"
Joe. "Mother Carey, may Pincher kill your rats?"
Armine. "One wants a clue of thread to find one's way."
Janet. "I've counted five-and-thirty bedrooms already, and that's
not all."
Babie. "And there's a little copper tea-kettle in each. May my
dolls have one?"
Bobus. "There's nothing else in most of them; and, my eyes! how
musty they smell."
Elvira. "I will have the room with the big red bed, with a gold
crown at the top."
Allen. "Mother, it will be a magnificent place, but it must have a
vast deal done to it."
But Mother Carey was only looking for Jessie. No one had seen her.
Janet suggested that she had taken a rat for a ghost, and they began
to look and call in all quarters, till at last she appeared, looking
rather white and scared at having lost herself, being bewildered by
the voices and steps echoing here, there, and everywhere. The
barrenness and uniformity did make it very easy to get lost, for even
while they were talking, Joe was heard roaring to know where they
were, nor would he stand still till they came up with him, but
confused them and himself by running to meet them by some deluding
stair.
"We've not got a house, but a Cretan labyrinth," said Babie.
"Or the bewitched castle mother told us of," said Allen, "where
everybody was always running round after everybody.
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