The rags were weighed, paid for, and tossed into the junk man’s wagon. Then he drove off with them—drove off with the Sawdust Doll in the middle of his old bag of rags, and he didn’t know a thing about it!
But the Sawdust Doll, herself, very well knew that something strange was happening to her.
“Oh, dear!� she sighed. “I don’t know whether I like this adventure or not! I wonder what will happen next!�
Away rattled the junk wagon, the ragged man on the seat calling from time to time:
“Any rags? Any bottles? Any old clothes?�
He bought almost anything, did that junk man, but he never before, that he knew of, had bought a Sawdust Doll.
When Dorothy came back from the house next door, after having helped Mirabell bake a little pie, the first thing she thought of was her Sawdust Doll.
“I must finish making her gingham dress,� thought the little girl. But when she hurried to the playroom and saw nothing of the pile of rags she had left there, with her thimble and needle on a table near by, and when she saw nothing of her doll, the little girl cried:
“Oh, where is she? Where is she?�
“Where is who, my dear?� asked Mother.