The Very Little Princess: Rose's Story by Marion Dane Bauer

mother always told her to put her dirty clothes in the hamper in the bathroom, butsomehow they never got there.) Some books and toys scattered here and there.
    But then … there it was. Rose didn’t know how she had missed seeing it when she stepped into the room. She gasped and Regina squealed.
    â€œMy house!” Regina cried.
    And Rose said, “It’s here!”
    Here, indeed, it was. The dollhouse that had once been on the shelf in the back of the hardware store now sat on the window seat in Rose’s room. Sometimes when you bring something home from the store, it seems to get smaller on the trip home. In Rose’s room, the dollhouse had grown more grand.
    â€œTake me to it!” Regina ordered. “This instant!”
    So Rose did. She tiptoed across the room, removed Princess Regina from her harness, and set her down very gently in the dollhouse bedroom.
    And oh … the bedroom!
    Not only did the dollhouse look fine there in Rose’s room, but the little bedroom had been transformed. It had always been remarkably like Rose’s own, with the ruffled pink canopy and pink bedspread on the bed and its scattering of rosebuds on the walls. Now it was
exactly
like hers.
    The brown furniture had been painted white with delicate gold trim!
    â€œYou?” Rose asked, turning to her brother. “You did this for Regina … for me?”
    â€œFor both of you,” Sam said. “I thought she’d be safe here. And I figured she wouldn’t need you so much if she had her own house.”
    â€œNeed her?” Regina bounced on the bed. She bounced so high her head nearly bumped the pink canopy. “Why would I need her? I have everything I could possibly want right here!”

    Rose stepped back, away from the dollhouse. “You mean,” she said to Regina, “you want to stay here?”
    â€œOf course!” Princess Regina said. She skipped over to the tiny dressing table and sat in front of the oval mirror. “Now and then, perhaps,” she said, “you can take me out to my throne room … or for a walk in the woods. As for going into town and meeting those nasty girls”—her tiny shoulders shuddered—“who needs it? I’ll stay right here, thank you very much.”
    â€œIf you’re sure,” Rose said, though she wasn’t at all sure herself. Was this what
she
wanted?
    Sam, however, seemed pleased. “Sounds good to me,” he said. “Let’s get some lunch.” And he headed for the stairs.
    Rose followed, but slowly.
    She stopped in the doorway, looking back. Princess Regina still sat in front of the mirror, arranging her hair, smoothing a wrinkle fromher pretty pink gown, examining her flawless china skin.
    â€œBye,” Rose said.
    When Regina didn’t reply, she said more loudly, “Good-bye, Your Royal Highness!”
    Then, without waiting for an answer, she followed Sam downstairs.

    It was just as well Rose didn’t wait, because the princess didn’t bother to answer. After all, a princess isn’t obligated to speak every time she is spoken to.
    She gathered her golden hair in both hands and held it up. Should she wear it this way? She let it fall. Or that?
    After a few minutes and a few different hairstyles, she got up and crossed the room to look through the dollhouse window. From there she could see out the larger window in Rose’s roominto the yard. That was good. If she got bored, she could always look out the window.
    Not that she expected to get bored.
    She did wish she could go into the other rooms, though. Unfortunately, the dollhouse wasn’t designed that way. There was no stairway, not even doors between the rooms. She needed a human hand to move her from room to room through the open front.
    And that was a problem, too. Why was the front of the house open? She would never have any privacy. What if she didn’t always want her