RAGGEDY ANN RESCUES FIDO
It was almost midnight and the dolls were asleep in their beds; allexcept Raggedy Ann.
Raggedy lay there, her shoe-button eyes staring straight up at theceiling. Every once in a while Raggedy Ann ran her rag hand up throughher yarn hair. She was thinking.
When she had thought for a long, long time, Raggedy Ann raised herselfon her wabbly elbows and said, "I've thought it all out."
At this the other dolls shook each other and raised up saying, "Listen!Raggedy has thought it all out!"
"Tell us what you have been thinking, dear Raggedy," said the tinsoldier. "We hope they were pleasant thoughts."
"Not very pleasant thoughts!" said Raggedy, as she brushed a tear fromher shoe-button eyes. "You haven't seen Fido all day, have you?"
"Not since early this morning," the French dolly said.
"It has troubled me," said Raggedy, "and if my head was not stuffed withlovely new white cotton, I am sure it would have ached with the worry!When Mistress took me into the living-room this afternoon she wascrying, and I heard her mamma say, 'We will find him! He is sure to comehome soon!' and I knew they were talking of Fido! He must be lost!"
The tin soldier jumped out of bed and ran over to Fido's basket, his tinfeet clicking on the floor as he went. "He is not here," he said.
"When I was sitting in the window about noon-time," said the Indiandoll, "I saw Fido and a yellow scraggly dog playing out on the lawn andthey ran out through a hole in the fence!"
"That was Priscilla's dog, Peterkins!" said the French doll.
"I know poor Mistress is very sad on account of Fido," said the Dutchdoll, "because I was in the dining-room at supper-time and I heard herdaddy tell her to eat her supper and he would go out and find Fido; butI had forgotten all about it until now."
"That is the trouble with all of us except Raggedy Ann!" cried thelittle penny doll, in a squeaky voice, "She has to think for all of us!"
"I think it would be a good plan for us to show our love for Mistressand try and find Fido!" exclaimed Raggedy.
"It is a good plan, Raggedy Ann!" cried all the dolls. "Tell us how tostart about it."
"Well, first let us go out upon the lawn and see if we can track thedogs!" said Raggedy.
"I can track them easily!" the Indian doll said, "for Indians are goodat trailing things!"
"Then let us waste no more time in talking!" said Raggedy Ann, as shejumped from bed, followed by the rest.
The nursery window was open, so the dolls helped each other up on thesill and then jumped to the soft grass below. They fell in all sorts ofqueer attitudes, but of course the fall did not hurt them.
At the hole in the fence the Indian doll picked up the trail of the twodogs, and the dolls, stringing out behind, followed him until they cameto Peterkins' house. Peterkins was surprised to see the strange littlefigures in white nighties come stringing up the path to the dog house.
Peterkins was too large to sleep in the nursery, so he had a nice cozydog-house under the grape arbor.
"Come in," Peterkins said when he saw and recognized the dolls, so allthe dollies went into Peterkins' house and sat about while Raggedy toldhim why they had come.
"It has worried me, too!" said Peterkins, "but I had no way of tellingyour mistress where Fido was, for she cannot understand dog language!For you see," Peterkins continued, "Fido and I were having the grandestromp over in the park when a great big man with a funny thing on the endof a stick came running towards us. We barked at him and Fido thought hewas trying to play with us and went up too close and do you know, thatwicked man caught Fido in the thing at the end of the stick and carriedhim to a wagon and dumped him in with a lot of other dogs!"
"_The Dog Catcher!_" cried Raggedy Ann.
"Yes!" said Peterkins, as he wiped his eyes with his paws. "It was thedog catcher! For I followed the wagon at a distance and I saw him putall the dogs into a big wire pen, so that none could get out!"
"Then you know the way there, Peterkins?" asked Raggedy Ann.
"Yes, I can find it easily," Peterkins said.
"Then show us the way!" Raggedy Ann cried, "for we must try to rescueFido."
So Peterkins led the way up alleys and across streets, the dolls allpattering along behind him. It was a strange procession. Once a strangedog ran out at them, but Peterkins told him to mind his own business andthe strange dog returned to his own yard.
At last they came to the dog catcher's place. Some of the dogs in thepen were barking at the moon and others were whining and crying.
There was Fido, all covered with mud, and his pretty red ribbon draggingon the ground. My, but he was glad to see the dolls and Peterkins! Allthe dogs came to the side of the pen and twisted their heads from sideto side, gazing in wonder at the queer figures of the dolls.
"We will try and let you out," said Raggedy Ann.
At this all the dogs barked joyfully.
Then Raggedy Ann, the other dolls and Peterkins went to the gate.
The catch was too high for Raggedy Ann to reach, but Peterkins heldRaggedy Ann in his mouth and stood up on his hind legs so that she couldraise the catch.
When the catch was raised, the dogs were so anxious to get out theypushed and jumped against the gate so hard it flew open, knockingPeterkins and Raggedy Ann into the mud. Such a yapping and barking wasnever heard in the neighborhood as when the dogs swarmed out of theenclosure, jumping over one another and scrambling about in the mad rushout the gate.
Fido picked himself up from where he had been rolled by the large dogsand helped Raggedy Ann to her feet. He, Peterkins, and all the dolls ranafter the pack of dogs, turning the corner just as the dog catcher camerunning out of the house in his nightgown to see what was causing thetrouble.
He stopped in astonishment when he saw the string of dolls in whitenighties pattering down the alley, for he could not imagine what theywere.
Well, you may be sure the dolls thanked Peterkins for his kindassistance and they and Fido ran on home, for a faint light wasbeginning to show in the east where the sun was getting ready to comeup.
When they got to their own home they found an old chair out in the yardand after a great deal of work they finally dragged it to the window andthus managed to get into the nursery again.
Fido was very grateful to Raggedy Ann and the other dolls and before hewent to his basket he gave them each a lick on the cheek.
The dolls lost no time in scrambling into bed and pulling up the covers,for they were very sleepy, but just as they were dozing off, Raggedy Annraised herself and said, "If my legs and arms were not stuffed with niceclean cotton I feel sure they would ache, but being stuffed with niceclean white cotton, they do not ache and I could not feel happier if mybody were stuffed with sunshine, for I know how pleased and happyMistress will be in the morning when she discovers Fido asleep in hisown little basket, safe and sound at home."
And as the dollies by this time were all asleep, Raggedy Ann pulled thesheet up to her chin and smiled so hard she ripped two stitches out ofthe back of her rag head.
Raggedy Ann Stories Page 5