s one Clotilda, and these boys shall be
Augustus and Rowland and Vincent and Charles Edward Stuart."

For a long time they led a very gay and fashionable life. They had
parties and balls and were presented at Court and went to Royal
Christenings and Weddings and were married themselves and had
families and scarlet fever and whooping cough and funerals and
every luxury. But that was long, long ago, and now all was changed.
Their house had grown shabbier and shabbier, and their clothes had
grown simply awful; and Aurelia Matilda and Victoria Leopoldina had
been broken to bits and thrown into the dust-bin, and Leontine--who
had really been the beauty of the family--had been dragged out on
the hearth rug one night and had had nearly all her paint licked
off and a leg chewed up by a Newfoundland puppy, so that she was a
sight to behold. As for the boys; Rowland and Vincent had quite
disappeared, and Charlotte and Amelia always believed they had run
away to seek their fortunes, because things were in such a state at
home. So the only ones who were left were Clotilda and Amelia and
Charlotte and poor Leontine and Augustus and Charles Edward Stuart.
Even they had their names changed.

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

After Leontine had had her paint licked off so that her head had
white bald spots on it and she had scarcely any features, a boy
cousin of Cynthia's had put a bright red spot on each cheek and
painted her a turned up nose and round saucer blue eyes and a
comical mouth. He and Cynthia had called her, "Ridiklis" instead of
Leontine, and she had been called that ever since. All the dolls
were jointed Dutch dolls, so it was easy to paint any kind of
features on them and stick out their arms and legs in any way you
liked, and Leontine did look funny after Cynthia's cousin had
finished. She certainly was not a beauty but her turned up nose and
her round eyes and funny mouth always seemed to be laughing so she
really was the most good-natured looking creature you ever saw.

Charlotte and Amelia, Cynthia had called Meg and Peg, and Clotilda
she called Kilmanskeg, and Augustus she called Gustibus, and
Charles Edward Stuart was nothing but Peter Piper. So that was the
end of their grand names.

The truth was, they went through all sorts of things, and if they
had not been such a jolly lot of dolls they might have had fits and
appendicitis and died of grief. But not a bit of it. If you will
believe it, t