Raggedy Andy Stories Page 11

  MAKING "ANGELS" IN THE SNOW

  "Whee! It's good to be back home again!" said Raggedy Andy to the otherdolls, as he stretched his feet out in front of the little toy stove andrubbed his rag hands briskly together, as if to warm them.

  All the dolls laughed at Raggedy Andy for doing this, for they knewthere had never been a fire in the little toy stove in all the time ithad been in the nursery. And that was a long time.

  "We are so glad and happy to have you back home again with us!" thedolls told Raggedy Andy. "For we have missed you very, very much!"

  "Well," Raggedy Andy replied, as he held his rag hands over the tiny lidof the stove and rubbed them again, "I have missed all of you, too, andwished many times that you had been with me to join in and share in thepleasures and frolics I've had."

  And as Raggedy Andy continued to hold his hands over the little stove,Uncle Clem asked him why he did it.

  Raggedy Andy smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Really," he said, "Iwasn't paying any attention to what I was doing! I've spent so much ofmy time while I was away drying out my soft cotton stuffing it seems asthough it has almost become a habit."

  "Were you wet most of the time, Raggedy Andy?" the French doll asked.

  "Nearly all the time!" Raggedy Andy replied. "First I would get soppingwet and then I'd freeze!"

  "Freeze!" exclaimed all the dolls in one breath.

  "Dear me, yes!" Raggedy Andy laughed. "Just see here!" And Raggedy Andypulled his sleeve up and showed where his rag arm had been mended. "Thatwas quite a rip!" he smiled.

  "Dear! Dear! How in the world did it happen? On a nail?" Henny, theDutch doll, asked as he put his arm about Raggedy Andy.

  "Froze!" said Raggedy Andy.

  The dolls gathered around Raggedy Andy and examined the rip in his ragarm.

  "It's all right now!" he laughed. "But you should have seen me when ithappened! I was frozen into one solid cake of ice all the way through,and when Marcella tried to limber up my arm before it had thawed out, itwent, 'Pop!' and just bursted.

  "Then I was placed in a pan of nice warm water until the icy cottoninside me had melted, and then I was hung up on a line above the kitchenstove, out at Gran'ma's."

  "But how did you happen to get so wet and then freeze?" asked RaggedyAnn.

  "Out across the road from Gran'ma's home, 'way out in the country, thereis a lovely pond," Raggedy Andy explained. "In the summer time prettyflowers grow about the edge, the little green frogs sit upon the pondlilies and beat upon their tiny drums all through the night, and thetwinkling stars wink at their reflections in the smooth water. But whenMarcella and I went out to Gran'ma's, last week, Gran'ma met us with asleigh, for the ground was covered with starry snow. The pretty pond wascovered with ice, too, and upon the ice was a soft blanket of the white,white snow. It was beautiful!" said Raggedy Andy.

  Marcella and Raggedy Andy in the snow]

  Marcella on a sled]

  "Gran'ma had a lovely new sled for Marcella, a red one with shinyrunners.

  "And after we had visited Gran'ma a while, we went to the pond for aslide.

  "It was heaps of fun, for there was a little hill at one end of the pondso that when we coasted down, we went scooting across the pond like anarrow.

  "Marcella would turn the sled sideways, just for fun, and she and Iwould fall off and go sliding across the ice upon our backs, leaving aclean path of ice, where we pushed aside the snow as we slid. ThenMarcella showed me how to make 'angels' in the soft snow!"

  "Oh, tell us how, Raggedy Andy!" shouted all the dollies.

  "It's very easy!" said Raggedy Andy. "Marcella would lie down upon herback in the snow and put her hands back up over her head, then she wouldbring her hands in a circle down to her sides, like this." And RaggedyAndy lay upon the floor of the nursery and showed the dollies just howit was done. "Then," he added, "when she stood up it would leave theprint of her body and legs in the white, white snow, and where she hadswooped her arms there were the 'angel's wings!'"

  "It must have looked just like an angel!" said Uncle Clem.

  "Indeed it was very pretty!" Raggedy Andy answered. "Then Marcella madea lot of 'angels' by placing me in the snow and working my arms; so yousee, what with falling off the sled so much and making so many 'angels,'we both were wet, but I was completely soaked through. My cotton justbecame soppy and I was ever so much heavier! Then Gran'ma, just as wewere having a most delightful time, came to the door and 'Ooh-hooed' toMarcella to come and get a nice new doughnut. So Marcella, thinking toreturn in a minute, left me lying upon the sled and ran through the snowto Gran'ma's. And there I stayed and stayed until I began to feel stiffand could hear the cotton inside me go, 'Tic! Tic!' as it began tofreeze.

  Raggedy Andy on a sled at night]

  "I lay upon the sled until after the sun went down. Two little Chicadeescame and sat upon the sled and talked to me in their cute little birdlanguage, and I watched the sky in the west get golden red, then turninto a deep crimson purple and finally a deep blue, as the sun wentfarther down around the bend of the earth. After it had been dark forsome time, I heard someone coming through the snow and could see theyellow light of a lantern. It was Gran'ma.

  "She pulled the sled over in back of her house and did not see that Iwas upon it until she turned to go in the kitchen; then she picked me upand took me inside. 'He's frozen as stiff as a board!' she told Marcellaas she handed me to her. Marcella did not say why she had forgotten tocome for me, but I found out afterward that it was because she was sowet. Gran'ma made her change her clothes and shoes and stockings andwould not permit her to go out and play again.

  "Well, anyway," concluded Raggedy Andy, "Marcella tried to limber my armand, being almost solid ice, it just burst. And that is the way it wentall the time we were out at Gran'ma's; I was wet nearly all the time.But I wish you could all have been with me to share in the fun."

  And Raggedy Andy again leaned over the little toy stove and rubbed hisrag hands briskly together.

  Uncle Clem went to the waste paper basket and came back with some scrapsof yellow and red paper. Then, taking off one of the tiny lids, hestuffed the paper in part of the way as if the flames were "shootingup!"

  Then, as all the dolls' merry laughter rang out, Raggedy Andy stoppedrubbing his hands, and catching Raggedy Ann about the waist, he wentskipping across the nursery floor with her, whirling so fast neither sawthey had gone out through the door until it was too late. For coming tothe head of the stairs, they both went head over heels, "blumpity,blump!" over and over, until they wound up, laughing, at the bottom.

  "Last one up is a Cocoa baby!" cried Raggedy Ann, as she scrambled toher feet. And with her skirts in her rag hands she went racing up thestairs to where the rest of the dollies stood laughing.

  "Hurrah, for Raggedy Ann!" cried Raggedy Andy generously. "She won!"

  Raggedy Ann racing up the stairs]

  Listening to the seashell]

  The Singing Shell]