Dorothy was just sewing a sleeve in the gingham dress, and thinking how nice it would look on her doll, when there came a ring at the door, and Mirabell, a little girl who lived in the next house, came in.
“Can you come over a minute, Dorothy?� asked Mirabell. “My mother is baking, and she said I could make a little pie all by myself. And there’s enough dough so you can make one, too! Come on over!�
“Oh, that will be fun!� cried Dorothy, and, forgetting for a moment all about her Sawdust Doll and the new gingham dress, up jumped Dorothy and away she ran with Mirabell, leaving the pieces of cloth, rags, rag-bag, Doll and everything on the floor.
When Martha, the maid, came in a little later and saw the pile in confusion on the floor, she just bundled everything up together—new gingham dress, rags, Doll, and all—and stuffed them into the rag-bag.
“Dorothy forgot to pick up her playthings,� thought the maid, as she stuffed the odd pieces of cloth into the rag-bag. “I’ll do it for her.�
And the maid never knew that she had also put the Sawdust Doll into the rag-bag.
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE JUNK SHOP
“Dear me!� exclaimed the Sawdust Doll to herself, as she felt that she was being stuffed into the rag-bag. “Dear me! This is dreadful! What sort of an adventure am I going to have now?�
The maid carried the rag-bag to the cellar, where there was a much larger bag, containing more rags, pieces of old carpet and other trash.
“It is nearly time Patrick sold the rags,� said the maid, as she emptied the contents of the small rag-bag into the larger one. The small rag-bag was kept in the sewing-room, where odds and ends were put into it day by day until it was filled. Then it was emptied into the larger bag down in the cellar, and, when that was full, it was sold to the junk man. Patrick, the gardener, usually attended to this, and he divided the money he got from selling the rags with Martha, the maid, who emptied the smaller bag.