning.

"It's the nurse rolling up the arm-chair before the house to hide
it, so that it won't disgrace the castle. Hooray! Hooray! If they
don't see us they will forget all about us and we shall not be
burned up at all. Our nice old Racketty-Packetty House will be left
alone and we can enjoy ourselves more than ever--because we sha'n't
be bothered with Cynthia--Hello! let's all join hands and have a
dance."

So they all joined hands and danced round in a ring again and they
were so relieved that they laughed and laughed until they all
tumbled down in a heap just as they had done before, and rolled
about giggling and squealing. It certainly seemed as if they were
quite safe for some time at least. The big easy chair hid them and
both the nurse and Cynthia seemed to forget that there was such a
thing as a Racketty-Packetty House in the neighborhood. Cynthia was
so delighted with Tidy Castle that she played with nothing else for
days and days. And