Mamma says we may on one condition, to which we agree; We're to _really_ wash the dolls' clothes, and make them just what clean clothes should be. She says we must wash them thoroughly, which of course we intend to do, We mean to rub, wring, dry, mangle, starch, iron, and air them too. A regular wash must be splendid fun, and everybody knows That any one in the world can wash out a few dirty clothes.
Well, we've had the Dolls' Wash, but it's only pretty good fun. We're glad we've had it, you know, but we're gladder still that it's done. As we wanted to have as big a wash as we could, we collected everything we could muster, From the dolls' bed dimity hangings to Victoria's dress, which I'd used as a duster. It was going to the wash, and Mary and I were house-maids--fancy house-maids, I mean-- And I took it to dust the bookshelf, for I knew it would come back clean. Well, we washed in the wash-hand-basin, which holds a good deal, as the things are small; We made a glorious lather, and splashed half over the floor; but the clothes weren't white after all. However, we hung them out in our drying-ground in the garden, which we made with dahlia-sticks and long strings, And then Dash went and knocked over one of the posts, and down in the dirt went our things! So we washed them again and hung them on the towel-horse, and most of them came all right, But Victoria's muslin dress--though I rinsed it again and again--will never dry white! And the grease-spots on Mary's doll's dress don't seem to come out, and we can't think how they got there; Unless it was when we made that Macassar-oil, because she has real hair. I knew mine was going to the wash, but I'm sorry I used it as a duster before it went; We think dirty clothes perhaps shouldn't be _too_ dirty before they are sent. We had sad work in trying to make the starch--I wonder what the Queen does with hers? I stirred mine up with a candle, like Sally, but it only made it worse; So we had to ask Mamma's leave to have ours made by Nurse. Nurse makes beautiful starch--like water-arrowroot when you're ill--in a minute or two. It's a very odd thing that what looks so easy should be so difficult to do! Then Mary put the iron down to heat, but as soon as she'd turned her back, A jet of gas came sputtering out of the coals and smoked it black. We dared not ask Sally for another, for we knew she'd refuse it, So we had to clean this one with sand and brown-paper before we could use it. It was very hard work, but I rubbed till I made it shine; Yet as soon as it got on a damped "fine thing" it left a brown line. I rubbed it for a long, long time before it would iron without a mark, But it did at last, and we finished our Dolls' Wash just before dark.