Racketty-Packetty House and Other Stories Read Online Free

of rosy-dimpled, lovely little fit, she giggled so. If I run down the side of the house on this rope ladder it will attract her attention and then I shall begin to do things.”
    He ran down the ladder and that very minute they saw Lady Patsy at her window give a start and lean forward to look. They all crowded ’round their window and chuckled and chuckled as they watched him.
    He turned three stately somersaults and stood on his feet and made a cheerful bow. The Racketty-Packettys saw Lady Patsy begin to giggle that minute. Then he took an antimacassar out of his pocket and fastened it ’round the edge of his torn trousers leg, as if it were lace trimming and began to walk about like a Duke—with his arms folded on his chest and his ragged old hat cocked on one side over his ear. Then the Racketty-Packettys saw Lady Patsy begin to laugh. Then Peter Piper stood on his head and kissed his hand and Lady Patsy covered her face and rocked backwards and forwards in her chair laughing and laughing.
    Then he struck an attitude with his tattered leg put forward gracefully and he pretended he had a guitar and he sang—right up at her window.
    â€œFrom Racketty-Packetty House I come,
It stands, dear Lady, in a slum,
A low, low slum behind the door
The stout armchair is placed before,
(Just take a look at it, my Lady).
    Â 
    â€œThe house itself is a perfect sight,
And everybody’s dressed like a perfect fright,
But no one cares a single jot
And each one giggles over his lot,
(And as for me, I’m in love with you).
    Â 
    â€œI can’t make up another verse,
And if I did it would be worse,
But I could stand and sing all day,
If I could think of things to say,
(But the fact is I just wanted to make
you look at me).”
    And then he danced such a lively jig that his rags and tags flew about him, and then he made another bow and kissed his hand again and ran up the ladder like a flash and jumped into the attic.
    After that Lady Patsy sat at her window all the time and would not let the trained nurse put her to bed at all; and Lady Gwendolen and Lady Muriel and Lady Doris could not understand it. Once Lady Gwendolen said haughtily and disdainfully and scornfully and scathingly:
    â€œIf you sit there so much, those low Racketty-Packetty House people will think you are looking at them.”
    â€œI am,” said Lady Patsy, showing all her dimples at once. “They are such fun.”
    And Lady Gwendolen swooned haughtily away, and the trained nurse could scarcely restore her.
    When the castle dolls drove out or walked in their garden, the instant they caught sight of one of the Racketty-Packettys they turned up their noses and sniffed aloud, and several times the Duchess said she would remove because the neighborhood was absolutely low. They all scorned the Racketty-Packetty’s—they just scorned them.
    One moonlight night Lady Patsy was sitting at her window and she heard a whistle in the garden. When she peeped out carefully, there stood Peter Piper waving his ragged cap at her, and he had his rope ladder under his arm.
    â€œHello,” he whispered as loud as he could. “Could you catch a bit of rope if I threw it up to you?”
    â€œYes,” she whispered back.
    â€œThen catch this,” he whispered again and threw up the end of a string and she caught it the first throw. It was fastened to the rope ladder.
    â€œNow pull,” he said.
    She pulled and pulled until the rope ladder reached her window and then she fastened that to a hook under the sill and the first thing that happened—just like lightning—was that Peter Piper ran up the ladder and leaned over her window ledge.
    â€œWill you marry me,” he said. “I haven’t anything to give you to eat and I am as ragged as a scarecrow, but will you?”
    She clapped her hands.
    â€œI eat very little,” she said. “And I would do without anything at all, if I could live