Raggedy Ann Stories | Page 5

listened to
the chatter of the robins in a nearby tree.
[Illustration]
Every once in a while Dinah went out and rolled and patted Raggedy
until her cotton stuffing was soft and dry and fluffy and her head and
arms and legs were nice and round again.
Then she took Raggedy Ann into the house and showed Marcella and
Mamma how clean and sweet she was.
Marcella took Raggedy Ann right up to the nursery and told all the
dolls just what had happened and how sorry she was that she had been

so cross and peevish when she dressed them. And while the dolls said
never a word they looked at their little mistress with love in their eyes
as she sat in the little red rocking chair and held Raggedy Ann tightly in
her arms.
And Raggedy Ann's remaining shoe-button eye looked up at her little
mistress in rather a saucy manner, but upon her face was the same old
smile of happiness, good humor and love.
[Illustration]

[Illustration]
RAGGEDY ANN AND THE KITE
Raggedy Ann watched with interest the preparations.
A number of sticks were being fastened together with strings and
covered with light cloth.
Raggedy Ann heard some of the boys talk of "The Kite," so Raggedy
Ann knew this must be a kite.
When a tail had been fastened to the kite and a large ball of heavy
twine tied to the front, one of the boys held the kite up in the air and
another boy walked off, unwinding the ball of twine.
There was a nice breeze blowing, so the boy with the twine called, "Let
'er go" and started running.
Marcella held Raggedy up so that she could watch the kite sail through
the air.
How nicely it climbed! But suddenly the kite acted strangely, and as all
the children shouted advice to the boy with the ball of twine, the kite
began darting this way and that, and finally making four or five
loop-the-loops, it crashed to the ground.

"It needs more tail on it!" one boy shouted.
Then the children asked each other where they might get more rags to
fasten to the tail of the kite.
"Let's tie Raggedy Ann to the tail!" suggested Marcella. "I know she
would enjoy a trip 'way up in the sky!"
The boys all shouted with delight at this new suggestion. So Raggedy
Ann was tied to the tail of the kite.
This time the kite rose straight in the air and remained steady. The boy
with the ball of twine unwound it until the kite and Raggedy Ann were
'way, 'way up and far away. How Raggedy Ann enjoyed being up there!
She could see for miles and miles! And how tiny the children looked!
Suddenly a great puff of wind came and carried Raggedy Ann
streaming 'way out behind the kite! She could hear the wind singing on
the twine as the strain increased.
Suddenly Raggedy Ann felt something rip. It was the rag to which she
was tied. As each puff of wind caught her the rip widened.
When Marcella watched Raggedy Ann rise high above the field, she
wondered how much Raggedy Ann enjoyed it, and wished that she, too,
might have gone along. But after the kite had been up in the air for five
or ten minutes, Marcella grew restless. Kites were rather tiresome.
There was more fun in tea parties out under the apple tree.
"Will you please pull down the kite now?" she asked the boy with the
twine. "I want Raggedy Ann."
"Let her ride up there!" the boy replied. "We'll bring her home when we
pull down the kite! We're going to get another ball of twine and let her
go higher!"
Marcella did not like to leave Raggedy Ann with the boys, so she sat
down upon the ground to wait until they pulled down the kite.

But while Marcella watched Raggedy Ann, a dot in the sky, she could
not see the wind ripping the rag to which Raggedy was tied.
Suddenly the rag parted and Raggedy Ann went sailing away as the
wind caught in her skirts.
Marcella jumped from the ground, too surprised to say anything. The
kite, released from the weight of Raggedy Ann began darting and
swooping to the ground.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
"We'll get her for you!" some of the boys said when they saw
Marcella's troubled face, and they started running in the direction
Raggedy Ann had fallen. Marcella and the other girls ran with them.
They ran, and they ran, and they ran, and at last they found the kite
upon the ground with one of the sticks broken, but they could not find
Raggedy Ann anywhere.
"She must have fallen almost in your yard!" a boy