eg and Peg and Kilmanskeg were in their attic and they all rushed
out in such a hurry to get down-stairs that they rolled all the way
down the staircase, and Peter Piper and Gustibus had to dart out of
the drawing-room and pick them up, Ridiklis came staggering up from
the kitchen quite out of breath.

"Oh! our house is going to be burned! Our house is going to be
burned!" cried Meg and Peg clutching their brothers.

"Let us go and throw ourselves out of the window!" cried
Kilmanskeg.

"I don't see how they can have the heart to burn a person's home!"
said Ridiklis, wiping her eyes with her kitchen duster.

Peter Piper was rather pale, but he was extremely brave and
remembered that he was the head of the family.

"Now, Lady Meg and Lady Peg and Lady Kilmanskeg," he said, "let us
all keep cool."

"We shan't keep cool when they set our house on fire," said
Gustibus. Peter Piper just snapped his fingers.

"Pooh!" he said. "We are only made of wood and it won't hurt a bit.
We shall just snap and crackle and go off almost like fireworks and
then we shall be ashes and fly away into the air and see all sorts
of things. Perhaps it may be more fun than anything we have done
yet."

"But our nice old house! Our nice old Racketty-Packetty House,"
said Ridiklis. "I do so love it. The kitchen is so convenient--even
though the oven won't bake any more."

And things looked most serious because the nurse really was
beginning to push the arm-chair away. But it would not move and I
will tell you why. One of my Fairies, who had come down the chimney
when they were talking, had called me and I had come in a second
with a whole army of my Workers, and though the nurse couldn't see
them, they were all holding the chair tight down on the carpet so
that it would not stir.

And I--Queen Crosspatch--myself--flew downstairs and made the
footman remember that minute that a box had come for Cynthia and
that he must take it upstairs to her nursery. If I had not been on
the spot he would have forgotten it until it was too late. But just
in the very nick of time up he came, and Cynthia sprang up as soon
as she saw him.

[Transcriber's Note: See picture footman.jpg]

"Oh!" she cried out, "It must be the doll who broke her little leg
and was sent to the hospital. It must be Lady Patsy."

And she opened the box and gave a little scream of joy for there
lay Lady Patsy (her whole name was Patricia) in a lace-frilled
nightgown, with her lo