"Now I can be myself," he thought. "I can come to life. I wish I could see the Sawdust Doll and talk to her," he said half aloud.
"Well, here I am," and the Sawdust Doll came out of Dorothy's room.
"The little girl is asleep," went on the Sawdust Doll, "so I came out
to talk to you. I want to hear all that happened in the toy hospital.
I haven't had a chance to ask you since you got back."
"And I haven't had a chance to talk to you," went on the White Rocking Horse. "It is nice and quiet, now, and we can talk as long as we like; or at least until morning comes."
"It must be a funny place—that hospital," said the Sawdust Doll.
"It is," answered the Rocking Horse. "But I would much rather be here with you."
"Thank you," replied the Sawdust Doll.
Now, while the toys were thus talking together in the middle of the night, two bad men were prowling around the house where Dick and Dorothy and their father and mother lived. The two bad men were called burglars, and they wanted to get in, and take the silver knives, forks, and other things that were in the dining room, and perhaps some rings from the dresser in the room of Dorothy's mother.
And as the White Rocking Horse and the Sawdust Doll were talking together at the head of the stairs the two bad men made their way into the house by unlocking the front door with a false key one of them carried.
"Hush! Don't make a noise!" said the big burglar.
"No, we must be very quiet," said the little burglar.