Raggedy Ann Stories | Page 4

the window and saw Marcella run up to Dinah
and take something out of her hand and then put her head in her arm
and commence crying.
"What is the trouble, Dear?" Mamma asked, as she came out the door
and knelt beside the little figure shaking with sobs.
Marcella held out Raggedy Ann. But such a comical looking Raggedy
Ann!
Mamma had to smile in spite of her sympathy, for Raggedy Ann

looked ridiculous!
Dinah's big eyes rolled out in a troubled manner, for Marcella had
snatched Raggedy Ann from Dinah's hand as she cried, "Why, Dinah!
How could you?"
Dinah could not quite understand and, as she dearly loved Marcella, she
was troubled.
Raggedy Ann was not in the least downhearted and while she felt she
must look very funny she continued to smile, but with a more
expansive smile than ever before.
Raggedy Ann knew just how it all happened and her remaining
shoe-button eye twinkled.
She remembered that morning when Marcella came to the nursery to
take the nighties from the dolls and dress them she had been cross.
Raggedy Ann thought at the time "Perhaps she had climbed out of bed
backwards!" For Marcella complained to each doll as she dressed them.
And when it came Raggedy's time to be dressed, Marcella was very
cross for she had scratched her finger on a pin when dressing the
French doll.
So, when Marcella heard the little girl next door calling to her, she ran
out of the nursery and gave Raggedy Ann a toss from her as she ran.
Now it happened Raggedy lit in the clothes hamper and there she lay
all doubled up in a knot.
A few minutes afterwards Dinah came through the hall with an armful
of clothes and piled them in the hamper on top of Raggedy Ann.
Then Dinah carried the hamper out in back of the house where she did
the washing.
Dinah dumped all the clothes into the boiler and poured water on them.

The boiler was then placed upon the stove.
When the water began to get warm, Raggedy Ann wiggled around and
climbed up amongst the clothes to the top of the boiler to peek out.
There was too much steam and she could see nothing. For that matter,
Dinah could not see Raggedy Ann, either, on account of the steam.
So Dinah, using an old broom handle, stirred the clothes in the boiler
and the clothes and Raggedy Ann were stirred and whirled around until
all were thoroughly boiled.
When Dinah took the clothes a piece at a time from the boiler and
scrubbed them, she finally came upon Raggedy Ann.
Now Dinah did not know but that Marcella had placed Raggedy in the
clothes hamper to be washed, so she soaped Raggedy well and
scrubbed her up and down over the rough wash-board.
[Illustration]
Two buttons from the back of Raggedy's dress came off and one of
Raggedy Ann's shoe-button eyes was loosened as Dinah gave her face a
final scrub.
[Illustration]
Then Dinah put Raggedy Ann's feet in the wringer and turned the crank.
It was hard work getting Raggedy through the wringer, but Dinah was
very strong. And of course it happened! Raggedy Ann came through as
flat as a pancake.
It was just then, that Marcella returned and saw Raggedy.
"Why, Dinah! How could you!" Marcella had sobbed as she snatched
the flattened Raggedy Ann from the bewildered Dinah's hand.
Mamma patted Marcella's hand and soon coaxed her to quit sobbing.
When Dinah explained that the first she knew of Raggedy being in the

wash was when she took her from the boiler, Marcella began crying
again.
"It was all my fault, Mamma!" she cried. "I remember now that I threw
dear old Raggedy Ann from me as I ran out the door and she must have
fallen in the clothes hamper! Oh dear! Oh dear!" and she hugged
Raggedy Ann tight.
Mamma did not tell Marcella that she had been cross and naughty for
she knew Marcella felt very sorry. Instead Mamma put her arms around
her and said,
"Just see how Raggedy Ann takes it! She doesn't seem to be unhappy!"
And when Marcella brushed her tears away and looked at Raggedy Ann,
flat as a pancake and with a cheery smile upon her painted face, she had
to laugh. And Mamma and Dinah had to laugh, too, for Raggedy Ann's
smile was almost twice as broad as it had been before.
"Just let me hang Miss Raggedy on the line in the bright sunshine for
half an hour," said Dinah, "and you won't know her when she comes
off!"
So Raggedy Ann was pinned to the clothes-line, out in the bright
sunshine, where she swayed and twisted in the breeze and