The Racketty-Packetty House Book

Now this is the story about the doll family I liked and the doll family I did not . When you read it you are to remember something I am going to tell you. This is it : If you think dolls never do anything you do tit see them do, you are very much mistaken. When people are not looking at them they can do anything they choose. They can dance and sing and play on the piano and have all sorts of fun. But they can only move about and talk when people turn their backs and are not looking. If any one looks, they just stop. Fairies know this and of course Fairies visit in all the dolls' houses where the dolls are agreeable. They will not associate, though, with dolls who are not nice. They never call or leave their cards at a dolls house where the dolls are proud or had tempered. They are very particular. If you are conceited or ill-tempered yourself you will never know a fairy as long as you live...

The owner of a tumble-down dollhouse neglects its shabby occupants for a more aristocratic dollhouse and tenants, until a princess comes to visit and likes the racketty-packetty house better.