And when they asked Patrick about it, of course that was what he had done; just as Martha had told him to do.
“I’ll get her back!� cried Patrick. “I’ll keep watch, and when I see that junk man going past again I’ll get your doll back, Dorothy.�
“Can’t you find him now?� asked the little girl. “I want my new Sawdust Doll awful much! Something is always happening to her! First Carlo took her off to his kennel, then she got ice cream on her dress, and now a junk man has her! Oh, dear!�
“I’ll get her back! I’ll get the Sawdust Doll back!� said Patrick, and he hurried out to the street, thinking perhaps the junk man might be just around the corner.
But the junk man was not in sight. With his wagon filled with rags and bundles of newspapers, with the Sawdust Doll all wrapped up in pieces of cloth in one of his bags, the junk man was far away.
All day long the junk man drove through different streets buying odds and ends, and, all this while, he never knew he had the Sawdust Doll.
And poor Dorothy was crying her eyes out for her pet. She had other dolls, but she wanted, most of all, to have her birthday present back again.
At night the junk man drove to his shop, where he kept many piles of rags, bottles, old automobile tires and different things that he sold to other men.
After supper the bag, in which was the Sawdust Doll, was brought from the wagon into the junk shop, and emptied out on the floor.
“Want to help me sort the rags, Tinka?� called the junk man to his little girl.