The story of a sawdust doll

When Dorothy hurried away with her mother to see what all the noise and shouting was about, the little girl, as I told you, dropped her Sawdust Doll on the floor. But, luckily, the Doll fell on a footstool that had been left near the White Rocking Horse so little boys would find it easy to climb up on his back. The stool was soft, and the Sawdust Doll was not hurt in the least, though a bit shaken up.

And as Dorothy and her mother hurried out of the toy department, so did the other shoppers and the clerks, so that the place was left all to itself for a few minutes.

“Oh, now we have a chance to talk!” exclaimed the Monkey on a Stick. “Dear Sawdust Doll, how glad we all are to see you again! Tell us where you have been and what has happened to you. Have you had any adventures?”

“Adventures!” exclaimed the Sawdust Doll, as she sat up on the footstool, for there were no prying eyes to watch the toys now, and they could do as they pleased. “Adventures? I should say I have had them! It has been nothing but adventures since I left here.”

“Oh, tell us about them!” begged the Calico Clown. “Were they funny ones?”

“Some were, and some were not,” answered the Sawdust Doll, and she told everything that had happened to her from the time she left the store until she had come back on this visit.

“Just fancy!” cried the Bold Tin Soldier. “Being in a junk shop! If I had been there I would have cut a way for you out of the bag with my sword!” he said.

“Thank you,” said the Sawdust Doll. “But, after all, everything came out all right as it was. I am back with Dorothy again, and happy.”

“I wonder what all the excitement is about,” said the White Rocking Horse, as he rocked to and fro.

“Oh, it’s just a man doing some magical tricks to amuse the children,” said the Monkey on a Stick. “I can see him from here. He comes every year at Christmas time to make it jolly for the children.”

“Now tell me some news!” begged the Sawdust Doll. “What has happened here since I went away?” and she softly patted the wool of the Lamb on Wheels. “Have you had any adventures?”

“Not many,” answered the Calico Clown. “We have just been waiting for some one to buy us and take us away, as you were taken away.”

“I was almost sold yesterday,” said the White Rocking Horse. “But the boy who got on my back to try me kicked me with his heels and scratched some of my paint. I was glad when his father said he guessed he would buy the boy a bicycle instead of me. I wouldn’t want that kind of master—one who would kick you with his heels.”

“No, indeed!” said the Sawdust Doll. “My Dorothy is as kind as she can be.”

“I have thought up a new joke since you went away,” cried the Calico Clown. “It’s a riddle. Why does a bean bag——”

“Hush!” suddenly called the White Rocking Horse. “To your places, every one! Here come the People!”

And as Dorothy and her mother returned from having gone to see the magician take things out of a hat, the Sawdust Doll and the other toys were as quiet and motionless as if they had never moved or spoken.

“Oh, look, Mother!” cried Dorothy. “I dropped my Sawdust Doll on this cushion and she’s right here yet!”

Dorothy held her Sawdust Doll in her arms, and the little girl never knew of the happy little visit her play toy had had with the old friends.

“How much is this White Rocking Horse?” asked Dorothy’s mother of the clerk behind the counter. And when she had been told the price Mother smiled and said: “I must send Daddy to look at it. This is just the kind Dick wants.”

Dorothy’s Father Fixes the Sawdust Doll
Page 118

When the shopping was finished the little girl went down in the elevator with her mother. The Calico Clown and the Bold Tin Soldier, as well as the other toys, wished they might call out a “good-bye” to the Sawdust Doll as they saw her being carried away. And they wished they might tell her to come again. But they did not dare, with all the people around.

One day when it was snowing so hard that Dorothy and her brother could not go out to play, Dick climbed into a rocking chair in the middle of the playroom floor.

“I’m going to make believe this is a rocking horse,” he said. “I’m going to take a long ride,” and he swayed to and fro. “Do you want to ride with me, Dorothy?” he asked.

“Thank you, no. I am going to make a new dress for my Sawdust Doll,” was the answer. “I’ll leave her here a minute till I get some thread.”

Dorothy, leaving her doll down on the floor, went to the sewing-room, where her mother and Martha, the maid, were busy. Dick began to sway backward, and forward in the rocking chair.

“Gid-dap!” cried the boy. “Go fast, Rocking Horse!”

Then, all of a sudden, the chair swung to one side and one of the rockers went right over the Sawdust Doll. It tore a hole in her back and the sawdust began to run out.

“Oh, my!” cried Dick, when he saw the accident. “Oh, what will Dorothy say? Oh, I’m sorry!”

He got down off the chair and looked at the Doll on the floor. A little stream of sawdust was running out over the carpet.

“Oh, dear me!” cried Dorothy, when she came back and saw what had happened. “Oh, dear me! Oh, Mother! Dick has run over my Sawdust Doll and she’s bleeding! Oh, dear me!”

She picked up her toy. The sawdust kept on running out, and the doll became very limp in Dorothy’s hands.

“Oh, my Sawdust Doll has fainted!” she cried. “What shall I do?”

Mother came running in to see what the matter was. And, noticing the sawdust running out of the Doll, she exclaimed:

“Hold your hand over the hole, Dorothy! That will keep the sawdust in!”

“Oh, but my doll is spoiled!” sobbed the little girl. “What made you run over her, Dick, with your rocking-chair horse?”

“I—I didn’t mean to,” said Brother Dick. “I’m sorry!”

“Oh, my Sawdust Doll will die!” cried Dorothy.

But Daddy came in just then, and when he saw what the trouble was he said:

“We’ll fix your doll, Dorothy. Don’t cry. We can make her well again.”

“How?” asked the little girl.

“I’ll get some new sawdust for her from the carpenter shop around the corner,” was the answer. “You get a needle and thread, Mother, and I’ll go after the sawdust.”

Dorothy dried her tears and watched while her mother got ready a needle, with a long thread, and her thimble. By that time Daddy had come back with something in a bag.

“Here is plenty of sawdust for the doll that fainted, Dorothy,” he said with a jolly laugh.

Through the hole made in the cloth by the rocking chair, the new sawdust from the carpenter shop was stuffed into the Doll. Then Mother sewed her up.

“And I’ll give you a ride on my make-believe rocking horse,” said Dick. “Come on, Dorothy!”

“All right,” answered the little girl. “I’ll wait until to-morrow about making Dollie another dress.”

She climbed up into the chair with her brother, holding her toy in her arms.

“Dear me!” thought the Sawdust Doll, “my adventures seem to keep up. Just fancy fainting because of an accident! How I should like to tell the Calico Clown and the Bold Tin Soldier about it. I don’t believe either of them ever fainted away.”

And as Dick and Dorothy and the Sawdust Doll rode on the rocking-chair horse, the little boy asked his father:

“Do you think, Daddy, I’ll ever have a real rocking horse?”

“Well, I shouldn’t be surprised if you did,” was the answer. “What kind would you like?”

“A white one,” the boy answered. “Just like the one I saw in the store where Dorothy’s Sawdust Doll was bought.”

“We’ll see,” promised Daddy.

And whether the little boy got his wish you may find out in the book that comes after this. It is called “The Story of a White Rocking Horse,” and it tells about the many adventures he had.

As for the Sawdust Doll, she lived with Dorothy for a number of years, and you may be sure many things happened to her—more than I have room to tell of in this book.

So I will say good-bye now, but I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if you heard something more about the Sawdust Doll, as well as about the White Rocking Horse.

THE END