RAGGEDY ANN LEARNS A LESSON
One day the dolls were left all to themselves.
Their little mistress had placed them all around the room and told themto be nice children while she was away.
And there they sat and never even so much as wiggled a finger, untiltheir mistress had left the room.
Then the soldier dolly turned his head and solemnly winked at RaggedyAnn.
And when the front gate clicked and the dollies knew they were alone inthe house, they all scrambled to their feet.
"Now let's have a good time!" cried the tin soldier. "Let's all go insearch of something to eat!"
"Yes! Let's all go in search of something to eat!" cried all the otherdollies.
"When Mistress had me out playing with her this morning," said RaggedyAnn, "she carried me by a door near the back of the house and I smelledsomething which smelled as if it would taste delicious!"
"Then you lead the way, Raggedy Ann!" cried the French dolly.
"I think it would be a good plan to elect Raggedy Ann as our leader onthis expedition!" said the Indian doll.
At this all the other dolls clapped their hands together and shouted,"Hurrah! Raggedy Ann will be our leader."
So Raggedy Ann, very proud indeed to have the confidence and love of allthe other dollies, said that she would be very glad to be their leader.
"Follow me!" she cried as her wobbly legs carried her across the floorat a lively pace.
The other dollies followed, racing about the house until they came tothe pantry door. "This is the place!" cried Raggedy Ann, and sureenough, all the dollies smelled something which they knew must be verygood to eat.
But none of the dollies was tall enough to open the door and, althoughthey pushed and pulled with all their might, the door remained tightlyclosed.
The dollies were talking and pulling and pushing and every once in awhile one would fall over and the others would step on her in theirefforts to open the door. Finally Raggedy Ann drew away from the othersand sat down on the floor.
When the other dollies discovered Raggedy Ann sitting there, running herrag hands through her yarn hair, they knew she was thinking.
"Sh! Sh!" they said to each other and quietly went over near Raggedy Annand sat down in front of her.
"There must be a way to get inside," said Raggedy Ann.
"Raggedy says there must be a way to get inside!" cried all the dolls.
"I can't seem to think clearly to-day," said Raggedy Ann. "It feels asif my head were ripped."
At this the French doll ran to Raggedy Ann and took off her bonnet."Yes, there is a rip in your head, Raggedy!" she said and pulled a pinfrom her skirt and pinned up Raggedy's head. "It's not a very neat job,for I got some puckers in it!" she said.
"Oh that is ever so much better!" cried Raggedy Ann. "Now I can thinkquite clearly."
"Now Raggedy can think quite clearly!" cried all the dolls.
"My thoughts must have leaked out the rip before!" said Raggedy Ann.
"They must have leaked out before, dear Raggedy!" cried all the otherdolls.
"Now that I can think so clearly," said Raggedy Ann, "I think the doormust be locked and to get in we must unlock it!"
"That will be easy!" said the Dutch doll who says "Mamma" when he istipped backward and forward, "For we will have the brave tin soldiershoot the key out of the lock!"
"I can easily do that!" cried the tin soldier, as he raised his gun.
"Oh, Raggedy Ann!" cried the French dolly. "Please do not let himshoot!"
"No!" said Raggedy Ann. "We must think of a quieter way!"
After thinking quite hard for a moment, Raggedy Ann jumped up and said:"I have it!" And she caught up the Jumping Jack and held him up to thedoor; then Jack slid up his stick and unlocked the door.
Then the dollies all pushed and the door swung open.
My! Such a scramble! The dolls piled over one another in their desire tobe the first at the goodies.
They swarmed upon the pantry shelves and in their eagerness spilled apitcher of cream which ran all over the French dolly's dress.
The Indian doll found some corn bread and dipping it in the molasses hesat down for a good feast.
A jar of raspberry jam was overturned and the dollies ate of this untiltheir faces were all purple.
The tin soldier fell from the shelf three times and bent one of his tinlegs, but he scrambled right back up again.
Never had the dolls had so much fun and excitement, and they had alleaten their fill when they heard the click of the front gate.
They did not take time to climb from the shelves, but all rolled orjumped off to the floor and scrambled back to their room as fast asthey could run, leaving a trail of bread crumbs and jam along the way.
Just as their mistress came into the room the dolls dropped in whateverpositions they happened to be in.
"This is funny!" cried Mistress. "They were all left sitting in theirplaces around the room! I wonder if Fido has been shaking them up!" Thenshe saw Raggedy Ann's face and picked her up. "Why Raggedy Ann, you areall sticky! I do believe you are covered with jam!" and Mistress tastedRaggedy Ann's hand. "Yes! It's JAM! Shame on you, Raggedy Ann! You'vebeen in the pantry and all the others, too!" and with this the dolls'mistress dropped Raggedy Ann on the floor and left the room.
When she came back she had on an apron and her sleeves were rolled up.
She picked up all the sticky dolls and putting them in a basket shecarried them out under the apple tree in the garden.
There she had placed her little tub and wringer and she took the dollsone at a time, and scrubbed them with a scrubbing brush and soused themup and down and this way and that in the soap suds until they wereclean.
Then she hung them all out on the clothes-line in the sunshine to dry.
There the dolls hung all day, swinging and twisting about as the breezeswayed the clothes-line.
"I do believe she scrubbed my face so hard she wore off my smile!" saidRaggedy Ann, after an hour of silence.
"No, it is still there!" said the tin solder, as the wind twisted himaround so he could see Raggedy. "But I do believe my arms will neverwork without squeaking, they feel so rusted," he added.
Just then the wind twisted the little Dutch doll and loosened hisclothes-pin, so that he fell to the grass below with a sawdusty bump andas he rolled over he said, "Mamma!" in a squeaky voice.
Late in the afternoon the back door opened and the little mistress cameout with a table and chairs. After setting the table she took all thedolls from the line and placed them about the table.
They had lemonade with grape jelly in it, which made it a beautifullavender color, and little "Baby-teeny-weeny-cookies" with powderedsugar on them.
After this lovely dinner, the dollies were taken in the house, wherethey had their hair brushed and nice clean nighties put on.
Then they were placed in their beds and Mistress kissed each one goodnight and tiptoed from the room.
All the dolls lay as still as mice for a few minutes, then Raggedy Annraised up on her cotton-stuffed elbows and said: "I have been thinking!"
"Sh!" said all the other dollies, "Raggedy has been thinking!"
"Yes," said Raggedy Ann, "I have been thinking; our mistress gave us thenice dinner out under the trees to teach us a lesson. She wished us toknow that we could have had all the goodies we wished, whenever wewished, if we had behaved ourselves. And our lesson was that we mustnever take without asking what we could always have for the asking! Solet us all remember and try never again to do anything which might causethose who love us any unhappiness!"
"Let us all remember," chimed all the other dollies.
And Raggedy Ann, with a merry twinkle in her shoe-button eyes, lay backin her little bed, her cotton head filled with thoughts of love andhappiness.
Raggedy Ann Stories Page 2
