The dollhouse that the Burnell girls receive from "dear old Mrs. Hay" is a rather garish replica of a house belonging to the upper class, yet it is intriguing in its realistic detail.

When this present for the girls arrives, the new paint smell is quite strong since oil paint has been used on the house. The colors of the exterior are rather garish--spinach green, "picked out" with yellow. The door, which is also painted this yellow, looks like a "slab of toffee" as it gleams with varnish. The two solid chimneys are painted red and white. Among the more exciting features, there are real windows that have panes divided by streaks of the green paint of the exterior. Extending from the front of the house is a small porch, painted the yellow of the trim. Lumps of congealed paint hang along the edge of the house as though it were hurriedly painted. An interesting feature is the fact that the front side swings back to open the entire interior of the dollhouse for the ease of little hands that wish to play with things inside.

Inside this house, all the rooms are wallpapered. Little pictures hang on the walls framed in gold. Except for the kitchen, the floors of the rooms are carpeted in red. There are also red plush chairs in the drawing room; green covers the dining room chairs. Other details include tables, beds that have real "bedclothes," a cradle, a stove, and a dresser with tiny plates. Little lamps are placed in the rooms. On the center of the dining-room table, there is a small amber lamp with a white globe that appears to have oil in it.

The figurines of a mother, father, and two children seem too large for the dollhouse and look as though they do not belong. They "sprawled very stiff as though they had fainted in the drawing room, and their two children asleep upstairs, were really too big for the doll's house." But, to Kezia, the youngest of the girls, the lamp is the most fascinating because it seems real. "It seemed to smile at Kezia, to say, 'I live here.' The lamp was real."