However, this time no one saw Carlo taking away the Sawdust Doll. The dog had watched his chance, and when he saw Dorothy and the other girls and boys in the dining-room, eating cake and ice cream, Carlo just thought to himself:
“Now I can run in and grab something! I saw Dorothy put something up on the table. Maybe it’s a ball that I can have fun with!�
So Carlo hurried into the room where he had seen Dorothy lay something down, and, as the table was not very high, Carlo jumped right up on it.
“Oh, here’s something fine for me to carry away!� said the dog to himself, and then he picked up the Sawdust Doll.
Out of the room, down the hall and past the dining-room where the children were having such jolly times ran Carlo with the Sawdust Doll in his mouth. He did not hurt her, for he did not really bite her. He only carried her as a mother cat carries her kittens by the backs of their necks. Besides, being stuffed with sawdust as she was, the Doll could not feel pain. Of course her feelings were hurt a little when the dog grabbed her up so suddenly, but she seemed to know she would not really be harmed.
“There you are!� said Carlo, in dog language, as he dropped the Sawdust Doll down in the straw of his kennel, or house, at the end of the yard. “There you are! No one will find you here!�
The Sawdust Doll did not answer the dog, even though she may have known what he said. Pet animals and toy pets do not speak the same sort of talk, at least to one another. And pet animals can move about and bark or mew whether any real folks are looking at them or not. Toy dolls, rocking horses, and monkeys are not like that. They never move, or do anything if you watch them.
Carlo scuttled around in the straw until he had covered the Sawdust Doll from sight in his kennel. Then, wagging his tail, as though he had done something smart, he went back to the party.
“I’m glad he’s gone,� said the Doll.
Carlo liked parties—there were always stray bits of cake dropping on the floor and Carlo could pick them up. He didn’t mind it because they had been on the carpet. And it was good for the carpet to have him pick them up.