Raggedy Ann Stories | Page 7

time, Raggedy Ann raised
herself on 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 tin
soldier. "We hope they were pleasant thoughts."
"Not very pleasant thoughts!" said Raggedy, as she brushed a tear from
her 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
with lovely new white cotton, I am sure it would have ached with the
worry! When Mistress took me into the living-room this afternoon she
was crying, and I heard her mamma say, 'We will find him! He is sure
to come home 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 tin
feet 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 Indian
doll, "I saw Fido and a yellow scraggly dog playing out on the lawn
and they 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 Dutch
doll, "because I was in the dining-room at supper-time and I heard her
daddy tell her to eat her supper and he would go out and find Fido; but
I had forgotten all about it until now."
"That is the trouble with all of us except Raggedy Ann!" cried the little
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 Mistress
and try and find Fido!" exclaimed Raggedy.
"It is a good plan, Raggedy Ann!" cried all the dolls. "Tell us how to
start about it."
"Well, first let us go out upon the lawn and see if we can track the
dogs!" said Raggedy.
"I can track them easily!" the Indian doll said, "for Indians are good at
trailing things!"
"Then let us waste no more time in talking!" said Raggedy Ann, as she
jumped from bed, followed by the rest.
The nursery window was open, so the dolls helped each other up on the
sill and then jumped to the soft grass below. They fell in all sorts of
queer 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 two
dogs, and the dolls, stringing out behind, followed him until they came
to Peterkins' house. Peterkins was surprised to see the strange little
figures in white nighties come stringing up the path to the dog house.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Peterkins was too large to sleep in the nursery, so he had a nice cozy

dog-house under the grape arbor.
"Come in," Peterkins said when he saw and recognized the dolls, so all
the dollies went into Peterkins' house and sat about while Raggedy told
him why they had come.
"It has worried me, too!" said Peterkins, "but I had no way of telling
your mistress where Fido was, for she cannot understand dog language!
For you see," Peterkins continued, "Fido and I were having the grandest
romp over in the park when a great big man with a funny thing on the
end of a stick came running towards us. We barked at him and Fido
thought he was trying to play with us and went up too close and do you
know, that wicked man caught Fido in the thing at the end of the stick
and carried him 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 the
dog catcher! For I followed the wagon at a distance and I saw him put
all 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
rescue Fido."
So Peterkins led the way up alleys and across streets, the dolls all
pattering along behind him. It was a strange procession. Once a strange
dog ran out at them, but Peterkins told him to mind his own business
and the strange dog returned to his own yard.
At last they came to the dog catcher's place.