The Happiness Project: Seven Tips If You�re Chronically Late http://ping.fm/Ws7IR

Anthos Knepp didn't want to say it in front of her children, but the old place gave her the willies. She thought the old dolls quite eerie.

They went to Lichwold to find a place to stay for the night. Dagmar hugged her plush bunny rabbit and talked to him about the dolls.

Mum finally convinced Dagmar that the dollies wouldn't mind waiting a few more days while the heat, lights, and water were turned on.

"Mum, mum, we have to stay!" Dagmar pleaded. "The dollies have been waiting for so long for someone to play with! Please, let us stay!"

They ran upstairs to the attic where there were many wonderful things. But the best of all were the dolls. Now Dagmar didn't want to leave.

The rooms still had Gramps' old furniture. It was covered with sheets to protect it from dust. There were old books and pictures everywhere.

"Be careful and mind your footing!" Mum called as the three children ran into the house. "There may be rotted boards!" The kids didn't hear.

The children were eager to see the inside, however, and begged Mum to let them in and have a wee look before they went off to town.

"Blimey, but it looks like the old place is about to fall down!" Mum groaned when she saw it. "We ought to stay in town until its fixed."

So the family moved from London up to Lichwold. It was very strange to have things so quiet. Instead of horns they heard birds and frogs.

The newly remade Lichwold was a nice town and Mum supposed she could spend some of the money to get the house fixed up and could get a job.

Then news came that Great-Grandfather Knepp had passed away and left a hundred thousand quid and the old house near Lichwold to Mum.

Mum had a nice job at the London Zoo in one of the gift shops, but when Daddy disappeared, the money wasn't enough. Mum was very worried.

Crouch End was a place that people didn't like to talk about much. A lot of strange things happened there. People tended to disappear.

Daddy's name was Ugo Bird. He worked as a taxicab driver in London. One night he took a fare to the borough of Crouch End and vanished.

Fabricius was seven years old and Macy was nine. Besides them, there was only mum now. Daddy had disappeared three months ago.

Mum told Dagmar and her brother Fabricius and sister Macy to stay out of the woods. She said there were pools of water and maybe quicksand.

The house was in the area that hadn't been rebuilt. There was a marshy wooded area just behind the house. Mum worried about this.

The house was outside of a town called Lichwold, which was about five miles south of the city of Bradford. Most of Lichwold was rebuilt.

Grampa had wanted to stay in the old house but he couldn't get anyone to come there to take care of him so he moved to a little apartment.

The old house had been repaired many times to keep it standing, but no-one had lived in it for a dozen years. Grampa couldn't stay there.

The new house wasn't really new. It was extremely old. Great-Grandfather Knepp had once said it was nearly 1000 years old.

Dagmar thought that she would like to have two last names too and thought she'd ask Mum about it as soon as they'd move into the new house.

Dagmar had her mother's last name: Knepp. Her brother had their father's last name: Bird. Her sister had both names: Knepp-Bird.

Of course Dagmar wouldn't have known anything about old family curses. She was only five years old, the youngest of three children.

The Knepp family had terrible luck keeping its members alive. It was said that there was a curse on the family due to what was once done.

When little Dagmar Knepp's 80 year old great grandfather died, he left his house to his eldest surviving adult relative: Dagmar's mother.

Bear with me. This is a test message to see if my Ping account is posting properly to my other accounts.

Don't entirely know where this will go. Story to be tentatively entitled Dagmar's dolls, wherein a little girl finds old dolls in old house.