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Title: The paper dragon
a Raggedy Ann adventure
Author: Johnny Gruelle
Release date: April 23, 2026 [eBook #78535]
Language: English
Original publication: New York: The P. F. Volland Company, 1926
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78535
Credits: Bob Taylor, Mary Glenn Krause and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PAPER DRAGON ***
Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
[Illustration:
THE
PAPER
DRAGON
]
THE
PAPER DRAGON
· A RAGGEDY ANN ·
ADVENTURE
Written and Illustrated by
JOHNNY GRUELLE
[Illustration]
_Published by_
THE P.F.VOLLAND COMPANY
NEW YORK JOLIET BOSTON
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Copyright 1926
The P. F. Volland Company
Joliet, U. S. A.
(All rights reserved)
Printed in U.S.A.
_Second Edition_
_To_
EVELYN, DAVID
_and_
JUDY CHAMBERS
_With the wish that their pathway through life may be bordered with
the flowers of friendship._
JOHNNY GRUELLE
Norwalk, Connecticut
September 2, 1925
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER ONE
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy were two rag dolls. They were stuffed with
nice clean white cotton and their faces were painted on them. Both
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy wore very cheery smiles and were friendly,
happy little creatures.
The two Raggedys lived in the nursery at Marcella’s house and always
had great fun with the other dolls, for as you surely must know, dolls
play together when there are no real for sure people around to watch
them. And although Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy loved all the other
dolls in the nursery very much, still at times they liked to leave the
nursery and walk down through the deep, deep woods filled with fairies
’n everything, because there they found strange adventures.
Once before, in adventuring in the deep, deep woods Raggedy Ann and
Raggedy Andy had found a very magical stick. It was a wishing stick and
made every wish come true. This stick had been sewed inside Raggedy
Andy’s cotton stuffed body and just looking at him, no one would guess
he could make wishes come true.
Raggedy Ann had been as fortunate as Raggedy Andy, for on one adventure
in the deep, deep woods, Raggedy Ann had found a very Magical Wishing
Pebble, and this was sewed up inside her cotton stuffed body, so that
Raggedy Ann, like Raggedy Andy, could make her wishes come true too.
So, this day, when the two Raggedys kissed the other dolls in the
nursery good-bye and skipped out through the garden gate and down the
path leading to the deep, deep woods, their little cotton stuffed
bodies tingled with excitement, for they both felt they were running to
meet some wonderful adventures. And indeed, this was true. The Raggedys
had gone but a short distance into the deep, deep woods when Raggedy
Andy heard something.
“Didn’t that sound like some one calling for help?” Raggedy Andy asked
as he caught Raggedy Ann’s arm.
“I heard something, but I could not hear just what was said,” Raggedy
Ann replied in a whisper.
“Listen,” Raggedy Andy said. “There it is again!”
“HELP! HELP!” some one cried.
“It’s over the other side of that great big stone,” Raggedy Ann
whispered. “Let’s run over real easy and climb on the stone, then we
can see who it is.”
The two Raggedys caught hold of hands and ran over to the large stone
and when they reached it they saw little steps leading to the top. Up
the steps they climbed until they could look over the top of the great
stone.
“I’ve got you this time,” a voice said. “And this time I will not let
you get away.”
“Oh, please Mister Doodle, don’t take me to your house and make me chop
the wood for you! I have to run to the store to get a penny’s worth of
needle eyes for mama and hurry right back so she can finish her sewing.
Then I have to—”
“HA! You won’t run to the store today,” Mister Doodle laughed. “I’ve
got a lot of wood to be chopped and I am too tired to do it myself so
you got to do it!”
“You are a mean man, Mister Doodle, and I just bet you had better run
along home and chop the wood yourself before you get in trouble,”
Raggedy Ann said from the top of the stone.
“Is that so?” Mister Doodle laughed. “I guess I will take Marggy home
to chop my wood if I want to.” And Mister Doodle started to pull the
little girl along behind him through the woods.
“Now I’ll tell you what, Mister Doodle,” cried Raggedy Ann. “If you
do not let go of Marggy before I count three, you’ll find yourself
standing on your head.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Mister Doodle laughed, for you see, he did not know that
all Raggedy Ann or Andy had to do was to make a wish and the wish would
come true, “I’d like to see a rag doll keep me from taking Marggy home
to chop the wood for me!”
“ONE,” said Raggedy Ann, “two,” she added after a pause, “now you
better let go,” she warned. But Mister Doodle gave Marggy a pull and
started away.
“Alright,” said Raggedy Ann, “THREE!”
“And I wish that he bumps up and down real hard,” said Raggedy Andy as
Mister Doodle turned upside down and stood upon his head.
“Oh! You must be fairies!” Marggy cried as she saw Mister Doodle do
just as the two Raggedys had wished.
“No, we are only two rag dolls, Marggy,” Raggedy Ann said as she and
Andy jumped from the large stone. “Now let’s run to your house before
Mister Doodle gets upon his feet again!” And catching Marggy’s hands,
the two Raggedys ran through the woods until they came to a little
house with an open door.
“Ha!” said someone over by the fireplace.
“Is that your mother, Marggy?” Raggedy Ann asked as she saw a woman in
an easy chair watching a pot hanging over cold ashes.
“Dear me, no!” Marggy replied. “I tried to tell you this was Mister
Doodle’s house, but you ran so fast I could not catch my breath.”
“Then is that Missus Doodle?” Raggedy Andy asked.
“Yes, I am,” Missus Doodle said. “And you are just in time too. I want
to get supper and the food won’t cook, because I have no fire. One of
you carry some wood in from the other room and light it. Mister Doodle
will be here in a minute.”
Marggy started to get the wood for Missus Doodle, but Raggedy Andy
stopped her. “How long have you been sitting here watching that pot,
Mrs. Doodle?”
“Ever since early this morning,” Mrs. Doodle replied. “But what has
that to do with getting the wood?”
“It hasn’t anything to do with it,” Raggedy Andy replied. “Except that
we will not get the wood for you when you try to make us do it. If you
had asked one of us real nice, we would have been pleased to get the
wood and start the fire.”
“Then into the cage you go!” cried Mrs. Doodle as she jumped out of her
chair and caught Raggedy Andy.
“Here!” Marggy cried as she caught Mrs. Doodle’s arm. “You put Raggedy
Andy down right away!”
Mrs. Doodle walked out into the other room and stuffed Raggedy Andy
into an empty parrot cage hanging on the wall. Then she ran after
Raggedy Ann and when she caught her, she stuffed Raggedy Ann in beside
Raggedy Andy.
[Illustration]
“Polly wants a cracker!” Raggedy Andy cried just like a parrot.
“Now!” Mrs. Doodle cried as she gave Marggy’s ear a twist, “get busy
and build the fire!” And she pushed the little girl into the wood room.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” someone knocked on the front door.
“Who is it?” asked Mrs. Doodle as she walked to the door.
“It’s me, Mr. Doodle! Just wait until I catch Raggedy Ann and Raggedy
Andy and Marggy!”
[Illustration]
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Mrs. Doodle laughed. “Then come right in for the two
Raggedys are in the parrot cage!”
“Ha,” Mr. Doodle said as he picked up a stick. “Show me where they are.”
“Polly wants a cracker!” Raggedy Andy cried from the parrot cage just
like a parrot.
“Maybe you should not tease him, Raggedy Andy,” Raggedy Ann said.
Raggedy Andy just laughed when Mr. Doodle walked in the room. “You just
watch, Raggedy Ann,” he whispered. Then he cried to Mr. Doodle, “Hello
Mr. Doodle, how did it feel to dance around on your head?”
Mr. Doodle was very, very angry. “I’ll show you now that you are
fastened up in the parrot cage! I’ll hit the cage with this big stick
and knock it off the nail, then the cage will fall on the floor and you
will both bump your heads!”
Mr. Doodle threw the big stick right at the cage, but Raggedy Andy, who
had a wishing stick sewed inside his rag body made a wish the moment
Mr. Doodle came in the house. So when Mr. Doodle threw the stick,
instead of the stick knocking the parrot cage from the nail, the stick
circled around the parrot cage and came flying back at Mr. Doodle’s
head.
“Wow!” Mr. Doodle cried as the stick knocked his hat off his head.
“What made that stick bounce that way?”
“You didn’t hit the parrot cage, that’s why,” said Mrs. Doodle.
Mr. Doodle picked up the stick and took careful aim. “This time I’ll
knock the cage down and bump the Raggedys’ heads, I’ll bet a nickel!”
And he threw the stick so hard that when it circled around the parrot
cage again, it sailed right back and cracked Mr. Doodle on top of his
head. This made Mr. Doodle sit down on the floor so hard he jarred a
vase off the mantel piece.
“Now see what you did!” Mrs. Doodle cried as she hit Mr. Doodle with
the broom. “You broke my nicest vase! I’ll hit the cage this time and
bump the Raggedys’ heads.” Then Mrs. Doodle threw the broom at the
parrot cage, but the broom circled around the edge just as the stick
had done and after striking Mrs. Doodle and knocking her down, it flew
along the wall and knocked down three pictures.
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy in the parrot cage had to hold their rag
sides to keep from laughing, for the harder Mr. and Mrs. Doodle tried
to knock down the parrot cage, the more damage they did until finally
their whole house was covered with broken vases and pictures and broken
dishes and both of them had a lot of bumps on the top of their heads.
“You see,” Raggedy Andy said from the parrot cage. “Whenever you try
to injure another, you always harm yourselves. Let this be a lesson to
you!”
Now this made Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy feel sorry, for although the
Doodles had tried to injure the Raggedys, still the Raggedys did not
wish to injure the Doodles in return. So Raggedy Andy made a wish that
all the broken things would be mended right away. And soon everything
was just as good as new.
Then when Mr. and Mrs. Doodle saw everything was not broken, they could
not understand what had happened, for you see, they did not know that
every time the Raggedys made a wish, the wish came true.
“I guess we must have been dreaming,” Mr. Doodle said as he got up from
the floor.
[Illustration]
“I guess we were,” Mrs. Doodle said.
“No, you were not dreaming,” Raggedy Andy said. “You will find that
every time you try to injure another, you will hurt yourself twice as
much.”
Now Mr. and Mrs. Doodle did not believe this was true, so they said,
“The Raggedys must have a magic charm in their pockets, for every time
they make a wish, the wish comes true. So we must take the magic charms
away from them, and then we can make all our wishes come true.”
“The first thing I shall wish for will be a big piano, then I will sit
and play pretty music all day long,” said Mrs. Doodle.
“Indeed!” Mr. Doodle replied. “I shall have the first wish. I shall
wish for an automobile!”
Then the Doodles stamped their feet and pulled each other’s noses.
While they were quarreling, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy jumped out of
the parrot cage, opened the door real easy and slipped outside.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
“Oh dear,” Raggedy Ann said as she stopped running, “We ran away from
the Doodles’ house and left Marggy there! Now the Doodles will be so
angry when they find we have escaped, they will make Marggy chop all
their wood and build their fires and do their cooking!”
“Then we must hurry right back and take Marggy away from Mr. Doodle’s
house,” said Raggedy Andy as he turned back.
When the Raggedys came to Mr. and Mrs. Doodle’s house they could hear a
lot of noise inside so they walked right in without knocking.
“You must let me run home to my Mama,” Marggy said to Mr. Doodle.
“Not until you chop up all the wood for us and make the fire and do the
cooking,” Mr. Doodle said. “Mrs. Doodle and I are too tired to do it.”
Then Mr. Doodle caught hold of the little girl’s arm and pulled her to
the wood pile. “There now,” he said as he shut the door. “Don’t come
out until the wood is all chopped.”
Marggy sat down in a corner of the wood room and began crying, for
she was too small to chop wood. But Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy had
slipped into the room when Mr. Doodle wasn’t looking, so they wiped
Marggy’s tears away and said, “Don’t cry, Marggy, we will rescue you
some way.”
“But Mr. Doodle has locked the door tight,” said Marggy. “And we can’t
get out!”
Raggedy Ann peeped through the key hole and saw Mr. and Mrs. Doodle
sitting in easy chairs. “We will rest while Marggy chops the wood,”
said Mrs. Doodle.
“Ha! Ha!” Raggedy Ann thought to herself. “If you are that lazy, it
will just serve you right if we can fool you.” And she thought and
thought until she ripped two stitches in the top of her rag head, then
she made a wish. It was a queer wish. Raggedy Ann wished that she and
Raggedy Andy and Marggy were only as large as tiny little weeny weeny
bugs. And just as soon as the wish came true, the three of them walked
right out through the crack under the back door. Next Raggedy Ann made
a wish that they would become large again. Then they caught hold of
hands and ran for Marggy’s house as fast as they could go.
“The joke I played on Mr. and Mrs. Doodle was a good one,” Raggedy Ann
laughed. “After we escaped from the Doodles’ house, I wished that all
the wood would grow larger! Now when Mr. Doodle finds he has to chop it
after all, he will have more work to do!”
“And that will serve him just right too,” Raggedy Andy laughed. “For
whenever anyone puts off doing a thing, hoping that someone else will
come along and do it for him, he always finds that the work seems
harder.”
[Illustration]
“You should tell your Daddy to speak to Mr. Doodle,” said Raggedy Ann
to Marggy.
“Oh, dear me,” Marggy replied. “I haven’t any Daddy. He went out in the
woods a long time ago and never came back.”
“Well, well, well,” the Raggedys both said. “Then we must search for
him and maybe we can find him and bring him home to you and your Mama.”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER TWO
When Marggy told her Mama that the Raggedys were going to search for
her Daddy she was very happy.
“I tell you what let’s do,” said Raggedy Ann. “Let’s take a ball of
your Mama’s darning cotton and make a wish that the cotton will roll in
front of us until it comes to where your Daddy is.”
Even Marggy’s Mama thought this would be lots of fun, so she got a ball
of red cotton and Raggedy Ann made the wish. “Now we will follow the
pretty red ball until it rolls to your Daddy,” said Raggedy Ann.
“I believe we had better take some cream puffs and doughnuts with us,”
Marggy’s Mama said. “For we may get hungry.” So she filled a basket
with doughnuts and cream puffs, then they all followed the red ball as
it rolled through the woods.
After the red ball had rolled along for almost a mile our friends came
to a little house beside the path and just as the red ball came to the
front door, a funny little old woman ran out and caught it.
“Oh my!” Raggedy Ann said. “You mustn’t pick up the little red ball! We
are following it!”
Then the funny little old woman made a face at Raggedy Ann. “I found
it!” she cried. “I need some red cotton to mend my red stockings!”
“Oh dear! What shall we do?” Marggy’s Mama asked.
“There isn’t anything you can do!” the funny little old woman replied.
“The red cotton is mine now!” And with this, she started into the house
with the little red ball.
Now maybe you don’t know it, but when Raggedy Ann made the wish for
the red ball to roll in front of them, this made the little red ball
a magical ball, so when the funny little old woman tried to take the
ball into her house, the magic ball pulled just as hard in the opposite
direction.
My! How the funny little old woman tussled. She pulled and the ball
pulled until finally the ball pulled the hardest and it pulled the
funny little old woman right down the path in front of our friends.
“If you do not let go of the little red ball, you will wear all the
soles off your shoes,” Raggedy Ann said.
“I will never, never let go!” cried the funny little old woman.
The funny little old woman was very determined and she held on to the
little red ball, even when it pulled her along and made her feet slide
over the gravel. “You will wear out your nice shoes,” Marggy’s Mama
said.
“I don’t care!” cried the funny little old woman. “You will have to buy
me new ones!”
“Did you ever hear the like!” Raggedy Andy exclaimed. “Here the funny
little old woman tries to take our magical ball and when she can’t take
it, she blames us if she wears out her shoes scuffing along!”
The funny little old woman held her feet out in front of her and just
slid along the path, and this held the little red ball back just enough
so that Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama had to
walk real slow or else step upon the funny little old woman’s heels.
“I guess we’ll have to help the little red ball,” Raggedy Andy said.
“It has a hard time pulling the funny little old woman along. I’ll
help the ball by pushing the funny little old woman.”
But when Raggedy Andy helped the little red ball by pushing on the
funny little old woman, she slid over the gravel in the path so fast,
it made her feet burn, so she sat right down plunk in the path and
wouldn’t budge a speck.
“Now what shall we do?” Raggedy Andy asked as he scratched his head.
“I shan’t budge!” the funny little old woman cried. “This little red
ball is mine and I shall take it home!”
“I feel like boxing her ears,” Marggy’s Mama cried. “The funny little
old woman is just like a spoilt child, and it would teach her a lesson
if some one paddywhacked her.”
“Maybe after she rests awhile she will stand up again,” said Raggedy
Andy. “Then the little red ball will pull her along.”
So while they waited for the funny little old woman to stand up,
Marggy’s Mama got out the cream puffs and doughnuts.
“We’ll give you a doughnut, if you’d like one,” Raggedy Ann said to the
funny little old woman. But the funny little old woman just shook her
head and held tightly to the little red ball.
“I shall hang on to the little red magic ball until I can take it home
with me,” the funny little old woman said. “I need some red yarn to
darn my stockings with.”
“But if you do not let go of the little red magic ball, you will wear
the soles off your shoes scuffing along,” said Raggedy Andy. “Then
you’ll have to go to the shoe maker and have new soles put on your
shoes.”
“Maybe when we come to a brook, the little red ball will pull the funny
little old woman right into the water,” Marggy said.
But even when they came to a little brook, the funny little old woman
held to the little red magic ball. It pulled her right through the
water so she was wet up to her knees.
“Dear me,” Raggedy Ann said. “We will never find Marggy’s Daddy if the
funny little old woman keeps holding the magic ball back all the time!
We would have been miles farther if the ball had been allowed to roll
along as fast as it started.”
“Maybe if I carried the funny little old woman she wouldn’t pull back
on the magic ball all the time,” said Raggedy Andy.
So Raggedy Andy picked up the funny little old woman and started to
carry her the way the little red magic ball wanted to go, but she
kicked and twisted and wiggled and scolded so hard, she knocked Raggedy
Andy right over backwards. And when Raggedy Andy fell down, the funny
little old woman bumped her head on a stone so hard, she forgot all
about holding the little red magic ball and held her head instead.
“It was all your fault!” she cried to Raggedy Andy. “If you had not
tried to carry me, I would not have bumped my head!”
“I’m sorry,” Raggedy Andy said, for he would not have had the funny
little old woman bump her head on purpose. “But now you have let go of
our little red magic ball and we can follow it and find Marggy’s Daddy,
I will give you a nice big ball of red cotton.”
The funny little old woman was so pleased she dried her tears and ran
right home.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER THREE
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama followed the
little red magical ball of darning cotton through the woods until they
came to a gate made of logs. The little red magical ball rolled through
the gate and our friends started to follow it, when a great big Dragon,
just like the Dragons you see in Chinese pictures, came right out and
opened its mouth and the little red magical ball of darning cotton
rolled inside.
“Oh, dear!” cried Marggy’s Mama as she sat down on a stone and wiped
her eyes with her apron. “Now the little red magical ball is gone and
we will never find Daddy.”
“Why did you swallow our little red magical ball of darning cotton?”
Raggedy Ann asked the great big dragon.
“Because,” the Dragon replied.
“That isn’t any reason at all,” Raggedy Ann said. “And you ought to be
ashamed of yourself! That’s what!”
“Well, I’m not,” the great big large Dragon replied as it wiggled its
long tail. And when Raggedy Ann pointed her rag hand at its nose to
make it feel ashamed of itself, the great big large Dragon opened its
great large mouth real wide and went, “Gobble! Gobble!”
“Here! You stop that, Mister Dragon!” Raggedy Andy cried, but he was
too late for the great big large Dragon had swallowed Raggedy Ann
completely.
“Now then, you’ve gone and done it!” Raggedy Andy cried as he hunted
around for a great big stick.
“What are you going to do with that great big stick?” the Dragon asked
as he twirled his long tail.
“You just wait and see! That’s what!” Raggedy Andy said as he rolled up
his sleeves.
“Are we going to have a fight?” the Dragon asked.
Raggedy Andy did not answer the Dragon. Instead, he walked right up
to it holding the large stick in front of him. When Raggedy Andy came
up to him, the Dragon opened his great big mouth and started to say
“Gobble! Gobble!” just like he had done when he swallowed Raggedy Ann,
but Raggedy Andy was too smart for him. Raggedy Andy just as quick as
a wink, put the large stick in the Dragon’s mouth and this held the
Dragon’s mouth wide open.
My! How the Dragon wiggled and wobbled his long tail, but it did no
good, for he could not get the stick out of his mouth. And when he
wiggled and wobbled his long tail Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama
could hear Raggedy Ann and the little red magical ball rattling around
way back inside the Dragon. Then they heard a funny scratching sound
and here came Raggedy Ann crawling out.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
“The Dragon is just made out of paper and thin slats of wood!” Raggedy
Ann laughed.
“The reason I did not fight the great big large Dragon was because
I saw right away that he was made out of paper,” said Raggedy Andy.
“And if I had hit him upon the head with the large stick, I would have
broken his head in pieces.”
“Are you going to take the stick out of his mouth?” Marggy’s Mama asked
Raggedy Andy, “The great big Dragon might eat someone else up just as
he did Raggedy Ann.”
Raggedy Ann laughed. “The great big Dragon wouldn’t harm anyone even if
he did swallow them,” she said. “For he is hollow all the way to the
tip of his tail. And if he swallowed anyone, all they would have to
do would be to kick real hard and they could kick a large hole right
through him.”
Raggedy Andy walked up to the large paper Dragon and took the big stick
out of its mouth. “There,” said Raggedy Andy. “Does that feel better?”
“Yes indeed!” the Dragon replied. “When my mouth was propped open with
the stick, it made cold chills run all the way to the tip end of my
long tail, and it felt just like someone had left the front door wide
open on a cold day.”
“Then after this, you mustn’t swallow anyone again,” said Raggedy Andy.
“I did not swallow Raggedy Ann,” the Dragon replied.
“No, he didn’t, that’s true,” Raggedy Ann agreed. “I jumped into his
mouth, because I saw right away he was made out of paper and thin slats
of wood. I knew someone had to rescue the little red magical ball of
darning cotton or we would never find Marggy’s Daddy.”
“What do you eat, Mister Dragon?” Marggy’s Mama asked as she walked up
and thumped the Dragon’s head to see if he really and truly was paper.
“I never eat anything,” the Dragon replied, “But lots of times when I
yawn the wind blows pieces of paper right in my mouth and dry leaves
and I do not know how to get them out again! I’m afraid maybe if mice
find out I have pieces of paper and nice dry leaves in me, they might
build nests in my paper body. And you know how mice are, sometimes they
chew holes in things.”
“I tell you what let’s do! Let’s pull him up into a tree by the tip end
of his tail and shake all the leaves and pieces of paper out,” Raggedy
Andy said.
Marggy and her Mama couldn’t climb trees like Raggedy Ann and Raggedy
Andy, so they stayed upon the ground and boosted the paper Dragon’s
tail up to Raggedy Ann and Andy. Then Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy
shook the paper Dragon’s tail until all the leaves and pieces of paper
rattled down to his mouth. Then Marggy and her Mama cleaned all the
leaves and paper out of the paper Dragon’s mouth and he felt very, very
much better.
Then Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama told the
paper Dragon good-bye and followed the little red magical ball of
darning cotton through the woods.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER FOUR
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama had gone only a
short way when they heard a loud noise in back of them.
“Land sakes!” cried Raggedy Ann. “What can be making all that racket?”
But because the others did not know, of course they could not tell, so
they just had to wait until whatever made the racket reached them.
The noise grew louder and louder until they saw the paper Dragon coming
through the woods as fast as he could wiggle. The paper Dragon wiggled
and twisted along so fast his long tail bumped against the trees
blumpity smack, crash, blump!
“Dear me! Something must be wrong with the paper Dragon!” Raggedy Ann
said. “He will tear a lot of holes in his sides if he isn’t careful the
way he smacks into the trees and stones!”
The paper Dragon was so out of breath when he reached Raggedy Ann all
he could say was “Run!” And he said it with such a wheeze no one could
understand what he said.
“Whatever made you wiggle so fast through the woods, Mister Dragon?”
Raggedy Andy asked. “You’ve snagged a lot of holes in your tail, and
while you rest we will mend them with paper and glue.”
“But we haven’t any glue!” Marggy’s Mama said.
“Maybe we can use the cream out of a cream puff!” Raggedy Ann
suggested. And as there were lots of pieces of paper blowing about
through the woods Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy soon stuck patches on
every hole in the paper Dragon’s body.
“Ah! That feels ever so much better,” the paper Dragon said. “I guess
the reason I got out of breath was because I had so many holes in my
long body, and the air leaked out of the holes.”
“Maybe you ran with your mouth open,” Marggy said.
“Yes, that’s true,” the Dragon replied. “Let’s see now, what was I
going to tell you? I guess it slipped out of the holes, for I have
completely forgotten what it was.”
“Try to think real hard,” suggested Raggedy Andy. “Raggedy Ann and I
often think so hard we rip stitches out of our heads.”
“But I have no stitches in my head,” the Dragon replied.
“Then we’ll just sit here and wait until you think without ripping any
stitches,” said Raggedy Ann.
So the Raggedys and Marggy and her Mama sat down and waited for the
Dragon to remember.
“Can’t you remember what it was?” Raggedy Andy asked after they had sat
there awhile.
“I haven’t the least idea,” the paper Dragon replied. “I can’t seem to
think very well.”
“Maybe if you would scratch your head, it would help,” said Raggedy Ann.
“Oh, he can’t scratch his head,” Raggedy Andy laughed. “He hasn’t any
hands to scratch with.”
“Of course not,” Raggedy Ann laughed. “It was silly of me to suggest
it!”
“But we could take sticks and scratch his head for him,” Marggy said.
“Maybe that will help,” the paper Dragon said.
So Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama each got a
stick and scratched the Dragon’s head.
[Illustration]
After they had scratched awhile, the paper Dragon said, “That’s enough!
I remember what it was now! You must run and run fast!”
“But why should we run?” Raggedy Ann asked. “If we run, we will get
ahead of the little magical red ball of darning cotton and you know,
the little red ball rolls through the woods and is leading us to where
Marggy’s Daddy is.”
“Well, you had better run anyway!” the Dragon said. “For there’s a
queer man running after you, and the only reason he isn’t here now is
because I wiggled through the woods so much faster than he can run.”
“Who is it?” Raggedy Ann asked of the others.
“I’ll tell you who it is,” the Dragon said. “It’s Mr. Doodle!”
“Oh dear!” Marggy cried. “He wants to take me back to his house to chop
wood for him!”
“Well, he will never do that,” Raggedy Andy said. “We will hide some
place and wait until he runs by, then we will go another way.”
“Here’s a dandy place to hide,” said Raggedy Ann. “Quick! Everyone get
in this great big hollow tree. Afterwards we will catch up with the
magic ball.”
So they all squeezed into the great big hollow tree. Even the Dragon,
and waited for Mr. Doodle to run by them.
“Here he comes now, I can hear him!” the Dragon said to Raggedy Ann and
Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama. The Dragon was the last to crawl
into the great big hollow tree so he could hear better than the others.
“He’s coming lickety split through the woods,” the Dragon whispered.
“Goody! Now he’s going by! It’s stuffy in here all crowded together and
I will be glad when Mr. Doodle runs past,” said Raggedy Ann.
“Oh shucks!” the Dragon cried out loud.
“Be quiet!” Raggedy Ann said. “He will hear you sure!”
“That’s just it!” the Dragon said. “He has heard us and he is pulling
and yanking my tail now!”
“He’s pulling me out of the tree!” the Dragon wailed.
Indeed, this was true, for the others soon felt the Dragon slipping and
slipping until suddenly he was yanked right out of the great big hollow
tree.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” laughed Mr. Doodle. “You thought you could fool me did
you?”
“How did you know where we were?” Raggedy Andy asked as he and the
others came out.
“Why, who wouldn’t know where you were when the foolish Dragon had ten
or fifteen feet of his tail sticking out of the tree!”
“I knew I would spoil it all, if I hid in the tree with you! I’m so
sorry!” the Dragon cried.
“Don’t you care,” Raggedy Andy whispered. “You did the best you knew
how and we are glad of that.”
“Now,” said Mr. Doodle. “I’ve come to take Marggy home with me to chop
the wood.”
“Dear me,” Raggedy Ann exclaimed. “If you worked as hard chopping your
wood as you have chasing us, you would have the wood all chopped!”
“I’m too tired to chop wood, I tell you,” Mr. Doodle shouted as he gave
Marggy’s arm a pull.
“Now see here,” the Dragon cried. “I guess we will have to fight!” So
Mr. Doodle took off his coat and rolled up his sleeves. “The rest of
you had better keep back out of the way,” he said.
So Raggedy Ann passed the doughnuts and cream puffs. “For,” she said as
they took seats back out of the way. “We might as well have lunch while
we wait for the Dragon to fight Mr. Doodle.”
The fight between Mr. Doodle and the Dragon was a great sight to see.
The Dragon could growl very loud when he wanted to and he growled
louder than usual. But Mr. Doodle, even if he was so lazy that he
wanted Marggy to chop his wood for him, was very brave and every time
the Dragon growled, Mr. Doodle stuck out his tongue at the Dragon.
[Illustration]
This made the Dragon growl louder than ever and Raggedy Andy grew so
excited he put a cream puff into his eye instead of his mouth and the
cream puff covered his shoe button eye so that he could only watch the
fight with one eye until Raggedy Ann wiped the cream puff off with her
pocket hanky. The little white one with blue flowers on it.
Each time the Dragon rushed at Mr. Doodle and growled, Mr. Doodle
jumped back. And each time Mr. Doodle rushed at the Dragon, the Dragon
jumped back. And the fight lasted until both Mr. Doodle and the Dragon
grew so excited, they forgot what they were doing, and both rushed at
each other at the same time. This surprised the Dragon so much, he
stopped suddenly and opened his mouth and he had no sooner done this
than Mr. Doodle, who was as much surprised as the Dragon, lost his
balance and fell right into the Dragon’s mouth.
“Hm!” the Dragon said. “The great fight is over!”
“I’m glad that you swallowed Mr. Doodle instead of Mr. Doodle
swallowing you!” Raggedy Andy told the Dragon as he patted him upon the
head.
“Silly!” Raggedy Ann laughed at Raggedy Andy. “How could Mr. Doodle
swallow the Dragon when the Dragon is so much larger?”
“I never thought of that,” Raggedy Andy giggled. He knew when the joke
was on him.
But suddenly the Dragon looked worried and it only took Raggedy Andy a
moment to find out why. Mr. Doodle, inside the paper Dragon had started
stomping around.
“If you don’t let me out, I’ll kick out all your slats!” Mr. Doodle
shouted from inside the paper Dragon.
“I believe I had better let him out,” the Dragon said. “I think he has
nails in his shoes!”
So the Dragon opened his mouth and Mr. Doodle walked out. Mr. Doodle
was so tired though, he had to sit down and rest. “We’ll have another
fight just as soon as I rest up a bit.”
And because they did not believe in being stingy, Raggedy Ann and
Raggedy Andy gave Mr. Doodle three cream puffs and six doughnuts to
help him rest.
After resting and eating three cream puffs and six doughnuts, Mr.
Doodle jumped to his feet. “Now we must continue our fight!” he cried
to the Dragon.
“I won’t fight you if you fall inside my mouth again and kick around
like you did before. Your shoes have nails in them!” the Dragon said.
“I guess I’ll take off my shoes then,” Mr. Doodle agreed. “That will
make it a fair fight, don’t you think?”
When Mr. Doodle had taken off his shoes with the nails in the bottom
the Dragon said, “I will never permit you to take Marggy home with you
to chop your wood.”
And Mr. Doodle replied, “And I will never permit you to not permit me
to take Marggy home with me to chop my wood.” And with this, Mr. Doodle
stuck out his tongue at the Dragon and the Dragon growled very loud
at Mr. Doodle. Then Mr. Doodle pushed upon the Dragon and the Dragon
pushed upon Mr. Doodle and back and forth they tussled until finally
the Dragon pushed the hardest and pushed Mr. Doodle over on his back.
Of course you have guessed by this time that Mr. Doodle was losing the
fight with the Dragon, and it made him so angry he lost his temper,
and before anyone could say, “Scat!” Mr. Doodle picked up a stone and
threw it right smack dab through the kind Dragon’s paper side.
“Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Mr. Doodle?” Raggedy Ann cried.
“I don’t care,” Mr. Doodle replied. “He shouldn’t have pushed me over
on my back, that’s what!”
Marggy’s Mama, before she stopped to think that Mr. Doodle did not
belong to her, caught Mr. Doodle and turned him over her knee. And I
wish that you could have heard the paddywhacks she gave him with her
slipper. When Marggy’s Mama had finished paddywhacking Mr. Doodle, Mr.
Doodle ran home as fast as he could.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” the Dragon laughed in spite of the hole in his side,
“Marggy’s Mama is the one who really won the great fight!”
Raggedy Andy hunted around through the woods until he found a Sunday
newspaper and with this and some of the cream from the cream puffs,
Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann covered the hole in the paper Dragon’s
side. The Sunday newspaper was printed in colors and it made the paper
Dragon much prettier than he had been and everyone told him so. And
after they had thanked the kindly paper Dragon for rescuing Marggy from
Mr. Doodle, they left the Dragon trying to wiggle around so that he
could see the beautiful Sunday newspaper patch they had pasted on his
side.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER FIVE
“It’s nice to go adventuring through the lovely woods!” Raggedy Ann
said as they walked along.
“Yes, indeed it is,” Marggy’s Mama replied. “And wasn’t it fortunate we
met the kind paper Dragon! If it had not been for him, old Mr. Doodle
would have taken Marggy home with him to chop his wood, and then we
would not have been able to hunt any further for Marggy’s Daddy.”
“Dear me suz!” Raggedy Ann exclaimed as she looked back. “Here comes
Mr. Doodle! Why doesn’t he let us alone!”
“I’ll get a nice long switch and we’ll see about this!” Marggy’s Mama
said very severe-like, but when Mr. Doodle came running up, Marggy’s
Mama did not have to use the switch because Mr. Doodle had a box in his
hands and said, “See what I found back in the woods!”
The box was made of shiny wood and on the front were black shiny knobs
with little white numbers on them.
“What is it, Mr. Doodle?” Marggy’s Mama asked, forgetting that she held
the nice long switch.
“I do not know!” Mr. Doodle replied. “After I had the fight with the
paper Dragon and after Marggy’s Mama paddywhacked me, I ran as fast as
I could until I grew very tired; then I sat down to rest, and right in
front of me in a hollow tree I saw this lovely box.”
“I’ll bet a nickel it is a magic box,” Raggedy Andy said.
“Let’s all sit down and maybe we can think what the box is for,”
Raggedy Ann suggested. So while they sat and thought, Marggy’s Mama
gave them each a cream puff, for everyone knows, you can think ever so
much better while eating cream puffs.
Finally Raggedy Ann said, “I’ll tell you what let’s do!”
“What?” Mr. Doodle asked.
“All of you run over and hide in that hollow tree and I will open the
box, then if a Magician, or a Genei hops out he won’t know where you
are.”
“No sir!” Raggedy Andy said, very decidedly. “Mr. Doodle found the box
and it belongs to him, so if there is a Magician, or a Genei in the
magic box then Mr. Doodle can open it so that he will be caught instead
of you, Raggedy Ann.”
“That is true!” Mr. Doodle said. “I found the box and I tried to take
Marggy home with me and caused you enough trouble, so you all run and
hide and I will open the box!”
This was very kind of Mr. Doodle, for before he had been so very unkind
to Marggy and her Mama and friends.
“Huh! I am not afraid,” Raggedy Andy said. “I shall stand right here,
and if a Magician or a Genei pops out of the box I will crack him on
top of the head with this stubby stick.”
“Indeed you shan’t do that, Raggedy Andy,” Raggedy Ann cried. “What
if it should be a very kind hearted Magician, or a generous Genei who
would help us find Marggy’s Daddy? It wouldn’t be nice to crack him on
top of his head with the stubby stick!”
“Then I will not hit him on top of his head with the stick,” Raggedy
Andy agreed. “But just the same, I shall stay right here while Mr.
Doodle opens the shiny box.”
“Then we will all stay,” Marggy’s Mama said.
Mr. Doodle was just about to open the lid of the shiny box when Raggedy
Ann cried, “Wait a moment! Before you open the box, try twisting the
black knobs with the white numbers on them.”
Everyone held their breaths while Mr. Doodle twisted the black knobs.
“SQUEEEE—AWK—EEEE!”
“It sounds like you are pinching him when you twist the knobs!” Raggedy
Andy said. Mr. Doodle twisted the knobs again and a voice from the box
said, “Kay—dee—kay—aye,” and then there came the tinkle of a piano.
“Someone lives in the box!” Raggedy Ann cried. “They are playing the
piano.”
“Yes! That’s it, Raggedy Ann,” Raggedy Andy said. “It is some little
creature’s home!”
“No it isn’t!” a voice in back of Raggedy Ann said, and when they
looked, our friends saw a little boy standing there and his eyes danced
with merriment.
“How do you know?” Mr. Doodle asked.
“Because it is my box!” the boy replied, “I made it myself!”
“Then you must be a Magician, or a Fairy, or something!” Marggy’s Mama
said.
“Oh! Not at all,” the little boy replied. “Almost any boy can make a
box like that if he care to do so!”
“Well! It is my box now!” Mr. Doodle said as he picked up the shiny box
and held it tightly under his arm.
“Why the idea, Mr. Doodle! It isn’t your box at all!” Marggy’s Mama
cried.
“Yes it is!” Mr. Doodle shouted, “I found it in a hollow tree and so
that makes it mine. Don’t you see?”
“Why, Mr. Doodle! I’m s’prised at you!” Raggedy Ann said. “The pretty
shiny box belongs to the nice little boy and you must give it to him!”
“I’ll run with it and then you can’t catch me!” Mr. Doodle said as he
started running. The little boy ran after Mr. Doodle and so did Raggedy
Andy.
The little boy could not run as fast as Raggedy Andy, so Raggedy Andy
caught hold of Mr. Doodle’s coat tails and held him. Mr. Doodle pulled
and pulled until one of his coat tails came off and let Raggedy Andy
fall down.
“Now then you’ll catch it, Raggedy Andy!” Mr. Doodle screamed. “I shall
pull off your coat tail because you pulled off my coat tail!” And he
jumped at Raggedy Andy.
“Ha, ha, ha, ha! I haven’t any coat tails!”
“Then we will have to fight!” Mr. Doodle cried.
“All right!” and Raggedy Andy rolled up his sleeves.
Mr. Doodle and Raggedy Andy were just about to fight when Raggedy Ann
came running up. “Here!” she cried, “You mustn’t fight! It isn’t nice
to quarrel and fight like cats and dogs! Besides, the little boy has
taken the shiny box and run home with it.”
[Illustration]
“It was really all my fault,” Mr. Doodle said when Raggedy Andy said he
was sorry he tore his coat. “If I had not been so selfish and had not
tried to run away with the little boy’s shiny box you would not have
torn my coat even a speck!”
“What kind of a magic box do you think it really was, Mr. Doodle?”
Raggedy Ann wished to know.
“It was a radio,” Mr. Doodle replied. “Didn’t you guess that? Almost
any one would guess it the first pop!”
“We had better hurry on so that we can find Marggy’s Daddy,” said
Raggedy Ann. “You know he has been lost for the longest, longest time.”
“When you hunt for Marggy’s Daddy, why don’t you have Marggy stay at my
house?” Mr. Doodle asked. “She will get tired walking so far with you.”
“Now, Mr. Doodle!” Raggedy Ann shook her rag thumb at him. “You know
very well that Marggy wants to go with us and you just want her to go
home with you so that she will chop the wood and build the fires ’n
everything; ’cause you are too lazy to do it yourself!”
“Whoever says I am lazy will have to fight like the paper Dragon and I
fought,” Mr. Doodle cried as he hopped to his feet.
Raggedy Andy did not want Mr. Doodle to fight Raggedy Ann so he started
rolling up his sleeves to fight Mr. Doodle in Raggedy Ann’s place when
Mrs. Doodle came running up from behind the tree and took Mr. Doodle
right by his ear.
“Now then, Mr. Doodle,” she cried as she pulled him along, “You march
right home with me! I’m tired of having you try to get someone else to
do the work all the time. From now on, you must do it yourself, you
lazy thing.”
And Mrs. Doodle meant just what she said too, for as long as they
watched, Mrs. Doodle still had hold of Mr. Doodle’s ear and was making
him step towards home as fast as he could go without falling down.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER SIX
Finally our friends came to a great stone castle with large gates in
front of it. At one side of the gate was a great big soldier with a
long gun and at the other side of the gate was a great big soldier
with a long sword. “You can’t come through the gate!” the two soldiers
shouted when they saw our friends.
“If you walk through the gate, I’ll have to cut off your ears!” the
soldier with the long sword cried.
“I haven’t any ears,” Raggedy Andy laughed.
“Besides, the gate doesn’t open anyway,” the soldier with the gun said.
“If they won’t let us go through the gate, let’s walk around it,”
Raggedy Ann said.
“There!” one soldier said to the other. “I knew they’d guess it!”
“How did you ever think to walk around the gate when you couldn’t walk
through it?” one soldier asked.
“Because there isn’t any fence on the sides of the gate!” Raggedy Ann
laughed. Then the door opened and all walked right into the castle.
When Raggedy Ann, who came last had entered the castle, the great door
closed behind her. Then the rug they were standing upon tipped down,
so that Raggedy Andy, Marggy and her Mama and Raggedy Ann all went
scooting down a slippery slide. Down, down they went, ever so fast,
under the castle and when they came to the end, there they were on the
road with the castle in back of them.
“I’m glad we didn’t have to stay in the castle,” Raggedy Andy said.
“For who knows? It might have been a magical castle and we might have
had to stay there for ever and ever!”
At the side of the road sat an old man. He sat upon a hard stone and he
was knitting sox. After they had all said, “Good morning” to the old
man, Marggy’s Mama asked him, “Is this a magician’s castle?”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
“Yes, indeed it is!” the old man replied. “I’m trying my best to get
in, for the Magician has a very magical canary bird of mine which sings
beautiful songs all day long.”
“Maybe you can climb up the slippery slide.”
“No, I can’t do that!” the old man said. “For you see, the slippery
slide is too steep and slippery. I’ll tell you a secret though, if you
promise not to tell anyone.”
“We promise!” Marggy said.
“Well, the secret is this,” the old man whispered. “I’m knitting
sixteen pair of sox and when I have them finished I shall unravel them
and tie a stone to one end of the yarn. Then I’ll throw the stone up to
one of the windows and the stone will go behind one of the iron bars
in front of the window and bounce out again. Then I will let the stone
pull the yarn down until it touches the ground. I’ll tie a rope to the
yarn and pull the rope up to the window, then I’ll climb up there and
get in. Isn’t that a nice secret? Do not tell anyone!”
“Oh, no, we won’t,” Raggedy Ann said. “But,” she added, “have you
thought that if you used the yarn before you knitted it into sox, you
wouldn’t have the trouble of unraveling it?”
“Dear me, no! I never thought of that!” the old man replied. “I’ve been
sitting here for nine months knitting the sox and I am on the last one!”
“And then, too,” Raggedy Ann wanted to know. “Even if you climbed up to
the window, how would you get through the iron bars?”
“I am afraid I did not think of that either!” the old man sighed.
“And have you thought that maybe you can walk right into the front door
if you go around there?” Raggedy Andy asked.
“No sir! I never thought of that either!”
“Have you thought of eating since you started knitting the sox?”
Marggy’s Mama asked.
“Dear me! I’ve been so busy, I forgot that too!”
“Then I’ll tell you what I would do if I were you,” Marggy’s Mama said
as she gave the old man eight cream puffs and nine doughnuts. “I’d eat
these, then I’d run home to my mama as fast as I could scamper.”
“Oh, thank you!” the old man chuckled. “I’ll run home to mama right
away. I’d forgotten her. Maybe she will be hungry too.” And away he
went, lickety split through the woods.
“Well, well, well!” Raggedy Ann laughed as she watched the funny old
man run away. “He has gone and left the sox he has been working on so
long!”
Marggy’s Mama picked up the sox and put them in her basket. “If we pass
his house I will hand them to him.”
“Here he comes running back!” Marggy cried. “Isn’t he funny?”
“Hello!” he cried as he came up to our friends. “Do you know where I
was running to? I was running as hard as I could through the woods when
all of a sudden I wondered what I was running for. So I came back to
ask you!”
“You were taking the doughnuts and cream puffs home to give to your
mama,” Marggy’s Mama explained.
“Oh! So I was!” the funny old man said. “Well sir, I have eaten all the
doughnuts and cream puffs!”
“That is too bad!” Raggedy Ann said. “For you told us your mama might
be very hungry while you had been away nine months knitting the sox!”
“Dear me! So I did!” the old man admitted. “I must hurry back and get
the sox and then hurry right home before I forget it!”
“Wait a moment!” Raggedy Ann cried as the funny old man started to
run, “Marggy’s Mama has your sox in her basket, so you will not have to
run back!”
“Then I must run home as fast as I can and see how my mama is, she may
be very hungry.”
“Now we will hurry after him and see where his home is for if he has
been away for nine months, his mama will be very, very hungry and will
like our doughnuts and cream puffs,” Raggedy Ann said thoughtfully.
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama caught hold of
hands and ran after the funny little man until they saw him run into a
queer little house. Smoke was coming out of the chimney and when they
walked up to the door a nice little old lady came to meet them. “Come
right in!” she cried cheerily. “My husband told me you might be along
pretty soon, and as I have been making some candy covered cup cakes, I
would like you to come in and have some with lemonade.” And she took
Raggedy Ann and her friends into the dining room and gave them all they
could eat and drink. When they had finished, the funny old man’s wife
asked, “Why has Mr. Felix got that piece of red yarn tied around his
nose?”
Raggedy Ann laughed. “Why! Mrs. Felix, hasn’t he told you?”
“No!” Mrs. Felix replied. “He had forgotten by the time he reached
home!”
“Then I’ll tell you why he has it tied around his nose,” Raggedy Ann
said. “We met him back by the castle and gave him some cream puffs and
doughnuts to bring home to you, for he told us he had not been home for
nine months. You see, we thought you might be hungry, so we tied the
yarn around his nose so he wouldn’t forget to run right straight home!”
[Illustration]
“Dear me!” Mrs. Felix sighed, “I do not know what to do for Mr. Felix.
He forgets everything. Why just an hour ago I sent him down to the
grocery to get a loaf of bread and a pound of bacon and you found him
sitting along the road. I guess he forgot that I sent him to the store!”
“No! I didn’t forget to go to the store,” Mr. Felix said. “But I forgot
what you sent me for, so I bought fifteen pairs of sox and some yarn
and knitting needles.”
“And he told us he was knitting the sox himself!” Marggy said.
“Dear me, what can I do with him?” Mrs. Felix cried. “When he was a
little boy he used to tell fibs and as an excuse for telling fibs he
would say, ‘I forgot’ until he told it so many times he finally got so
he really did forget, and now he cannot remember anything!”
“My goodness!” Raggedy Ann said, “I am glad there are not many children
like him; for think how queer it would be to have them grow up and not
be able to remember anything!”
“Maybe you can cure him of forgetting by making him go without his
supper and see if he is hungry enough in the morning to remember it.
Then if he forgets, make him go without his dinner and see if he
forgets that!” Marggy said.
“Oh my! He would never forget anything like that!” Mrs. Felix laughed.
“It’s just the other things he forgets.”
“Then I believe a good paddywhacking would be the best thing for him,”
Raggedy Ann laughed.
“Just the thing!” Mrs. Felix cried as she seized the pancake paddle and
before he had time to run, Mr. Felix found himself across Mrs. Felix’s
knees and was being paddywhacked real hard.
“Now will you remember not to forget?” Mrs. Felix asked.
“Indeed I will!” Mr. Felix replied as he wiped his forehead with his
pocket hanky, and to prove that he remembered not to forget, Mr. Felix
repeated every single thing he had told Raggedy Ann back near the
castle in the woods.
[Illustration]
“I’ll bet a nickel I never, never forget again,” Mr. Felix said.
“Never, never, for it isn’t any fun being paddywhacked with a pancake
paddle, I can tell you!”
“We asked Mr. Felix who lived in the castle and he told us a Magician
lived there,” Raggedy Ann said.
“Yes, that is true,” Mrs. Felix said. “Didn’t you run in to see him
when you passed?”
“We went in,” Raggedy Andy laughed, “But we hardly stepped inside the
door before we slid down a slippery slide and went scooting out on this
side!”
“Then if the Magician is a kindly Magician, what do you say if we go to
see him? He may be able to tell us where Marggy’s Daddy is,” Raggedy
Ann said.
Marggy and her Mama thought this would be a good plan. “And,” Marggy’s
Mama said. “Even if we should slide down the slippery slide again, it
is a lot of fun!”
So thanking Mrs. Felix for the nice cup cakes and lemonade, our friends
returned to the gate where the two soldiers stood guard.
“Hello!” Raggedy Ann cried in her cheeriest voice. “We wish to go in
and visit the Magician.”
“Alright!” one of the soldiers said. “But you will have to walk around
the gate, because you know it doesn’t open!”
[Illustration]
“Thank you!” Raggedy Ann said. “When we went in the door before, we
dropped through the floor and went scooting down a slippery slide, way
under the castle!”
One of the soldiers came up to Raggedy Ann and whispered, “Don’t tell a
soul, Raggedy Ann!” he said. “It’s a secret. When you go in the castle,
you must go around to the side door. Everyone who goes in the front
door, falls down and scoots on the slippery slide!”
“Did you ever see Marggy’s Daddy walking along here?” Raggedy Andy
asked one of the soldiers.
“I don’t believe so,” the soldier replied. “But when you go inside, you
ask the Magician. He knows ever and ever so much!”
So the Raggedys thanked the kind soldiers and walking around to the
side door rang a little bell. In answer to the bell, the door was
opened a crack and a long nose was poked out. “Who is it?” the owner of
the long nose asked.
Raggedy Ann named over all in the little party, then said, “We wish to
ask the Magician if he knows where Marggy’s Daddy is, her Daddy has
been lost a long, long time.”
“Wait a moment!” the long nosed person said. “I will run and ask the
Magician!”
Presently the long nosed man returned. “The Magician says that he knows
where Marggy’s Daddy is, but he will not tell unless you do something
for him!”
[Illustration]
“What does he wish us to do for him?” Raggedy Andy wanted to know.
“The Magician will tell you!” the long nosed man said as he opened the
door and they followed him down a long hall.
In a large room, sitting upon a throne was a queer little man with long
whiskers. This was the Magician who owned the castle. He greeted our
friends by tipping his crown. “Hello!” he said. “If you want to find
Marggy’s Daddy, you must do something for me first! That’s the way they
always do things in fairy tales.”
“But this isn’t a fairy tale,” Raggedy Ann said.
“Of course it is!” the magician laughed. “How can two rag dolls walk
and talk unless it is a fairy tale. So I want you to go out and bring
me back a dragon, then maybe I can think of something else for you to
do!”
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy whispered together, then Raggedy Andy
asked, “If I bring you a dragon, what will you do with him?”
“I do not know,” the Magician answered. “I never had a dragon, but I’ve
read of them in fairy tales and every great Magician really needs a
dragon around his castle. I ’spect though, I would have to keep him in
a chicken coop to keep him from eating people!”
“I believe I can bring you a dragon,” Raggedy Andy said. “But it will
be a very nice, kind Dragon who does not eat people, so if you will
promise that you won’t put him in a cage, but let him live here in the
castle with you until he gets ready to leave, I will go and hunt for
him.”
“All right,” the Magician promised.
So Raggedy Andy filled his pockets with doughnuts from Marggy’s Mama’s
basket and started out the door.
“Wait a moment!” the Magician cried. “You mustn’t go to fight a Dragon
without a sword.” And he handed Raggedy Andy a wooden sword.
“Do you really believe Raggedy Andy will bring back a Dragon?” the
Magician asked as he motioned Raggedy Ann and Marggy and her Mama to
take seats near him.
“I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he brought back a nice fat Dragon,”
Raggedy Ann laughed and winked one of her shoe button eyes at Marggy’s
Mama. Then the Magician clapped his hands and two servants came in with
trays of ice cream sodas.
When Raggedy Andy left Raggedy Ann and Marggy and her Mama at the
castle of the Magician, he ran with his wooden sword through the woods
back to where they left the paper Dragon. “Yoo hoo!” Raggedy Andy
called in his loudest Raggedy voice. But call as loud as he could, the
paper Dragon did not reply.
“That’s funny,” Raggedy Andy cried. “I wonder what has become of the
Dragon?”
“I’ll tell you where the paper Dragon is,” a little Gnome said as he
walked up to Raggedy Andy. “After you left, Mr. Doodle came and dragged
the paper Dragon home.”
“Dear me,” Raggedy Andy sighed. “Now we shall never be able to find
Marggy’s Daddy.”
“I’m afraid not!” the little Gnome said. “For I heard Mr. Doodle tell
Mrs. Doodle that he would make a chicken coop out of the Dragon.”
“If Mr. Doodle has broken up that lovely, kindly, paper Dragon to make
a chicken coop, I don’t know what I shall do to Mr. Doodle,” promised
Raggedy Andy.
“Then maybe you had better hurry to Mr. Doodle’s house as soon as you
can,” advised the little Gnome. “If that sword was given you by the
Magician,” the little Gnome added, “It must be a magic sword, so get on
it just like you would a hobby horse and see if it doesn’t carry you
along faster than you can run on your cotton stuffed legs.”
Raggedy Andy was greatly surprised, but when he straddled the magic
wooden sword and held his feet off the ground, the wooden sword went
sailing along above the ground a lot faster than Raggedy Andy could
run. And while the wooden sword carried him along toward Mr. Doodle’s
house, Raggedy Andy ate the doughnuts he had brought along, because he
knew if he had to fight Mr. Doodle he would need lots of strength. And
of course doughnuts are very good to give you strength, if you do not
eat too many of them.
Raggedy Andy felt sure he could coax the kind paper Dragon to return
with him to the Magician’s castle.
[Illustration]
The magic sword soon carried Raggedy Andy right to Mr. Doodle’s front
door.
Raggedy Andy took the wooden sword and knocked on Mr. Doodle’s front
door. Bang! Bang! Bang! But no one answered. So Raggedy Andy walked out
in back of the fence and there was Mr. and Mrs. Doodle and the paper
Dragon.
Mr. Doodle had tied the paper Dragon to stakes and was trying to drive
all his chickens in the paper Dragon’s mouth, but the chickens did not
care to go in the paper Dragon, because they thought the Dragon would
eat them, and the paper Dragon did not wish the chickens inside his
paper body any more than the chickens wanted to be there, so the paper
Dragon tried his best to growl and frighten the chickens. Mr. Doodle
had put a stick in the paper Dragon’s mouth and this kept the Dragon
from growling as loud as Dragons usually growl.
Mrs. Doodle shooed the chickens and Mr. Doodle shooed the chickens and
the paper Dragon did not like it even a teeny weeny bit, so you bet he
was very glad when Raggedy Andy walked up and asked in a loud stern
voice, “What are you doing with that Dragon, Mr. Doodle?”
“I’m making a chicken coop out of the Dragon, that’s what!” Mr. Doodle
replied.
“And I’ve come to rescue the Dragon, that’s what, Mr. Doodle!” Raggedy
Andy said.
“But I shan’t let you rescue him!” Mr. Doodle shouted quite loud.
“And I say, I SHALL RESCUE HIM!” Raggedy Andy shouted still louder.
Neither one knew what to do next until Mrs. Doodle went in the house
and brought out tea and cinnamon toast. “I will think of a way to fight
pretty soon,” Mr. Doodle promised as he passed the tea and toast to
Raggedy Andy.
[Illustration]
After they had finished eating and had wiped the cinnamon from around
their mouths, Raggedy Andy knew it was time to rescue the Dragon, so he
said to Mr. Doodle, “Maybe you don’t know it, but this wooden sword I
carry is a very magical wooden sword. The Magician gave it to me, so
that I could bring the Dragon to his castle. Now if I should crack you
on top of your head with the sword, it will make a large bump and you
will not be able to wear your hat, it will hurt so much.”
“Then maybe I had better let you rescue the Dragon,” said Mr. Doodle.
“I believe that will be the best way to do,” Raggedy Andy replied. “And
anyway the chickens do not care to go inside a Dragon chicken coop.”
“Indeed, that is true,” Mr. Doodle agreed. So Raggedy Andy cut all
the ropes which held the paper Dragon, and the paper Dragon was so
thankful, he wiggled all over and would have licked Raggedy Andy’s
hand, only whoever made the paper Dragon, forgot to make him a paper
tongue, so he couldn’t even lick a postage stamp.
“We’d better be going,” Raggedy Andy told the Dragon. “The Magician
wished me to bring you to the castle.”
“I’d rather be a chicken coop than have the Magician shut me up in a
cage,” Mr. Doodle teased.
“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Raggedy Andy whispered. “He’s just
peevish because I rescued you.”
“I know it,” the Dragon laughed. “And even if the Magician shuts me up
in a cage, I’ll go with you anyway, because I shall be very glad to
help you find Marggy’s Daddy.”
Raggedy Andy and the paper Dragon went through the woods towards the
Magician’s castle. “It won’t be very long until we get there,” said
Raggedy Andy.
“Maybe if you would ride upon my head, we could go a little faster,”
the Dragon suggested. So Raggedy Andy climbed upon the Dragon’s head
and the Dragon wiggled through the woods, lickety split. The paper
Dragon was very long; his head was very far in front of his tail, and
so when the Dragon suddenly stopped, Raggedy Andy flew right off the
Dragon’s head and lit upon the soft ground.
“Why did you stop?” Raggedy Andy asked.
[Illustration]
“I believe my tail is fastened on a stick,” the Dragon replied.
Raggedy Andy could not see whether the Dragon’s tail was fastened on a
stick or not, so he ran back to look.
“Ha! Ha! Ha! That’s the time I fooled you!” cried Mr. Doodle.
Yes, sir, it was him! He had run after Raggedy Andy and the Dragon and
now, there he sat upon a stone and laughed.
“Why did you fasten the Dragon’s tail on a stick?” Raggedy Andy asked.
“I didn’t fasten his tail to a stick!” shouted Mr. Doodle. “I want the
paper Dragon for a chicken coop, so I put salt on his tail!”
“Dear me! that was very unkind of you!” Raggedy Andy cried, for you see
he knew very well that the way to catch Dragons is to put salt upon
their tails.
[Illustration]
But it isn’t nice to have someone else put salt upon a Dragon’s tail
when that Dragon is a nice friendly Dragon, for a Dragon can’t even
wiggle a smidgin when it has salt upon its tail. Raggedy Andy sat down
beside Mr. Doodle and tried to think of a way to rescue the Dragon
again. And while he sat there and thought, he nibbled on one of his
doughnuts, and seeing that Mr. Doodle looked hungry, Raggedy Andy
gave Mr. Doodle a doughnut too. For, it is best to be generous and
unselfish, even to those who are unkind to us.
“If I don’t take the Dragon to the Magician’s castle, the Magician will
not tell us where Marggy’s Daddy is,” Raggedy Andy told Mr. Doodle.
“I know it,” Mr. Doodle replied as he nibbled the doughnut. “But if you
take the Dragon to the Magician’s castle, then don’t you see, I shall
be unable to make the paper Dragon into a chicken coop.”
“The paper Dragon will not make a very good chicken coop,” Raggedy Andy
said.
“Cause why?” Mr. Doodle wanted to know.
“Because,” Raggedy Andy explained. “Some time when the chickens are
walking into the paper Dragon’s mouth, the paper Dragon will bite them.”
“Ha, ha, ha!” Mr. Doodle laughed. “I’ll prop the Dragon’s mouth open
with a long stick, so that he won’t bite the chickens.”
“If you do that, Mr. Doodle, all the chickens will walk right out of
his mouth, cause it will always be open.”
But just as Raggedy Andy and Mr. Doodle finished eating their doughnuts
Raggedy Andy had an idea. “When Mr. Doodle put salt upon the Dragon’s
tail, the Dragon could not move,” he thought to himself. “So if I want
to rescue the nice Dragon, I must brush the salt off his tail!”
So Raggedy Andy said to Mr. Doodle, “How much salt did you put on the
Dragon’s tail, Mr. Doodle?”
“You can see how much,” Mr. Doodle replied as he pointed to the pile of
salt on the Dragon’s tail.
“Why didn’t you put more on his tail?”
“Because that is all the salt I had with me!”
This was what Raggedy Andy wanted to know for Raggedy Andy knew if he
brushed the salt off the Dragon’s tail, the Dragon would be able to
wiggle away through the woods.
“You stay here and eat this doughnut,” Raggedy Andy said to Mr. Doodle.
“While I go up to the Dragon’s head and see if he feels all right.”
“Do not stay too long,” Mr. Doodle said. “For just as soon as I eat
this doughnut, I shall take the Dragon home.”
So Raggedy Andy ran up to the Dragon’s head and said to him, “Now if I
can, I shall fool Mr. Doodle and brush all the salt off your tail. So
as soon as you feel all the salt brushed off, you must wiggle through
the woods to the Magician’s castle just as fast as you can wiggle, and
I will hop upon the magic wooden sword the Magician gave me and we will
escape from Mr. Doodle.”
The paper Dragon promised that he would wiggle as fast as he had ever
wiggled before, so Raggedy Andy walked back to Mr. Doodle at the
Dragon’s tail.
“So you think that you can fool me some way and brush the salt off the
Dragon’s tail, do you?” Mr. Doodle asked when Raggedy Andy came up.
“How in the world did you guess it?” Raggedy Andy asked.
Mr. Doodle laughed. “When you talked to the paper Dragon’s head, I
listened at his tail, and because the paper Dragon is hollow all the
way down I could hear just as plain as if you talked through a pipe.”
“Then I guess there is no way for me to fool you, Mr. Doodle,” Raggedy
Andy said in a sad voice.
“You can’t fool me very easy, that is sure,” Mr. Doodle replied as he
brushed the doughnut crumbs away from his mouth.
“Did you ever see a hippopotamus up in a tree, Mr. Doodle?” Raggedy
Andy asked as he looked up in the tree above him.
“No! I never did, Raggedy Andy! And what’s more, I never will see a
hippopotamus up in a tree!” Mr. Doodle replied.
“And that is true, Mr. Doodle, if you never look up in trees,” Raggedy
Andy said. “For how can you expect to see a hippopotamus up in a tree,
if you do not look?” And as Mr. Doodle was very anxious to see a
hippopotamus up a tree, he looked up.
“I don’t see him at all,” he said.
“Neither do I, Mr. Doodle.” And as he said this, Raggedy Andy reached
over and brushed every speck of salt off the Dragon’s tail, and away
went the paper Dragon through the woods towards the Magician’s castle
as fast as he could wiggle. When Raggedy Andy jumped upon the magic
wooden sword and told the magic wooden sword to follow the paper
Dragon, the magic wooden sword did not budge a speck.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Mr. Doodle laughed when Raggedy Andy looked surprised.
“The magic wooden sword will not carry you away, because I tied a
string to the wooden sword and to that stump!”
“If I only had a knife, I would cut the string!” Raggedy Andy laughed
although he felt very disappointed.
“Now you have made me lose the paper Dragon,” Mr. Doodle said. “So
instead of making a chicken coop out of the paper Dragon, as I wished
to do, I shall take you home and make you build me a chicken coop out
of boards!”
Raggedy Andy did not know what else to say, so he said to Mr. Doodle,
“I don’t believe I can go back to your house and build a chicken coop
today, because I’m too busy.”
But Mr. Doodle only laughed real loud. “It won’t do any good for you to
tell me you are too busy today to build me a chicken coop!” Mr. Doodle
cried as he dragged Raggedy Andy home and tied him with a string near
the wood pile. “Now while I go in the house and eat my dinner, you can
start building the chicken coop.” And he gave Raggedy Andy a saw and
a hammer and a lot of nails. “And if you don’t have the chicken coop
finished when I get through my dinner I shall paddywhack you,” Mr.
Doodle promised.
So Raggedy Andy sawed the boards and nailed them together. Then he
happened to think, “I can saw the string in two and run to where Mr.
Doodle has the wooden sword tied to the stump and saw the string which
holds the magic wooden sword.” Raggedy Andy had just finished sawing
the string with which Mr. Doodle had tied him, when Mr. Doodle came
running out of his house.
“That’s the time I fooled you!” Raggedy Andy cried as he ran with the
saw through the woods. When he came to where the magic wooden sword was
tied to the stump, Raggedy Andy cut the strings. And just as Mr. Doodle
ran up to catch him, Raggedy Andy jumped on the magic sword and cried,
“Magic wooden sword, carry me after the paper Dragon to the Magician’s
castle!” And the magic wooden sword flew over the ground so fast Mr.
Doodle was left far behind.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER SEVEN
Raggedy Andy soon reached the large gate in front of the Magician’s
castle. There stood the two soldiers; one with a real long sword and
the other with a real long gun and they held up their hands and cried,
“Stop!”
“Did you see a Dragon come by this way?” Raggedy Andy asked the two
soldiers.
“Yes!” the soldiers replied. “The Dragon frightened us so we ran and
hid and the Dragon climbed right up to the window and wiggled in the
castle. Maybe by this time the Dragon has eaten the Magician.”
“I shall go inside and see!” Raggedy Andy replied.
But the two soldiers said, “We will not let you go inside the castle
and be eaten by the Dragon!”
But Raggedy Andy looked back and saw that Mr. Doodle was running after
him as hard as he could come, so Raggedy Andy just whispered to the
magic wooden sword and the magic wooden sword carried Raggedy Andy
right over the two soldiers’ heads and over the gate, just as Mr.
Doodle came running up.
“Catch him!” Mr. Doodle cried, but of course he was too late. The
wooden sword carried Raggedy Andy right to the castle door, but the
door was locked and Raggedy Andy could not get in.
Mr. Doodle kicked so much, the two soldiers could not hold him so just
as Mr. Doodle came running up, Raggedy Andy cried to the wooden sword,
“Get up, wooden sword, fly up through the window in the castle!”
Once inside the Magician’s castle, Raggedy Andy went down stairs to the
room where the Magician usually sat upon his throne. But everything was
topsy turvy. The chairs were turned over and the Magician’s throne was
upside down.
“Dear me!” Raggedy Andy exclaimed as he ran his rag hand up through his
red yarn hair, “I wonder what could have happened?” So Raggedy Andy
went all through the castle until he found the Dragon.
“Well!” said Raggedy Andy, “I’m glad that I found you. I had a hard
time escaping from Mr. Doodle. He dragged me home and made me start
building his chicken coop, but while he was eating his dinner, I sawed
the string with which he had tied me and escaped.”
The Dragon only looked at Raggedy Andy in a funny way, but did not say
anything.
[Illustration]
“Have you seen the Magician and Raggedy Ann and Marggy and her Mama?”
Raggedy Andy asked the Dragon.
“Mumble, mumble, mumble,” was all the Dragon replied, for he was trying
to talk without opening his mouth.
“Now!” Raggedy Andy said as he pointed his rag thumb at the Dragon.
“Tell me! Did you swallow the Magician?”
The Dragon nodded his head up and down and Raggedy Andy knew then that
the Dragon had swallowed them.
“Open your mouth!” Raggedy Andy told the Dragon. So the Dragon opened
his mouth and the Magician and Raggedy Ann and Marggy and her Mama came
walking out.
[Illustration]
“You must leave my castle right away!” the Magician cried. “I won’t
have a Dragon around here swallowing people like this Dragon did.”
“But he is only a paper Dragon, Mr. Magician!”
“I know he is now!” the Magician replied. “But how was I to know he
was made out of paper when he came wiggling through the window and
swallowed all of us?”
“Why did you swallow them?” Raggedy Andy asked the Dragon.
“I did not know what to do until you came,” the Dragon replied. “So I
just swallowed everybody and waited until you came.”
“And now you must take the Dragon and leave!” the Magician cried and
pushed them all outside.
“Oh, dear!” Raggedy Andy cried. “Now that the Dragon has made the
Magician so peevish, he will never tell us where Marggy’s Daddy is and
we shall never find him. And, besides, Mr. Doodle is out here fighting
with the two soldiers and if he wins the fight, he will capture the
Dragon and we will have to rescue the Dragon all over again!”
“Let us hurry away while Mr. Doodle and the two soldiers are still
fighting,” Raggedy Ann suggested. “Perhaps Mr. Doodle will not see us!”
So they all started to run. But Mr. Doodle, just as soon as he caught
sight of the Dragon and Raggedy Ann and Andy trying to escape, quit
fighting with the two soldiers and ran after our friends, and because
Marggy and her Mama could not run very fast Mr. Doodle soon caught the
Dragon’s tail and stopped him. Mr. Doodle started to drag the Dragon
towards his house, but Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her
Mama caught hold of the Dragon’s head and pulled the other way.
Mr. Doodle pulled and pulled and our friends pulled and pulled until
they all pulled so hard, the paper Dragon tore right in two. And Mr.
Doodle was pulling so hard and our friends were pulling so hard, when
the paper Dragon was torn in two, they all fell over backwards.
“Now then you have done it, Mr. Doodle,” Raggedy Ann cried as she
jumped to her feet and ran back to Mr. Doodle. “Aren’t you ashamed of
yourself?”
“No I am not!” Mr. Doodle replied. “If you had not pulled upon the
Dragon’s head, he would not have torn in two!”
Raggedy Andy took the Dragon’s tail away from Mr. Doodle. “I have a
good mind to box your ears, Mr. Doodle!” Raggedy Andy said.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Mr. Doodle laughed. “Your hands are made of cloth and
stuffed with cotton, so it wouldn’t hurt if you did!”
“Then I shall try mine!” Marggy’s Mama cried. And if Raggedy Ann had
not stopped her, Marggy’s Mama would have given Mr. Doodle a box on the
ear which he would have remembered for a long time.
The paper Dragon looked very sad, for he could not wiggle at all with
his tail torn off and he wished to go with our friends on their journey
in search of Marggy’s Daddy. And then, too, when the paper Dragon was
torn in two, that let the air whistle right through his paper body each
time he opened his mouth. Marggy’s Mama would have liked to paddywhack
Mr. Doodle, but she knew that would do no good. “We must fix the paper
Dragon together some way,” she said.
[Illustration]
Raggedy Ann had mended a hole in the paper Dragon’s side once before
with the cream from a cream puff and a pretty colored Sunday newspaper,
but now they only had chocolate cake, doughnuts and cookies left,
for they had eaten all the cream puffs. Raggedy Andy suggested that by
using little sticks as pins, they might pin the Dragon’s tail together.
“Of course he will still be torn!” Raggedy Andy said, “but if we can
fix him together so that he can travel with us, maybe along the way, we
will find a way to glue him together!”
So they all gathered little twigs and with these they pinned the
Dragon’s tail to the front part of his body. Even Mr. Doodle helped.
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy did not care to have Mr. Doodle go with
them in search of Marggy’s Daddy, nor did they wish him to take the
Dragon back home for a chicken coop, but they were too polite to tell
him so.
“It is too bad Mr. Doodle tore the tail from the paper Dragon,” Raggedy
Ann said, “’cause now the paper Dragon can not wiggle along very fast.”
“I’m glad he can’t wiggle along very fast,” Mr. Doodle laughed. “For
I will follow you and just as soon as you find someone to mend the
Dragon, I will take him away from you and use him for a chicken coop.”
Raggedy Andy did not reply to Mr. Doodle but he thought, “When we have
the nice paper Dragon mended, I will not let you take him away from us!”
So the Dragon wiggled along very slowly so as not to unfasten his tail
and Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama walked beside
him. Although they did not want him with them, Mr. Doodle went along.
After a while they came to a funny little house. There was only one
room down stairs and all the other rooms were built right on top of
each other.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER EIGHT
“We will go inside and get something to eat,” Mr. Doodle said. “I
pulled so hard on the Dragon’s tail, I am hungry.” And without even
knocking on the door, Mr. Doodle walked right inside the funny little
house.
“You should not walk into any one’s house without knocking, Mr.
Doodle,” Raggedy Ann told him.
But Mr. Doodle only laughed, “Ha! ha, ha!” like that, only a great deal
louder, and went in anyway.
“Now that he is inside, we have a good chance to run away from him!”
Raggedy Andy said.
The others thought this would be a good plan because Mr. Doodle had
always been so mean to them, but when they heard Mr. Doodle squealing
ever so loudly, they waited to see what was happening. My goodness!
Didn’t Mr. Doodle squeal? He squealed so loud and so long, Raggedy Andy
said, “I ’spect I had better go inside and see why Mr. Doodle squeals!”
Raggedy Andy was very polite, so he knocked upon the door.
“Come in!” someone said in a cheery voice, so Raggedy Andy walked in
and saw Mr. Doodle standing with his long nose caught in a cupboard
door and there stood a little man watching Mr. Doodle.
“Do you know,” the little man said, “Mr. Doodle walked right into
my house without knocking and poked his nose in my cupboard; and
the cupboard door flew shut and caught him. It serves him right for
snooping in other people’s things!”
“Indeed it does!” Raggedy Andy agreed. “But Mr. Doodle is squealing so
loud, maybe it would be best to open the cupboard door so that he can
pull his nose out.”
So the little man opened the cupboard door and Mr. Doodle sat down upon
the floor and held his nose.
“Now all of you come inside,” the little man said to Raggedy Ann and
Marggy and her Mama. “And we will have something to eat, for I know you
must all be hungry!” So he gave them chocolate cake and cookies and
ice cream and dill pickles and milk and it was a very nice dinner. Mr.
Doodle’s nose hurt so much he could not eat anything and he was very
sorry that he had not knocked upon the door instead of walking in and
snooping around.
The little man filled Marggy’s Mama’s basket with lots of good things
to eat, “So you will not get hungry along the way,” he said, then
turning to Mr. Doodle the little man said, “Mr. Doodle, if I were you,
I would run right straight home—Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy
and her Mama do not care to have you go with them. Besides, you are so
ill mannered you will always be getting into trouble. You had better
run home, I believe your Mama is calling you.”
“I shall not go home until I get the Dragon!” Mr. Doodle shouted, much
louder than was necessary. “Because why? Because I intend making him
into a chicken coop!”
“Mr. Doodle pulled the nice tail off of the kind paper Dragon,” Raggedy
Ann told the little man. “We had to mend his tail with little sticks.”
“Yes!” Mr. Doodle cried. “And as soon as we get some glue to mend
the Dragon’s tail, I shall take the Dragon away from Raggedy Ann and
Raggedy Andy!”
“I will give Raggedy Andy some glue,” the little man said. “And
sometime when Mr. Doodle is asleep, Raggedy Andy can mend the Dragon’s
tail and all get upon the Dragon’s back and escape from Mr. Doodle.”
Raggedy Andy put the bottle of glue in his pocket and then the little
man took everyone except Mr. Doodle up to the top room. Mr. Doodle
wanted to go with them, but the little man said, “No sir, Mr. Doodle,
you must stay down stairs while we look out over the woods and see if
we can see Marggy’s Daddy.”
So Mr. Doodle had to sit downstairs and twiddle his thumbs while the
others went up and looked out over the deep, deep woods.
“Did Marggy’s Daddy have four fingers and a thumb upon each hand?” the
little man asked as they looked out the window.
“Yes!” Marggy’s Mama said.
“And did he have two eyes and one nose and one mouth and two ears and
hair on top of his head and two feet?” the little man asked.
“Yes!” Marggy’s Mama replied.
“Then,” said the little man, “I’ll bet a nickel your Daddy was here,
for a man who answered his description came here and asked for
something to eat yesterday.”
The little man told them the direction Marggy’s Daddy had gone, so they
thanked him and went downstairs.
“Oh, dear me!” Raggedy Ann cried when she walked out the door. “Mr.
Doodle has gone and he has taken the Dragon with him!”
“Well! We must run after him and take the Dragon away from him!”
Raggedy Andy said.
So Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama ran after Mr.
Doodle until they came up to him.
“Now!” cried Raggedy Ann, as she stamped her rag foot. “Why did you
take the Dragon away from us, Mr. Doodle? Just you tell me that!”
[Illustration]
“Because I wish to make a chicken coop out of him! That’s what and I
shall not tell you again, Miss Raggedy Ann, and besides, I grew tired
waiting for you back in the funny little house! I know that I can mend
the Dragon’s tail with glue a whole lot better than Raggedy Andy can,
and I shall do it as soon as I get home!”
“You know perfectly well, Mr. Doodle the poor paper Dragon does not
care to be made into a chicken coop and besides, when you capture him,
can’t you see that delays us? How do you ’spect us to find Marggy’s
Daddy when you act this way?” Raggedy Ann said.
“I shall take the paper Dragon home anyway!” Mr. Doodle howled as he
pulled the paper Dragon.
“If we catch hold of the paper Dragon and pull back we will only pull
the Dragon in two again,” Raggedy Ann said to Marggy’s Mama. “What had
we better do?”
“I had better fight Mr. Doodle and see which one wins the paper
Dragon,” said Raggedy Andy.
“Why not let me fight with Mr. Doodle?” the Dragon said in a wheezy
voice.
“That would be silly,” Mr. Doodle replied. “I have already captured the
Dragon, so he cannot fight with me.”
“That is quite true,” Raggedy Ann agreed. “I guess Raggedy Andy will
have to fight with Mr. Doodle, but you must promise not to fight too
hard.”
So after Raggedy Andy and Mr. Doodle had both promised to fight real
easy-like, they rolled up their sleeves. Mr. Doodle had the best of it
for a long time because he could stick out his tongue at Raggedy Andy,
but Raggedy Andy could not stick out his tongue at Mr. Doodle because
Raggedy Andy’s mouth was just painted on and he did not have a tongue.
Of course, Raggedy Andy would not have stuck out his tongue at Mr.
Doodle, even if he had a tongue, for that is a very rude thing to do,
as everyone knows. But after a while Raggedy Andy tweeked Mr. Doodle’s
nose and because Raggedy Andy’s nose was painted upon his face, Mr.
Doodle could not tweek Raggedy Andy’s nose. Mr. Doodle sat down on a
log and howled and then, of course, Raggedy Andy won the fight.
“Hurrah! Now we can mend the paper Dragon with the glue the little man
gave us and go in search of Marggy’s Daddy!” Raggedy Ann cried as she
jumped up and down.
After walking a long time Marggy’s Mama opened the basket of lunch.
“Shall we give Mr. Doodle any?” Marggy’s Mama asked. “He has treated us
so mean he does not deserve any!”
[Illustration]
Really, Mr. Doodle did not deserve any, but he looked so hungry,
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, after whispering together, told Mr.
Doodle to sit between them on the log and they gave him some of the
doughnuts. After they had finished eating the doughnuts Raggedy Andy
said, “Now we can travel in search of Marggy’s Daddy and Mr. Doodle
cannot follow us.”
“Indeed, I can!” Mr. Doodle cried. “Whenever you start, I shall start
with you.”
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy said to Marggy and her Mama, “Come! Let’s
hurry!” and they walked away leaving Mr. Doodle sitting on the log.
Mr. Doodle had a very queer look upon his face, because he did not know
why he could not follow them.
“I took some of the glue and put it upon the log between Raggedy Ann
and me,” Raggedy Andy explained to Marggy and her Mama. “And when Mr.
Doodle sat upon the glue, of course he stuck fast so now we can mend
the paper Dragon and ride upon his back. Then Mr. Doodle will not be
able to run and catch up with us and we will soon find Marggy’s Daddy!”
It had only taken Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy two minutes to mend the
Dragon’s tail with the glue the little man had given them and it was
such fine glue, it stuck very fast. It was lots of fun riding through
the woods upon the paper Dragon’s back because the Dragon wiggled along
so smoothly. And our friends could not feel a bump even when the Dragon
wiggled over large stones.
“I’m glad we have escaped from Mr. Doodle,” the Dragon said as he
carried his friends along upon his back. “For if we do not have Mr.
Doodle bothering us all the time I am sure we will soon find Marggy’s
Daddy.”
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama felt so happy they
laughed and sang songs as the Dragon carried them through the lovely
woods.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER NINE
After awhile Raggedy Ann turned to say something to Raggedy Andy, and
there coming behind them was Mr. Doodle. “Oh dear! Here comes Mr.
Doodle!” Raggedy Ann said.
Raggedy Andy turned and looked. “My goodness!” he cried. “I forgot and
left my magic wooden sword and now Mr. Doodle is riding upon the magic
wooden sword and will soon catch up with us!”
The Dragon, on hearing this wiggled faster than ever, so fast that the
trees and bushes seemed to whiz by, but the paper dragon could not go
as fast as the magic wooden sword and pretty soon Mr. Doodle caught up
with them.
“Stop, or I’ll cut off the dragon’s tail!” Mr. Doodle shouted to
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy.
“You cannot use the magic sword to cut off the dragon’s tail while you
are riding upon the wooden sword,” Raggedy Andy laughed.
“Of course I can’t when I am riding upon the wooden sword,” Mr. Doodle
shouted. “But unless you stop, I shall climb from the wooden sword to
the dragon’s back and then cut off his tail!”
“There isn’t anything to do except stop,” Raggedy Ann said. “We do
not care to have Mr. Doodle cut off your tail again,” she said to the
dragon.
“How did you get free from where you were glued to the log?” Raggedy
Andy asked Mr. Doodle.
[Illustration]
“When I saw you leaving me alone on the log I wiggled and twisted as
hard as I could, trying to get loose, but I could not get free. Then I
grew angry and cried and the tears ran down my nose onto the log and
melted the glue. When I got loose, didn’t I laugh!”
[Illustration]
“Why did you laugh, silly?” Marggy’s mama wished to know, as she opened
her basket and gave cookies to everyone.
“I laughed because I saw that Raggedy Andy had left his magic wooden
sword and I knew I would soon catch up with you! That’s why I laughed!”
“Sit down on the log beside Raggedy Andy and me and have some lunch,
Mr. Doodle. We do not believe in being unkind to you even if you have
been mean to us,” Raggedy Ann said.
Mr. Doodle looked carefully to see if Raggedy Andy had put more glue
upon the log. “If you try to fool me again I shall give you a hard
thump, Raggedy Andy,” Mr. Doodle said.
“Give Mr. Doodle a handful of cookies,” Raggedy Andy said to Marggy’s
mama and when Marggy’s mama had done this Raggedy Andy said, “Now give
Mr. Doodle a large piece of chocolate cake because he must be hungry!”
Marggy’s mama did as Raggedy Andy said, so when Mr. Doodle reached
for the large piece of chocolate cake, he had to drop Raggedy Andy’s
magic wooden sword, because Mr. Doodle had both hands full of cake and
cookies.
“Whee!” Raggedy Andy cried as he picked up the magic wooden sword. “Now
I have the wooden sword and Mr. Doodle cannot follow us. As soon as we
finish eating our lunch, we will start again!”
This made Mr. Doodle feel so badly to think how easily Raggedy Andy
had fooled him, he cried, and Raggedy Ann had to wipe the tears to
keep them from spoiling Mr. Doodle’s cake and cookies. Then Raggedy
Ann wiped the crumbs from everyone’s mouths and said, “It is time we
hurried along.”
So Raggedy Andy helped Marggy and her mama and Raggedy Ann upon the
back of the paper dragon and then climbed up himself, “All right,
Mister Paper Dragon!” Raggedy Andy called. “You can wiggle along
through the woods as fast as you wish.” Then the paper dragon started
moving; slow at first, then faster and faster until he was going just
as fast as it is possible for paper dragons to wiggle.
After they had ridden upon the Dragon’s back for almost an hour, they
came to a little house, and out across the road at the side of the
house was a gate.
The Dragon came to a stop with his nose touching the gate, just as a
man came out of the little house and said, “This is a toll gate, so you
will have to pay one penny for each passenger and two pennies for the
Dragon, if you wish to travel down the road.”
“Dear me!” Raggedy Ann said to the man. “We haven’t any pennies!”
“Then you must turn around and go back,” the man said.
“But if we do not go further down the road, we shall never find
Marggy’s Daddy,” Raggedy Ann said.
“That would be too bad,” the man replied as he wiped the tears from
his eyes. “But I must have a penny from each passenger and two for the
Dragon before I can let you pass.”
“I know what to do!” the Dragon cried. “I’ll wiggle back the road and
get a good start, then I’ll jump right over the gate.”
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
“Oh no!” Raggedy Ann said. “That would be cheating if you did that!
And every one knows it isn’t fair to cheat. We must find the pennies
somewhere.”
“Hasn’t that man back there any pennies?” the toll gate keeper asked as
he pointed back towards the Dragon’s tail. And when they looked back
there sitting upon the dragon’s tail they saw Mr. Doodle.
When he found that he was discovered riding upon the Dragon’s tail, Mr.
Doodle came up to the Dragon’s head and asked, “How much is it, Mr.
Tollgate Keeper?”
“One penny for each passenger and two pennies for the Dragon,” the
Tollgate Keeper replied.
Mr. Doodle looked through all his pockets but could only find two
pennies, a shoe button and a wire nail, “Dear me!” Mr. Doodle said.
“I only have two pennies and that is only enough to take the Dragon
through the tollgate.”
“What shall we do?” Marggy’s mama asked. “We can never find Marggy’s
daddy unless we go farther down the road!”
The tollgate keeper took off his hat and scratched his head. Finally he
said, “I’ll tell you how we can let you go through the tollgate. You
know we charge only for people who ride, so if you hop down from the
Dragon’s back, I will charge two pennies for the Dragon and the rest of
you can walk through the tollgate.”
“We are very glad that you happened to think of that before we turned
back,” Raggedy Andy laughed as he jumped from the Dragon’s back and
helped Marggy and her mama and Raggedy Ann down.
Marggy’s mama gave the toll gate keeper six cookies and a piece of
chocolate cake and this pleased the Tollgate Keeper so much he asked
every one, except the Dragon, who was too large, into his house and
gave them each a glass of soda water, for you see, the Tollgate Keeper
owned a little store too, so that anyone passing could have candy and
peanuts and popcorn and lollypops and ice cream sodas.
Then Mr. Doodle, who was very fond of ice cream sodas asked the
Tollgate Keeper if he would trade a lot of soda water for the shoe
button and wire nail.
The Tollgate Keeper said that he had always longed for a shoe button
and a wire nail, so he gave every one a soda and a bag of peanuts and
took the shoe button and wire nail.
“I really believe Mr. Doodle has forgotten he wanted to take the Dragon
home for a chicken coop,” Raggedy Ann whispered to Raggedy Andy.
[Illustration]
“I believe so, too!” Raggedy Andy whispered in return to Raggedy Ann.
“For if he had not paid the Tollgate Keeper the two pennies to get the
Dragon through the tollgate, he could have taken the Dragon away from
us again.”
But Raggedy Andy did not remind Mr. Doodle of this. Mr. Doodle laughed
and talked with everyone and said he was sorry he did not have another
shoe button and a wire nail he could trade for more sodas and peanuts.
“Well,” Mr. Doodle said, when he had finished drinking the last of his
soda. “I guess we had better be going on, or it will be late before we
find Marggy’s Daddy!”
After shaking hands with the kind Tollgate Keeper the Dragon carried
them through the woods until they came to a great marble castle.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER TEN
In front of the great marble castle stood a Knight all dressed in shiny
armor and he had a great big shiny sword. When the Dragon stopped in
front of the Knight. The Knight whirled his sword close to the Dragon’s
nose.
“Please be careful, Mr. Knight,” Raggedy Ann said. “You might cut off
the Dragon’s nose.”
“Ha!” the Knight laughed as he whirled his sword again. “Little would
I care if I did! We have a prisoner shut up in the castle and I must
guard the door so that no one can get in and rescue him.”
“I’ll bet a nickel the prisoner is Marggy’s Daddy,” Mr. Doodle said.
“It is!” the Knight cried. “And if you know what is good for you, you
will turn around and run as fast as you can!”
“Please do be careful,” Raggedy Ann again said. “You almost whacked the
paper Dragon that time! It wouldn’t be nice for you to cut off his nose
even if it is only paper!”
“Then if you will hop down from the Dragon’s back, I will cut off your
nose,” the Knight said to Raggedy Ann.
“Indeed you won’t,” Raggedy Ann laughed. “For my nose is merely painted
upon my face and it can’t be cut off.”
“Then I will cut off that man’s nose,” the Knight said as he pointed
his sword at Mr. Doodle.
“But I do not care to have my nose cut off!”
“Then I shall cut off your nose anyhow!” The Knight shouted. “So if you
do not wish your nose cut off you had better run as fast as you know
how!”
“I will not run a step!” Mr. Doodle cried. “And if you try to cut off
my nose, I shall try to cut off your nose too, only you will have to
lend me your sword.”
“Ha, ha, ha!” the Knight laughed. “I would be foolish to do that! You
have a sword,” pointing to Raggedy Andy’s wooden sword. “Take that and
we will have a grand fight to see which one cuts off the other’s nose.”
Raggedy Andy loaned Mr. Doodle his magic wooden sword and Mr. Doodle
walked towards the Knight.
“Wait a minute,” the Knight said. “Someone will have to fasten my
helmet down so Mr. Doodle cannot cut off my nose!”
“That is only fair,” Mr. Doodle replied. “For I know you do not wish
your nose cut off any more than I wish mine cut off, so I will fasten
your helmet.”
“There!” Mr. Doodle said when he finished fastening the Knight’s
helmet. “Now I cannot even see your eyes.”
“But I cannot see out of the helmet either!” the Knight howled. “And
how can I fight you when I can’t see?”
“Well!” Mr. Doodle replied. “You said you wanted the helmet fastened
down tight so now you will have to make the best of it!” And as Mr.
Doodle winked at Raggedy Andy, he hit the Knight’s helmet so hard with
the wooden sword it sounded like someone had kicked a tin dish pan.
“Oh! My nose! Oh, my nose!” the Knight howled and every time he howled,
Mr. Doodle hit the Knight’s helmet harder than ever with the wooden
sword until the Knight threw down his shiny sword and cried, “Let’s
quit fighting! I have changed my mind, I shall not cut off your nose!”
“Thank you!” Mr. Doodle said as he winked at Raggedy Ann and unfastened
the Knight’s helmet.
“My goodness! I did not know anyone could fight so good with just a
wooden sword!” the Knight said. “You won the fight very quickly!”
[Illustration]
“Maybe if you had not fastened your helmet down over your eyes, you
could have won the fight,” Mr. Doodle said. “Shall we try it again
without the helmet?”
“No, thank you,” the Knight replied. “I feel certain that if I do not
have the helmet fastened down tight over my face you will be sure to
cut off my nose. You see, I try to frighten people away from the castle
by pretending that I am a great fighter, but really, I am always very
timid, for I have a real tender heart.”
“And you did not intend cutting off Mr. Doodle’s nose?” Raggedy Ann
asked.
“Dear me, no!” the Knight laughed. “You see, I shut my eyes anyway when
I fight, so I could not have cut off Mr. Doodle’s nose for I could not
have seen it!”
“I am glad you are so kind hearted,” Raggedy Ann said. “Really, that is
the best way to be anyhow.”
“That is just what my mama has always told me,” the Knight said. “And
now that Mr. Doodle has won the fight there is nothing to keep you from
going into the castle unless it is the two-headed dog just inside the
door. He may jump out and chase you away when you open the door.”
“We will go and knock upon the door,” Mr. Doodle said. “Then if the
two-headed dog barks, we will know enough not to open the door.”
“Oh, he barks something terrible,” the Knight said. “It makes cold
chills run up my neck when I hear him bark.”
“You don’t ’spect the two-headed dog has eaten up my daddy, do you?”
Marggy asked.
“Oh, my no!” the Knight replied. “I saw your daddy looking out of a
window awhile ago! No! The two-headed dog hasn’t eaten him up.”
Mr. Doodle walked up to the door and the Dragon wiggled along with the
others.
“Why! There is the little ball of red darning cotton!” Raggedy Ann
cried as she pointed to the door step. “Please hand it to me, Mr.
Doodle; it got away ahead of us when you delayed us so many times!”
“I am very sorry!” Mr. Doodle said as he handed the ball of red darning
cotton to Raggedy Ann.
“Knock on the door, it wouldn’t be polite to walk in without knocking,”
Raggedy Andy suggested. “What we want to do is to get in the castle and
rescue Marggy’s Daddy who has been inside as a prisoner for so long,
but if the dog barks then we are as bad off as we are now.”
“I know what to do,” Mr. Doodle suggested. “Let’s hammer upon the
castle door with the wooden sword and the two-headed dog will stay at
the door in hopes that we will open it and let him out, but we will
fool him! While someone hammers on the door and keeps the two-headed
dog there I will run around in back and climb up the water pipe to
one of the windows, then I’ll tip-toe down and throw a blanket, or
something, over the dog’s two heads and unlock the door for you to come
in!”
“That is a good idea,” Raggedy Ann said. “Let’s go and hammer on the
door with the wooden sword.”
The Dragon carried them all up to the door of the castle upon his back
and Raggedy Andy hammered upon the castle door with his magic wooden
sword. WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!
Then they heard the loudest barks they had ever heard from a dog.
“My goodness!” Raggedy Ann cried. “He must be very, very large to bark
so loud! I am afraid if you climb up the pipes and tip-toe down to
throw something over the dog’s two heads, you will not find a blanket
large enough!”
“I have a better idea,” the Dragon said. “Mr. Doodle might fall and
hurt himself. I will open my mouth as wide as I can, then when you open
the door, the great two-headed dog will jump right out into my mouth,
then I’ll close my mouth and we will have him a prisoner!”
“Hm!” mused Raggedy Andy. “Suppose the two-headed dog starts
scratching and biting after he jumps into your mouth?”
[Illustration]
“I won’t mind that!” the Dragon replied. “You can get inside the door
long before he tears the paper off my sides and gets out, and I will be
glad to do this for Marggy’s sake.”
So the Dragon opened his mouth so wide it covered the whole door and
Raggedy Andy poked the magic wooden sword between the Dragon’s paper
teeth and pushed the castle door open. There came five very, very,
loud barks as the two-headed dog jumped out of the door into the
Dragon’s mouth. Then the Dragon’s mouth closed shut with a snap and the
two-headed dog was a prisoner.
MY! How the two-headed dog scratched around inside the Dragon. He made
a lot of noise, because the Dragon was made of slats and covered with
heavy paper.
“Now we must jump off the Dragon’s back and hunt through the castle
until we find Marggy’s Daddy. And we must hurry before the great
two-headed dog chews the paper out of the Dragon’s side and chases us!”
Raggedy Ann cried.
“After we find Marggy’s Daddy, then the Dragon can open his mouth and
let the two-headed dog out, for after we find Marggy’s Daddy, then, of
course, there will be no reason for the dog guarding the door, and he
will probably run around the castle and hunt for a bone to eat!” Mr.
Doodle said.
“Maybe it would be a good plan giving the dog a bone before we go into
the castle,” Raggedy Ann suggested. “For if the dog has something to
eat, then he won’t tear the paper off of the Dragon’s wooden slats.”
Everyone thought this was a good idea. Raggedy Ann usually thought of
the best way of doing everything. But, of course, when they looked
through all their pockets, not even Mr. Doodle had a bone.
“We will have to give the two-headed dog a large piece of chocolate
cake,” Marggy’s Mama said. “All I have in my basket is cake and cookies
and I do not believe that will be enough for such a large two-headed
dog.”
“Then we must give him two pieces of chocolate cake,” said Raggedy Ann.
“One for each head.”
[Illustration]
So Marggy’s Mama cut off two large pieces of chocolate cake and told
the Dragon to open his mouth. “Just as soon as the great two-headed dog
sees that he can get out, then he will quit his loud barking and I will
throw him the cake,” she said.
So the Dragon opened his mouth and Marggy’s Mama tossed the two pieces
of cake where the two-headed dog could see them.
“Look out!” the Dragon cried, “He’s coming out!” and out from the
Dragon’s mouth came the two-headed dog.
When Raggedy Ann saw the two-headed dog, she jumped from the Dragon’s
back and caught the dog in her arms, for the two-headed dog which
guarded the castle door with such a loud bark was only six inches high,
and the cutest little creature the Raggedys had ever seen.
Raggedy Ann held the two-headed dog in her arms while Raggedy Andy and
Marggy and her Mama and Mr. Doodle fed him small pieces of cookies and
chocolate cake. My! How Raggedy Ann laughed!
After the two-headed dog had eaten all the cake he wanted, Raggedy Ann
wiped the crumbs from his two mouths with her apron and said, “Now that
we have discovered that the two-headed dog is only a little teeny,
weeny dog we can take him with us through the castle and hunt for
Marggy’s Daddy!”
“I will be glad to go with you,” the two-headed dog said out of both of
his mouths at the same time. “For I know just where Marggy’s Daddy is!”
“It is funny that the people who own this castle had such a tiny,
little two-headed dog to guard the door,” Raggedy Andy said.
“But, you see,” the little two-headed dog explained. “I have just about
the largest bark in the world, and when I stand at the door and bark,
whoever is outside thinks, ‘Goodness gracious! That must be a very
large dog!’ And of course that frightens them away!”
“Yes,” agreed Raggedy Ann. “We thought you must be almost as large as a
horse when we heard you bark. Are you a magic dog?”
[Illustration]
“Oh, yes,” the little two-headed dog replied. “Everything in the castle
is magic. That is why Marggy’s Daddy stays at the castle instead of
going home.”
“I do not understand!” Marggy’s Mama said. “Why does he have to stay at
the magic castle, little two-headed dog?”
“Because,” the little dog replied. “When Marggy’s Daddy is in the
castle, he can remember you and Marggy and everyone he knew before, but
just as soon as he starts to go out of the castle door, he loses his
memory and while he is outside the castle he forgets about everyone he
knew. So you see he stays in the castle so that he can always remember
you.”
“Then,” Raggedy Ann wondered. “Perhaps we had better not go inside the
magic castle, or we may lose our memory.”
“No,” the little dog said. “The magic only works on people who enter
the castle on Monday.”
“If that is the case, let us all go inside, for today is Wednesday,”
Mr. Doodle cried. “And when we are once inside, perhaps we can find
Marggy’s Daddy’s memory and give it back to him after we get him
outside of the magic castle.”
Raggedy Ann, Raggedy Andy, Mr. Doodle, Marggy and her Mama all walked
down the long hall and through an open door, and there, sitting in a
comfortable chair was Marggy’s Daddy. Marggy and her Mama ran to him
and threw their arms about him, but he looked so surprised, everyone
knew that Marggy’s Daddy did not know Marggy and her Mama.
[Illustration]
“Don’t you recognize Marggy and her Mama?” Raggedy Ann asked.
“No! I cannot remember ever seeing them before!” Marggy’s Daddy replied.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“I’ll just bet a nickel that he has lost his memory around the castle
somewhere,” Raggedy Andy said.
“But I had my memory when I came in a few minutes ago!” Marggy’s Daddy
said.
“Well! You haven’t it now!” Raggedy Ann replied. “So tell us just where
you have been about the castle and we will try and find your memory for
you.”
So Marggy’s Daddy led the way to the Wonder Room, but no one could find
his memory. Then they searched through the dining room, but it was not
there!
“I had it when I came in the back door,” Marggy’s Daddy said.
Raggedy Ann ran to the easy chair where they had first seen Marggy’s
Daddy and there, sticking between the pages of a book to mark the place
where he had been reading, was Marggy’s Daddy’s memory. Then everyone
was very happy and Marggy’s Daddy took them all on his lap and hugged
them, even Mr. Doodle.
“Tell us how you happened to be a prisoner in the magic castle, Daddy,”
Marggy said as she gave him a hug.
“One day,” Marggy’s Daddy began, “I kissed Marggy and her Mama good-bye
and started down to the store and when I came to a great tree which had
fallen across the road, I heard someone talking inside.”
“Who was it, Daddy?” Marggy wished to know.
“It was a little gnome, sitting there smoking his pipe and talking to
himself,” Marggy’s Daddy went on. “And I heard him talking about a
wonderful Magic Castle, with a great room in it called the Wonder Room.
And I heard him tell just how to find the Magic Castle. So instead of
going to the grocery I walked through the woods until I came to this
castle. The two-headed dog barked so loud at the front door, I went
around to the back door and as it was open, I walked right inside. But
whenever I went outside of the castle, I lost my memory. So I couldn’t
think to return to Marggy and her Mama. But when I came back into the
Magic Castle, then I could remember them. So, rather than leave the
castle and forget them, I had to stay here all the time, so that I
could think of them.”
“Now that we have found you, Daddy,” Marggy’s Mama said, “Let’s return
home!”
“That is just what I was thinking of,” Marggy’s Daddy replied. “And
just as soon as I pack a few magic things in a suit case, we will
start. I have found so many wonderful magic things in the Wonder Room,
I hardly know which to take home.”
Of course, everyone wished to know what the wonderful things were, so
Marggy’s Daddy told them. “There is a magic clock,” he said, “which
strikes every five minutes. And as soon as it quits striking, it either
tells a fairy story, or it sings a beautiful song. Then this book which
I was reading when you came in is a wonderful book, too, for, while
you read the story, you can see moving pictures of everything you read
about. Then when you grow tired of reading yourself, it will read
itself, right out loud!”
“That will be a nice book for Marggy to have,” Marggy’s Mama said.
“Yes, we must take it for Marggy,” Marggy’s Daddy agreed.
“Then, the magic soda water fountain in the Wonder Room. We need it
in our front room so that we can give everyone who comes in a nice ice
cream soda. Then, there is a whole case of wonderful wishing rings. We
each need one. And there is a wonderful invisible cloak, which makes
anyone invisible. Then there are magical roller skates, which when
fastened to your shoes, will carry you around as fast, or as slow as
you wish to go.”
Then Marggy’s Daddy got a very large suitcase, for it had to be very
large to get all the magical things inside. Everyone helped Marggy’s
Daddy pack the magical things in the suitcase.
“Now, I guess we are all ready to start,” Marggy’s Daddy laughed as he
took the suitcase upon his shoulder.
“What have you in the suitcase?” the Dragon asked as he saw Marggy’s
Daddy with the suitcase on his shoulder.
“Some wonderful things I picked up inside,” Marggy’s Daddy replied.
Then a queer look came over his face and he put the suitcase upon the
ground and opened it.
“I thought so!” he cried. “I felt it suddenly grow light, and it had
been so heavy before; all the wonderful things have disappeared!”
“The magic soda water fountain, too?” Marggy asked.
“Yes! It has disappeared, too! Now we can’t take them home and enjoy
them!”
“Well!” Raggedy Andy mused. “It seems to me that the wonderful Magic
Castle has been made so that whoever enters the Magic Castle can enjoy
the wonderful magical things in the Wonder Room, but if everyone who
goes into the Magic Castle carries away some of the wonderful things,
in a very short time, there would be nothing left. And so, the magical
things always come back to the Wonder Room.”
“That is so!” agreed Marggy’s Daddy. “And it was not right for us to
take them.”
“Indeed, it wasn’t,” Raggedy Andy said. “You must keep the wonderful
magic castle for your home.”
“Whee! Whee!” Marggy’s Daddy cried, “Raggedy Andy has thought of the
nicest way! We will all live in the magic Castle where we can all enjoy
the magic things in the Wonder Room; the magic soda water fountain, the
wishing rings, the talking books, the magic clock and all the other
wonderful things, and Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Mr. Doodle and
the Dragon can live here with us!”
They all caught hold of hands and danced around in a circle. All except
Mr. Doodle, and as everyone looked at Mr. Doodle, they saw great big
salty tears running down his nose and falling to the ground. “Why, Mr.
Doodle!” Raggedy Ann cried, “Whatever is the trouble?”
It was a long time before Mr. Doodle could reply and it would have
been much longer than that if Marggy’s Mama hadn’t given him a piece
of chocolate cake out of her basket. After Mr. Doodle had eaten the
chocolate cake, Raggedy Ann said, “Tell us why you weep, Mr. Doodle.”
“Because,” Mr. Doodle replied. “Because, you will remember, I wanted to
take the paper Dragon home and use him for a chicken coop. He is hollow
all the way to the tip of his tail, and he would make a lovely chicken
coop. But now, I know the paper Dragon is such a kind creature, I do
not wish to take him away from you and take him home, besides, if I did
that, there would be no one to guard the outside doors of the Magic
Castle.”
[Illustration]
“But,” Marggy’s Mama said, “You are going to stay right here in the
wonderful Magic Castle with us, and if you do that, there is no need of
you having a chicken coop. For, every time you wish fried chicken, all
you will have to do will be to wish for it and you will have it. Isn’t
that so, Daddy?”
[Illustration]
“Indeed, it is true,” Marggy’s Daddy replied. “So dry your tears, Mr.
Doodle and live with us in the Magic Castle and we will have a lot of
fun.”
“Then I must run home and get Mrs. Doodle,” Mr. Doodle said as he wiped
the last tear from his eye.
“Do not pack anything in your suitcases,” Marggy’s Daddy advised. “For
if you, or Mrs. Doodle, want new clothes any time, all you have to do
is wish for them.”
“I shall not bring a thing except Mrs. Doodle,” Mr. Doodle laughed.
“Now just see how fast I can run home and return with Mrs. Doodle.”
“I’ll bet a nickel it won’t take him very long,” Raggedy Andy laughed,
as they watched Mr. Doodle run away through the woods toward his home.
In a very short time Mr. Doodle came running back with Mrs. Doodle, for
he had hardly got started running through the woods when he met Mrs.
Doodle coming after him.
“I just thought Mr. Doodle never would come home,” Mrs. Doodle laughed
when she was introduced to everyone. “Is it true that you wish Mr.
Doodle and me to live in this beautiful castle with you, even after Mr.
Doodle and I treated you so mean?”
“Yes, indeed, Mrs. Doodle!” Marggy’s Mama said. “You see, Mr. Doodle
has changed quite a lot since you saw him last, and if it had not been
for his kindness to us, we would never have found our nice Daddy.”
“Then I am so happy!” Mrs. Doodle said as she wept on Raggedy Ann’s
shoulder. “Papa Doodle has always been a very lazy Papa and that was
one reason why he always wanted to capture Marggy. He really wanted her
to do the work!”
“And I know just how naughty I was, Mama Doodle,” Mr. Doodle said. “And
I have promised myself that I shall chop every piece of wood we need in
the nice, wonderful Magical Castle to cook with.”
“Aha!” Marggy’s Daddy laughed as he gave Mr. Doodle a friendly thump
upon the back. “We will need no wood around here to cook with, my
friend, for if we wish fried chicken or doughnuts or anything, we do
not have to build a fire and cook. No, sir!”
So Marggy’s Daddy led the way into the dining room of the castle and
everyone wished for just whatever they liked best for supper. And you
may be certain that everyone got exactly what they wished for, too,
because that was the way things worked in the wonderful castle. After
supper, everyone went into the Wonder Room and listened to the Magic
Book as it read fairy tales out loud, and while they listened to the
fairy tales they all had a great many ice cream sodas.
“It is really time we were all getting to bed,” Marggy’s Daddy said.
“The earlier we go to bed, the earlier we can get up in the morning,
and think how much fun we shall have then.”
Marggy’s Daddy knew every room in the great castle, so he showed
everyone just where to sleep, then when he had wound the clock and
covered up the canary bird and saw the little two-headed dog had gone
to his box, Marggy’s Daddy went to bed, too.
“Wasn’t it just like a Fairy Tale?” Raggedy Ann asked Raggedy Andy as
they put on their nighties and hopped into bed.
“Indeed, it was, Raggedy Ann,” Raggedy Andy laughed. “And I ’spect,
just like all nice Fairy Tales, everyone will live happily together
here in the wonderful Magic Castle forever.”
And the two Raggedys, their shiny shoe button eyes looking happily at
the ceiling, felt in their little cotton stuffed bodies that indeed,
this would prove true, for unhappiness can never creep in when hearts
are filled with the sunshine of unselfish love.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy have a good time in their books and so
does everybody who reads them. Their adventures in “Raggedy Ann’s
Wishing Pebble” and “Raggedy Ann and the Camel With the Wrinkled Knees”
are as funny and interesting as “Raggedy Ann and the Paper Dragon.” You
will want to own the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy books and a Raggedy
Ann and Raggedy Andy Bookshelf to put them on.
_Books about Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy_ are:
RAGGEDY ANN
RAGGEDY ANDY
RAGGEDY ANN AND THE CAMEL WITH THE WRINKLED KNEES
RAGGEDY ANN’S WISHING PEBBLE
RAGGEDY ANDY’S NUMBER BOOK
RAGGEDY ANN’S ALPHABET BOOK
_Other Books by Johnny Gruelle_ are:
THE MAGICAL LAND OF NOOM
FRIENDLY FAIRIES
MY VERY OWN FAIRY STORIES
LITTLE BROWN BEAR
LITTLE SUNNY STORIES
EDDIE ELEPHANT
FUNNY LITTLE STORIES
If your book dealer hasn’t these books write us.
[Illustration]
THE P. F. VOLLAND COMPANY
_Publishers of Good Books for Children_
NEW YORK JOLIET BOSTON
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