THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL

The Sawdust Doll Got Out of Dorothy’s Bed Frontispiece—(Page 79)

MAKE BELIEVE STORIES (Trademark Registered)

THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL

BY LAURA LEE HOPE Author of “The Story of a Lamb on Wheels,” “The Story of a Calico Clown,” “The Bobbsey Twins Series,” “The Bunny Brown Series,” “The Six Little Bunkers Series,” etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY L. SMITH

NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1920, by GROSSET & DUNLAP

CHAPTER I FUN IN TOY TOWN

Toy Town was not a little city off by itself on the shore of some winding river. Nor was Toy Town a place up near the North Pole, where Santa Claus has his workshops for making presents. The Toy Town I am going to tell you about was in a big store. To get to it you went up in an elevator, and, once you were there, you saw the most wonderful and beautiful things you ever dreamed of! There were all sorts of toys, drums that beat a rub-a-dub-dub[2] all by themselves, funny clowns who banged tinkly brass things together when you pushed a spring near their neckties, and many other fascinating playthings.

Toy Town was a wonderful place!

One night, when the elevators had stopped sliding up and down, and when the doors of the big store were closed, and when the lights had been turned low, there was a rattling, a clattering, a rustling and bustling and a whispering and talking on the shelves and counters of Toy Town.

“Has everybody gone?” asked a Sawdust Doll, as she sat stiffly up near a Bold Tin Soldier, whose sword shone faintly in the light of one little electric lamp. The Sawdust Doll was stiff because she had been lying on her back all day.

“Yes, I think every one has gone,” answered a White Rocking Horse, as he[3] moved slowly to and fro on the floor, just under the toy counter. He was too large to be put up on the shelf. Besides, he might accidentally have kicked a hole in the drum. Mind you! I’m not saying he would have done it on purpose, but he might have done it by accident.

“I don’t see any one,” said the Bold Tin Soldier, and he waved his sword over his head.

“Isn’t he just wonderful!” whispered the Candy Rabbit to the Calico Clown. “I wish I were as brave as he! If any one has stayed behind in Toy Town to try to watch what we do after store hours, I’m sure they’ll be glad enough to run away when they see the sword of the Tin Soldier.”

“Yes, he is a bold chap,” answered the Calico Clown, and he felt the least bit jealous because the Candy Rabbit thought the[4] Tin Soldier chap was so fine. “I always wanted to be a soldier,” went on the Calico Clown, “but when I was small I began playing tricks and making jokes, so—look what I am!” and he held out his two long arms, on the end of each of which was a round, shiny piece of brass. These brasses were called “cymbals,” and they tinkled together with a clanging sound. “No use for me to wish to be a soldier,” sighed the Calico Clown. “My life is a joke!”

“I like you best as you are. You’re real jolly, I think,” chattered a Monkey on a Stick, as he climbed up and then climbed down again. “We must have some fun in this world, as well as being guarded by Tin Soldiers.”

“That is very true,” remarked a Lamb on Wheels, as she rolled over toward the White Rocking Horse. “I love jolly times. That’s why I’m always so glad when night[5] comes and we toys may do as we please.”

“We may, if there is no one to watch us,” said the Sawdust Doll, as she got up on her feet, rather stiffly, for, as I have said, she had been lying on her back all day, and you know how tiresome that is. “But we must be very careful not to start our fun until every one is away,” went on the Sawdust Doll.

“I’ll take a look,” offered the Bold Tin Soldier.

“I’ll come with you,” said the Calico Clown. “If we find that any boys or girls, or their fathers or mothers, have hidden themselves away in our Toy Town, to spy on us at our play, I’ll bang my cymbals together.”

“And I’ll shout and wave my sword,” went on the Tin Soldier.

“Surely that ought to scare them away,” bleated the Lamb on Wheels.

[6]“If it doesn’t, I’ll just gallop toward them,” said the White Rocking Horse. “That will make them run!”

So the Bold Tin Soldier and the Calico Clown climbed down off the toy counter and walked slowly, and a little stiffly, over the floor toward the elevators. The one light shone dimly, and by its rays they could see that no one was in the store—not even the watchman. He was down on the first floor, near the perfumery counter. He loved the smell of perfumery, did that watchman.

“No one is here!” said the Bold Tin Soldier, as he came marching back with the Calico Clown.

“Not a soul to watch us? That’s fine!” shouted the Monkey on a Stick. “Now I’m going to have some fun!” and he began to run up and down so quickly that the Sawdust Doll cried:

[7]“Oh, please, Monkey! Not so fast, if you please! You make me dizzy!”

“All right! I’ll go more slowly,” kindly offered the Monkey. “But when you’ve had to keep still all day, because so many boys and girls are watching you, when they’re not picking you up and punching you to see what you’re made of—I say when you’ve been that way all day, you want to go fast when you get the chance.”

“I suppose so,” agreed the White Rocking Horse. “I feel like kicking my heels, too.”

“Well, just wait a moment, if you please,” put in the Bold Tin Soldier. “I want to march some of my men out into the middle of the floor and have a little parade. After I get them past you, why, then you may kick up your heels as much as you please.”

“All right,” whinnied the White Horse.[8] “March away! I’m glad to do a favor.”

The Bold Tin Soldier nimbly jumped up on the counter, where he had been standing all day in a box with his tin soldier men. He waved his sword over his head until it flashed in the gleam of the one light like a star on a frosty night, and the Sawdust Doll covered her eyes with her hand, because it was so shiny.

“Attention, soldiers!” cried the tin captain.

Every one of the tin soldiers in the box sprang up straight and stiff and held his gun to his shoulder.

“Forward—march!” cried the captain, again waving his sword.

The tin soldiers stepped into line behind him, and, one after another, they followed him as he jumped off the counter to the floor. Past the White Rocking Horse they marched, each one as brave as his captain.

[9]“Now you may kick your heels as high as you please, Mr. White Rocking Horse,” called the captain. “We are safely out of your reach.”

“All right!” came the answer. “Here I go!” And with that the toy horse, which was built to make some boy happy, began rocking to and fro.

“If any one wants a ride on my back, now’s his chance!” called the White Rocking Horse.

“I do!” cried the Sawdust Doll, and with the help of the Calico Clown she got down off the counter and climbed up and sat on the saddle.

And, for a few moments, all that could be heard in Toy Town was the faint sound of the marching feet of the tin soldiers, the rumble of the Rocking Horse and the tinkle of the Calico Clown’s cymbals.

It was close to midnight now—the time[10] when all toys are allowed to do as they please, provided no one sees them. No one must ever look at, or watch, the toys at their play. In fact, no one has ever seen them having fun after dark in the big stores.

And the reason for that is this:

When the toys were given the power of coming to life, of talking, moving about, having fun, and behaving just as they would if they were real folk—when they were given this power there was just one thing they were told, and that was:

“No one must ever see you moving about!”

“Oh, no! Of course not!” said all the toys.

And so, from the very beginning, no one has ever seen the toys at play. Just the very moment the eyes of a boy or a girl, or a daddy or a mother, or even an uncle[11] or an aunt, lights on one of the toys, that toy just becomes as still as anything.

If, by some chance, when you weren’t looking a Sawdust Doll should start to dance with a Calico Clown, and you should turn your eyes toward them, they would stop at once, and you’d never know but what they had been motionless all their lives.

Because of this no one has ever seen the toys at play, and the only reason I am allowed to tell you what they did is because I promised not to look. They told me about it afterward—just how it all happened—and that’s why I may put it in a book. But as for looking myself at the toys as they play, or letting any one else look—never! I wouldn’t dream of it!

“Am I going too fast for you?” politely asked the White Rocking Horse of the Sawdust Doll, as he rode her on his back.

[12]“Oh, not at all,” she answered. “I like it.”

“That’s good,” he replied. “Oh, look at the Monkey, will you?” he called.

“Isn’t he funny?” said the Sawdust Doll. “Do you know, he’ll make some little boy or girl laugh, I’m sure of it!”

“Yes, he’ll be a nice Christmas toy for some one,” answered the Horse.

“But I would like to stay here among my toy friends a little longer,” said the Sawdust Doll.

“Yes, it is nice here,” said the Calico Clown, as he softly banged his cymbals. “Say, let’s have a little party!” he went on. “It is getting close to Christmas now. Some of us are sure to be bought and taken away. Some of us may never see the others again. We ought to celebrate in some way.”

“That’s what I say!” came from the[13] Candy Rabbit. “Of course, I’m not so likely to go until near Easter time. But you never can tell. Let’s have a party, I say,” and the Candy Rabbit wiggled his ears.

“A good idea!” bleated the Lamb on Wheels. “What shall we do?”

“We could play tag!” said the Monkey on a Stick.

“You can beat us all at that,” remarked the Sawdust Doll. “You jump around so I never can tag you.”

“I’ll go slowly this time,” promised the Monkey. “Come on—let’s have a game of tag!”

“Or hide-and-go-seek!” said the Calico Clown. “I know a dandy place to hide,” he whispered to the Candy Rabbit. “There’s a hole in the counter near the Jack-in-the-Box, and he won’t tell where we are.”

[14]“Is there room for me?” asked the Candy Rabbit.

“Plenty,” answered the Calico Clown. “Come on!”

The Sawdust Doll was just getting off the White Rocking Horse to join in the fun when, all at once, the Candy Rabbit cried:

“Oh, some one is coming! Some one is coming! Quiet, everybody! Don’t move!”

And as each and every toy stiffened out, to look as unlifelike as possible, a scratching, squeaking noise was heard all through Toy Town.

CHAPTER II JUST WAITING

“Dear me! What is it? What can it be?” whispered the Sawdust Doll to the White Rocking Horse.

“Hush! Quiet! Don’t say a word,” the Horse whispered back. “If it’s the watchman, or any people coming back after something they have forgotten, they must never know that we can move about and have fun when they aren’t looking.”

“Oh, no! Of course not!” agreed the Sawdust Doll, in a whisper, and then she sat very quietly on the back of the Rocking Horse, for she had no chance, so suddenly had the alarming noise sounded, to[16] get back to her place on the toy counter.

Pitter and patter, squeak and bang, rattle and rustle went the noise that had so frightened all the toy friends who were just getting ready for a party.

“What is it?” asked the Lamb on Wheels.

“Is it the watchman?” the Monkey on a Stick wanted to know. He had crouched down near a toy fire engine, and he was wishing he might shower some water on a stuffed elephant near by.

“Or is it some of the shoppers who have forgotten some toy they bought during the day?” asked the Candy Rabbit.

And then, all of a sudden, the Sawdust Doll, looking down at the floor, cried out:

“Oh, it’s a rat! It’s a great big rat! Oh! Oh-e-e-e-e-e!” and she squealed like the little Green Pig on the top shelf, only,[17] as he was asleep just then, he didn’t do any squealing himself.

“Gracious! I hope he doesn’t nibble off one of my ears,” said the Candy Rabbit, and he tried to hide behind the Calico Clown, who had managed to get back to his place on the counter.

“Forward, march! Take aim! Charge bayonets,” a voice suddenly called through the dim darkness of the toy store.

“Oh, it’s the Bold Tin Soldier!” cried the Sawdust Doll. “Oh, protect us! Save us from the rat!” she begged.

“Of course I will!” the Tin Soldier answered. “Where is he? Let me and my men get at him!”

“Here he is! Right over by the White Rocking Horse!” answered the Sawdust Doll.

“Squeak! Squeak!” went the rat. “What’s all the trouble here? Can’t a fellow[18] look for something to eat without having such a fuss made over it? What’s the matter?”

“Matter enough!” exclaimed the Bold Tin Soldier, marching up with his tin men. “It’s true you are not a boy or a girl or a grown person; so we aren’t afraid to have you see us in motion. But you must get out of here!”

“What for?” asked the rat, and he looked hungrily at the ears of the Candy Rabbit. The rat was very fond of sweet things. “Why must I run away?” he asked.

“Because you don’t belong here,” answered the Tin Soldier. “Your place is down in the cellar near the coal bin and the furnace. This is the toy department. There is nothing to eat here, and we are going to have a party.”

“How can you have a party without[19] something to eat?” asked the rat, with a cunning look, for these creatures are very sly.

“It isn’t going to be that kind of party at all,” said the Sawdust Doll. She felt rather safe up on the back of the White Rocking Horse. “We’re just going to play tag, and do things like that,” she went on.

“And not going to have anything to eat!” exclaimed the rat. “Pooh! I don’t call that any kind of party at all! I’m hungry!”

“Then you’d better run away!” said the Bold Tin Soldier, and he flashed his sword so daringly, and his soldiers pointed their tin guns and bayonets so sharply at the rat that, after showing his teeth once or twice, he switched his tail and ran back to the hole by which he had gnawed his way into Toy Town.

[20]“Well, I’m glad he’s gone,” said the Sawdust Doll.

“So am I,” said the Candy Rabbit. “I am sure he wanted to see how I tasted.”

“Well, I don’t know that you can blame him,” remarked the Calico Clown. “You surely are the sweetest thing here! Ha! Ha! Here we are again, boys and girls!” he cried.

“Oh, what a joke!” exclaimed the Sawdust Doll.

“That’s it! We must have fun!” laughed the Calico Clown. “Here is another joke! What kind of toes never wear any shoes?” he asked.

“The idea!” said the Sawdust Doll. “There aren’t any kinds of toes but what have shoes to cover them. My toes are covered with kid shoes, and the Tin Soldier’s toes are covered with tin shoes, and[21] the Monkey’s toes are covered with plush, and——”

“I mean pota-toes!” laughed the Calico Clown. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Pota-toes never wear shoes!” and he doubled up in the middle, because he thought his joke was so funny.

“Well, that isn’t such a bad one,” said the Rocking Horse. “You must have been in a circus, Mr. Clown.”

“No, not yet, but I want to be,” was the answer. “I’m hoping some boy will buy me and put me in a sawdust ring. That’s where I belong as a Calico Clown. In a sawdust ring!”

And the Calico Clown banged his cymbals together and felt so jolly that he sang a little song like this:

“What’s that? What’s that?” asked the Bold Tin Soldier. “‘Song a sing’?”

“It’s just the same as sing a song only I do it backwards by standing on my head,” answered the Calico Clown.

“Don’t pay too much attention to him,” whispered the Sawdust Doll. “He’s cutting up to-night.”

“I should say he was!” exclaimed the Tin Soldier. “Song a sing! The idea! Next we know he’ll be tuning a whistle instead of whistling a tune, and they aren’t the same thing at all—even backwards.”

“Indeed not!” agreed the Sawdust Doll. “But I’m so glad you drove that rat away,” she added, and she looked kindly[23] at the Bold Tin Soldier. “We never could have had any fun while he was here.”

Then the good times began. They played tag and hide-and-go-seek and a new game they made up among themselves. They called it “Jump the Jack.”

Each one had to take a turn jumping over the Jack-in-the-Box, and the Jack would reach up and try to tag them as they leaped over his head. If he touched any one of them, that toy had to stand on one foot and sing a song. And they had lots of fun when the Calico Clown was touched by the Jack-in-the-Box, for the Clown sang such a funny song, all backwards with the words mixed up like pickles.

Of course the White Rocking Horse was too big to get up on the counter and jump around with the Candy Rabbit and the Sawdust Doll, but he had fun staying on the floor near the toy blackboard and[24] watching the chalk draw funny pictures. For not only the toys that are in the shape of animals and persons have fun when no one is watching them, but the others, also, like the roller skates and the velocipedes, have good times among themselves at these midnight frolics.

And so the fun went on. The Sawdust Doll was having a lovely time, playing on a little toy piano for the Monkey on a Stick to dance with the Calico Clown, and the Candy Rabbit was listening to a Stuffed Duck tell how she learned to swim in the Goldfish bowl when all at once the Tin Soldier cried:

“Back to your shelves and counters, everybody!”

“What’s the matter? Is the rat coming again?” asked the Sawdust Doll, as she stopped playing the toy piano.

“No, but it is getting daylight,” was the[25] answer. “I can see the gleam of the sun in the eastern windows. Soon the store will be open and people will be coming in to buy—perhaps some one may buy me and my brave men.”

“Oh, I hope not!” sighed the Sawdust Doll. “If you go away, what shall we do if the rat comes back?”

“Maybe I can stop up his hole before I go away,” the Bold Tin Soldier answered. “But quick, now! Everybody back on shelf or counter! Here comes the sun!”

And as the sun rose and filled the world with light, the doors of Toy Town opened. The clerks came in to dust the different things and set them to rights, for it was the Christmas season and many people would come to buy.

“I wonder if some one will buy me,” softly murmured the Sawdust Doll.

[26]“Do you want them to?” asked the Candy Rabbit.

“Well, I suppose that is why I was put in Toy Town,” answered the Doll. “I want to do my duty, and make some little girl happy.”

“Yes, that’s what we’re for,” laughed the jolly Calico Clown. “It’s fun to make boys and girls happy. I only wish I could crack some of my jokes for them, but it isn’t allowed. I know one about an ear of corn and——”

“Hush!” whispered the Sawdust Doll. “Here comes the girl who has charge of our counter!”

Then all the toys stopped talking among themselves and became straight and stiff. They were waiting—just waiting for some one to come in and buy them.

CHAPTER III THE LITTLE GIRL

Into the store came a little girl, her mother, and a little boy. They took their places in the elevator and were lifted up, just like a balloon, only different, of course.

“May we stop in the toy department, Mother?” asked the little girl. “I want to look at some dolls.”

“What for?” asked the boy.

“Because my birthday is next week, Dick,” answered the little girl, whose name was Dorothy. “It’s my birthday, and maybe I’ll get a doll then, or for Christmas.”