Page:Raggedy Ann Stories.pdf/88

 “Here is the hole he came from!” cried Uncle Clem from the other end of the nursery. “Come, see!”

All the dolls ran to where Uncle Clem was, down on his hands and knees.

“This must be the place?” said Raggedy Ann, “We will plug up the hole with something, so he will not come out again!”

The dolls hunted around and brought rags and pieces of paper and pushed them into the mouse’s doorway.

“T thought I heard nibbling last night,” one of the penny dolls said. “You know I begged for an extra piece of pie last evening, when Mistress had me at the table and it kept me awake!”

While the dolls were talking, Marcella ran down-stairs with Jeanette and told Daddy and Mamma, who came up-stairs with Marcella and hunted around until they discovered the mouse’s doorway.

“Oh, why couldn’t it have chewed on me?” Raggedy Ann asked herself then she saw Marcella’s sorrowful face, for Raggedy Ann was never selfish.

“Daddy will take Jeanette down-town with him and have her fixed up as good as new,’’ said Mamma, so Jeanette was wrapped in soft tissue paper and taken away.

Later in the day Marcella came bouncing into the nursery with a surprise for the dolls. It was a dear fuzzy little kitten.

Marcella introduced the kitten to all the dolls.

“Her name is Boots, because she has four little white feet!” said Marcella. So Boots, the happy little creature, played with the penny dolls, scraping them over the floor and peeping out from behind chairs and pouncing upon them as if they were mice and the penny dolls enjoyed it hugely.

When Marcella was not in the nursery, Raggedy Ann wrestled with Boots and they would roll over and over upon the floor, Boots with her front feet around Raggedy Ann’s neck and kicking with her hind feet.