"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.