hey got fun out of everything. They used to just
scream with laughter over the new names, and they laughed so much
over them that they got quite fond of them. When Meg's pink silk
flounces were torn she pinned them up and didn't mind in the least,
and when Peg's lace mantilla was played with by a kitten and
brought back to her in rags and tags, she just put a few stitches
in it and put it on again; and when Peter Piper lost almost the
whole leg of one of his trousers he just laughed and said it made
it easier for him to kick about and turn somersaults and he wished
the other leg would tear off too.

You never saw a family have such fun. They could make up stories
and pretend things and invent games out of nothing. And my Fairies
were so fond of them that I couldn't keep them away from the dolls'
house. They would go and have fun with Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg
and Gustibus and Peter Piper, even when I had work for them to do
in Fairyland. But there, I was so fond of that shabby disrespectable
family myself that I never would scold much about them, and I often
went to see them. That is how I know so much about them. They were
so fond of each other and so good-natured and always in such
spirits that everybody who knew them was fond of them. And it was
really only Cynthia who didn't know them and thought them only a
lot of old disreputable looking Dutch dolls--and Dutch dolls were
quite out of fashion. The truth was that Cynthia was not a
particularly nice little girl, and did not care much for anything
unless it was quite new. But the kitten who had torn the lace
mantilla got to know the family and simply loved them all, and the
Newfoundland puppy was so sorry about Leontine's paint and her left
leg, that he could never do enough to make up. He wanted to marry
Leontine as soon as he grew old enough to wear a collar, but
Leontine said she would never desert her family; because now that
she wasn't the beauty any more she became the useful one, and did
all the kitchen work, and sat up and made poultices and beef tea
when any of the rest were ill. And the Newfoundland puppy saw she
was right, for the whole family simply adored Ridiklis and could
not possibly have done without her. Meg and Peg and Kilmanskeg
could have married any minute if they had liked. There were two
cock sparrows and a gentleman mouse, who proposed to them over and
over again. They all three said they did not want fashionable wives
but cheerful disposit