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The green dwarfs (there were six of them) lived in the wall beside her bed; they wore pointed shoes and peaked hats, and they waited upon her as pages. She could not remember ever having deliberately invented them; she had gradually come to know them. No sooner had Nurse closed the bedroom door and sat down to her sewing-machine at the schoolroom table, than Philomène would knock upon the wall against which her bed was placed, and the dwarfs would appear, not all together, but one by one, peaked hats foremost. Then they would keep her amused, generally by story-telling, till she felt herself growing drowsy, when she would wave her hand right royally, and back they would disappear into the wall.

Mrs Handy was her companion in the daytime, and she was a most useful friend, equally good at inventing games and at helping with lessons. Moreover, strange to say, she always came to live at Sideview when Godmother was out of town, and as soon as Godmother returned, Mrs Handy would take a journey to Troy or the Rocky Mountains, or some such place of interest, promising to re-visit Sideview as soon as Godmother left London, and to be sure and give Philomène an exciting account of her adventures abroad.