Moving Day

A new house has appeared in the neighbourhood. The mother in the Big Yellow House watches curiously.  The giant Hand is over there helping the new family move in. Mother hasn't seen the Hand for a while. She wasn't worried, though. She knew it wouldn't dessert them.

The new house is white with green shutters. Mother can see fresh, clean wallpaper and beautiful floors in each room. "How lovely," she thinks. "I wonder if the Hand will fix up our house like that." She tries to interest Grandmother in the new neighbours, but Grandmother is too busy in the kitchen. "I can't look now," she says. I have to cut up these tomatoes and get the bean pot off the heat."

Mother calls up the stairs for father to come and see, but he has no clothes and can't leave the bedroom. She tells him to watch out the bedroom window, although he won't see much from there. Mother and the little girl go to the window nearest the new house to see what happens.

First, the Hand brings a maid to the house. The maid is wearing a black uniform with a white apron and cap. She  puts her hand to her mouth as if she's amazed at what she sees. Next comes a cook. She is carrying a broom and she and the maid give the house a once over so the furniture can be moved in.

The Hand starts bringing furniture to the top floor of the house. In the bathroom the tub, toilet and sink are decorated with little pink flowers. "How pretty!" says the little girl. Do you think the Hand will bring us a bathroom?"

"We'll just have to wait and see." answers Mother. "The Hand will do whatever is best for us." But Mother secretly wishes for a bathroom too. The yellow house is big it but has only four rooms and a hallway. There is no place to put a bathroom.

Next comes the nursery furniture. "There's a little bed!" cries the little girl. "Maybe they have a daughter my age."

"That would be nice." says Mother. "And there's a bassinet. How pretty it is. Maybe that mother and I can take our babies for walks together. That is, if the Hand brings me a pram." Mother has been secretly wishing for a nice woman to make friends with. Grandmother isn't much company. All she wants to do is cook and clean the kitchen. And father can't come out of his room so she doesn't see much of him. She wishes the Hand would bring him some clothes.

"I wonder if the other room is also a child's room," says the little girl. "It would be nice to have new friends."  But no, the Hand is placing a sewing machine and a dress form in that room. The maid is busy helping the Hand arrange things.

"it looks like it may be a storeroom as well as a work room." says Mother. "They are moving in a large trunk and an old dresser. I wonder who sews over there." Mother doesn't say it, but she is thinking that if the new neighbors are friendly, she might ask about having some clothes made for father. Maybe she could give them something from her own house in exchange.

The Hand lifts the maid down to the middle floor of the house. Mother realizes the new house had no stairs. "So that's where they found the space for a bathroom." She thinks. And it was true. Green Shutters, as Mother has come to think of the new house, has less actual floor space than the Big Yellow House, but it has more rooms.

The Hand brings Cook to join the maid in the bedroom, and starts to bring in the furniture. A dresser is set in the middle of the room while the maid puts a statue of Queen Victoria on the fireplace. The bed, Night table and side chair are moved into place after the dresser is put against the wall. The maid shakes out a beautiful hand crocheted coverlet and arranges it on the bed.

Cook and Maid move over to the living room to arrange the furniture the Hand is delivering. The cook lays the fire and the maid arranges ornaments on the hanging shelf.

(Oops, it looks like the elusive Hand actually got in a picture - a rare occurrence.)

"My, but they have lovely things." says Mother as the maid moves an elegant settee into place.



Mother notices that the fireplace still needs painting. She wonders why the Hand hasn't done it already. It seems silly to move in all that lovely furniture when they would just have to move it all again to do the fireplace. Maybe the family is impatient to move in. She knows she would be.

Mother notices that the furniture, while lovely and new, seems to be from a different era. She also notices that the maid and the cook have floor length skirts. "I wonder what decade this family is from.' She muses. The bust of Queen Victoria makes her think that they might be Victorian.

Now the maid is arranging a tea tray on an unusual table with brass elephants at its corners. "The family must be coming soon". thinks Mother, "if the maid has put out the tea."

There is only one floor left to furnish. The maid and cook, with the Hand's help, move down to the dining room. The cook sweeps while the maid puts a delicate statue on the top of the corner cupboard.

Once all the furniture is in the cook hurries off to arrange the kitchen and the maid sets everything in place in the dining room.

"Have they put in the kitchen yet?" asks Grandmother, as she joins them at the window. 

"You are just in time," says Mother. "They are doing the kitchen now." Grandmother watches with interest before she turns away with a sniff.

"it's not nearly as modern as mine." Grandmother says. "I don't envy that cook." And she rushes back to her kitchen.

"I can't wait to see the family." says the little girl. "What do you think they'll be like?"

"All in good time." says Mother, though she was just as anxious as her daughter." Let's go down stairs and bake them some cookies. You can watch out the kitchen window in case something else happens."