Racky had made up his mind to stay in the cottage over night. His slide down the grassy hill, and his narrow escape from splashing into the brook, had made the runaway rocker a bit nervous.
"I'll stay here to-night," he said to himself, "and in the morning, as soon as I get a chance to slip away, I'll travel on."
But of course the Singing Girl knew nothing of this.
"Well, you are a nice, old-fashioned rocker!" she said as she looked at the chair and hummed a little tune. "We have no rocker in our cottage, and when Father comes home from chopping wood he will be glad to sit himself down and rest on your cushions. They look very soft!"
With that the Girl seated herself in the old, brown rocker and began swaying to and fro, singing: "La! La! La!"
"Dear me! I hope she doesn't break Grandma's glasses!" thought Racky, for he could feel the spectacles in between his seat and back cushions. "The old lady sat on me hard, it is true, but I wouldn't like her glasses to be smashed!"
Racky wished he could speak the talk of real people, that he might call out a warning to the Singing Girl, but he could not say a word. However he creaked and squeaked and rattled as best he could, hoping, in that way, to make her more careful.
But she only laughed as she rocked to and fro, saying:
"My, but you are an old chair! You must have come out of Noah's Ark, by the way you creak! And you are a traveling chair, too!" went on the Singing Girl, for she noticed that, as she rocked, the chair was sliding over toward the side of the cottage.
"Indeed I am a traveling chair!" said Racky, who could understand what the Singing Girl was saying, even though he could not talk to her himself. "I am quite a traveler! Not that I have gone as far as Gassy, my friend, the stove, in the laundry, for I have only just started. I am a runaway, traveling rocker! Just wait! In the morning you will not find me here, for I am going to travel on again."