It was little Rags, in her nightgown. She ran to Merrimeg and threw her arms around her and clung to her tight.
“Don’t go, don’t go!” cried little Rags. “Don’t leave me! Stay and play with me! Oh please, oh please!”
“She’s coming back,” said her father. “I’ll bring her back as soon as I get the handkerchief. She’d run away if I left her here. She’ll be back.”
Merrimeg put her arm around little Rags and kissed her.
“Good-by,” said she. “Don’t cry. I’ve got to go now. Don’t cry. Good-by.”
The Rag-Bone Man pulled the sack up over Merrimeg and hoisted it up on his back.
“Don’t go, don’t go!” said little Rags, and put her head down on her arm.
The door closed behind the Rag-Bone Man and his sack, and the two gnomes; and little Rags in her nightgown stood all alone in the room, weeping.
The Rag-Bone Man walked so far and so long that Merrimeg fell asleep in the sack. When she woke up she was standing on the mossy roof of the gnomes’ house, rubbing her eyes; and in a moment they were all four going down the ladder into the gnomes’ kitchen.
Nibby ran to the ice box under the sink, and put his hand in.