[ Francis Hodgson Burnett / The Racketty-Packetty House ]
Burnett (1849 - 1824) was born in England but spent most of her life in America; she was a prolific author of novels, stories, and plays, many of them for children, and is perhaps best remembered today for Little Lord Fauntleroy and The Secret Garden.
Racketty-Packetty House, first published in 1906, tells the story of a group of dolls, timeworn and out-of-favor with the little girl Cynthia now that she has received a new dollhouse on her birthday. After a series of misadventures the old dolls are saved by Queen Crosspatch and her fairies.
You can read the entire work online for free at Project Gutenberg, or you can purchase it in various formats at Amazon.com.
The story mentions a Newfoundland puppy several times. The illustrations below — I've only reproduced those which show the pup — are by Harrison Cady from the 1906 edition published in New York by Century.
The first mention of the Newfoundland puppy occurs as the sad fate of the now-abandoned dolls is recounted:
Their house had grown shabbier and shabbier, and their clothes had grown simply awful; and Aurelia Matilda and Victoria Leopoldina had been broken to bits and thrown into the dust-bin, and Leontine — who had really been the beauty of the family — had been dragged out on the hearth rug one night and had had nearly all her paint licked off and a leg chewed up by a Newfoundland puppy, so that she was a sight to behold.
The last reference occurs in a discussion of how the abandoned dolls carry on with their lives.
And it was really only Cynthia who didn't know them [the old dolls] and thought them only a lot of old disreputable looking Dutch dolls — and Dutch dolls were quite out of fashion. The truth was that Cynthia was not a particularly nice little girl, and did not care much for anything unless it was quite new. But the kitten who had torn the lace mantilla got to know the family and simply loved them all, and the Newfoundland puppy was so sorry about Leontine's paint and her left leg, that he could never do enough to make up. He wanted to marry Leontine as soon as he grew old enough to wear a collar, but Leontine said she would never desert her family; because now that she wasn't the beauty any more she became the useful one, and did all the kitchen work, and sat up and made poultices and beef tea when any of the rest were ill. And the Newfoundland puppy saw she was right, for the whole family simply adored Ridiklis and could not possibly have done without her.
