eight

“Let’s take the dollhouse home,” said Sylva. “My sisters will be so jealous!”

“Good idea,” said Poppy. “We’ll keep it at your fairy house for a while, and then we can move it to mine.”

“Well, we could take it to your fairy house, eventually,” said Sylva. “But I think it’s important to have it at our house so that if Tinker Bell comes home, she could see it. Don’t you think so, too, Poppy?”

“Yes, yes, I do.”

Sylva guessed that Poppy might have wanted to show off the dollhouse to her own sisters, so she gave that idea some thought. “I’ll tell you what,” said Sylva. “We’ll keep it at my house for part of the time, and then we’ll bring it to your house. And just to be completely fair, you can be in charge of the upstairs part of the house”—she knew this would please Poppy, because the upstairs had bedrooms with flowered wallpaper—“and I will be in charge of the downstairs of the house.” Sylva actually liked the downstairs better—there was a sweet little piano that she hoped she could make work one day. “Whatever is upstairs belongs to you; whatever is downstairs belongs to me.”

“Perfect!” said Poppy. “Good idea!”

It wasn’t easy flying with a big crate, but Poppy and Sylva were so good at working together that they did very well, and were back at the Fairy Bell sisters’ house in no time.

Clara was at home, having spring-cleaning lemonade with Iris Flower.

“Oh, Clara! Iris! Look what we got from the jumble pile!” Sylva called.

Poppy and Sylva carefully lifted the dollhouse out of the crate. “We’re getting good at this,” Sylva said with a grin. Iris and Clara were amazed.

“Are you absolutely positive Queen Mab is giving this away?”

“We’re positive! She said so herself!” said Sylva.

“She gave it to the two of us,” said Poppy. “And we’ve worked out exactly how we’re going to share.” Poppy grinned at Sylva, and Sylva grinned back.

With their spring-cleaning all finished, the blessing of Queen Mab on their heads, and the scent of a hundred daffodils in the air, the two best friends played with their fairy dollhouse in the fairy house garden, and didn’t even stop for lunch.