One summer day six years ago a quaint little red-haired boy of five walked into The Bookshop for Boys and Girls. “Now,” said his mother, “you say whom you have come to see.” “I have come to see Alice-Heidi, the doll who lives in The Bookshop,” said the little boy. Then his mother explained that long months before far away in Burmah she had read to him the story of Alice-Heidi in Little Folks Magazine, and he had looked forward ever since to this visit. 

Many other boys and girls have made Alice-Heidi’s acquaintance since that time, and she spent some very happy years in that pleasant book-room on the second floor. When The Bookshop moved down the street, she felt homesick at first. She had hated to leave the sunny window where the ivy grew and she did love watching the children in the Public Gardens, skating on the pond in winter and riding on the swan boats in summer.

However, Alice-Heidi found The Bookshop in its new location very interesting. She had an even larger view of the Gardens than before. In fact, here the Gardens with its trees and pond, became through the large windows a glorified wall for The Bookshop. She came to know very well — through the window — the traffic policeman at the Arlington Street crossing, and she loved the sunshiny days when the flower man stood with his baskets just outside The Bookshop door. She had been relieved to find her nice book friends all together on a long upper-level, still a bit removed from the rush of the street. The nicest part of Alice-Heidi’s day was the time when she had her book friends all to herself, and I’m not telling you anything about this because she’s going to do it herself. You will know her stories in The Horn Book because they’ll always read at the top —  “Alice-Heidi’s Secrets.”

But there was one thing which troubled Alice-Heidi, — I must tell you about that. She had never been quite happy in the downstairs Bookshop. She had a feeling of being always in public, of never being really at home. For a long time, she could not think just what it was she needed, and anyway, she couldn’t bear to complain. Every one was most kind to her. It was Jean Schoonmaker who really gave her the idea. 

Jean Schoonmaker was one of the little girls who came often to The Bookshop. Alice-Heidi was sitting in her little chair close beside Jean one day when Jean began to tell her about her doll’s house. “Why that,” said Alice-Heidi with a start, “is just exactly what I need. Not a whole house because I live in The Bookshop already, but my own private apartments, where I can be alone when I like, with my own things about me. I should not need more rooms than two, a living-room and a bedroom, for my meals are sent to me from our own lunch-rooms and my table can be set in my living-room.”

Jean was most sympathetic. She said she had wondered for a long time why the mistress of The Bookshop did not arrange this. “I showed her my doll’s house, Alice-Heidi, and she liked it very much. I do believe you have only to suggest it.”

“But you see,” said Alice-Heidi, “they’re crowded a bit as it is, and if I have an apartment, I must have it in that nice quiet corner of the balcony where the picture books are. Do you suppose they can spare it?”

“I think,” said Jean, “it will surely be managed, only do speak of it this very day.”

So that is how Alice-Heidi happened to go to Providence in April to stay at the Toy Furniture Shop while they were planning and building her rooms. And then on a sunshiny October day, she came up with her own little apartment in a great red van. She begged to be allowed to come in the van with her “little house,” to make sure no harm should come to it.

Every day during Children’s Book Week she will really be “At Home” to her friends. Children’s Book Week begins Monday, November 10, and lasts through Saturday, November 15, and on Saturday, the 15th, Alice-Heidi’s friend, Jean, will help her receive. But in case you cannot come, we are printing a photograph of Alice-Heidi in her house. You can see her table where she sits to write her “Secrets” for The Horn Book. You can see the wing chair where she rests by the fire on cold winter nights. You can see the stairs leading up to her bedroom. And when you come to visit The Bookshop, you may open the drawers in the bureau in her bedroom and see how neatly she keeps her clothes. 

Notice the landscape paper which Mr. Burleigh has painted on the walls of her living room and notice the little old-fashioned latches on her doors. Perhaps years and years ago right on Boylston Street there were rooms like Alice-Heidi’s.

From the November 1924 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.