Chapter 18
Coddiwomple

Holly, Dolly and Molly were the members of the Attic Investigations Club, a secret society of three girls who loved to explore the mysteries of their Victorian attic. They had discovered the attic one rainy day, when they were bored and looking for something to do. They had climbed up the narrow stairs and found a door that was locked with a rusty padlock. Holly had managed to pick the lock with a hairpin, and they had entered a world of wonders.

The attic was huge, with many rooms and nooks filled with boxes and trunks and all kinds of old things. There were books, clothes, toys, paintings, furniture, jewelry, and more. The girls were fascinated by the treasures they found, and wondered who they belonged to and what stories they could tell. They decided to form a club and investigate the attic, one item at a time.

They made a rule that they would only take one thing from the attic each time they visited, and that they would return it after they had researched it and learned its history. They also made a rule that they would never tell anyone about their club or their discoveries, because they wanted to keep the attic as their own secret place.

One day, they decided to make a map of the attic, so that they could plan their investigations better. They took a large sheet of paper and some pencils and crayons, and went up to the attic. They started from the door and drew the outline of the walls and the roof. Then they divided the attic into sections and labeled them with letters. They also marked the locations of the windows, the stairs, and the chimney.

They decided to name each section after a flower, because they thought it would make their map more beautiful and fun. They chose names like Rose Room, Daisy Nook, Lily Corner, Violet Alcove, and so on. They also drew some symbols on the map to indicate what kind of things they had found in each section. For example, they drew a book for sections with books, a dress for sections with clothes, a doll for sections with toys, and so on.

They were very proud of their map when they finished it. They thought it looked like a treasure map from a pirate story. They decided to keep it in a special folder in their club headquarters, which was Holly’s bedroom.

“Now we have a map of our attic,” Holly said. “We can use it to plan our investigations better.”

“Yes,” Dolly agreed. “We can choose which section we want to explore next, and what kind of things we want to look for.”

“And we can keep track of what we have already investigated, and what we still need to investigate,” Molly added.

They looked at their map with excitement and curiosity. They wondered what secrets and surprises awaited them in the attic.

“We mustn’t coddiwomple,” Holly said.

“What does that mean?” Dolly asked.

“It means to travel in a purposeless manner,” Holly explained. “I read it in one of the books from the attic. It’s an old word that is not used much anymore.”

“I like it,” Molly said. “It sounds funny.”

“But we don’t want to coddiwomple in our attic,” Holly said. “We want to have a plan for how we are going to investigate it.”

“Why?” Dolly asked.

“Because we want to be efficient and thorough,” Holly said. “We don’t want to miss anything important or interesting.”

“And we don’t want to waste time or get lost,” Molly said.

“Exactly,” Holly said. “We want to be smart and organized.”

They nodded in agreement. They liked being smart and organized.

“So how do we make our plan?” Dolly asked.

“Well,” Holly said. “We can start by choosing which section we want to explore next.”

She pointed at their map.

“Let’s see,” she said. “We have already explored section A, which is the Rose Room. We found some books there, remember?”

“Yes,” Dolly said. “We found some old fairy tales and some poetry books.”

“And we found some letters from someone named Alice,” Molly said.

“Yes,” Holly said. “And we learned that Alice was the daughter of the previous owners of this house, who lived here in the 1800s.”

“She was very sweet and smart,” Molly said.

“And she loved roses,” Dolly said.

“Yes,” Holly said. “She was very interesting.”

She looked at their map again.

“So what about section B?” she asked. “That’s the Daisy Nook. We haven’t explored that yet.”

She pointed at the symbol on the map.

“It looks like there are some clothes there,” she said.

“Maybe we can find some dresses or hats or shoes from Alice’s time,” Dolly said.

“Or maybe from someone else’s time,” Molly said.

“Maybe we can try them on and pretend to be someone else,” Dolly said.

“That sounds fun,” Molly said.

“OK,” Holly said. “Let’s explore section B next.”

They agreed on their plan. They folded their map and put it in their folder. They took their backpacks and their flashlights, and headed to the attic. They were ready for their next adventure.