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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5845.txt b/5845.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f90083 --- /dev/null +++ b/5845.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2518 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Calico Clown, by Laura Lee Hope + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of Calico Clown + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Posting Date: September 26, 2012 [EBook #5845] +Release Date: June, 2004 +First Posted: September 11, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF CALICO CLOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +MAKE BELIEVE STORIES + +THE STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN + +BY + +LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of "The Story of a Sawdust Doll," "The Story +of a Monkey on a Stick," "The Bobbsey Twins +Series," "The Bunny Brown Series," "The +Six Little Bunkers Series," Etc. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE GIANT'S SWING + +II. A BROKEN LEG + +III. THE CLOWN'S DANCE + +IV. UP IN A TREE + +V. TAKEN DOWN TOWN + +VI. IN THE OFFICE + +VII. IN THE WASH-BASKET + +VIII. DOWN IN A DEEP HOLE + +IX. BACK HOME + +X. THE TOY PARTY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GIANT'S SWING + + +"To-night we shall have a most wonderful time," said the Elephant from +the Noah's Ark to a Double Humped Camel who lived in the stall next to +him. + +"What kind of a time?" asked the Camel. He stood on the toy counter of +a big department store, looking across the top of a drum toward a Jack +in the Box who was swaying to and fro on his long spring. "What do you +call a wonderful time, Mr. Elephant?" + +"Oh, having fun," replied the big toy animal, slowly swinging his +trunk to and fro. "And to-night the Calico Clown is going to give a +special exhibition." + +"Oh, is he?" suddenly asked a funny little Wooden Donkey with a head +that wagged up and down. "Is he going to climb a string again and burn +his red and yellow trousers as he once did?" + +"Indeed I am not!" exclaimed the Calico Clown himself. The Clown was +leaning against his friend Mr. Jumping Jack, who was a cousin of Jack +in the Box. "I'm not going to give any special exhibition like that," +went on the Clown. "I'm just going to do a few funny tricks, such as +standing on my head and banging my cymbals together. And, I am not +sure, but I may ask a riddle." + +"Will it be that one about what makes more noise than a pig under a +gate?" inquired a Celluloid Doll. "Well, yes, it will be that riddle," +replied the Clown, trying to look very stern. + +"That's the only riddle he knows," whispered the Elephant. + +"What I should like to know," said the Camel, "is why a pig should +want to get under a gate, anyhow. Why didn't he stay in his pen?" + +"Oh, there's no use trying to make you understand," sighed the Clown. +"I'll just have to dance around, do a few jigs, bang my cymbals +together, and do things like that to amuse you." + +"Well, we'll have a good time to-night, anyhow," said the Celluloid +Doll. "We really haven't had much fun since the Candy Rabbit and the +Monkey on a Stick went away. I wish--" + +"Hush!" suddenly called the Calico Clown. "Here come the clerks. The +store will soon be filled with customers." + +The toys became very still and quiet. This talk among them had taken +place in the early morning hours, after a night of jolly good times. +But when daylight came, and when clerks and customers filled the +store, the toys were no longer allowed to do as they pleased. They +could not move about or talk as they could on other occasions. + +The Calico Clown was a jolly chap, and he seemed to stand out among +all the other toys on the counter. He wore calico trousers of which +one leg was red and the other yellow. He had a calico shirt that was +spotted, speckled and striped in gay colors, and on each of his hands +was a round piece of brass. These pieces of brass were called +"cymbals," and the Calico Clown could bang them together as the +drummer bangs his cymbals in the band. + +I say the Calico Clown could bang his cymbals together, and by that I +mean he could do it when no boys or girls or grown folk were looking +at him. This was the rule for all the toys. They could move about and +talk only when no human eyes were looking. As soon as you glanced at +them they became as still and as quiet as potatoes. + +But any one who picked up the Calico Clown could make him bang his +cymbals together by pressing on his chest. There was a little spring, +and also a sort of squeaker, such as you have heard in toy bears or +sheep. + +Besides being able to clap his cymbals together, the Calico Clown +could also move his arms and legs when you pulled certain strings, +like those on some Jumping Jacks. The Calico Clown was a lively +fellow, as well as being very gaily dressed. + +But now all the toys were still and quiet. They sat or stood or were +lying down on the counter, waiting for what would happen next. And +what generally did happen was that some customers came to the store +and bought them. + +Already a number of the toys had been sold and taken away. There was +the Sawdust Doll. She was the first to go. Then the White Rocking +Horse had been bought for a boy named Dick, a brother of Dorothy, who +now owned the Sawdust Doll. The Lamb on Wheels had been purchased by a +jolly sailor, and when the Lamb saw him she feared she would be taken +on an ocean trip and made seasick. But the sailor gave the Lamb to a +little girl named Mirabell. And, in the course of time, her brother +Arnold was given a Bold Tin Soldier and some soldier men. + +The Candy Rabbit--about whom I have told you in a book, as I have told +you of these other toys--the Candy Rabbit was given as an Easter +present to a little girl named Madeline, and her brother Herbert had, +later, been given the Monkey on a Stick. + +The Calico Clown was looking over at the Celluloid Doll, thinking how +pretty she was, and he was also thinking of the Sawdust Doll, whom he +had liked very much, when, all of a sudden, it seemed as if a +whirlwind had blown into the toy department. + +A boy with a very loud voice and feet that tramped and stamped on the +floor rushed up to the counter. + +"I want a toy! I want something to play with!" cried this boy. "I want +a Jumping Jack and I want a Noah's Ark! You said you'd get me +something if I let the dentist pull that tooth, and now you've got to! +I want a lot of toys!" he cried to the lady who was with him. + +"Yes, Archibald. But please be quiet!" begged his mother. "I will get +you a toy. Which one do you want?" + +"I want this Elephant!" cried the boy who, I am afraid, was rather +rude. He caught the Elephant up by his trunk, and twisted the poor +animal around. + +"Goodness me, sakes alive! I'm getting dizzy," thought the Elephant. +"I hope this boy is not to be my master!" + +And this, it would seem, was not going to happen. Suddenly the boy +dropped the Elephant. + +"I don't want this toy! He can't do anything!" the boy shouted. "I +want something that jiggles and joggles and does things! Oh, I want +this one!" and, as true as I'm telling you, that boy caught up the +Calico Clown. + +"Well, I guess this is the last of me!" thought the Calico Clown. "I +will not last very long in the hands of this rude chap." + +The boy had grabbed up the Calico Clown and had thrown the Elephant +down so hard that the Celluloid Doll was knocked over. + +"Be careful, little boy, if you please," gently said the girl clerk. + +"Oh, I've got to have this Clown!" went on the rude boy. "I don't care +for other toys. Does this fellow do anything?" he asked of the clerk, +while his mother looked on, hardly knowing what to say. Archibald had +just been to the dentist's to have a tooth pulled, so perhaps we +should forgive him for being a little rough. + +"The Clown plays his cymbals when you touch him here," and the clerk +pointed to the spring hidden in the chest of the gay fellow, under his +speckled, striped and spotted calico jacket. + +"Oh, I'll touch him all right! I'll punch him!" cried the boy, and he +jabbed the Calico Clown so hard in the chest that the cymbals rattled +together like marbles in a boy's pocket. + +"He's dandy! I want him!" cried the boy. "What else does he do?" he +asked. + +"He moves his arms and legs when you pull these strings," was the +answer, and the clerk showed the boy how to do it. + +"Oh, he's a jolly toy!" cried Archibald. "I'll have some fun with him +when I show him to the other fellows. Hi! Look at him jig!" and he +pulled the strings so fast that it seemed as if the poor Clown would +turn somersaults. + +"I can see what will happen to me," thought the Clown. "I shall come +to pieces in about a week, and be thrown in the ash can. Why can't he +be nice and quiet?" + +But Archibald was not that kind of boy. He seemed to want to make a +noise or do something all the while. Most of his toys at home were +broken, and that is why his mother had to promise to get him another +before he would let her take him to the dentist's to have an aching +tooth pulled. + +"I want this Clown!" cried Archibald, making the cymbals bang together +again and again. + +"Very well, you may have it," his mother replied. + +"I'll wrap it up for you," said the clerk, and the poor Clown was +quickly smothered in a wrapping of paper around which a string was +tied. + +"Here is your toy, Archibald," said his mother, when the plaything +came back ready to be taken out of the store. The mother had taken it +from the clerk, and now she handed it to her little boy. + +And so he carried the Calico Clown away, without giving the poor, +jolly fellow a chance to say good-bye to the Elephant, the Camel or +the Celluloid Doll. + +"Now our good time for to-night is spoiled," sadly thought the +Elephant. "Our jolly comrade is gone!" + +All the way home in the automobile Archibald kept punching the red and +yellow Clown in the chest and banging the cymbals together until the +boy's mother said: + +"Oh, Archibald, please be quiet! My head aches!" + +"All right, I'll make my Clown jiggle!" said the boy, who really loved +his mother, though sometimes he was rude. + +Then he pulled the strings until the poor Clown thought his arms and +legs would come off, so fast were they jerked about. + +When Archibald reached home with his new toy he ran out into the +street to find some of his playmates. He saw a boy named Pete and +another named Sam. + +"Look what I've got!" cried Archibald. + +"A Jumping Jack!" exclaimed Sam. + +"It's a Calico Clown, and he can do everything," said Archibald. "He's +like one in a circus, and he can do funny tricks. He can jiggle his +arms and legs and play the cymbals. I'll show you!" + +He worked the Clown so fast that the red and yellow chap grew dizzy +again. + +"That's fine!" said Sam. "I wish I had a Clown like that." + +"Can he do the giant's swing?" asked Pete. + +"What's the giant's swing?" Archibald wanted to know. + +"It's something the men do in a circus," was the answer. "Here, I have +some string in my pocket. We'll make a trapeze in your back yard and +we'll have the Calico Clown do the giant's swing." + +"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Archibald. + +"Yes, it may be fun for you," thought the Calico Clown, "but what +about me? What is the giant's swing, anyhow? Oh, I wish I were back on +the toy counter!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BROKEN LEG + + +Sam and Pete hurried with Archibald to his back yard. Archibald +carried the red and yellow Calico Clown in his hands. Now and then the +boy would punch the gay fellow in the chest, making the cymbals clang +together with a bang. Again Archibald would pull the strings, causing +the Calico Clown to jiggle his arms and legs. + +"You're a nice toy, all right," said Archibald. "I like my Clown!" + +"But wait until I make him do the giant's swing!" exclaimed Pete. +"That will be worth seeing!" + +When the boys reached a tree in Archibald's yard, Pete found a piece +of broken broom handle for the bar of the trapeze. From his pocket he +took some strong pieces of string. With these the broomstick was tied +to the limb of a tree, so that it hung down and swung to and fro like +a swing. + +"Now well put the Clown on," Pete called to Archibald, when the +trapeze was finished. + +"How are you going to make him stay on?" asked Sam. + +"Oh, I can tie him on with another piece of string," Pete answered. + +"That's easy!" yelled Archibald. + +It did not take Pete long to tie the Calico Clown on the swinging +trapeze. It was quite high from the ground, and as the little toy man +looked down and saw how far below him the green grass was, his knees +seemed to shake and his cymbals to tremble. + +"Oh, if I should fall now I would be broken to pieces!" said the +Calico Clown to himself, for of course he dared not speak aloud now, +and he dared not move by himself. "This is much higher than when I +climbed the string in the toy store and caught fire at the gas jet. +This is much higher than I ever was up before," sighed the Clown. + +"Is he ready to do the giant's swing now?" asked Sam. + +"In a minute," answered Pete. + +Once the Clown was tied on, Pete began to swing the trapeze to and +fro. Farther and farther swung the Calico Clown, and, as he moved to +and fro, his cymbals clanged together. His arms and legs also jiggled +and jumped, as they had done when Archibald pulled the strings. + +Pete stood behind the trapeze and gave it little pushes with his hands +every now and then. This made it swing farther and farther. + +"Oh, it almost turned all the way over!" suddenly cried Archibald. + +"That's what I want it to do," said Pete. "When the trapeze goes all +the way over and around and around, that's the giant's swing I was +telling you about. Watch!" + +Archibald and Sam watched, and in another moment the trapeze swung up +and over so hard that it turned around and around in a regular circle. + +"Hurray! There she goes!" cried Pete. + +"Oh, look!" exclaimed Sam. + +"Say, that's great!" yelled Archibald. "I didn't know my Calico Clown +could do that!" + +As for the Calico Clown himself, he did not know it either, and he +felt very bad that he was made to do the giant's swing. + +"Oh, how dizzy it makes me feel!" he said to himself. "I know I'm +going to fall!" + +He could feel the strings that tied him to the broomstick bar +beginning to loosen. The Calico Clown shut his eyes, thinking that if +he did not see the green grass whirling around beneath him he would +not feel so dizzy. Around and around he went in the giant's swing. + +And then, all of a sudden, something broke. It was the string holding +the Calico Clown to the broomstick. And when the string broke off flew +the Clown! + +He flew off just when the trapeze was at the highest point, and away +through the air sailed the red and yellow toy, as if he had been shot +from a cannon. + +"Oh, look at that!" cried Archibald, "Now you've gone and done it, +Pete!" + +"He busted loose!" shouted Sam. + +"If he falls and breaks, you've got to get me another," cried +Archibald. + +"I'm going to fall, all right," thought the poor Clown to himself, +"and I shouldn't be a bit surprised if I broke into bits!" + +One can not go sailing through the air forever, even if one is a +Calico Clown. And, after being flung off the trapeze and shooting +along high above the green grass, the Calico Clown felt himself +falling down. + +Once more he shut his eyes, as he could do this without the boys +seeing him. His arms and legs jiggled and joggled about, and his +cymbals clanged with a tinkling sound. + +"Oh, dear!" sighed the Calico Clown. + +There came a soft, dull thud on the grass. That was the Calico Clown +falling down. He felt a sudden, sharp pain go through him, and then he +seemed to faint away. + +For a time the Calico Clown knew nothing of what happened. Archibald, +Sam and Pete ran over to where the toy had fallen. Archibald was the +first to pick it up. The cymbals were still fast to the Clown's hands, +and so were the jiggling strings attached to his arms and legs. But +something was wrong. + +"Oh, one of his legs is broken!" cried Archibald. "My Calico Clown is +spoiled! Pete, you've broken one of his legs!" + +And that was what had happened. In his fall from the trapeze the poor +red and yellow toy had cracked one of his wooden legs. It was the one +on which he wore the red half of his trousers. + +"I--I didn't mean to do that," said Pete. + +"Well, you did it; and now you have to get me another toy!" exclaimed +Archibald. "If you don't I'll tell my mother on you." + +"Oh, Arch!" exclaimed Sam. + +"Oh, all right. I'll get you another," said Pete quickly. "You can +come over to my house now, and I'll give you anything I have in place +of your Calico Clown. I didn't think his leg would break so easily." + +The three boys, with Archibald carrying the poor, broken-legged Clown, +hurried out of the yard. As they were going to Pete's house they met a +boy named Sidney, who was a brother of Herbert and Madeline. Madeline +owned the Candy Rabbit, and Herbert had a Monkey on a Stick--both of +them toys that had once lived in the same store with the Calico Clown. + +"What have you?" asked Sidney of Archibald. + +"A Calico Clown," was the answer. "He was new a little while ago, but +Pete put him on a trapeze and made him do the giant's swing and now +he's done for--he's got a broken leg." + +"What are you going to do with him?" asked Sidney. + +"He's going to make me give him one of my toys in place of the Clown," +answered Pete. "Of course it was my fault he broke--I guess I didn't +tie him on tight enough. And I'm willing to give Archie another toy +for him, but--" + +Sidney suddenly thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gaily +painted top that hummed and made music when you spun it. + +"I'll trade you that for your Calico Clown," said Sidney to Archibald. + +"But the Clown has a broken leg," explained Pete. + +"I don't care. Maybe I can mend it," Sidney answered. "Once I fixed a +Jumping Jack that had lost his head." + +"Well, if you did that, you can fix a Clown that has only a broken +leg," said Sam. "Go on and trade with him, Archie." + +"All right, I will," decided Archibald. He held out the broken Clown +and in trade took the musical top. + +"Now I don't have to give you any of my toys, do I, Archie?" asked +Pete. + +"Nope," Archibald answered. "I'd rather have this top than a broken +Calico Clown." + +While he was being traded for the top the Calico Clown came out of his +faint. His broken leg did not hurt so much now. He felt more like +himself. + +"Oh, ho!" he thought. "I am to have a new master, it seems. Well, I +hope it will not be one who makes me do the giant's swing. Once is +enough for that!" + +Archibald went off with Sam and Pete to try the musical top. Sidney +carried the Calico Clown toward the house where Madeline and Herbert +lived. + +"I'll fix you as good as new," said Sidney, looking at the dangling, +broken leg. + +And, as Sidney walked along, all of a sudden he heard his sister +calling. + +"Oh, quick, somebody! Somebody come quick! He's fallen into the +water!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CLOWN'S DANCE + + +Sidney stuffed the Calico Clown into his pocket and ran as fast as he +could toward his sister. He saw her standing near a little fountain in +the side yard of their home. + +"What's the matter, Madeline?" asked Sidney, making sure the Calico +Clown was not falling out of his pocket as he ran along. + +"Oh, he's in the water!" said the little girl. + +"Who is?" her brother wanted to know. "Who's in?" + +"My Candy Rabbit. I set him on the edge of the fountain so he could +watch the birds having a bath, and he fell right in." + +Sidney looked toward the fountain. He saw nothing of the Candy Rabbit. + +"You can't see him 'cause he's over the edge, down inside," went on +Madeline. "I can't reach and get him, or I'd fish him out myself. And +if he stays there very long he'll melt, as he almost did once when he +fell into the bathtub. Oh, please get him out for me." + +"I will!" promised Sidney. + +"Oh, is it possible I am to see my dear old friend, the Candy Rabbit, +again?" thought the Calico Clown, who, though stuffed into Sidney's +pocket, had heard all that was said. The toys could hear and +understand talk at all times, except when they were asleep. The broken +leg of the gay red and yellow chap did not hurt him very much just +now. "I shall certainly be glad to see the Candy Rabbit again," the +Clown thought. "And Sidney had better hurry and get him out of the +water, or he surely will melt, and that would be dreadful." + +The fountain in the yard of the house where Herbert, Madeline and +Sidney lived was rather a high one. The little girl could just reach +up to the rim of the basin to set her Rabbit there, but, once he had +toppled over and was down inside, she could neither see nor reach him. + +"You'll have to stand on something or you can't get him," Madeline +said to Sidney. "Shall I get you a box?" + +"No, I'll stand on my tiptoes," he answered. And he did, thus making +himself tall enough to reach over into the water and fish out the +Candy Rabbit. + +Out that sweet fellow came, dripping wet, but not much harmed. + +"Oh, he didn't melt, did he?" asked Madeline. "I'm so glad!" + +"He hasn't melted yet," answered Sidney, as he handed the Easter toy +to his sister. "But you'd better put him in the sun to dry, or he may +crumble away." + +"I will," Madeline promised. + +As Sidney turned to walk away, the Calico Clown fell out of his +pocket. + +"What's that? Where'd you get him?" cried Madeline. At the same time +the Candy Rabbit saw the gay red and yellow chap from the toy store. + +"Oh, there's my dear old Clown friend!" thought the Rabbit, all wet as +he was. "How in the wide world did he get here?" + +But of course he could not ask, any more than the Calico Clown could +answer. + +And when the Clown, lying on the grass where he had fallen from +Sidney's pocket, saw the Candy Rabbit, the Clown said to himself: + +"Yes, there he is! The same one I knew before. Oh, if we could only +get together by ourselves and talk! How much we could say!" + +Sidney picked the Calico Clown up off the grass. + +"Where did you get him?" asked Madeline again. "He's awfully cute. I +saw one like that in the store where Aunt Emma got my Candy Rabbit." + +"Maybe this is the same one," Sidney answered. "I traded off my +musical top to Archibald for the Clown. His leg is broken." + +"Whose--Archibald's?" asked Madeline, in surprise. + +"No, the Clown's," answered Sidney, with a laugh. "I'm going to fix +it. Course a Calico Clown is worth more than a musical top, for the +Clown is new and my top was old. But a Clown with a broken leg isn't +worth so much." + +"Is it worth anything?" asked Madeline. "I mean can you fix him?" + +"Oh, yes," her brother answered. "He can still bang his cymbals, and +he can jiggle both his arms and the leg that isn't broken." + +Sidney punched the Clown in the chest, and the red and yellow fellow +clapped his hands together and made the cymbals tinkle. Then Sidney +pulled the strings and the two arms of the Clown went up and down, and +one leg kicked out as nicely as you please. But the other leg did not +move. + +"That's the leg that's broken," Sidney explained. "He got broken when +Pete made him do the giant's swing." + +"He looks as though he was trying to dance on one leg!" laughed +Madeline. "He's awfully cute, but he's funny!" + +"I'll soon fix him, and he'll be as good as ever," declared her +brother. "You'd better go and put your Rabbit in the sun to dry." + +So Madeline did this, and very glad the sweet chap was to feel the +warm sun on his back, for he had been made quite drippy and sticky by +having fallen into the fountain. + +Sidney, as I have told you, was a boy who could mend things. Once he +had fixed Herbert's toy boat that was broken, and, another time, he +had glued a head back on Madeline's Celluloid Doll. + +"And I think I can glue my Clown's broken leg," thought Sidney, as he +went toward the kitchen. There, he remembered, the cook always kept a +tube of sticky glue. + +"What are you going to mend now?" asked the cook. + +"A broken leg," Sidney answered. + +"Oh, you can't mend a broken leg with glue!" cried the cook. "You had +much better call in the doctor. Whose leg is it?" + +"I'm going to be the toy doctor," the little boy went on. "It's the +wooden leg of a Calico Clown I'm going to mend." + +"Oh, that's different," said the cook. "Well, here's the glue." + +She handed Sidney the tube. He took it and his Clown over to a table. +Pushing up the red trouser Sidney saw where the Clown's leg was +broken. The wood was cracked and splintered, but the two pieces were +there. + +"I'll just glue them together," said the boy. And this he did. Then, +as he knew that glue must set, or get hard, he put his Calico Clown +away on a shelf in a closet, where the toy chap saw something that +made him wonder. + +At first, in the darkness, the Clown could not make out what or who it +was on the shelf in the closet with him. Then, as his eyes became +accustomed to the gloom, he noticed that it was a Cat. + +"Oh, are you a toy, too?" asked the Calico Clown politely, for he +wanted company and some one to talk to. + +"No, I am not exactly a toy," answered the Cat. + +"You look like one," the Clown said. "There was one just like you in +our store, only that cat's head wobbled." + +"Well, my head doesn't wobble--it comes off," said the Cat. + +"Your head comes off!" cried the Clown in great surprise. "I should +think that would hurt!" + +"No, it's made to do that," the Cat explained. "You see I'm a match +safe, and I also have a place inside me where burned matches may be +put. To put them in me you have to lift off my head. It doesn't hurt +at all--I'm used to it." + +"Oh, that's different," said the Calico Clown. "Well, I am very glad +to meet you. Do you know the Candy Rabbit?" + +The Cat said she did, and very well, too. + +"He sleeps here on the closet shelf with me every night," she added. +"You'll see him, pretty soon!" + +"I shall be very glad to," remarked the Clown. "Excuse me for not +sitting up as I talk," he said, for Sidney had laid him down flat on +his back. "The truth of the matter," went on the Clown, "is that my +leg was broken a while ago, and the boy just glued it together." + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" mewed the Match-Safe Cat. + +"I'm not--I'm glad," said the Clown. "If it wasn't glued I'd be a +slimpsy lopsy sort of chap." + +"Oh, I didn't mean I was sorry your leg was GLUED, I meant that I was +sorry it was BROKEN," went on the Cat. "Now let's tell each other our +adventures." + +So they did, talking until late in the evening when, suddenly, the +closet door was opened by Madeline. Of course, then the Cat and the +Calico Clown had to be very still and quiet. + +"There, I guess you'll be best in the closet for the rest of the +night," said Madeline to her Candy Rabbit Easter toy. "You'll be all +dry in the morning, I hope," and she thrust the Rabbit back on the +shelf and shut the door. + +"Oh, my dear Calico Clown friend!" cried the Candy Rabbit, as soon as +it was safe for the toys to speak, "how glad I am to see you again." + +"And I am glad to see you," said the Clown. "I rather like it here +with the Cat." + +"But why are you lying flat on your back?" asked the Candy Rabbit. +"You used to be such a lively, jolly fellow. Come, get up and give us +one of your old-time jigs or dances." + +"I'm very sorry, but I can't," answered the Clown. Then he told about +his glued, broken leg, and how he would have to lie very stiff and +straight and keep quiet. + +"But maybe, toward morning, I'll be well again, and then I can dance +for you," he promised. + +"I hope so," mewed the Cat. "I have never seen a Calico Clown do a +dance." + +"You should see him--he is quite wonderful," whispered the Candy +Rabbit behind his paw. + +"Well, if I can't dance for you, I can ask a riddle," said the Clown, +after a bit. "What makes more noise than a pig under--" + +"Oh, PLEASE don't start that over again," begged the Candy Rabbit. +"You used to ask it in the store, and none of us could think of the +answer. Don't tell riddles! Let's just talk!" + +So the toys talked together and told one another their different +adventures. The night passed. Madeline, Herbert and Sidney slept, and +Sidney dreamed of the fun he would have with his Calico Clown when the +broken leg was firmly glued together again. + +And as the night passed the glue dried and set, and the Clown, feeling +his leg growing better, grew happier. + +"I say!" he called out just before morning to the Rabbit and the Cat. +"Are you asleep?" + +"I was, but I am awake now," the sugar Bunny answered. + +"And I am awake too," added the Cat. + +"Then I will dance for you," went on the Clown. "My leg is better." + +He stood up and he cut such funny antics by clapping his cymbals +together, standing first on one leg and then on the other, jiggling +his hands and feet, that the Cat went into mews of laughter and the +Rabbit chuckled until his pink nose seemed to wrinkle all up like an +accordion. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +UP IN A TREE + + +Faster and faster danced the Calico Clown. No one needed to pull his +strings now, for he could dance by himself, no eyes of children or +grown folk being in the closet to watch him. + +Up and down, first to this side and then to the other, now on his left +foot and now on his right, tapping his cymbals softly together, and +wagging his head, the Calico Clown amused the Match-Safe Cat and the +sugar Bunny in the closet. + +"Oh, don't dance any more! Please stop!" begged the Candy Rabbit, +holding one paw to his side. + +"Don't you like it?" asked the Calico Clown, rather surprised. + +"Oh, yes!" was the answer. "But your dance is so funny that it makes +me laugh so hard that my ears ache! Do please stop!" + +"Yes, please do," begged the Cat. "If you don't, I'm afraid I'll laugh +so hard my head may come off and roll to the floor." + +"Oh, I wouldn't want THAT to happen!" exclaimed the Clown, as he +brought his queer, jerky dance to an end. "If you'd rather, I could +tell a riddle." + +"Not the one about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate!" +exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. "Don't ask that one!" + +"Well, it's the only one I know," said the Clown. "I'll try to think +of another. But, anyhow, I'll stop my dancing. However, I'm glad for +one reason that I did it. It shows that my broken leg is almost as +good as the other. A bit stiff, perhaps, but almost as good." + +"Yes, you danced as well as I ever saw you jig back in the toy store," +said the Rabbit. "You have made the night pass very pleasantly for +us." + +"You have indeed," added the Cat. "We appreciate your dancing and your +fun very much." + +"Thank you, both," replied the Calico Clown. "It is a pleasure to do +things for fellows such as you." + +Then they rested quietly. + +A little later Sidney opened the door of the closet to see if his +Calico Clown was all right. There lay the yellow and red chap on his +back, with one leg stuck straight up in the air, as if he had just +kicked a football and then had fallen down. + +"Why! Why!" exclaimed Sidney in surprise. "I didn't leave my Clown +like THAT!" + +"What has happened to him?" asked Madeline, who came to see if her +Candy Rabbit was dry. + +"He has one leg stuck up in the air," went on her brother. "I left him +lying flat on his back, so the broken leg I mended would get good and +hard and stiff again. Now look at him!" + +"It IS funny," agreed Madeline. "Didn't you move him?" + +"I didn't touch him, and I don't believe anybody has come to this +closet since I put him here, except you. Wouldn't it be funny, +Madeline, if the Clown got up by himself to see if he could walk on +his glued leg?" + +"Yes, it would be very funny," agreed the little girl. "But maybe my +Rabbit helped him, or this Match-Safe Cat. Maybe they moved the +Clown!" + +"How could they?" Sidney wanted to know. + +"They couldn't, unless they came to life," went on Madeline in a +whisper. "And sometimes," she went on, looking around to make sure no +one else heard her, "sometimes I think that our toys CAN do things by +themselves when we can't see them." + +"Oh, ho! Course they can't do anything!" laughed Sidney. + +But if he could have seen the Calico Clown dancing on the closet +shelf, and if he could have heard the Cat and the Candy Rabbit +laughing until one's head nearly came off and the other had pains in +his ears, then Sidney would have thought differently, wouldn't he? + +"Well, anyhow, I'm going to take my Calico Clown out and see how he +jumps around this morning," said Sidney, after a while. + +Sidney found that the Calico Clown was almost as good an acrobat, or +jumper, as ever. When punched in the chest, the Clown would bang his +cymbals together. And when the strings were pulled, out shot the arms +and legs like those of a Jumping Jack, only in different fashion. + +The red and yellow trousers of the Clown had not been soiled by his +giant's swing accident, and Sidney had been careful not to get any +spots of glue on his toy when he mended him. + +"The only thing wrong is that the broken leg is a little stiffer than +the other," Sidney said, as he made his Clown do all sorts of funny +tricks. "I suppose that leg is a little shorter, or maybe the glue +made it stiff. But he is just what I want, and I'd rather have him +than the musical top I traded for him. Maybe Herbert and I can get up +a little circus, as Herbert once had a show with his Monkey on a +Stick. A clown belongs in a circus, and so do monkeys. Maybe we'll +have one." + +The Calico Clown, who heard Sidney say this, thought it would be very +jolly to be in a circus. + +Sidney certainly liked the Calico Clown. He made him do many funny +tricks for the boys and girls--Dick, Dorothy, Mirabell, Arnold, and +for Madeline and Herbert, who were Sidney's brother and sister. + +"With my Monkey on a Stick and your Calico Clown we surely can have a +fine circus some day," said Herbert, as he and Sidney were playing out +on the porch one warm, summer day. + +The Monkey and Clown had been glad to see each other when they met +again after having been separated at the store. Each one had different +adventures to tell. + +All of a sudden, as Herbert and Sidney, with their Monkey and Clown +toys, were making each other laugh by the funny antics of the two +playthings, a voice called: + +"Boys, do you want some bread and jam?" + +"Oh, I should say we did!" cried Herbert. + +"We're coming," answered Sidney, for it was the jolly, good-natured +cook who had called to them from her kitchen where she had just made +some fresh raspberry jam. + +Leaving the Monkey and the Clown on the porch, the boys ran around to +the side door for their jam and bread. + +"Now we have a chance to talk," said the Monkey to the Clown. + +"Yes, but it will not be for very long," was the answer. "Those boys +will soon be back here. They'll not eat forever. I was just wondering--" + +"What?" asked the Monkey, for the Calico Clown suddenly stopped +speaking and looked down the street. "What were you wondering?" + +"Well, just NOW I am wondering if that is your brother," went on the +Clown, pointing toward the gate with one hand on which was fastened a +clanging cymbal. "Look, here comes a chap who looks just like you, +except that he has no stick, and his cap is blue, while yours is red. +And hark! I hear music!" + +"Oh, it's a hand organ, and that's a real, live monkey you see!" +exclaimed the Monkey on a Stick. "It is true he looks like me, but we +are no relation. He is a live monkey and I am a toy." + +"Here he comes now!" cried the Calico Clown, and, as he spoke, the +hand-organ man, making music, came along, and the live monkey ran into +the yard and up on the steps. And then a dreadful thing happened! + +For the live monkey quickly caught up the Calico Clown, and, holding +the red and yellow chap in his hands, the long-tailed creature climbed +up into a tree. Yes, indeed, as true as I'm telling you, the live +monkey carried the Calico Clown up into a tree! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TAKEN DOWN TOWN + + +The Calico Clown was so surprised at the quick action of the monkey in +catching him by one leg and carrying him up into the tree, that, for a +moment or two, the toy said nothing. But as the hand-organ monkey +climbed higher and higher the Clown finally cried: + +"Here! Hold on if you please! What are you going to do?" + +"Oh, just have some fun!" answered the monkey in a laughing voice. You +see, he could understand and speak toy talk, just as the Calico Clown +knew how to talk and understand animal language. + +[Illustration with caption: Calico Clown Amuses the Monkey.] + +"Well, it may be fun for you," went on the Clown, "but I don't like +it! This is no fun for me! Ouch! Look out for my leg!" the Clown +suddenly cried, as the monkey banged him against a branch of the tree. + +"What about your leg?" asked the monkey, sitting down on a branch and +winding his tail around it so he wouldn't fall off. "I don't see +anything the matter." + +"I mean look out and don't hurt my broken leg," went on the Clown. +"Sidney, the little boy who owns me, glued it, but if you bang it too +hard it may break all over again and then I'll be in a mighty bad +fix." + +"Oh, excuse me. I'll be careful," said the monkey. + +"Well, I wish you'd take me down out of this tree," begged the Calico +Clown. "I don't see why you brought me up here, anyhow." + +"Oh, I just grabbed hold of you and brought you up here for fun," said +the monkey. "I felt like playing. And I had to do it quickly, or my +master would have stopped me. Every time I grab up anything he doesn't +want me to take, I have to climb a tree. He can't chase me up there, +though he'd like to lots of times, I guess." + +"I thought hand-organ monkeys had collars around their necks, and a +long rope fast to that which their masters held," said the Clown. + +"Well, I had that, too, but I took the rope off a little while ago, so +I could run loose," explained the live monkey. "I want to have some +fun. Can you do anything to amuse me?" and he looked at the cymbals on +the Calico Clown's hands and at the strings which were fast to his +legs and arms. + +"I can ask you a riddle about what makes more noise than a pig under a +gate," said the Clown. "Shall I?" + +"Please don't do that," begged the monkey. "I never was any good at +guessing riddles. Can't you do anything else?" + +"Yes, a few things," the Clown said. Then he banged his cymbals +together and began to jiggle his arms and legs in such a funny way +that the monkey who was holding him laughed and laughed and laughed. + +"Oh, you are too funny for anything!" cried the monkey. "I'm glad I +picked you up. Oh, excuse me while I laugh a little harder!" + +The monkey set the Clown down astraddle the limb of a tree near the +trunk, and quite a distance up from the ground. Then the monkey +laughed so hard that, if he had not been holding on by his tail, he +surely would have fallen. For the Clown kept on doing his funny antics +and tricks, and the monkey kept on laughing until he had to hold his +sides with feet and hands, they ached so. + +"Oh, I'm so glad I met you!" said the monkey, when he had a chance +between his fits of laughter. "I hope my master comes through this +street every day with his hand organ. I'll be looking for you." + +"And I'll be looking for you--to keep out of your way, if I can," +thought the Clown, though he did not say it out loud. + +The monkey finally grew a little quiet, and he was just going to ask +the Clown to do some more jiggling when, all at once, the music of the +hand organ stopped, and the Italian man cried: + +"Ah, Jacko! I see you! Up-a in de tree. Bad monk! Come down right away +to your Tony! Come, Jacko!" + +"Oh, goodness me! I've got to go. My fun is over! Now I've got to go +to work gathering pennies in my cap!" said the monkey. "Good-bye!" he +called to the Calico Clown, and down out of the tree the monkey began +to climb, swinging from limb to limb by his tail, as he used to do in +the cocoanut groves of the forest where he had once lived. + +"Here! Come back and get me! Don't leave me up in a tree like this!" +begged the Calico Clown, who had sat down astride the limb after he +had done his last funny trick. "Come and get me!" + +"Sorry, but I haven't time! My master is calling me! I must go!" +answered the monkey, hurrying more than ever. Down the tree he swung. + +"Oh take me down! Don't leave me like this!" begged the Clown. But it +was of no use. There he was, left all alone, high up in a tree, +sitting on a branch. + +Of course neither Tony, the music man, nor Sidney nor Herbert had +heard this talk between the toy and the animal, for they spoke in a +language that only a few can understand. The organ grinder was anxious +for his monkey to come back, and he watched him scrambling down the +tree. The two boys, who had gone to get bread and jam, came back to +the front yard. They saw the organ grinder and his monkey, and, for +the moment, they forgot all about their Clown and the Monkey on a +Stick. They did not look toward the porch, or they would have noticed +that the Clown was gone, though the toy Monkey was still there. The +live monkey was dancing toward the boys, holding out his cap for +pennies. + +And the Calico Clown was up in the tree, not knowing how in the world +he was ever going to get down. + +"Oh, look at the monkey!" cried Herbert, as he saw the music man's +long-tailed animal. + +"He's nice," said Sidney. "He's like your Monkey on a Stick, only +bigger, Herb. I'm going in and ask mother for a penny." + +"So'm I!" said Herbert. + +Still thinking that their own toys were safe on the porch, the little +boys ran back into the house, where each one got a penny for the +hand-organ monkey. And the monkey took off his blue cap to gather the +pennies for his master. + +"Good boys!" said the Italian with a smile, and he played another tune +for them. And then it was time for him to travel on. + +"Come along, Jacko!" he called to his monkey, and then he fastened the +rope back on his monkey's collar and made him jump up on the organ. +Then the two of them went down the street. + +"Oh, there he goes!" thought the poor Calico Clown, still up in the +tree. "Oh, he's going to leave me here! Oh, what shall I do?" + +Well might he ask that. What could he do? How was he going to get +down? + +Herbert and Sidney, standing at the gate, saw the music man turn +around the corner of the street. + +"Now we'll go back and play with my Monkey and your Clown," said +Herbert. "We'll practice for the circus we're going to have." + +"That'll be fun!" laughed Sidney. + +But when the two boys went back to the porch--well, you know, as well +as I, what happened. They saw the Monkey on a Stick, but no Clown! + +"Why--why, where is he?" asked Sidney, looking around. "Did you take +him, Herb? Did you take my Calico Clown?" + +"No, of course not," answered Herbert. "They were both here when we +went to get our bread and jam. Oh, Sid! I know what happened!" he +suddenly exclaimed. + +"What?" asked his brother. + +"The hand-organ monkey took your Clown away with him!" went on +Herbert. + +At first Sidney thought that this might be so, but, after thinking +over the matter for a moment, he shook his head and answered: + +"No, the live monkey didn't take my Clown. Don't you remember? He came +up here with his cap in his hand to get our pennies. Then, when he +went away, he was sitting on top of the organ and he had his cap off +and so did the music man, and they didn't either of them have my +Clown." + +"Yes, I guess that's right," Herbert said. "But he's gone." + +"We've got to find my Clown," said Sidney. "I want him back, and we +can't have a circus without him. We've GOT to find him." + +"Yes, we have," agreed Herbert. "Maybe Carlo, the dog, came and +carried him away." + +"Maybe," said Sidney. They blamed lots of things on poor Carlo, and +sometimes he did do tricks. But this was not one of those times. So +the two boys began searching for the Calico Clown. + +As for that jolly chap himself he was still up in the tree. And he was +not so very jolly just then, either. He did not once think of asking +his pig riddle. + +"I wonder if I can wiggle down?" he asked himself. "There is no one to +see me now, and I can move about. I'm going to try to get down." + +He wiggled and he woggled, whatever that is, and managed to get one +leg over the limb, so both were on the same side. The Clown was just +going to try to swing to the next lowest branch, as he had seen the +live monkey do, when, all of a sudden, he slipped and fell. + +"Oh, dear! Another accident! This is going to be a bad one--worse than +the giant's swing!" he cried. + +Down, down, down, he fell. What was going to happen? + +Now, just about this time, it chanced that a man was passing under the +tree. This man had on a large, loose coat with large pockets on the +sides, and he was so used to carrying things in his pockets that each +nearly always stood wide open, like a hungry mouth, waiting for some +one to fill it. + +And, as luck would have it, the man came under the tree just as the +Calico Clown slipped and fell. And so, instead of falling to the +ground, the Clown fell into one of the wide open side pockets of the +man's coat. And the man never knew about it--at least for a time. + +"Oh, my goodness me, what a narrow escape!" exclaimed the Clown as he +landed safely in the soft pocket. "This is better than falling on the +hard ground. But I wonder what will happen to me now." + +And well might he ask that, for the man, not knowing the Clown was in +his pocket, hurried on down town to his office. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN THE OFFICE + + +The Man, into whose pocket the Calico Clown had fallen from the tree, +hurried along the street, not knowing a thing of what had happened. He +was anxious to get to his office to look after his business, for he +was a very busy Man. He kept other folks busy, too--clerks and office +boy and a girl to write letters on the typewriter. + +Now, as it happened, the Man was a little late that morning, and when +he reached his office he was in such haste that he did not take time +to do anything before he sat down in his big chair to look over his +mail. + +"Please write some letters for me on the typewriter," he said to Miss +Jones, who worked the machine. + +Miss Jones sat down and became very busy. The Man told her what to +write and she banged away on the machine. Every once in a while she +would look at the Man when he paused to think of something else to +say. And once, as she did this, a queer look came over the face of +Miss Jones. Then she smiled and next she burst right out into a loud +laugh. + +And the funny part of it was that just then the Man was telling her to +put in a letter something like this: + +"I am very, very sorry to tell you that I can not do as you want me +to." + +And, just as he said the word "sorry," Miss Jones laughed her very +hardest. + +"Eh! What's the matter? What is so very funny about my saying I am +sorry?" asked the Man. The girl typewriter and the office boy called +him "the Boss" behind his back, and they liked him very much, for he +was kind and good to them. + +"Oh, dear! I MUST laugh!" said Miss Jones. + +Miss Jones pointed to something sticking out of his side coat pocket. +The Man put his hand there and pulled out--the Calico Clown! + +You should have seen the strange look come over the Man's face. Then +he laughed as hard as Miss Jones, and the office boy in the next room, +hearing them, laughed also. + +"Well, how in the world did that Calico Clown come to be in my +pocket?" exclaimed the man. He took the toy out, turned it over and +looked at it from all sides. As he did so he happened to punch the +Clown in the chest, and of course the Clown banged his cymbals +together, as he had been taught to do in the workshop of Santa Claus, +where he had been made. + +And as the cymbals tinkled and clanged the typewriter girl laughed +harder than ever. Then the man happened to pull one of the strings, +and the Clown kicked up his legs. The office boy was looking into the +room just then, and, seeing this antic of the jolly red and yellow +chap, the office boy laughed out loud. + +"Dear me! I'm glad every one in this office is so good-natured," +thought the Clown to himself. "And I certainly am glad to get out of +that Man's pocket. I was nearly smothered there, but of course it was +better than being in the tree. I'll do some more tricks for them if +the Man pulls more strings." + +And the Man did. He pulled the strings fastened to the Clown's arms, +and they jiggled and joggled in a merry fashion, so the girl and the +office boy laughed harder than ever. + +"Well, how in the world did that Clown toy come to be in my pocket? +That's what I want to know," said the Man, very much puzzled. + +"Maybe one of the children put it in," suggested the girl. She knew +the Man had children at home. + +"No, I hardly think it was any of MY children," said the Man. "Arnold +has no toy like this. He has a Bold Tin Soldier, as he calls him, and +some soldier men. And my little girl, Mirabell, has a Lamb on Wheels. +But neither of them has a Calico Clown." + +"Perhaps some of their playmates called at your house, to have fun +with Arnold or Mirabell," said the typewriter girl, "and they may have +dropped the Clown into your pocket as your coat hung on the rack." + +"Yes, that could have happened," said the Man. "But I remember I put +my hand in my pocket as I left the house, to make sure I had some +letters I was to mail. The Clown was not in my pocket then. He must +have got in after I left my house. And how could that happen, I should +like to know! I didn't go in any place. How could it have happened?" + +Of course neither the office boy nor the typewriter girl could tell. +They had not seen the Calico Clown fall from the tree into the pocket +of the Man as he passed underneath. And even the Man himself had not +seen this. + +"It's very queer," said the father of Mirabell and Arnold. "The only +way it could have happened that I can think of is that some children I +passed on the street may have tossed the Clown into my pocket. I have +very large ones in this coat, and sometimes they stand wide open." + +The Calico Clown stayed in the office all that day. It was the first +time he had ever been to business, and he rather liked it as a change. +Very few toys ever have the chance he had. He sat up on the Man's desk +and watched the girl click at the typewriter, and he watched the +office boy come in and out. The office boy looked at the Clown, too. + +"I'm going to have some fun with him when the Boss goes out to lunch," +said the office boy to himself. + +Now the Clown felt rather strange in the office. His part in life was +to make joy and laughter, and he could not do it sitting up straight +and stiff on a desk. He looked around, and he saw, not far from him, a +jolly little man, like a dwarf. + +"I wish I could speak to him," thought the Clown. "He looks as if he +belonged to the toy family." + +And you can imagine how surprised the Clown was when, all of a sudden, +the Man lifted the head right off the queer-looking little dwarf and +dipped his pen down inside him! + +"Why, he's an ink well!" thought the Clown. "That's what he is! An ink +well! And his head comes off the same as the Porcelain Cat's head +lifts off for matches to be put inside her. How very odd! I'd like to +talk to that chap." + +When the Man went out to lunch, into the office hurried the office boy +with a grin on his face. + +"What do you want?" asked the typewriter girl. "I want to make that +Clown jiggle," was the answer. "I'm going to have some fun with him." + +"No, you mustn't!" exclaimed the girl. "The Boss won't like it if you +touch him. If you break him--" + +"Aw, I won't break him!" cried the boy. "Let me have him!" + +He made a grab for the Calico Clown, and the girl tried to stop the +boy. As a result the Clown was knocked off the desk to the floor. + +"Oh, dear! I hope my glued leg is not broken!" thought the Clown. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE WASH-BASKET + + +"There, now look what you did!" cried the girl. + +"I didn't do it! You did!" said the boy. "If you hadn't jiggled it out +of my hand when I was taking it down it wouldn't have fallen." + +I don't know how long they might have gone on disputing in this +fashion if the office boy from next door had not poked his head in and +called: + +"What's the matter?" + +Then he saw the Calico Clown lying on the floor and he added: + +"Has Santa Claus been here?" and he laughed. + +"It came out of the pocket of the Boss," explained the first office +boy. "He put it on his desk. I was going to look at it and pull the +strings, 'cause the Boss is out to lunch, but she jiggled my hand and +made me drop it. Now it's busted." + +"Maybe it isn't," said the second office boy. "I'll see." + +He picked the Calico Clown up off the floor, punched him in the chest, +and the gay red and yellow chap banged his cymbals together. + +"He's all right so far," said the second office boy. "Now we'll pull +the strings." + +"And there's where trouble may come in," thought the Calico Clown +himself, for he heard and saw and felt all that went on. "I'm almost +sure my glued leg is broken," said the Clown to himself. + +But when the strings were pulled, one after another, and the arms and +legs and head of the funny fellow twisted and turned and jerked, the +two office boys and the typewriter girl laughed. And the Clown himself +was glad, for he felt that he was not broken. + +"If the Boss comes in and finds you playing with that Clown you'll +catch it," said the girl to the first office boy, after a while. + +"I guess I'd better put him back on the desk. I'm going out to get my +dinner pretty soon," the boy said. + +And a little later, while the girl was in an outer office looking over +some papers and while the Man was still at his lunch and while the +office boy was out getting something to eat, the Calico Clown was left +alone with the Ink-Well Dwarf. + +"How do you do?" politely asked the Clown. + +[Illustration: Calico Clown Has a Chat With Ink-Well Dwarf.] + +"Very well, thank you," answered the Dwarf. "And how are you? Where +did you come from? Are you going to work here?" + +"I never work!" exclaimed the Clown. "I am only to make jolly fun and +laughter." + +"Then this is no place for you," went on the Dwarf. "This is an +office, and we must all work, though I must admit that those boys seem +to get as much fun out of it as any one. They're always skylarking, +cutting up, and playing jokes. But I work myself. I hold ink for the +Boss." + +"I see you do," answered the Clown. "I suppose I don't really belong +here, made only for fun, as I am. And I did not want to come here. It +was quite accidental. I was brought." + +"How!" asked the Ink-Well Dwarf. + +"In the pocket of the Man they call the Boss," was the reply. And then +the Clown told of how he had fallen out of the tree. + +All the remainder of the day the Calico Clown sat on the desk of the +Man, wondering what would happen to him. At last he found out. + +At the close of the afternoon, when no more business was to be done, +the Man arose and closed his desk. He put papers in his different +pockets to take home with him, and then he saw the Calico Clown. + +"Oh, I mustn't forget you!" he said, speaking out loud as he sometimes +did when alone. And he was alone in the office now, for the boy and +the typewriter girl had gone. "I'll take you home and ask Arnold or +Mirabell to whom you belong," went on the man. "You are some child's +toy, I'm sure of that, and one of my children may know where you +live." + +The Calico Clown knew this to be so, and he knew that either Arnold or +Mirabell would at once be able to say that the Clown belonged to +Sidney, for they had seen Sidney playing with this toy. + +"Back into my pocket you go!" said the Man, and he took the Clown down +off the top of the desk. "There are a lot of handkerchiefs in that +pocket," the man went on. "They'll make a good, soft bed for you to +lie on." + +And, surely enough, there was a soft bed of handkerchiefs for the +Calico Clown. They were handkerchiefs the man had been carrying in his +pocket for some time, and he had forgotten to put them in the wash, as +his wife, over and over again, had told him to do. + +A little later, with the Calico Clown nestled down in among a pile of +handkerchiefs in his pocket, the Man started for home from his office. + +"Well, I am certainly doing some traveling this day," thought the +Clown, as he reposed in the Man's pocket. "First I am carried up a +tree, and then I fall down. Next I am taken to an office, just as if I +were in business like the Ink-Well Dwarf, and now I am being taken to +the home of Mirabell and Arnold. I wonder what will happen next." + +He did not have to wait long to find out. + +Down the street walked the Man, and soon he was within sight of his +home, where Mirabell and Arnold lived. The two children were out in +front, waiting for their father. As soon as they saw him coming they +stopped swinging on the gate and cried: + +"Here comes Daddy!" + +He waved his hand to them. + +Down the street they raced to meet him, and taking hold of his hands, +one on either side, they led him toward the house. + +Just then out of the side gate came Mandy, the jolly fat colored +washer-woman. She had a basket full of clothes on a small express +wagon. + +"Oh, that reminds me!" exclaimed Mirabell's father. "I'll put these +handkerchiefs from my pocket in your basket of wash, Mandy! You can +take them home with you, wash them clean and iron them and bring them +back to me." + +"'Deed an' dat's just what I can do!" exclaimed Mandy, smiling +broadly. "Put 'em right down yeah in mah basket!" + +She turned back the sheet she had spread over the soiled clothes and +made a little place down in one corner for the Man to put his +handkerchiefs. + +There was quite a bundle of them, all wadded together. + +"There, you can tell Mother I didn't forget my handkerchiefs this +time," said Daddy to his two children. "You saw me put them in the +wash, didn't you?" + +"Yes, Daddy, we did!" exclaimed Mirabell. "And, oh, you ought to see +what happened to my Lamb on Wheels to-day!" + +"What happened?" asked Daddy, as he straightened up after having +stooped down to thrust the handkerchiefs into the basket. + +"Why, Arnold's Bold Tin Soldier got caught in the curly wool on my +Lamb's back," explained Mirabell, "and they both fell into the flour +barrel!" + +"That WAS funny!" laughed Daddy. And he was thinking so much about +this and laughing so with Arnold and Mirabell that he never stopped to +think of the Calico Clown in among the handkerchiefs he had put in the +wash-basket. + +But that is what he had done. He had thrust the Clown, with the +handkerchiefs, down in Mandy's basket of soiled clothes. + +"Oh, my! Oh, dear me! Oh, what is going to happen now?" thought the +Calico Clown as he felt himself covered up and taken away. "Oh, if I +could only tell Mirabell or Arnold I am here. Oh, this is dreadful." + +But he could do nothing! Away he was taken in the wash-basket. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DOWN IN A DEEP HOLE + + +Daddy hurried into the house with Mirabell and Arnold. The children +were eager to show their father into what a funny pickle the Bold Tin +Soldier and the Lamb on Wheels had got. Of course, it wasn't exactly a +"pickle." I only call it that for fun. It was really the flour barrel +into which the two toys had fallen. + +"How did it happen?" asked Daddy, as the children brought out their +playthings, the Soldier still entangled in the Lamb's wool, and both +of them white with flour. + +"It happened when we were in the kitchen watching the cook make a +cake," explained Mirabell. "I was playing with my Lamb on the floor +and I lifted her up to let her see how nice the cake looked." + +"But what about your Soldier, Arnold?" asked Daddy. + +"Oh, I had set my Soldier Captain on the back of Mirabell's Lamb to +give him a ride," explained the little boy. + +"I said he could," remarked Mirabell. + +"And when she lifted her Lamb up she lifted my Soldier up, too," added +Arnold. + +"And then!" burst out Mirabell, laughing, "my foot slipped and I let +go of my Lamb on Wheels, and she fell into the flour barrel, and so +did Arnold's Bold Tin Soldier." + +"And they were a sight, all white and covered with flour!" exclaimed +the little boy. + +But now we must see what happened to the Calico Clown. + +At first he was very uncomfortable, stuck down in among the soiled +clothes. He feared he would smother; but really he did not need much +air, and he soon found he was getting all he needed. The clothes were +so soft that they did not crush him, and--he was not near any of +Mirabell's or Arnold's play clothes--he soon found that they were not +badly soiled. So, after getting over his first distaste, he began +rather to like the ride in the little express wagon. + +"It isn't as smooth as an automobile," thought the Calico Clown, "but +it is jolly for a change. The only thing that's worrying me is what is +going to happen next; and to know whether or not I shall ever see +Sidney again." + +And at this time, which was early in the evening, Sidney was still +looking everywhere for his Calico Clown. The little boy told his +mother and sister how he and Herbert had left the Clown and the Monkey +on a Stick on the porch while they went to get bread and jam. + +"And when we came back my Monkey was there," said Herbert, "but Sid's +Clown was gone." + +"It is very strange where your toy has got to," said Mother. She +helped Sidney and Herbert look, but the Clown seemed gone forever, and +Sidney felt sorry. + +"Now we can never have that circus," he said to his brother. + +"Oh, maybe he'll be found some day," was the answer. But Sidney sadly +shook his head. + +Trundling the little express wagon with her basket of clothes along +the streets, Mandy finally reached her home where she did the washing +and ironing. Her children were waiting for her to come to supper. Liza +Ann, the oldest girl, had set the table, and Jim, the next oldest boy, +was out on the steps watching for his mother, just as Arnold and +Mirabell watched for their daddy. + +"Is de table all set, honey?" asked Mandy of Liza Ann. "I hopes it is, +'cause I wants to put dese yeah clothes in to soak after I eats." + +"De table is all sot," explained Liza Ann. "An' de meat an' taters is +all ready to hotten up." + +"Dass good," sighed Mandy, for she was rather tired. "I'll jest leave +these yeah clothes till after supper," she went on, putting the basket +down in a corner of the room. + +"Dear me! I wonder how much longer I shall have to stay here," thought +the Calico Clown, tucked away under the sheet and in the pile of +handkerchiefs. "Aren't they ever going to let me out? This is worse +than being in jail!" + +But at last Mandy's supper was finished, and, with Liza Ann and Jim to +help her sort the clothes, she filled a tub with water and began. The +big sheet was taken off the top of the basket, and then Liza Ann +reached in and took up the bundle of handkerchiefs. + +"You wants to be keerful o' dem, honey," said her mother. "Dem's de +bestest an' most special hankowitches o' Mirabell's pa, an' he's very +'tickler how dey is washed. Better let me have dem, honey." + +Mandy reached over to take the handkerchiefs from Liza Ann, and at +that moment the little colored girl saw something red and yellow among +them. + +"Oh, what a funny handkowitch!" she called, and the next moment they +all saw the Calico Clown. Mandy took him out of the bundle. + +"Oh, Mammy! I want him!" cried Jim. + +"Nope! He's mine! I saw him, fustest!" exclaimed Liza Ann, and she +reached for the Calico Clown. + +"Wait a minute, now, chilluns. Wait a minute!" said Mandy, and she +held the toy close to her breast. "Dish yeah don't belongs to us." + +"But it come in de basket of wash, Mammy!" said Jim. "Why can't we +keep it?" + +"'Cause tain't belongin' to us," answered his mother. "I can jest +guess how it come in. Mirabell or Arnold, dey done drop it in dere +Daddy's pocket, an' he didn't know nothin' about its bein' in. He took +it out wif his hankowitches, and put it in mah basket of wash. An' I +brung it home. My! My! It suah is funny how it happened!" + +She held the Calico Clown up and looked at him. + +"Oh, ain't he jest grand!" cried Jim, his eyes shining with delight. + +"He suah is a gay fellow all right," said Mandy. + +Liza Ann reached up and pulled one of the Clown's strings. Quickly his +legs jiggled and he cut some funny capers. + +"Oh, my! Dat suah is scrumptious!" laughed the little colored girl. + +"Oh, Mammy, jest let us play with him a little while!" begged Jim. +"Den I'll take him back to where he belongs." + +"All right," agreed Mandy. "But be mighty keerful of him! If dat +Calico Clown should get busted Mirabell or Arnold is gwine to feel +mighty bad!" + +You see she didn't know the Clown belonged to Sidney, and not to +either Mirabell or Arnold. + +"Come on, we'll have some fun wif him!" said Liza Ann to her brother. + +And then, while their mother put the clothes to soak, the children +played with the Calico Clown. They were good and gentle children, and +the gay toy did not in the least mind clanging his cymbals for them or +doing his funny dance. He jiggled and joggled his arms and legs, and +went through such funny antics that Jim and Liza Ann laughed again and +again. + +"Po' li'l honey lambs!" said Mandy with a sigh, as she bent over the +wash tub. "I wish dey had some toys of dere own. But den I'se got good +clean and soft watah to wash wif, an' dat's a blessin'! Lots of folks +hasn't got only hard watah, what won't make no suds." + +After the clothes had been put to soak in a tub Mandy dried her hands +and sat and looked at Liza Ann and Jim playing with the Calico Clown. + +"Come now, you'd better get ready to take him back," she said to Jim, +after a while. + +"Does you mean to take him back where you got de basket of wash, +Mammy?" asked the colored boy. + +"Yes," his mother answered. "You know de big green house. You's been +dere befo', honey. You go dere now, Jim--tisn't late yet--an' you take +back dis Clown. Tell Mirabell or Arnold dat it got in de wash wif dere +daddy's pocket hankowitches." + +"All right," said Jim, with a sigh. "I will. But I suah does wish we +could keep him!" + +"So do I," sighed Liza Ann in a low voice. + +"Well, maybe some day I can make money enough to git you somethin' to +play wif," said their mother. + +As she had said, it was not late, though the sun had set. It was a +warm, summer night, and the moon was shining brightly. Jim knew the +way to the house where Mirabell and Arnold lived, for he had often +gone there both with his mother and alone, either to get or bring back +the clothes. + +With the Calico Clown wrapped in a piece of paper, Jim set off on his +trip. He hurried along, thinking how nice it would be if he had a toy +like that. He was wondering how long it would be before his mother +could earn enough money to buy one when, just as he turned into the +yard of the house where Arnold and Mirabell lived, Jim stumbled and +fell. + +The Calico Clown shot out of his hands, and the poor toy, as he flew +along, thought to himself: + +"Oh, what is happening now!" + +The next moment he fell into a deep hole, and only that he grasped the +long grass at the edge of it, Jim would have fallen in himself. + +"Fo' de lan' sakes!" exclaimed the little colored boy as he picked +himself up. "What have done gone an' happened now?" + +You see, he felt about it just as the Calico Clown did. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BACK HOME + + +The door of the house in which Arnold and Mirabell lived opened, and +their daddy looked out toward the front yard. He had heard the grunt +made by Jim when the little colored boy fell down and dropped the +Calico Clown into a hole. + +"Is anybody there?" asked Mirabell's father. + +"I'se heah!" exclaimed Jim, as he slowly arose. "I was bringin' back +de Calico Clown, an' I 'mos' fell into a big hole." + +"There, Father! I told you that hole ought to be covered up!" +exclaimed Mirabell's mother, who had also come to the door. + +"Oh, no'm! I didn't fall in!" answered Jim, who heard what was said. +"But I almos' did, an' I guess de Clown he fell in complete an' +altogether." + +"The Clown? What do you mean?" asked Daddy. + +"De Clown what got in Mammy's basket of wash," explained the little +colored boy. + +By this time he had picked himself up, and in the light that streamed +out from the open door of the house he saw the hole into which he had +so nearly fallen. It was a hole dug by a man who had come to fix the +sewer pipes that day, and when night came he had not finished. He left +a deep, wide, gaping hole just beside the front walk. + +Arnold, Mirabell and the others in the house knew of the hole, and +kept away from it. In the daylight, when Mandy had taken away the +wash, she had seen it and had not fallen in. But poor Jim, coming +after dark, had stumbled in the thick grass and had nearly plumped +himself in. + +As for the Clown--well, there he was down in the dirt at the bottom of +the hole! + +"I wonder what is the matter with me!" thought the gay red and yellow +fellow as he came to a stop in some soft dirt. "I seem to be very +unlucky!" + +"What does Jim mean about a Clown falling in the hole?" asked Arnold +curiously. + +"And a Clown being in the basket with the wash?" added Mirabell. + +"I think I can tell you," their father answered, suddenly remembering +what he had put in his pocket to bring home from the office. "But +first I will put some boards over the hole the plumber left so no one +else will fall in, or nearly fall in." + +"You'll get the Clown up, won't you, Daddy?" asked Mirabell. "Maybe +it's like the one Sidney had." + +"Did Sidney have a Calico Clown with one leg red and the other leg +yellow?" asked Daddy. + +"Yes, and it did all sorts of funny tricks when you pulled the +strings; and he clapped his cymbals when you punched him in the +chest," said Arnold. + +"Well, then this must be Sidney's Clown. But how it came in my pocket +is more than I can guess," said Daddy. "Yes, I'll get the Clown up out +of the hole, and then I'll put some boards over it." + +A lantern was brought out and flashed down into the hole. There, on +the bottom, lay the Calico Clown. + +"I'll bring him up!" offered Jim, and quickly he climbed down, caught +hold of the gay toy, and climbed out again. + +"Thank you, Jim," said Daddy. + +"Yes, that's Sidney's Clown," declared Arnold, when he had looked at +the red and yellow chap. "But how did he get in the basket of +clothes?" + +"That's quite a long story," said Daddy. "Come into the house and I'll +tell you. Did your mother send you back with the Clown, Jim?" he asked +of the little colored boy. + +"Yes'm--I mean yes, sah!" Jim answered. "He was in de basket all done +wrapped up in hankowitches." + +"Those were the handkerchiefs I took from my pocket and put in Mandy's +basket when I met her at the gate," said Mirabell's daddy. "And so you +found him, Jim!" + +"Yes'm--I mean yes, sah! Me an' Liza Ann found him. He's a jolly good +Clown; but Mammy, she wouldn't let us keep him 'cause as how she said +he belonged to Mirabell or Arnold." + +"No, he doesn't live here," said Arnold. "Oh, Sid will be so glad to +get him back!" + +"I suppose you and your sister felt bad about losing the Clown," said +Daddy to Jim. "Didn't you?" + +"I suahly did!" exclaimed the little colored boy. "So did Liza Ann." + +Daddy and Mother talked softly together a moment, and then Mother +hurried away to come back with something that made Jim's eyes sparkle +and open wide. + +For she had a little toy engine, which could be wound up with a key +and sent whizzing along. And there was a fine Jumping Jack, which +jiggled almost as nicely as did the Calico Clown. + +"Here are two toys that Arnold and Mirabell are through with," said +Mother, with a smile at Jim. "They are not broken, and they will each +go. Perhaps you will like them almost as much as you did the Calico +Clown." + +"Oh, golly!" cried Jim. "We'll like 'em better! 'Cause dere's two of +'em--one fo' each of us! Oh, we's eber so much obligedness." + +Clasping the two toys in his little brown hands, away Jim raced in the +darkness to tell his sister the good news. The Jumping Jack was for +her and the toy engine for him. And I may as well tell you now that +the two children were made perfectly happy with their toys--just as +happy as they would have been with the Calico Clown. + +"Well, thank goodness, I think my adventures are over for the night," +thought the Clown, as he was taken into Mirabell's house and the dirt +brushed off his red and yellow trousers. "This has been such a day! +Oh, SUCH a day!" + +And indeed it had been from the time he fell out of the tree into the +Man's coat pocket until Jim stumbled with him and he fell into the +hole. + +"Sidney will be glad to get his Clown back," went on Arnold, when the +toy had been set on the table where Daddy took his place to tell the +evening story. + +"I wish we could take it to him now," said Mirabell. + +"Mayn't we?" asked her brother. + +"It is getting late," said their mother. "You may take the toy over +the first thing in the morning." + +"But all the while Sidney will be wondering where his Clown is," +objected the little girl. + +"I know what we can do!" exclaimed Arnold. "We can telephone and tell +him it's here." + +"Yes, we can do that," said Daddy. + +So, a little later, Sidney was told, over the telephone, that his lost +Calico Clown had been found. The story was briefly told of how it had +got into the wash-basket after having been found in Daddy's pocket and +taken to the office. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sidney. "I'll be over the first thing in the +morning to get him." + +"But what I'm wondering about is how the Clown got in my pocket," said +Daddy, with a puzzled look on his face. "If you children didn't put it +there, who did?" and he looked at Mirabell and Arnold. + +And I might say that this was always a mystery, as much so as the +Clown's riddle about what made more noise than a pig under a gate. + +Daddy told Mirabell and Arnold their usual good-night story. Then the +children went to bed and Mother put the Calico Clown on the +mantelpiece where he would be safe for the night. + +"Whoever sees Sidney first in the morning," said Mother, as she, too, +got ready to go to bed, "may be the one to give him his toy." + +Then the lights were put out and the house was still and quiet. +Ordinarily, when this time came, the Calico Clown, like the other +toys, would have been at his liveliest. But now he was so tired, with +all his adventures of the day, that he just gave a long sigh and said: + +"I am not going to stir! I am just going to lie down here and sleep +until morning! Enough has happened for one day." + +So he stretched out, with a pen wiper for a cushion, and went to +sleep. + +Bright and early the next morning Sidney ran over to the house of his +cousins. + +"Is my Calico Clown here?" he cried. + +"Yes," answered Arnold, who was also up. "I'll get him for you." + +"Oh, thank you!" said Sidney, when he had his toy once more. And a +little later the Calico Clown was back home. But his adventures were +not over. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE TOY PARTY + + +"Oh, Sidney! aren't you glad you have your Calico Clown back?" cried +his sister Madeline when she saw her brother coming toward the house +with his toy which he had got at Arnold's home. "I just guess I am!" +said the little boy. "I thought I'd never see him again." + +"And I'm glad, too," cried Herbert, as he made his Monkey go up and +down the Stick. "Now we can get ready for our circus." + +"Are you going to have a show?" asked Madeline. + +"Yes," answered Sidney. "We have a Clown and a Monkey, and they're +always the funniest things in a circus. Don't you remember when we had +the show with my Monkey in it?" + +"Yes. And that was lots of fun," said Madeline. "But I know something +better than a show." + +"What?" Sidney asked. + +"A party," went on Madeline. "Let's have a Toy Party. That will be +better than a show, even a circus show." + +Sidney wanted to know how it would be better, and Madeline said: + +"'Cause you can have things to eat at a Toy Party, and you can't +always have things at a circus, lessen you buy 'em; and maybe not +then, 'cepting peanuts and lemonade. Let's have a Toy Party and we can +get mother to give us real things to eat." + +"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Sidney. "I should say so!" agreed +Herbert. + +"And we'll ask Dorothy to bring her Sawdust Doll," said Madeline, +"Arnold can bring his Bold Tin Soldier, and Mirabell her Lamb on +Wheels. And I'll bring my Candy Rabbit." + +"You did have a party for him," said Herbert. + +"Well, this one can be for Sid's Calico Clown," explained Madeline. +"And you can bring your Monkey on a Stick, Herb." + +The idea of a Toy Party seemed to please the two boys, and Madeline +was glad she had thought of it. She lost no time in getting ready for +it. + +"I'll go and put a new ribbon on the neck of my Candy Rabbit," she +said to her brothers. "You get your Monkey and Clown all nice and +clean, and then I'll ask Mother if Cook can make a special cake." + +"My Monkey is clean enough," said Herbert. "Dirt doesn't show on him, +anyhow. He's colored brown." + +"And my Clown's pretty good, even if he did fall in a dirt hole," went +on Sidney. "A Clown has to be a little dirty, for he falls all over +the circus ring, you know." + +"There isn't going to be any circus ring at our Toy Party," laughed +Madeline. "Now I'll go and see about the cake." + +"And we'll go and tell Dick, Arnold and the girls," said Sidney. +"Here, Madeline, please keep my Calico Clown for me until I come +back." + +Away he ran with his brother, who carried the Monkey on a Stick. The +Calico Clown rather hoped the long-tailed chap would be left to keep +him company, but it was not to be just yet. + +"But perhaps I can talk to the Candy Rabbit while Madeline is getting +ready for the party," thought the Clown. "He and I are old friends." + +But even this was not to be. Madeline probably did not think that the +Clown would have liked to be with some of the other toys for a while. +She just kept hold of the gay red and yellow fellow after her brother +had handed him to her, and took him with her to the kitchen, where she +knew her mother was. + +"Oh, Mother! may Cook bake us a cake for the Toy Party?" cried +Madeline, and, not thinking what she was doing, she laid the Calico +Clown down in a large basket of oranges which the fruit man had just +set on the kitchen table. + +"A cake for a Toy Party?" repeated Mother. "Yes, I think so. Tell me +more about it." + +So Madeline told about the Toy Party that was going to be held, and +how the Sawdust Doll, the White Rocking Horse, and all the other jolly +creatures were to come. + +"Course they won't EAT the cake--only make believe," explained +Madeline. "We'll eat the cake--we children." + +"Yes, I supposed you would," said Mother, with a laugh as she looked +at Cook. + +"And, please, may I help?" asked Madeline. + +"Yes," promised Cook, and then, not thinking what she was doing and +not seeing the Calico Clown, who had slipped away down in among the +oranges, she took the basket of fruit from the table. + +"I'll just set the oranges in the ice box," she said. "They need to be +well chilled for the orangeade, and it's a hot day." + +And that is how it was that the Clown, a little later, found himself +beginning to feel freezing cold. He had not minded being laid for a +time in with the golden, yellow fruit. It smelled so nice that he shut +his eyes and breathed deep of the perfume. He even took a little +sleep. And then, the next thing he knew, he felt a breath of cold air +after a door was slammed shut. + +"Dear me! what can have happened now?" said the Calico Clown, suddenly +awakening. "Am I back again at the North Pole workshop of Santa Claus? +It feels like it, but it doesn't look like it. For his shop was nice +and light, though it was sometimes cold. Here it is dark." + +"Well, I simply am freezing!" went on the Clown. "I've got to keep +warm, somehow!" + +So what did he do but stand up and begin to dance around among the +oranges. Up and down, first to this side and then to the other danced +the jolly fellow, jerking his arms and swinging his legs. He clapped +his hands together to warm them, and his cymbals clanged in the cold, +frosty air of the ice box. + +After a while the Clown began to feel warmer. But as soon as he +stopped jumping around he felt cold again. + +"I've got to keep moving, that's all there is to it!" he said to +himself, and he had to dance again. + +Really he must have looked funny, doing a jig on a basket of oranges, +but it was not so funny for the poor Clown himself. He was beginning +to get tired, and he was wondering how long he would have to keep up +his exercise, when the ice-box door suddenly opened and Cook lifted +out a bowl of cream. + +"Oh, for the love of trading stamps!" she cried, as she saw the Clown +in among the oranges. "How did you ever get there? You must be almost +frozen!" + +And the poor fellow would have been, if he had not danced. + +"I certainly didn't see you there when I put the fruit in the ice +box," went on the cook. "Madeline must have put you among the +oranges." + +And, of course, this was just what had happened. Naturally you may say +that the reason the cook saw the Clown the second time, after she +opened the ice-box door, was because some of the oranges rolled to one +side, allowing the Clown to be seen. But that isn't how it happened at +all. The Clown simply climbed out from among the fruit to dance and +keep himself warm, and that's how he happened to be seen. + +"Oh, dear me! To think I should do a thing like that!" cried Madeline, +when the cook handed her the Calico Clown. "Sidney might have thought +his toy was lost again if you hadn't found him. Now we'll bake the +cake, and I'll put the Clown by the stove to get warm." + +After a while everything was ready for the party. The cake was baked +and covered with icing. There were also some crullers and some +cookies. + +Herbert, Sidney and Mirabell put on their party clothes, and with the +Monkey on a Stick nicely brushed, the Candy Rabbit with a new ribbon +on his neck, and with the last specks of dirt shaken off the red and +yellow trousers of the Clown, they all waited for the others to come. + +"Here's Dorothy with her Sawdust Doll!" cried Madeline, running to the +window. + +[Illustration with caption: "Oh, I Have So Many Things to Tell You!"] + +"Yes, and Arnold is helping Dick carry over the White Rocking Horse," +added Sidney. "Oh, what fun we'll have!" + +"I hope Arnold brought his Bold Tin Soldier Captain and all the +others," said Herbert. + +Arnold brought them, and his sister Mirabell came with her Lamb on +Wheels. + +Then such fun as there was at the Toy Party! I really don't know +whether the children or the toys enjoyed it most. But I do know that +the children ate the cakes and cookies, which was something the toys +could not do. + +While Dick, Dorothy and the other boys and girls were in the room, the +toys could not speak to one another. But when, in playing some game +the lads and lassies went out into the yard, the toys had their +chance. + +"Oh, I have so many things to tell you!" said the Calico Clown. "I +have had so many adventures!" + +Then he related how the monkey had taken him up into the tree and how +finally he had got back home. + +"Quite remarkable," said the Lamb on Wheels. "You certainly have-- +Ouch! Oh, dear!" said the Lamb, suddenly switching one of her legs. + +"What's the matter?" asked the Bold Tin Soldier. "If anybody is +teasing you I'll make him stop!" and he drew his sword and looked very +fierce--as all tin soldiers look. + +"It was nothing," said the Lamb on Wheels. "Just a pang of rheumatism. +The remains of the cold I caught in one of my wheels the time I made +the voyage down the brook on the raft the boys built." + +Then the Sawdust Doll told of a little adventure she had had recently, +when she was left in the wrong doll carriage by mistake and was taken +home to the wrong house. + +"Nothing as remarkable as jumping downstairs and scaring the burglars +has happened to me," said the White Rocking Horse. "But Dick was +riding me in the kitchen the other day and he ran me over an egg." + +"Did it hurt you?" asked the Monkey. + +"No; but it spoiled the egg," said the Horse, laughing. + +"Well, I must say it is very nice of the children to get up a party +for us like this," said the Calico Clown. "And I, for one--" + +"Hush! Here they come! We must be very still and quiet!" whispered the +Candy Rabbit. + +And back into the room trooped the merry children, and they played +more games and ate more cake until none was left, and then the party +was over. + +"Well, I certainly have come to a happy home," thought the Calico +Clown, when he was put to bed that night on a closet shelf. "This is +just as jolly as being in the store!" And he snuggled up close to the +Candy Rabbit and the Monkey on a Stick. Then they all went to sleep. + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Calico Clown, by Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF CALICO CLOWN *** + +***** This file should be named 5845.txt or 5845.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/5/8/4/5845/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Story of Calico Clown + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Release Date: June, 2004 [EBook #5845] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 11, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STORY OF CALICO CLOWN *** + + + + +Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + + +MAKE BELIEVE STORIES + +THE STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN + +BY + +LAURA LEE HOPE + +Author of "The Story of a Sawdust Doll," "The Story +of a Monkey on a Stick," "The Bobbsey Twins +Series," "The Bunny Brown Series," "The +Six Little Bunkers Series," Etc. + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I. THE GIANT'S SWING + +II. A BROKEN LEG + +III. THE CLOWN'S DANCE + +IV. UP IN A TREE + +V. TAKEN DOWN TOWN + +VI. IN THE OFFICE + +VII. IN THE WASH-BASKET + +VIII. DOWN IN A DEEP HOLE + +IX. BACK HOME + +X. THE TOY PARTY + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE GIANT'S SWING + + +"To-night we shall have a most wonderful time," said the Elephant from +the Noah's Ark to a Double Humped Camel who lived in the stall next to +him. + +"What kind of a time?" asked the Camel. He stood on the toy counter of +a big department store, looking across the top of a drum toward a Jack +in the Box who was swaying to and fro on his long spring. "What do you +call a wonderful time, Mr. Elephant?" + +"Oh, having fun," replied the big toy animal, slowly swinging his +trunk to and fro. "And to-night the Calico Clown is going to give a +special exhibition." + +"Oh, is he?" suddenly asked a funny little Wooden Donkey with a head +that wagged up and down. "Is he going to climb a string again and burn +his red and yellow trousers as he once did?" + +"Indeed I am not!" exclaimed the Calico Clown himself. The Clown was +leaning against his friend Mr. Jumping Jack, who was a cousin of Jack +in the Box. "I'm not going to give any special exhibition like that," +went on the Clown. "I'm just going to do a few funny tricks, such as +standing on my head and banging my cymbals together. And, I am not +sure, but I may ask a riddle." + +"Will it be that one about what makes more noise than a pig under a +gate?" inquired a Celluloid Doll. "Well, yes, it will be that riddle," +replied the Clown, trying to look very stern. + +"That's the only riddle he knows," whispered the Elephant. + +"What I should like to know," said the Camel, "is why a pig should +want to get under a gate, anyhow. Why didn't he stay in his pen?" + +"Oh, there's no use trying to make you understand," sighed the Clown. +"I'll just have to dance around, do a few jigs, bang my cymbals +together, and do things like that to amuse you." + +"Well, we'll have a good time to-night, anyhow," said the Celluloid +Doll. "We really haven't had much fun since the Candy Rabbit and the +Monkey on a Stick went away. I wish--" + +"Hush!" suddenly called the Calico Clown. "Here come the clerks. The +store will soon be filled with customers." + +The toys became very still and quiet. This talk among them had taken +place in the early morning hours, after a night of jolly good times. +But when daylight came, and when clerks and customers filled the +store, the toys were no longer allowed to do as they pleased. They +could not move about or talk as they could on other occasions. + +The Calico Clown was a jolly chap, and he seemed to stand out among +all the other toys on the counter. He wore calico trousers of which +one leg was red and the other yellow. He had a calico shirt that was +spotted, speckled and striped in gay colors, and on each of his hands +was a round piece of brass. These pieces of brass were called +"cymbals," and the Calico Clown could bang them together as the +drummer bangs his cymbals in the band. + +I say the Calico Clown could bang his cymbals together, and by that I +mean he could do it when no boys or girls or grown folk were looking +at him. This was the rule for all the toys. They could move about and +talk only when no human eyes were looking. As soon as you glanced at +them they became as still and as quiet as potatoes. + +But any one who picked up the Calico Clown could make him bang his +cymbals together by pressing on his chest. There was a little spring, +and also a sort of squeaker, such as you have heard in toy bears or +sheep. + +Besides being able to clap his cymbals together, the Calico Clown +could also move his arms and legs when you pulled certain strings, +like those on some Jumping Jacks. The Calico Clown was a lively +fellow, as well as being very gaily dressed. + +But now all the toys were still and quiet. They sat or stood or were +lying down on the counter, waiting for what would happen next. And +what generally did happen was that some customers came to the store +and bought them. + +Already a number of the toys had been sold and taken away. There was +the Sawdust Doll. She was the first to go. Then the White Rocking +Horse had been bought for a boy named Dick, a brother of Dorothy, who +now owned the Sawdust Doll. The Lamb on Wheels had been purchased by a +jolly sailor, and when the Lamb saw him she feared she would be taken +on an ocean trip and made seasick. But the sailor gave the Lamb to a +little girl named Mirabell. And, in the course of time, her brother +Arnold was given a Bold Tin Soldier and some soldier men. + +The Candy Rabbit--about whom I have told you in a book, as I have told +you of these other toys--the Candy Rabbit was given as an Easter +present to a little girl named Madeline, and her brother Herbert had, +later, been given the Monkey on a Stick. + +The Calico Clown was looking over at the Celluloid Doll, thinking how +pretty she was, and he was also thinking of the Sawdust Doll, whom he +had liked very much, when, all of a sudden, it seemed as if a +whirlwind had blown into the toy department. + +A boy with a very loud voice and feet that tramped and stamped on the +floor rushed up to the counter. + +"I want a toy! I want something to play with!" cried this boy. "I want +a Jumping Jack and I want a Noah's Ark! You said you'd get me +something if I let the dentist pull that tooth, and now you've got to! +I want a lot of toys!" he cried to the lady who was with him. + +"Yes, Archibald. But please be quiet!" begged his mother. "I will get +you a toy. Which one do you want?" + +"I want this Elephant!" cried the boy who, I am afraid, was rather +rude. He caught the Elephant up by his trunk, and twisted the poor +animal around. + +"Goodness me, sakes alive! I'm getting dizzy," thought the Elephant. +"I hope this boy is not to be my master!" + +And this, it would seem, was not going to happen. Suddenly the boy +dropped the Elephant. + +"I don't want this toy! He can't do anything!" the boy shouted. "I +want something that jiggles and joggles and does things! Oh, I want +this one!" and, as true as I'm telling you, that boy caught up the +Calico Clown. + +"Well, I guess this is the last of me!" thought the Calico Clown. "I +will not last very long in the hands of this rude chap." + +The boy had grabbed up the Calico Clown and had thrown the Elephant +down so hard that the Celluloid Doll was knocked over. + +"Be careful, little boy, if you please," gently said the girl clerk. + +"Oh, I've got to have this Clown!" went on the rude boy. "I don't care +for other toys. Does this fellow do anything?" he asked of the clerk, +while his mother looked on, hardly knowing what to say. Archibald had +just been to the dentist's to have a tooth pulled, so perhaps we +should forgive him for being a little rough. + +"The Clown plays his cymbals when you touch him here," and the clerk +pointed to the spring hidden in the chest of the gay fellow, under his +speckled, striped and spotted calico jacket. + +"Oh, I'll touch him all right! I'll punch him!" cried the boy, and he +jabbed the Calico Clown so hard in the chest that the cymbals rattled +together like marbles in a boy's pocket. + +"He's dandy! I want him!" cried the boy. "What else does he do?" he +asked. + +"He moves his arms and legs when you pull these strings," was the +answer, and the clerk showed the boy how to do it. + +"Oh, he's a jolly toy!" cried Archibald. "I'll have some fun with him +when I show him to the other fellows. Hi! Look at him jig!" and he +pulled the strings so fast that it seemed as if the poor Clown would +turn somersaults. + +"I can see what will happen to me," thought the Clown. "I shall come +to pieces in about a week, and be thrown in the ash can. Why can't he +be nice and quiet?" + +But Archibald was not that kind of boy. He seemed to want to make a +noise or do something all the while. Most of his toys at home were +broken, and that is why his mother had to promise to get him another +before he would let her take him to the dentist's to have an aching +tooth pulled. + +"I want this Clown!" cried Archibald, making the cymbals bang together +again and again. + +"Very well, you may have it," his mother replied. + +"I'll wrap it up for you," said the clerk, and the poor Clown was +quickly smothered in a wrapping of paper around which a string was +tied. + +"Here is your toy, Archibald," said his mother, when the plaything +came back ready to be taken out of the store. The mother had taken it +from the clerk, and now she handed it to her little boy. + +And so he carried the Calico Clown away, without giving the poor, +jolly fellow a chance to say good-bye to the Elephant, the Camel or +the Celluloid Doll. + +"Now our good time for to-night is spoiled," sadly thought the +Elephant. "Our jolly comrade is gone!" + +All the way home in the automobile Archibald kept punching the red and +yellow Clown in the chest and banging the cymbals together until the +boy's mother said: + +"Oh, Archibald, please be quiet! My head aches!" + +"All right, I'll make my Clown jiggle!" said the boy, who really loved +his mother, though sometimes he was rude. + +Then he pulled the strings until the poor Clown thought his arms and +legs would come off, so fast were they jerked about. + +When Archibald reached home with his new toy he ran out into the +street to find some of his playmates. He saw a boy named Pete and +another named Sam. + +"Look what I've got!" cried Archibald. + +"A Jumping Jack!" exclaimed Sam. + +"It's a Calico Clown, and he can do everything," said Archibald. "He's +like one in a circus, and he can do funny tricks. He can jiggle his +arms and legs and play the cymbals. I'll show you!" + +He worked the Clown so fast that the red and yellow chap grew dizzy +again. + +"That's fine!" said Sam. "I wish I had a Clown like that." + +"Can he do the giant's swing?" asked Pete. + +"What's the giant's swing?" Archibald wanted to know. + +"It's something the men do in a circus," was the answer. "Here, I have +some string in my pocket. We'll make a trapeze in your back yard and +we'll have the Calico Clown do the giant's swing." + +"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Archibald. + +"Yes, it may be fun for you," thought the Calico Clown, "but what +about me? What is the giant's swing, anyhow? Oh, I wish I were back on +the toy counter!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A BROKEN LEG + + +Sam and Pete hurried with Archibald to his back yard. Archibald +carried the red and yellow Calico Clown in his hands. Now and then the +boy would punch the gay fellow in the chest, making the cymbals clang +together with a bang. Again Archibald would pull the strings, causing +the Calico Clown to jiggle his arms and legs. + +"You're a nice toy, all right," said Archibald. "I like my Clown!" + +"But wait until I make him do the giant's swing!" exclaimed Pete. +"That will be worth seeing!" + +When the boys reached a tree in Archibald's yard, Pete found a piece +of broken broom handle for the bar of the trapeze. From his pocket he +took some strong pieces of string. With these the broomstick was tied +to the limb of a tree, so that it hung down and swung to and fro like +a swing. + +"Now well put the Clown on," Pete called to Archibald, when the +trapeze was finished. + +"How are you going to make him stay on?" asked Sam. + +"Oh, I can tie him on with another piece of string," Pete answered. + +"That's easy!" yelled Archibald. + +It did not take Pete long to tie the Calico Clown on the swinging +trapeze. It was quite high from the ground, and as the little toy man +looked down and saw how far below him the green grass was, his knees +seemed to shake and his cymbals to tremble. + +"Oh, if I should fall now I would be broken to pieces!" said the +Calico Clown to himself, for of course he dared not speak aloud now, +and he dared not move by himself. "This is much higher than when I +climbed the string in the toy store and caught fire at the gas jet. +This is much higher than I ever was up before," sighed the Clown. + +"Is he ready to do the giant's swing now?" asked Sam. + +"In a minute," answered Pete. + +Once the Clown was tied on, Pete began to swing the trapeze to and +fro. Farther and farther swung the Calico Clown, and, as he moved to +and fro, his cymbals clanged together. His arms and legs also jiggled +and jumped, as they had done when Archibald pulled the strings. + +Pete stood behind the trapeze and gave it little pushes with his hands +every now and then. This made it swing farther and farther. + +"Oh, it almost turned all the way over!" suddenly cried Archibald. + +"That's what I want it to do," said Pete. "When the trapeze goes all +the way over and around and around, that's the giant's swing I was +telling you about. Watch!" + +Archibald and Sam watched, and in another moment the trapeze swung up +and over so hard that it turned around and around in a regular circle. + +"Hurray! There she goes!" cried Pete. + +"Oh, look!" exclaimed Sam. + +"Say, that's great!" yelled Archibald. "I didn't know my Calico Clown +could do that!" + +As for the Calico Clown himself, he did not know it either, and he +felt very bad that he was made to do the giant's swing. + +"Oh, how dizzy it makes me feel!" he said to himself. "I know I'm +going to fall!" + +He could feel the strings that tied him to the broomstick bar +beginning to loosen. The Calico Clown shut his eyes, thinking that if +he did not see the green grass whirling around beneath him he would +not feel so dizzy. Around and around he went in the giant's swing. + +And then, all of a sudden, something broke. It was the string holding +the Calico Clown to the broomstick. And when the string broke off flew +the Clown! + +He flew off just when the trapeze was at the highest point, and away +through the air sailed the red and yellow toy, as if he had been shot +from a cannon. + +"Oh, look at that!" cried Archibald, "Now you've gone and done it, +Pete!" + +"He busted loose!" shouted Sam. + +"If he falls and breaks, you've got to get me another," cried +Archibald. + +"I'm going to fall, all right," thought the poor Clown to himself, +"and I shouldn't be a bit surprised if I broke into bits!" + +One can not go sailing through the air forever, even if one is a +Calico Clown. And, after being flung off the trapeze and shooting +along high above the green grass, the Calico Clown felt himself +falling down. + +Once more he shut his eyes, as he could do this without the boys +seeing him. His arms and legs jiggled and joggled about, and his +cymbals clanged with a tinkling sound. + +"Oh, dear!" sighed the Calico Clown. + +There came a soft, dull thud on the grass. That was the Calico Clown +falling down. He felt a sudden, sharp pain go through him, and then he +seemed to faint away. + +For a time the Calico Clown knew nothing of what happened. Archibald, +Sam and Pete ran over to where the toy had fallen. Archibald was the +first to pick it up. The cymbals were still fast to the Clown's hands, +and so were the jiggling strings attached to his arms and legs. But +something was wrong. + +"Oh, one of his legs is broken!" cried Archibald. "My Calico Clown is +spoiled! Pete, you've broken one of his legs!" + +And that was what had happened. In his fall from the trapeze the poor +red and yellow toy had cracked one of his wooden legs. It was the one +on which he wore the red half of his trousers. + +"I--I didn't mean to do that," said Pete. + +"Well, you did it; and now you have to get me another toy!" exclaimed +Archibald. "If you don't I'll tell my mother on you." + +"Oh, Arch!" exclaimed Sam. + +"Oh, all right. I'll get you another," said Pete quickly. "You can +come over to my house now, and I'll give you anything I have in place +of your Calico Clown. I didn't think his leg would break so easily." + +The three boys, with Archibald carrying the poor, broken-legged Clown, +hurried out of the yard. As they were going to Pete's house they met a +boy named Sidney, who was a brother of Herbert and Madeline. Madeline +owned the Candy Rabbit, and Herbert had a Monkey on a Stick--both of +them toys that had once lived in the same store with the Calico Clown. + +"What have you?" asked Sidney of Archibald. + +"A Calico Clown," was the answer. "He was new a little while ago, but +Pete put him on a trapeze and made him do the giant's swing and now +he's done for--he's got a broken leg." + +"What are you going to do with him?" asked Sidney. + +"He's going to make me give him one of my toys in place of the Clown," +answered Pete. "Of course it was my fault he broke--I guess I didn't +tie him on tight enough. And I'm willing to give Archie another toy +for him, but--" + +Sidney suddenly thrust his hand into his pocket and pulled out a gaily +painted top that hummed and made music when you spun it. + +"I'll trade you that for your Calico Clown," said Sidney to Archibald. + +"But the Clown has a broken leg," explained Pete. + +"I don't care. Maybe I can mend it," Sidney answered. "Once I fixed a +Jumping Jack that had lost his head." + +"Well, if you did that, you can fix a Clown that has only a broken +leg," said Sam. "Go on and trade with him, Archie." + +"All right, I will," decided Archibald. He held out the broken Clown +and in trade took the musical top. + +"Now I don't have to give you any of my toys, do I, Archie?" asked +Pete. + +"Nope," Archibald answered. "I'd rather have this top than a broken +Calico Clown." + +While he was being traded for the top the Calico Clown came out of his +faint. His broken leg did not hurt so much now. He felt more like +himself. + +"Oh, ho!" he thought. "I am to have a new master, it seems. Well, I +hope it will not be one who makes me do the giant's swing. Once is +enough for that!" + +Archibald went off with Sam and Pete to try the musical top. Sidney +carried the Calico Clown toward the house where Madeline and Herbert +lived. + +"I'll fix you as good as new," said Sidney, looking at the dangling, +broken leg. + +And, as Sidney walked along, all of a sudden he heard his sister +calling. + +"Oh, quick, somebody! Somebody come quick! He's fallen into the +water!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE CLOWN'S DANCE + + +Sidney stuffed the Calico Clown into his pocket and ran as fast as he +could toward his sister. He saw her standing near a little fountain in +the side yard of their home. + +"What's the matter, Madeline?" asked Sidney, making sure the Calico +Clown was not falling out of his pocket as he ran along. + +"Oh, he's in the water!" said the little girl. + +"Who is?" her brother wanted to know. "Who's in?" + +"My Candy Rabbit. I set him on the edge of the fountain so he could +watch the birds having a bath, and he fell right in." + +Sidney looked toward the fountain. He saw nothing of the Candy Rabbit. + +"You can't see him 'cause he's over the edge, down inside," went on +Madeline. "I can't reach and get him, or I'd fish him out myself. And +if he stays there very long he'll melt, as he almost did once when he +fell into the bathtub. Oh, please get him out for me." + +"I will!" promised Sidney. + +"Oh, is it possible I am to see my dear old friend, the Candy Rabbit, +again?" thought the Calico Clown, who, though stuffed into Sidney's +pocket, had heard all that was said. The toys could hear and +understand talk at all times, except when they were asleep. The broken +leg of the gay red and yellow chap did not hurt him very much just +now. "I shall certainly be glad to see the Candy Rabbit again," the +Clown thought. "And Sidney had better hurry and get him out of the +water, or he surely will melt, and that would be dreadful." + +The fountain in the yard of the house where Herbert, Madeline and +Sidney lived was rather a high one. The little girl could just reach +up to the rim of the basin to set her Rabbit there, but, once he had +toppled over and was down inside, she could neither see nor reach him. + +"You'll have to stand on something or you can't get him," Madeline +said to Sidney. "Shall I get you a box?" + +"No, I'll stand on my tiptoes," he answered. And he did, thus making +himself tall enough to reach over into the water and fish out the +Candy Rabbit. + +Out that sweet fellow came, dripping wet, but not much harmed. + +"Oh, he didn't melt, did he?" asked Madeline. "I'm so glad!" + +"He hasn't melted yet," answered Sidney, as he handed the Easter toy +to his sister. "But you'd better put him in the sun to dry, or he may +crumble away." + +"I will," Madeline promised. + +As Sidney turned to walk away, the Calico Clown fell out of his +pocket. + +"What's that? Where'd you get him?" cried Madeline. At the same time +the Candy Rabbit saw the gay red and yellow chap from the toy store. + +"Oh, there's my dear old Clown friend!" thought the Rabbit, all wet as +he was. "How in the wide world did he get here?" + +But of course he could not ask, any more than the Calico Clown could +answer. + +And when the Clown, lying on the grass where he had fallen from +Sidney's pocket, saw the Candy Rabbit, the Clown said to himself: + +"Yes, there he is! The same one I knew before. Oh, if we could only +get together by ourselves and talk! How much we could say!" + +Sidney picked the Calico Clown up off the grass. + +"Where did you get him?" asked Madeline again. "He's awfully cute. I +saw one like that in the store where Aunt Emma got my Candy Rabbit." + +"Maybe this is the same one," Sidney answered. "I traded off my +musical top to Archibald for the Clown. His leg is broken." + +"Whose--Archibald's?" asked Madeline, in surprise. + +"No, the Clown's," answered Sidney, with a laugh. "I'm going to fix +it. Course a Calico Clown is worth more than a musical top, for the +Clown is new and my top was old. But a Clown with a broken leg isn't +worth so much." + +"Is it worth anything?" asked Madeline. "I mean can you fix him?" + +"Oh, yes," her brother answered. "He can still bang his cymbals, and +he can jiggle both his arms and the leg that isn't broken." + +Sidney punched the Clown in the chest, and the red and yellow fellow +clapped his hands together and made the cymbals tinkle. Then Sidney +pulled the strings and the two arms of the Clown went up and down, and +one leg kicked out as nicely as you please. But the other leg did not +move. + +"That's the leg that's broken," Sidney explained. "He got broken when +Pete made him do the giant's swing." + +"He looks as though he was trying to dance on one leg!" laughed +Madeline. "He's awfully cute, but he's funny!" + +"I'll soon fix him, and he'll be as good as ever," declared her +brother. "You'd better go and put your Rabbit in the sun to dry." + +So Madeline did this, and very glad the sweet chap was to feel the +warm sun on his back, for he had been made quite drippy and sticky by +having fallen into the fountain. + +Sidney, as I have told you, was a boy who could mend things. Once he +had fixed Herbert's toy boat that was broken, and, another time, he +had glued a head back on Madeline's Celluloid Doll. + +"And I think I can glue my Clown's broken leg," thought Sidney, as he +went toward the kitchen. There, he remembered, the cook always kept a +tube of sticky glue. + +"What are you going to mend now?" asked the cook. + +"A broken leg," Sidney answered. + +"Oh, you can't mend a broken leg with glue!" cried the cook. "You had +much better call in the doctor. Whose leg is it?" + +"I'm going to be the toy doctor," the little boy went on. "It's the +wooden leg of a Calico Clown I'm going to mend." + +"Oh, that's different," said the cook. "Well, here's the glue." + +She handed Sidney the tube. He took it and his Clown over to a table. +Pushing up the red trouser Sidney saw where the Clown's leg was +broken. The wood was cracked and splintered, but the two pieces were +there. + +"I'll just glue them together," said the boy. And this he did. Then, +as he knew that glue must set, or get hard, he put his Calico Clown +away on a shelf in a closet, where the toy chap saw something that +made him wonder. + +At first, in the darkness, the Clown could not make out what or who it +was on the shelf in the closet with him. Then, as his eyes became +accustomed to the gloom, he noticed that it was a Cat. + +"Oh, are you a toy, too?" asked the Calico Clown politely, for he +wanted company and some one to talk to. + +"No, I am not exactly a toy," answered the Cat. + +"You look like one," the Clown said. "There was one just like you in +our store, only that cat's head wobbled." + +"Well, my head doesn't wobble--it comes off," said the Cat. + +"Your head comes off!" cried the Clown in great surprise. "I should +think that would hurt!" + +"No, it's made to do that," the Cat explained. "You see I'm a match +safe, and I also have a place inside me where burned matches may be +put. To put them in me you have to lift off my head. It doesn't hurt +at all--I'm used to it." + +"Oh, that's different," said the Calico Clown. "Well, I am very glad +to meet you. Do you know the Candy Rabbit?" + +The Cat said she did, and very well, too. + +"He sleeps here on the closet shelf with me every night," she added. +"You'll see him, pretty soon!" + +"I shall be very glad to," remarked the Clown. "Excuse me for not +sitting up as I talk," he said, for Sidney had laid him down flat on +his back. "The truth of the matter," went on the Clown, "is that my +leg was broken a while ago, and the boy just glued it together." + +"Oh, I'm so sorry!" mewed the Match-Safe Cat. + +"I'm not--I'm glad," said the Clown. "If it wasn't glued I'd be a +slimpsy lopsy sort of chap." + +"Oh, I didn't mean I was sorry your leg was GLUED, I meant that I was +sorry it was BROKEN," went on the Cat. "Now let's tell each other our +adventures." + +So they did, talking until late in the evening when, suddenly, the +closet door was opened by Madeline. Of course, then the Cat and the +Calico Clown had to be very still and quiet. + +"There, I guess you'll be best in the closet for the rest of the +night," said Madeline to her Candy Rabbit Easter toy. "You'll be all +dry in the morning, I hope," and she thrust the Rabbit back on the +shelf and shut the door. + +"Oh, my dear Calico Clown friend!" cried the Candy Rabbit, as soon as +it was safe for the toys to speak, "how glad I am to see you again." + +"And I am glad to see you," said the Clown. "I rather like it here +with the Cat." + +"But why are you lying flat on your back?" asked the Candy Rabbit. +"You used to be such a lively, jolly fellow. Come, get up and give us +one of your old-time jigs or dances." + +"I'm very sorry, but I can't," answered the Clown. Then he told about +his glued, broken leg, and how he would have to lie very stiff and +straight and keep quiet. + +"But maybe, toward morning, I'll be well again, and then I can dance +for you," he promised. + +"I hope so," mewed the Cat. "I have never seen a Calico Clown do a +dance." + +"You should see him--he is quite wonderful," whispered the Candy +Rabbit behind his paw. + +"Well, if I can't dance for you, I can ask a riddle," said the Clown, +after a bit. "What makes more noise than a pig under--" + +"Oh, PLEASE don't start that over again," begged the Candy Rabbit. +"You used to ask it in the store, and none of us could think of the +answer. Don't tell riddles! Let's just talk!" + +So the toys talked together and told one another their different +adventures. The night passed. Madeline, Herbert and Sidney slept, and +Sidney dreamed of the fun he would have with his Calico Clown when the +broken leg was firmly glued together again. + +And as the night passed the glue dried and set, and the Clown, feeling +his leg growing better, grew happier. + +"I say!" he called out just before morning to the Rabbit and the Cat. +"Are you asleep?" + +"I was, but I am awake now," the sugar Bunny answered. + +"And I am awake too," added the Cat. + +"Then I will dance for you," went on the Clown. "My leg is better." + +He stood up and he cut such funny antics by clapping his cymbals +together, standing first on one leg and then on the other, jiggling +his hands and feet, that the Cat went into mews of laughter and the +Rabbit chuckled until his pink nose seemed to wrinkle all up like an +accordion. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +UP IN A TREE + + +Faster and faster danced the Calico Clown. No one needed to pull his +strings now, for he could dance by himself, no eyes of children or +grown folk being in the closet to watch him. + +Up and down, first to this side and then to the other, now on his left +foot and now on his right, tapping his cymbals softly together, and +wagging his head, the Calico Clown amused the Match-Safe Cat and the +sugar Bunny in the closet. + +"Oh, don't dance any more! Please stop!" begged the Candy Rabbit, +holding one paw to his side. + +"Don't you like it?" asked the Calico Clown, rather surprised. + +"Oh, yes!" was the answer. "But your dance is so funny that it makes +me laugh so hard that my ears ache! Do please stop!" + +"Yes, please do," begged the Cat. "If you don't, I'm afraid I'll laugh +so hard my head may come off and roll to the floor." + +"Oh, I wouldn't want THAT to happen!" exclaimed the Clown, as he +brought his queer, jerky dance to an end. "If you'd rather, I could +tell a riddle." + +"Not the one about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate!" +exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. "Don't ask that one!" + +"Well, it's the only one I know," said the Clown. "I'll try to think +of another. But, anyhow, I'll stop my dancing. However, I'm glad for +one reason that I did it. It shows that my broken leg is almost as +good as the other. A bit stiff, perhaps, but almost as good." + +"Yes, you danced as well as I ever saw you jig back in the toy store," +said the Rabbit. "You have made the night pass very pleasantly for +us." + +"You have indeed," added the Cat. "We appreciate your dancing and your +fun very much." + +"Thank you, both," replied the Calico Clown. "It is a pleasure to do +things for fellows such as you." + +Then they rested quietly. + +A little later Sidney opened the door of the closet to see if his +Calico Clown was all right. There lay the yellow and red chap on his +back, with one leg stuck straight up in the air, as if he had just +kicked a football and then had fallen down. + +"Why! Why!" exclaimed Sidney in surprise. "I didn't leave my Clown +like THAT!" + +"What has happened to him?" asked Madeline, who came to see if her +Candy Rabbit was dry. + +"He has one leg stuck up in the air," went on her brother. "I left him +lying flat on his back, so the broken leg I mended would get good and +hard and stiff again. Now look at him!" + +"It IS funny," agreed Madeline. Didn't you move him?" + +"I didn't touch him, and I don't believe anybody has come to this +closet since I put him here, except you. Wouldn't it be funny, +Madeline, if the Clown got up by himself to see if he could walk on +his glued leg?" + +"Yes, it would be very funny," agreed the little girl. "But maybe my +Rabbit helped him, or this Match-Safe Cat. Maybe they moved the +Clown!" + +"How could they?" Sidney wanted to know. + +"They couldn't, unless they came to life," went on Madeline in a +whisper. "And sometimes," she went on, looking around to make sure no +one else heard her, "sometimes I think that our toys CAN do things by +themselves when we can't see them." + +"Oh, ho! Course they can't do anything!" laughed Sidney. + +But if he could have seen the Calico Clown dancing on the closet +shelf, and if he could have heard the Cat and the Candy Rabbit +laughing until one's head nearly came off and the other had pains in +his ears, then Sidney would have thought differently, wouldn't he? + +"Well, anyhow, I'm going to take my Calico Clown out and see how he +jumps around this morning," said Sidney, after a while. + +Sidney found that the Calico Clown was almost as good an acrobat, or +jumper, as ever. When punched in the chest, the Clown would bang his +cymbals together. And when the strings were pulled, out shot the arms +and legs like those of a Jumping Jack, only in different fashion. + +The red and yellow trousers of the Clown had not been soiled by his +giant's swing accident, and Sidney had been careful not to get any +spots of glue on his toy when he mended him. + +"The only thing wrong is that the broken leg is a little stiffer than +the other," Sidney said, as he made his Clown do all sorts of funny +tricks. "I suppose that leg is a little shorter, or maybe the glue +made it stiff. But he is just what I want, and I'd rather have him +than the musical top I traded for him. Maybe Herbert and I can get up +a little circus, as Herbert once had a show with his Monkey on a +Stick. A clown belongs in a circus, and so do monkeys. Maybe we'll +have one." + +The Calico Clown, who heard Sidney say this, thought it would be very +jolly to be in a circus. + +Sidney certainly liked the Calico Clown. He made him do many funny +tricks for the boys and girls--Dick, Dorothy, Mirabell, Arnold, and +for Madeline and Herbert, who were Sidney's brother and sister. + +"With my Monkey on a Stick and your Calico Clown we surely can have a +fine circus some day," said Herbert, as he and Sidney were playing out +on the porch one warm, summer day. + +The Monkey and Clown had been glad to see each other when they met +again after having been separated at the store. Each one had different +adventures to tell. + +All of a sudden, as Herbert and Sidney, with their Monkey and Clown +toys, were making each other laugh by the funny antics of the two +playthings, a voice called: + +"Boys, do you want some bread and jam?" + +"Oh, I should say we did!" cried Herbert. + +"We're coming," answered Sidney, for it was the jolly, good-natured +cook who had called to them from her kitchen where she had just made +some fresh raspberry jam. + +Leaving the Monkey and the Clown on the porch, the boys ran around to +the side door for their jam and bread. + +"Now we have a chance to talk," said the Monkey to the Clown. + +"Yes, but it will not be for very long," was the answer. "Those boys +will soon be back here. They'll not eat forever. I was just wondering- +-" + +"What?" asked the Monkey, for the Calico Clown suddenly stopped +speaking and looked down the street. "What were you wondering?" + +"Well, just NOW I am wondering if that is your brother," went on the +Clown, pointing toward the gate with one hand on which was fastened a +clanging cymbal. "Look, here comes a chap who looks just like you, +except that he has no stick, and his cap is blue, while yours is red. +And hark! I hear music!" + +"Oh, it's a hand organ, and that's a real, live monkey you see!" +exclaimed the Monkey on a Stick. "It is true he looks like me, but we +are no relation. He is a live monkey and I am a toy." + +"Here he comes now!" cried the Calico Clown, and, as he spoke, the +hand-organ man, making music, came along, and the live monkey ran into +the yard and up on the steps. And then a dreadful thing happened! + +For the live monkey quickly caught up the Calico Clown, and, holding +the red and yellow chap in his hands, the long-tailed creature climbed +up into a tree. Yes, indeed, as true as I'm telling you, the live +monkey carried the Calico Clown up into a tree! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +TAKEN DOWN TOWN + + +The Calico Clown was so surprised at the quick action of the monkey in +catching him by one leg and carrying him up into the tree, that, for a +moment or two, the toy said nothing. But as the hand-organ monkey +climbed higher and higher the Clown finally cried: + +"Here! Hold on if you please! What are you going to do?" + +"Oh, just have some fun!" answered the monkey in a laughing voice. You +see, he could understand and speak toy talk, just as the Calico Clown +knew how to talk and understand animal language. + +[Illustration with caption: Calico Clown Amuses the Monkey.] + +"Well, it may be fun for you," went on the Clown, "but I don't like +it! This is no fun for me! Ouch! Look out for my leg!" the Clown +suddenly cried, as the monkey banged him against a branch of the tree. + +"What about your leg?" asked the monkey, sitting down on a branch and +winding his tail around it so he wouldn't fall off. "I don't see +anything the matter." + +"I mean look out and don't hurt my broken leg," went on the Clown. +"Sidney, the little boy who owns me, glued it, but if you bang it too +hard it may break all over again and then I'll be in a mighty bad +fix." + +"Oh, excuse me. I'll be careful," said the monkey. + +"Well, I wish you'd take me down out of this tree," begged the Calico +Clown. "I don't see why you brought me up here, anyhow." + +"Oh, I just grabbed hold of you and brought you up here for fun," said +the monkey. "I felt like playing. And I had to do it quickly, or my +master would have stopped me. Every time I grab up anything he doesn't +want me to take, I have to climb a tree. He can't chase me up there, +though he'd like to lots of times, I guess." + +"I thought hand-organ monkeys had collars around their necks, and a +long rope fast to that which their masters held," said the Clown. + +"Well, I had that, too, but I took the rope off a little while ago, so +I could run loose," explained the live monkey. "I want to have some +fun. Can you do anything to amuse me?" and he looked at the cymbals on +the Calico Clown's hands and at the strings which were fast to his +legs and arms. + +"I can ask you a riddle about what makes more noise than a pig under a +gate," said the Clown. "Shall I?" + +"Please don't do that," begged the monkey. "I never was any good at +guessing riddles. Can't you do anything else?" + +"Yes, a few things," the Clown said. Then he banged his cymbals +together and began to jiggle his arms and legs in such a funny way +that the monkey who was holding him laughed and laughed and laughed. + +"Oh, you are too funny for anything!" cried the monkey. "I'm glad I +picked you up. Oh, excuse me while I laugh a little harder!" + +The monkey set the Clown down astraddle the limb of a tree near the +trunk, and quite a distance up from the ground. Then the monkey +laughed so hard that, if he had not been holding on by his tail, he +surely would have fallen. For the Clown kept on doing his funny antics +and tricks, and the monkey kept on laughing until he had to hold his +sides with feet and hands, they ached so. + +"Oh, I'm so glad I met you!" said the monkey, when he had a chance +between his fits of laughter. "I hope my master comes through this +street every day with his hand organ. I'll be looking for you." + +"And I'll be looking for you--to keep out of your way, if I can," +thought the Clown, though he did not say it out loud. + +The monkey finally grew a little quiet, and he was just going to ask +the Clown to do some more jiggling when, all at once, the music of the +hand organ stopped, and the Italian man cried: + +"Ah, Jacko! I see you! Up-a in de tree. Bad monk! Come down right away +to your Tony! Come, Jacko!" + +"Oh, goodness me! I've got to go. My fun is over! Now I've got to go +to work gathering pennies in my cap!" said the monkey. "Good-bye!" he +called to the Calico Clown, and down out of the tree the monkey began +to climb, swinging from limb to limb by his tail, as he used to do in +the cocoanut groves of the forest where he had once lived. + +"Here! Come back and get me! Don't leave me up in a tree like this!" +begged the Calico Clown, who had sat down astride the limb after he +had done his last funny trick. "Come and get me!" + +"Sorry, but I haven't time! My master is calling me! I must go!" +answered the monkey, hurrying more than ever. Down the tree he swung. + +"Oh take me down! Don't leave me like this!" begged the Clown. But it +was of no use. There he was, left all alone, high up in a tree, +sitting on a branch. + +Of course neither Tony, the music man, nor Sidney nor Herbert had +heard this talk between the toy and the animal, for they spoke in a +language that only a few can understand. The organ grinder was anxious +for his monkey to come back, and he watched him scrambling down the +tree. The two boys, who had gone to get bread and jam, came back to +the front yard. They saw the organ grinder and his monkey, and, for +the moment, they forgot all about their Clown and the Monkey on a +Stick. They did not look toward the porch, or they would have noticed +that the Clown was gone, though the toy Monkey was still there. The +live monkey was dancing toward the boys, holding out his cap for +pennies. + +And the Calico Clown was up in the tree, not knowing how in the world +he was ever going to get down. + +"Oh, look at the monkey!" cried Herbert, as he saw the music man's +long-tailed animal. + +"He's nice," said Sidney. "He's like your Monkey on a Stick, only +bigger, Herb. I'm going in and ask mother for a penny." + +"So'm I!" said Herbert. + +Still thinking that their own toys were safe on the porch, the little +boys ran back into the house, where each one got a penny for the hand- +organ monkey. And the monkey took off his blue cap to gather the +pennies for his master. + +"Good boys!" said the Italian with a smile, and he played another tune +for them. And then it was time for him to travel on. + +"Come along, Jacko!" he called to his monkey, and then he fastened the +rope back on his monkey's collar and made him jump up on the organ. +Then the two of them went down the street. + +"Oh, there he goes!" thought the poor Calico Clown, still up in the +tree. "Oh, he's going to leave me here! Oh, what shall I do?" + +Well might he ask that. What could he do? How was he going to get +down? + +Herbert and Sidney, standing at the gate, saw the music man turn +around the corner of the street. + +"Now we'll go back and play with my Monkey and your Clown," said +Herbert. "We'll practice for the circus we're going to have." + +"That'll be fun!" laughed Sidney. + +But when the two boys went back to the porch--well, you know, as well +as I, what happened. They saw the Monkey on a Stick, but no Clown! + +"Why--why, where is he?" asked Sidney, looking around. "Did you take +him, Herb? Did you take my Calico Clown?" + +"No, of course not," answered Herbert. "They were both here when we +went to get our bread and jam. Oh, Sid! I know what happened!" he +suddenly exclaimed. + +"What?" asked his brother. + +"The hand-organ monkey took your Clown away with him!" went on +Herbert. + +At first Sidney thought that this might be so, but, after thinking +over the matter for a moment, he shook his head and answered: + +"No, the live monkey didn't take my Clown. Don't you remember? He came +up here with his cap in his hand to get our pennies. Then, when he +went away, he was sitting on top of the organ and he had his cap off +and so did the music man, and they didn't either of them have my +Clown." + +"Yes, I guess that's right," Herbert said. "But he's gone." + +"We've got to find my Clown," said Sidney. "I want him back, and we +can't have a circus without him. We've GOT to find him." + +"Yes, we have," agreed Herbert. "Maybe Carlo, the dog, came and +carried him away." + +"Maybe," said Sidney. They blamed lots of things on poor Carlo, and +sometimes he did do tricks. But this was not one of those times. So +the two boys began searching for the Calico Clown. + +As for that jolly chap himself he was still up in the tree. And he was +not so very jolly just then, either. He did not once think of asking +his pig riddle. + +"I wonder if I can wiggle down?" he asked himself. "There is no one to +see me now, and I can move about. I'm going to try to get down." + +He wiggled and he woggled, whatever that is, and managed to get one +leg over the limb, so both were on the same side. The Clown was just +going to try to swing to the next lowest branch, as he had seen the +live monkey do, when, all of a sudden, he slipped and fell. + +"Oh, dear! Another accident! This is going to be a bad one--worse than +the giant's swing!" he cried. + +Down, down, down, he fell. What was going to happen? + +Now, just about this time, it chanced that a man was passing under the +tree. This man had on a large, loose coat with large pockets on the +sides, and he was so used to carrying things in his pockets that each +nearly always stood wide open, like a hungry mouth, waiting for some +one to fill it. + +And, as luck would have it, the man came under the tree just as the +Calico Clown slipped and fell. And so, instead of falling to the +ground, the Clown fell into one of the wide open side pockets of the +man's coat. And the man never knew about it--at least for a time. + +"Oh, my goodness me, what a narrow escape!" exclaimed the Clown as he +landed safely in the soft pocket. "This is better than falling on the +hard ground. But I wonder what will happen to me now." + +And well might he ask that, for the man, not knowing the Clown was in +his pocket, hurried on down town to his office. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN THE OFFICE + + +The Man, into whose pocket the Calico Clown had fallen from the tree, +hurried along the street, not knowing a thing of what had happened. He +was anxious to get to his office to look after his business, for he +was a very busy Man. He kept other folks busy, too--clerks and office +boy and a girl to write letters on the typewriter. + +Now, as it happened, the Man was a little late that morning, and when +he reached his office he was in such haste that he did not take time +to do anything before he sat down in his big chair to look over his +mail. + +"Please write some letters for me on the typewriter," he said to Miss +Jones, who worked the machine. + +Miss Jones sat down and became very busy. The Man told her what to +write and she banged away on the machine. Every once in a while she +would look at the Man when he paused to think of something else to +say. And once, as she did this, a queer look came over the face of +Miss Jones. Then she smiled and next she burst right out into a loud +laugh. + +And the funny part of it was that just then the Man was telling her to +put in a letter something like this: + +"I am very, very sorry to tell you that I can not do as you want me +to." + +And, just as he said the word "sorry," Miss Jones laughed her very +hardest. + +"Eh! What's the matter? What is so very funny about my saying I am +sorry?" asked the Man. The girl typewriter and the office boy called +him "the Boss" behind his back, and they liked him very much, for he +was kind and good to them. + +"Oh, dear! I MUST laugh!" said Miss Jones. + +Miss Jones pointed to something sticking out of his side coat pocket. +The Man put his hand there and pulled out--the Calico Clown! + +You should have seen the strange look come over the Man's face. Then +he laughed as hard as Miss Jones, and the office boy in the next room, +hearing them, laughed also. + +"Well, how in the world did that Calico Clown come to be in my +pocket?" exclaimed the man. He took the toy out, turned it over and +looked at it from all sides. As he did so he happened to punch the +Clown in the chest, and of course the Clown banged his cymbals +together, as he had been taught to do in the workshop of Santa Claus, +where he had been made. + +And as the cymbals tinkled and clanged the typewriter girl laughed +harder than ever. Then the man happened to pull one of the strings, +and the Clown kicked up his legs. The office boy was looking into the +room just then, and, seeing this antic of the jolly red and yellow +chap, the office boy laughed out loud. + +"Dear me! I'm glad every one in this office is so good-natured," +thought the Clown to himself. "And I certainly am glad to get out of +that Man's pocket. I was nearly smothered there, but of course it was +better than being in the tree. I'll do some more tricks for them if +the Man pulls more strings." + +And the Man did. He pulled the strings fastened to the Clown's arms, +and they jiggled and joggled in a merry fashion, so the girl and the +office boy laughed harder than ever. + +"Well, how in the world did that Clown toy come to be in my pocket? +That's what I want to know," said the Man, very much puzzled. + +"Maybe one of the children put it in," suggested the girl. She knew +the Man had children at home. + +"No, I hardly think it was any of MY children," said the Man. "Arnold +has no toy like this. He has a Bold Tin Soldier, as he calls him, and +some soldier men. And my little girl, Mirabell, has a Lamb on Wheels. +But neither of them has a Calico Clown." + +"Perhaps some of their playmates called at your house, to have fun +with Arnold or Mirabell," said the typewriter girl, "and they may have +dropped the Clown into your pocket as your coat hung on the rack." + +"Yes, that could have happened," said the Man. "But I remember I put +my hand in my pocket as I left the house, to make sure I had some +letters I was to mail. The Clown was not in my pocket then. He must +have got in after I left my house. And how could that happen, I should +like to know! I didn't go in any place. How could it have happened?" + +Of course neither the office boy nor the typewriter girl could tell. +They had not seen the Calico Clown fall from the tree into the pocket +of the Man as he passed underneath. And even the Man himself had not +seen this. + +"It's very queer," said the father of Mirabell and Arnold. "The only +way it could have happened that I can think of is that some children I +passed on the street may have tossed the Clown into my pocket. I have +very large ones in this coat, and sometimes they stand wide open." + +The Calico Clown stayed in the office all that day. It was the first +time he had ever been to business, and he rather liked it as a change. +Very few toys ever have the chance he had. He sat up on the Man's desk +and watched the girl click at the typewriter, and he watched the +office boy come in and out. The office boy looked at the Clown, too. + +"I'm going to have some fun with him when the Boss goes out to lunch," +said the office boy to himself. + +Now the Clown felt rather strange in the office. His part in life was +to make joy and laughter, and he could not do it sitting up straight +and stiff on a desk. He looked around, and he saw, not far from him, a +jolly little man, like a dwarf. + +"I wish I could speak to him," thought the Clown. "He looks as if he +belonged to the toy family." + +And you can imagine how surprised the Clown was when, all of a sudden, +the Man lifted the head right off the queer-looking little dwarf and +dipped his pen down inside him! + +"Why, he's an ink well!" thought the Clown. "That's what he is! An ink +well! And his head comes off the same as the Porcelain Cat's head +lifts off for matches to be put inside her. How very odd! I'd like to +talk to that chap." + +When the Man went out to lunch, into the office hurried the office boy +with a grin on his face. + +"What do you want?" asked the typewriter girl. "I want to make that +Clown jiggle," was the answer. "I'm going to have some fun with him." + +"No, you mustn't!" exclaimed the girl. "The Boss won't like it if you +touch him. If you break him--" + +"Aw, I won't break him!" cried the boy. "Let me have him!" + +He made a grab for the Calico Clown, and the girl tried to stop the +boy. As a result the Clown was knocked off the desk to the floor. + +"Oh, dear! I hope my glued leg is not broken!" thought the Clown. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +IN THE WASH-BASKET + + +"There, now look what you did!" cried the girl. + +"I didn't do it! You did!" said the boy. "If you hadn't jiggled it out +of my hand when I was taking it down it wouldn't have fallen." + +I don't know how long they might have gone on disputing in this +fashion if the office boy from next door had not poked his head in and +called: + +"What's the matter?" + +Then he saw the Calico Clown lying on the floor and he added: + +"Has Santa Claus been here?" and he laughed. + +"It came out of the pocket of the Boss," explained the first office +boy. "He put it on his desk. I was going to look at it and pull the +strings, 'cause the Boss is out to lunch, but she jiggled my hand and +made me drop it. Now it's busted." + +"Maybe it isn't," said the second office boy. "I'll see." + +He picked the Calico Clown up off the floor, punched him in the chest, +and the gay red and yellow chap banged his cymbals together. + +"He's all right so far," said the second office boy. "Now we'll pull +the strings." + +"And there's where trouble may come in," thought the Calico Clown +himself, for he heard and saw and felt all that went on. "I'm almost +sure my glued leg is broken," said the Clown to himself. + +But when the strings were pulled, one after another, and the arms and +legs and head of the funny fellow twisted and turned and jerked, the +two office boys and the typewriter girl laughed. And the Clown himself +was glad, for he felt that he was not broken. + +"If the Boss comes in and finds you playing with that Clown you'll +catch it," said the girl to the first office boy, after a while. + +"I guess I'd better put him back on the desk. I'm going out to get my +dinner pretty soon," the boy said. + +And a little later, while the girl was in an outer office looking over +some papers and while the Man was still at his lunch and while the +office boy was out getting something to eat, the Calico Clown was left +alone with the Ink-Well Dwarf. + +"How do you do?" politely asked the Clown. + +[Illustration: Calico Clown Has a Chat With Ink-Well Dwarf.] + +"Very well, thank you," answered the Dwarf. "And how are you? Where +did you come from? Are you going to work here?" + +"I never work!" exclaimed the Clown. "I am only to make jolly fun and +laughter." + +"Then this is no place for you," went on the Dwarf. "This is an +office, and we must all work, though I must admit that those boys seem +to get as much fun out of it as any one. They're always skylarking, +cutting up, and playing jokes. But I work myself. I hold ink for the +Boss." + +"I see you do," answered the Clown. "I suppose I don't really belong +here, made only for fun, as I am. And I did not want to come here. It +was quite accidental. I was brought." + +"How!" asked the Ink-Well Dwarf. + +"In the pocket of the Man they call the Boss," was the reply. And then +the Clown told of how he had fallen out of the tree. + +All the remainder of the day the Calico Clown sat on the desk of the +Man, wondering what would happen to him. At last he found out. + +At the close of the afternoon, when no more business was to be done, +the Man arose and closed his desk. He put papers in his different +pockets to take home with him, and then he saw the Calico Clown. + +"Oh, I mustn't forget you!" he said, speaking out loud as he sometimes +did when alone. And he was alone in the office now, for the boy and +the typewriter girl had gone. "I'll take you home and ask Arnold or +Mirabell to whom you belong," went on the man. "You are some child's +toy, I'm sure of that, and one of my children may know where you +live." + +The Calico Clown knew this to be so, and he knew that either Arnold or +Mirabell would at once be able to say that the Clown belonged to +Sidney, for they had seen Sidney playing with this toy. + +"Back into my pocket you go!" said the Man, and he took the Clown down +off the top of the desk. "There are a lot of handkerchiefs in that +pocket," the man went on. "They'll make a good, soft bed for you to +lie on." + +And, surely enough, there was a soft bed of handkerchiefs for the +Calico Clown. They were handkerchiefs the man had been carrying in his +pocket for some time, and he had forgotten to put them in the wash, as +his wife, over and over again, had told him to do. + +A little later, with the Calico Clown nestled down in among a pile of +handkerchiefs in his pocket, the Man started for home from his office. + +"Well, I am certainly doing some traveling this day," thought the +Clown, as he reposed in the Man's pocket. "First I am carried up a +tree, and then I fall down. Next I am taken to an office, just as if I +were in business like the Ink-Well Dwarf, and now I am being taken to +the home of Mirabell and Arnold. I wonder what will happen next." + +He did not have to wait long to find out. + +Down the street walked the Man, and soon he was within sight of his +home, where Mirabell and Arnold lived. The two children were out in +front, waiting for their father. As soon as they saw him coming they +stopped swinging on the gate and cried: + +"Here comes Daddy!" + +He waved his hand to them. + +Down the street they raced to meet him, and taking hold of his hands, +one on either side, they led him toward the house. + +Just then out of the side gate came Mandy, the jolly fat colored +washer-woman. She had a basket full of clothes on a small express +wagon. + +"Oh, that reminds me!" exclaimed Mirabell's father. "I'll put these +handkerchiefs from my pocket in your basket of wash, Mandy! You can +take them home with you, wash them clean and iron them and bring them +back to me." + +"'Deed an' dat's just what I can do!" exclaimed Mandy, smiling +broadly. "Put 'em right down yeah in mah basket!" + +She turned back the sheet she had spread over the soiled clothes and +made a little place down in one corner for the Man to put his +handkerchiefs. + +There was quite a bundle of them, all wadded together. + +"There, you can tell Mother I didn't forget my handkerchiefs this +time," said Daddy to his two children. "You saw me put them in the +wash, didn't you?" + +"Yes, Daddy, we did!" exclaimed Mirabell. "And, oh, you ought to see +what happened to my Lamb on Wheels to-day!" + +"What happened?" asked Daddy, as he straightened up after having +stooped down to thrust the handkerchiefs into the basket. + +"Why, Arnold's Bold Tin Soldier got caught in the curly wool on my +Lamb's back," explained Mirabell, "and they both fell into the flour +barrel!" + +"That WAS funny!" laughed Daddy. And he was thinking so much about +this and laughing so with Arnold and Mirabell that he never stopped to +think of the Calico Clown in among the handkerchiefs he had put in the +wash-basket. + +But that is what he had done. He had thrust the Clown, with the +handkerchiefs, down in Mandy's basket of soiled clothes. + +"Oh, my! Oh, dear me! Oh, what is going to happen now?" thought the +Calico Clown as he felt himself covered up and taken away. "Oh, if I +could only tell Mirabell or Arnold I am here. Oh, this is dreadful." + +But he could do nothing! Away he was taken in the wash-basket. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DOWN IN A DEEP HOLE + + +Daddy hurried into the house with Mirabell and Arnold. The children +were eager to show their father into what a funny pickle the Bold Tin +Soldier and the Lamb on Wheels had got. Of course, it wasn't exactly a +"pickle." I only call it that for fun. It was really the flour barrel +into which the two toys had fallen. + +"How did it happen?" asked Daddy, as the children brought out their +playthings, the Soldier still entangled in the Lamb's wool, and both +of them white with flour. + +"It happened when we were in the kitchen watching the cook make a +cake," explained Mirabell. "I was playing with my Lamb on the floor +and I lifted her up to let her see how nice the cake looked." + +"But what about your Soldier, Arnold?" asked Daddy. + +"Oh, I had set my Soldier Captain on the back of Mirabell's Lamb to +give him a ride," explained the little boy. + +"I said he could," remarked Mirabell. + +"And when she lifted her Lamb up she lifted my Soldier up, too," added +Arnold. + +"And then!" burst out Mirabell, laughing, "my foot slipped and I let +go of my Lamb on Wheels, and she fell into the flour barrel, and so +did Arnold's Bold Tin Soldier." + +"And they were a sight, all white and covered with flour!" exclaimed +the little boy. + +But now we must see what happened to the Calico Clown. + +At first he was very uncomfortable, stuck down in among the soiled +clothes. He feared he would smother; but really he did not need much +air, and he soon found he was getting all he needed. The clothes were +so soft that they did not crush him, and--he was not near any of +Mirabell's or Arnold's play clothes--he soon found that they were not +badly soiled. So, after getting over his first distaste, he began +rather to like the ride in the little express wagon. + +"It isn't as smooth as an automobile," thought the Calico Clown, "but +it is jolly for a change. The only thing that's worrying me is what is +going to happen next; and to know whether or not I shall ever see +Sidney again." + +And at this time, which was early in the evening, Sidney was still +looking everywhere for his Calico Clown. The little boy told his +mother and sister how he and Herbert had left the Clown and the Monkey +on a Stick on the porch while they went to get bread and jam. + +"And when we came back my Monkey was there," said Herbert, "but Sid's +Clown was gone." + +"It is very strange where your toy has got to," said Mother. She +helped Sidney and Herbert look, but the Clown seemed gone forever, and +Sidney felt sorry. + +"Now we can never have that circus," he said to his brother. + +"Oh, maybe he'll be found some day," was the answer. But Sidney sadly +shook his head. + +Trundling the little express wagon with her basket of clothes along +the streets, Mandy finally reached her home where she did the washing +and ironing. Her children were waiting for her to come to supper. Liza +Ann, the oldest girl, had set the table, and Jim, the next oldest boy, +was out on the steps watching for his mother, just as Arnold and +Mirabell watched for their daddy. + +"Is de table all set, honey?" asked Mandy of Liza Ann. "I hopes it is, +'cause I wants to put dese yeah clothes in to soak after I eats." + +"De table is all sot," explained Liza Ann. "An' de meat an' taters is +all ready to hotten up." + +"Dass good," sighed Mandy, for she was rather tired. "I'll jest leave +these yeah clothes till after supper," she went on, putting the basket +down in a corner of the room. + +"Dear me! I wonder how much longer I shall have to stay here," thought +the Calico Clown, tucked away under the sheet and in the pile of +handkerchiefs. "Aren't they ever going to let me out? This is worse +than being in jail!" + +But at last Mandy's supper was finished, and, with Liza Ann and Jim to +help her sort the clothes, she filled a tub with water and began. The +big sheet was taken off the top of the basket, and then Liza Ann +reached in and took up the bundle of handkerchiefs. + +"You wants to be keerful o' dem, honey," said her mother. "Dem's de +bestest an' most special hankowitches o' Mirabell's pa, an' he's very +'tickler how dey is washed. Better let me have dem, honey." + +Mandy reached over to take the handkerchiefs from Liza Ann, and at +that moment the little colored girl saw something red and yellow among +them. + +"Oh, what a funny handkowitch!" she called, and the next moment they +all saw the Calico Clown. Mandy took him out of the bundle. + +"Oh, Mammy! I want him!" cried Jim. + +"Nope! He's mine! I saw him, fustest!" exclaimed Liza Ann, and she +reached for the Calico Clown. + +"Wait a minute, now, chilluns. Wait a minute!" said Mandy, and she +held the toy close to her breast. "Dish yeah don't belongs to us." + +"But it come in de basket of wash, Mammy!" said Jim. "Why can't we +keep it?" + +"'Cause tain't belongin' to us," answered his mother. "I can jest +guess how it come in. Mirabell or Arnold, dey done drop it in dere +Daddy's pocket, an' he didn't know nothin' about its bein' in. He took +it out wif his hankowitches, and put it in mah basket of wash. An' I +brung it home. My! My! It suah is funny how it happened!" + +She held the Calico Clown up and looked at him. + +"Oh, ain't he jest grand!" cried Jim, his eyes shining with delight. + +"He suah is a gay fellow all right," said Mandy. + +Liza Ann reached up and pulled one of the Clown's strings. Quickly his +legs jiggled and he cut some funny capers. + +"Oh, my! Dat suah is scrumptious!" laughed the little colored girl. + +"Oh, Mammy, jest let us play with him a little while!" begged Jim. +"Den I'll take him back to where he belongs." + +"All right," agreed Mandy. "But be mighty keerful of him! If dat +Calico Clown should get busted Mirabell or Arnold is gwine to feel +mighty bad!" + +You see she didn't know the Clown belonged to Sidney, and not to +either Mirabell or Arnold. + +"Come on, we'll have some fun wif him!" said Liza Ann to her brother. + +And then, while their mother put the clothes to soak, the children +played with the Calico Clown. They were good and gentle children, and +the gay toy did not in the least mind clanging his cymbals for them or +doing his funny dance. He jiggled and joggled his arms and legs, and +went through such funny antics that Jim and Liza Ann laughed again and +again. + +"Po' li'l honey lambs!" said Mandy with a sigh, as she bent over the +wash tub. "I wish dey had some toys of dere own. But den I'se got good +clean and soft watah to wash wif, an' dat's a blessin'! Lots of folks +hasn't got only hard watah, what won't make no suds." + +After the clothes had been put to soak in a tub Mandy dried her hands +and sat and looked at Liza Ann and Jim playing with the Calico Clown. + +"Come now, you'd better get ready to take him back," she said to Jim, +after a while. + +"Does you mean to take him back where you got de basket of wash, +Mammy?" asked the colored boy. + +"Yes," his mother answered. "You know de big green house. You's been +dere befo', honey. You go dere now, Jim--tisn't late yet--an' you take +back dis Clown. Tell Mirabell or Arnold dat it got in de wash wif dere +daddy's pocket hankowitches." + +"All right," said Jim, with a sigh. "I will. But I suah does wish we +could keep him!" + +"So do I," sighed Liza Ann in a low voice. + +"Well, maybe some day I can make money enough to git you somethin' to +play wif," said their mother. + +As she had said, it was not late, though the sun had set. It was a +warm, summer night, and the moon was shining brightly. Jim knew the +way to the house where Mirabell and Arnold lived, for he had often +gone there both with his mother and alone, either to get or bring back +the clothes. + +With the Calico Clown wrapped in a piece of paper, Jim set off on his +trip. He hurried along, thinking how nice it would be if he had a toy +like that. He was wondering how long it would be before his mother +could earn enough money to buy one when, just as he turned into the +yard of the house where Arnold and Mirabell lived, Jim stumbled and +fell. + +The Calico Clown shot out of his hands, and the poor toy, as he flew +along, thought to himself: + +"Oh, what is happening now!" + +The next moment he fell into a deep hole, and only that he grasped the +long grass at the edge of it, Jim would have fallen in himself. + +"Fo' de lan' sakes!" exclaimed the little colored boy as he picked +himself up. "What have done gone an' happened now?" + +You see, he felt about it just as the Calico Clown did. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BACK HOME + + +The door of the house in which Arnold and Mirabell lived opened, and +their daddy looked out toward the front yard. He had heard the grunt +made by Jim when the little colored boy fell down and dropped the +Calico Clown into a hole. + +"Is anybody there?" asked Mirabell's father. + +"I'se heah!" exclaimed Jim, as he slowly arose. "I was bringin' back +de Calico Clown, an' I 'mos' fell into a big hole." + +"There, Father! I told you that hole ought to be covered up!" +exclaimed Mirabell's mother, who had also come to the door. + +"Oh, no'm! I didn't fall in!" answered Jim, who heard what was said. +"But I almos' did, an' I guess de Clown he fell in complete an' +altogether." + +"The Clown? What do you mean?" asked Daddy. + +"De Clown what got in Mammy's basket of wash," explained the little +colored boy. + +By this time he had picked himself up, and in the light that streamed +out from the open door of the house he saw the hole into which he had +so nearly fallen. It was a hole dug by a man who had come to fix the +sewer pipes that day, and when night came he had not finished. He left +a deep, wide, gaping hole just beside the front walk. + +Arnold, Mirabell and the others in the house knew of the hole, and +kept away from it. In the daylight, when Mandy had taken away the +wash, she had seen it and had not fallen in. But poor Jim, coming +after dark, had stumbled in the thick grass and had nearly plumped +himself in. + +As for the Clown--well, there he was down in the dirt at the bottom of +the hole! + +"I wonder what is the matter with me!" thought the gay red and yellow +fellow as he came to a stop in some soft dirt. "I seem to be very +unlucky!" + +"What does Jim mean about a Clown falling in the hole?" asked Arnold +curiously. + +"And a Clown being in the basket with the wash?" added Mirabell. + +"I think I can tell you," their father answered, suddenly remembering +what he had put in his pocket to bring home from the office. "But +first I will put some boards over the hole the plumber left so no one +else will fall in, or nearly fall in." + +"You'll get the Clown up, won't you, Daddy?" asked Mirabell. "Maybe +it's like the one Sidney had." + +"Did Sidney have a Calico Clown with one leg red and the other leg +yellow?" asked Daddy. + +"Yes, and it did all sorts of funny tricks when you pulled the +strings; and he clapped his cymbals when you punched him in the +chest," said Arnold. + +"Well, then this must be Sidney's Clown. But how it came in my pocket +is more than I can guess," said Daddy. "Yes, I'll get the Clown up out +of the hole, and then I'll put some boards over it." + +A lantern was brought out and flashed down into the hole. There, on +the bottom, lay the Calico Clown. + +"I'll bring him up!" offered Jim, and quickly he climbed down, caught +hold of the gay toy, and climbed out again. + +"Thank you, Jim," said Daddy. + +"Yes, that's Sidney's Clown," declared Arnold, when he had looked at +the red and yellow chap. "But how did he get in the basket of +clothes?" + +"That's quite a long story," said Daddy. "Come into the house and I'll +tell you. Did your mother send you back with the Clown, Jim?" he asked +of the little colored boy. + +"Yes'm--I mean yes, sah!" Jim answered. "He was in de basket all done +wrapped up in hankowitches." + +"Those were the handkerchiefs I took from my pocket and put in Mandy's +basket when I met her at the gate," said Mirabell's daddy. "And so you +found him, Jim!" + +"Yes'm--I mean yes, sah! Me an' Liza Ann found him. He's a jolly good +Clown; but Mammy, she wouldn't let us keep him 'cause as how she said +he belonged to Mirabell or Arnold." + +"No, he doesn't live here," said Arnold. "Oh, Sid will be so glad to +get him back!" + +"I suppose you and your sister felt bad about losing the Clown," said +Daddy to Jim. "Didn't you?" + +"I suahly did!" exclaimed the little colored boy. "So did Liza Ann." + +Daddy and Mother talked softly together a moment, and then Mother +hurried away to come back with something that made Jim's eyes sparkle +and open wide. + +For she had a little toy engine, which could be wound up with a key +and sent whizzing along. And there was a fine Jumping Jack, which +jiggled almost as nicely as did the Calico Clown. + +"Here are two toys that Arnold and Mirabell are through with," said +Mother, with a smile at Jim. "They are not broken, and they will each +go. Perhaps you will like them almost as much as you did the Calico +Clown." + +"Oh, golly!" cried Jim. "We'll like 'em better! 'Cause dere's two of +'em--one fo' each of us! Oh, we's eber so much obligedness." + +Clasping the two toys in his little brown hands, away Jim raced in the +darkness to tell his sister the good news. The Jumping Jack was for +her and the toy engine for him. And I may as well tell you now that +the two children were made perfectly happy with their toys--just as +happy as they would have been with the Calico Clown. + +"Well, thank goodness, I think my adventures are over for the night," +thought the Clown, as he was taken into Mirabell's house and the dirt +brushed off his red and yellow trousers. "This has been such a day! +Oh, SUCH a day!" + +And indeed it had been from the time he fell out of the tree into the +Man's coat pocket until Jim stumbled with him and he fell into the +hole. + +"Sidney will be glad to get his Clown back," went on Arnold, when the +toy had been set on the table where Daddy took his place to tell the +evening story. + +"I wish we could take it to him now," said Mirabell. + +"Mayn't we?" asked her brother. + +"It is getting late," said their mother. "You may take the toy over +the first thing in the morning." + +"But all the while Sidney will be wondering where his Clown is," +objected the little girl. + +"I know what we can do!" exclaimed Arnold. "We can telephone and tell +him it's here." + +"Yes, we can do that," said Daddy. + +So, a little later, Sidney was told, over the telephone, that his lost +Calico Clown had been found. The story was briefly told of how it had +got into the wash-basket after having been found in Daddy's pocket and +taken to the office. + +"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Sidney. "I'll be over the first thing in the +morning to get him." + +"But what I'm wondering about is how the Clown got in my pocket," said +Daddy, with a puzzled look on his face. "If you children didn't put it +there, who did?" and he looked at Mirabell and Arnold. + +And I might say that this was always a mystery, as much so as the +Clown's riddle about what made more noise than a pig under a gate. + +Daddy told Mirabell and Arnold their usual good-night story. Then the +children went to bed and Mother put the Calico Clown on the +mantelpiece where he would be safe for the night. + +"Whoever sees Sidney first in the morning," said Mother, as she, too, +got ready to go to bed, "may be the one to give him his toy." + +Then the lights were put out and the house was still and quiet. +Ordinarily, when this time came, the Calico Clown, like the other +toys, would have been at his liveliest. But now he was so tired, with +all his adventures of the day, that he just gave a long sigh and said: + +"I am not going to stir! I am just going to lie down here and sleep +until morning! Enough has happened for one day." + +So he stretched out, with a pen wiper for a cushion, and went to +sleep. + +Bright and early the next morning Sidney ran over to the house of his +cousins. + +"Is my Calico Clown here?" he cried. + +"Yes," answered Arnold, who was also up. "I'll get him for you." + +"Oh, thank you!" said Sidney, when he had his toy once more. And a +little later the Calico Clown was back home. But his adventures were +not over. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE TOY PARTY + + +"Oh, Sidney! aren't you glad you have your Calico Clown back?" cried +his sister Madeline when she saw her brother coming toward the house +with his toy which he had got at Arnold's home. "I just guess I am!" +said the little boy. "I thought I'd never see him again." + +"And I'm glad, too," cried Herbert, as he made his Monkey go up and +down the Stick. "Now we can get ready for our circus." + +"Are you going to have a show?" asked Madeline. + +"Yes," answered Sidney. "We have a Clown and a Monkey, and they're +always the funniest things in a circus. Don't you remember when we had +the show with my Monkey in it?" + +"Yes. And that was lots of fun," said Madeline. "But I know something +better than a show." + +"What?" Sidney asked. + +"A party," went on Madeline. "Let's have a Toy Party. That will be +better than a show, even a circus show." + +Sidney wanted to know how it would be better, and Madeline said: + +"'Cause you can have things to eat at a Toy Party, and you can't +always have things at a circus, lessen you buy 'em; and maybe not +then, 'cepting peanuts and lemonade. Let's have a Toy Party and we can +get mother to give us real things to eat." + +"Oh, that will be fun!" cried Sidney. "I should say so!" agreed +Herbert. + +"And we'll ask Dorothy to bring her Sawdust Doll," said Madeline, +"Arnold can bring his Bold Tin Soldier, and Mirabell her Lamb on +Wheels. And I'll bring my Candy Rabbit." + +"You did have a party for him," said Herbert. + +"Well, this one can be for Sid's Calico Clown," explained Madeline. +"And you can bring your Monkey on a Stick, Herb." + +The idea of a Toy Party seemed to please the two boys, and Madeline +was glad she had thought of it. She lost no time in getting ready for +it. + +"I'll go and put a new ribbon on the neck of my Candy Rabbit," she +said to her brothers. "You get your Monkey and Clown all nice and +clean, and then I'll ask Mother if Cook can make a special cake." + +"My Monkey is clean enough," said Herbert. "Dirt doesn't show on him, +anyhow. He's colored brown." + +"And my Clown's pretty good, even if he did fall in a dirt hole," went +on Sidney. "A Clown has to be a little dirty, for he falls all over +the circus ring, you know." + +"There isn't going to be any circus ring at our Toy Party," laughed +Madeline. "Now I'll go and see about the cake." + +"And we'll go and tell Dick, Arnold and the girls," said Sidney. +"Here, Madeline, please keep my Calico Clown for me until I come +back." + +Away he ran with his brother, who carried the Monkey on a Stick. The +Calico Clown rather hoped the long-tailed chap would be left to keep +him company, but it was not to be just yet. + +"But perhaps I can talk to the Candy Rabbit while Madeline is getting +ready for the party," thought the Clown. "He and I are old friends." + +But even this was not to be. Madeline probably did not think that the +Clown would have liked to be with some of the other toys for a while. +She just kept hold of the gay red and yellow fellow after her brother +had handed him to her, and took him with her to the kitchen, where she +knew her mother was. + +"Oh, Mother! may Cook bake us a cake for the Toy Party?" cried +Madeline, and, not thinking what she was doing, she laid the Calico +Clown down in a large basket of oranges which the fruit man had just +set on the kitchen table. + +"A cake for a Toy Party?" repeated Mother. "Yes, I think so. Tell me +more about it." + +So Madeline told about the Toy Party that was going to be held, and +how the Sawdust Doll, the White Rocking Horse, and all the other jolly +creatures were to come. + +"Course they won't EAT the cake--only make believe," explained +Madeline. "We'll eat the cake--we children." + +"Yes, I supposed you would," said Mother, with a laugh as she looked +at Cook. + +"And, please, may I help?" asked Madeline. + +"Yes," promised Cook, and then, not thinking what she was doing and +not seeing the Calico Clown, who had slipped away down in among the +oranges, she took the basket of fruit from the table. + +"I'll just set the oranges in the ice box," she said. "They need to be +well chilled for the orangeade, and it's a hot day." + +And that is how it was that the Clown, a little later, found himself +beginning to feel freezing cold. He had not minded being laid for a +time in with the golden, yellow fruit. It smelled so nice that he shut +his eyes and breathed deep of the perfume. He even took a little +sleep. And then, the next thing he knew, he felt a breath of cold air +after a door was slammed shut. + +"Dear me! what can have happened now?" said the Calico Clown, suddenly +awakening. "Am I back again at the North Pole workshop of Santa Claus? +It feels like it, but it doesn't look like it. For his shop was nice +and light, though it was sometimes cold. Here it is dark." + +"Well, I simply am freezing!" went on the Clown. "I've got to keep +warm, somehow!" + +So what did he do but stand up and begin to dance around among the +oranges. Up and down, first to this side and then to the other danced +the jolly fellow, jerking his arms and swinging his legs. He clapped +his hands together to warm them, and his cymbals clanged in the cold, +frosty air of the ice box. + +After a while the Clown began to feel warmer. But as soon as he +stopped jumping around he felt cold again. + +"I've got to keep moving, that's all there is to it!" he said to +himself, and he had to dance again. + +Really he must have looked funny, doing a jig on a basket of oranges, +but it was not so funny for the poor Clown himself. He was beginning +to get tired, and he was wondering how long he would have to keep up +his exercise, when the ice-box door suddenly opened and Cook lifted +out a bowl of cream. + +"Oh, for the love of trading stamps!" she cried, as she saw the Clown +in among the oranges. "How did you ever get there? You must be almost +frozen!" + +And the poor fellow would have been, if he had not danced. + +"I certainly didn't see you there when I put the fruit in the ice +box," went on the cook. "Madeline must have put you among the +oranges." + +And, of course, this was just what had happened. Naturally you may say +that the reason the cook saw the Clown the second time, after she +opened the ice-box door, was because some of the oranges rolled to one +side, allowing the Clown to be seen. But that isn't how it happened at +all. The Clown simply climbed out from among the fruit to dance and +keep himself warm, and that's how he happened to be seen. + +"Oh, dear me! To think I should do a thing like that!" cried Madeline, +when the cook handed her the Calico Clown. "Sidney might have thought +his toy was lost again if you hadn't found him. Now we'll bake the +cake, and I'll put the Clown by the stove to get warm." + +After a while everything was ready for the party. The cake was baked +and covered with icing. There were also some crullers and some +cookies. + +Herbert, Sidney and Mirabell put on their party clothes, and with the +Monkey on a Stick nicely brushed, the Candy Rabbit with a new ribbon +on his neck, and with the last specks of dirt shaken off the red and +yellow trousers of the Clown, they all waited for the others to come. + +"Here's Dorothy with her Sawdust Doll!" cried Madeline, running to the +window. + +[Illustration with caption: "Oh, I Have So Many Things to Tell You!"] + +"Yes, and Arnold is helping Dick carry over the White Rocking Horse," +added Sidney. "Oh, what fun we'll have!" + +"I hope Arnold brought his Bold Tin Soldier Captain and all the +others," said Herbert. + +Arnold brought them, and his sister Mirabell came with her Lamb on +Wheels. + +Then such fun as there was at the Toy Party! I really don't know +whether the children or the toys enjoyed it most. But I do know that +the children ate the cakes and cookies, which was something the toys +could not do. + +While Dick, Dorothy and the other boys and girls were in the room, the +toys could not speak to one another. But when, in playing some game +the lads and lassies went out into the yard, the toys had their +chance. + +"Oh, I have so many things to tell you!" said the Calico Clown. "I +have had so many adventures!" + +Then he related how the monkey had taken him up into the tree and how +finally he had got back home. + +"Quite remarkable," said the Lamb on Wheels. "You certainly have-- +Ouch! Oh, dear!" said the Lamb, suddenly switching one of her legs. + +"What's the matter?" asked the Bold Tin Soldier. "If anybody is +teasing you I'll make him stop!" and he drew his sword and looked very +fierce--as all tin soldiers look. + +"It was nothing," said the Lamb on Wheels. "Just a pang of rheumatism. +The remains of the cold I caught in one of my wheels the time I made +the voyage down the brook on the raft the boys built." + +Then the Sawdust Doll told of a little adventure she had had recently, +when she was left in the wrong doll carriage by mistake and was taken +home to the wrong house. + +"Nothing as remarkable as jumping downstairs and scaring the burglars +has happened to me," said the White Rocking Horse. "But Dick was +riding me in the kitchen the other day and he ran me over an egg." + +"Did it hurt you?" asked the Monkey. + +"No; but it spoiled the egg," said the Horse, laughing. + +"Well, I must say it is very nice of the children to get up a party +for us like this," said the Calico Clown. "And I, for one--" + +"Hush! Here they come! We must be very still and quiet!" whispered the +Candy Rabbit. + +And back into the room trooped the merry children, and they played +more games and ate more cake until none was left, and then the party +was over. + +"Well, I certainly have come to a happy home," thought the Calico +Clown, when he was put to bed that night on a closet shelf. "This is +just as jolly as being in the store!" And he snuggled up close to the +Candy Rabbit and the Monkey on a Stick. Then they all went to sleep. + +THE END + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STORY OF CALICO CLOWN *** + +This file should be named clown10.txt or clown10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, clown11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, clown10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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