Children Stories - Raggedy Ann And The Kite

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Raggedy Ann And The Kite

from Raggedy Ann Stories

Raggedy Ann watched with interest the preparations.

A number of sticks were being fastened together with strings and covered
with light cloth.

Raggedy Ann heard some of the boys talk of "The Kite," so Raggedy Ann
knew this must be a kite.

When a tail had been fastened to the kite and a large ball of heavy
twine tied to the front, one of the boys held the kite up in the air and
another boy walked off, unwinding the ball of twine.

There was a nice breeze blowing, so the boy with the twine called, "Let
'er go" and started running.

Marcella held Raggedy up so that she could watch the kite sail through
the air.

How nicely it climbed! But suddenly the kite acted strangely, and as all
the children shouted advice to the boy with the ball of twine, the kite
began darting this way and that, and finally making four or five
loop-the-loops, it crashed to the ground.

"It needs more tail on it!" one boy shouted.

Then the children asked each other where they might get more rags to
fasten to the tail of the kite.

"Let's tie Raggedy Ann to the tail!" suggested Marcella. "I know she
would enjoy a trip 'way up in the sky!"

The boys all shouted with delight at this new suggestion. So Raggedy Ann
was tied to the tail of the kite.

This time the kite rose straight in the air and remained steady. The boy
with the ball of twine unwound it until the kite and Raggedy Ann were
'way, 'way up and far away. How Raggedy Ann enjoyed being up there! She
could see for miles and miles! And how tiny the children looked!

Suddenly a great puff of wind came and carried Raggedy Ann streaming
'way out behind the kite! She could hear the wind singing on the twine
as the strain increased.

Suddenly Raggedy Ann felt something rip. It was the rag to which she was
tied. As each puff of wind caught her the rip widened.

When Marcella watched Raggedy Ann rise high above the field, she
wondered how much Raggedy Ann enjoyed it, and wished that she, too,
might have gone along. But after the kite had been up in the air for
five or ten minutes, Marcella grew restless. Kites were rather tiresome.
There was more fun in tea parties out under the apple tree.

"Will you please pull down the kite now?" she asked the boy with the
twine. "I want Raggedy Ann."

"Let her ride up there!" the boy replied. "We'll bring her home when we
pull down the kite! We're going to get another ball of twine and let her
go higher!"

Marcella did not like to leave Raggedy Ann with the boys, so she sat
down upon the ground to wait until they pulled down the kite.

But while Marcella watched Raggedy Ann, a dot in the sky, she could not
see the wind ripping the rag to which Raggedy was tied.

Suddenly the rag parted and Raggedy Ann went sailing away as the wind
caught in her skirts.

Marcella jumped from the ground, too surprised to say anything. The
kite, released from the weight of Raggedy Ann began darting and swooping
to the ground.

"We'll get her for you!" some of the boys said when they saw Marcella's
troubled face, and they started running in the direction Raggedy Ann had
fallen. Marcella and the other girls ran with them. They ran, and they
ran, and they ran, and at last they found the kite upon the ground with
one of the sticks broken, but they could not find Raggedy Ann anywhere.

"She must have fallen almost in your yard!" a boy said to Marcella, "for
the kite was directly over here when the doll fell!"

Marcella was heartbroken. She went in the house and lay on the bed.
Mamma went out with the children and tried to find Raggedy Ann, but
Raggedy Ann was nowhere to be seen.

When Daddy came home in the evening he tried to find Raggedy, but met
with no success. Marcella had eaten hardly any dinner, nor could she be
comforted by Mamma or Daddy. The other dolls in the nursery lay
forgotten and were not put to bed that night, for Marcella lay and
sobbed and tossed about her bed.

Finally she said a little prayer for Raggedy Ann, and went to sleep. And
as she slept Marcella dreamed that the fairies came and took Raggedy Ann
with them to fairyland for a visit, and then sent Raggedy Ann home to
her. She awakened with a cry. Of course Mamma came to her bed right away
and said that Daddy would offer a reward in the morning for the return
of Raggedy.

"It was all my fault, Mamma!" Marcella said. "I should not have offered
the boys dear old Raggedy Ann to tie on the tail of the kite! But I just
know the fairies will send her back."

Mamma took her in her arms and soothed her with cheering words, although
she felt indeed that Raggedy Ann was truly lost and would never be found
again.

Now, where do you suppose Raggedy Ann was all this time?

When Raggedy Ann dropped from the kite, the wind caught in her skirts
and carried her along until she fell in the fork of the large elm tree
directly over Marcella's house. When Raggedy Ann fell with a thud, face
up in the fork of the tree, two robins who had a nest near by flew
chattering away.

Presently the robins returned and quarreled at Raggedy Ann for laying so
close to their nest, but Raggedy Ann only smiled at them and did not
move.

When the robins quieted down and quit their quarreling, one of them
hopped up closer to Raggedy Ann in order to investigate.

It was Mamma Robin. She called to Daddy Robin and told him to come. "See
the nice yarn! We could use it to line the nest with," she said.

So the robins hopped closer to Raggedy Ann and asked if they might have
some of her yarn hair to line their nest. Raggedy Ann smiled at them. So
the two robins pulled and tugged at Raggedy Ann's yarn hair until they
had enough to line their nest nice and soft.

Evening came and the robins sang their good night songs, and Raggedy Ann
watched the stars come out, twinkle all night and disappear in the
morning light. In the morning the robins again pulled yarn from Raggedy
Ann's head, and loosened her so she could peep over the side of the
limb, and when the sun came up Raggedy Ann saw she was in the trees in
her own yard.

Now before she could eat any breakfast, Marcella started out to find
Raggedy Ann. And, it was Marcella herself who found her. And this is how
she did it.

Mamma Robin had seen Marcella with Raggedy Ann out in the yard many
times, so she began calling "Cheery! Cheery!" and Daddy Robin started
calling "Cheery! Cheery! Cheer up! Cheer up! Cheerily Cheerily! Cheery!
Cheery!" And Marcella looking up into the tree above the house to see
the robins, discovered Raggedy Ann peeping over the limb at her.

Oh, how her heart beat with happiness. "Here is Raggedy Ann," she
shouted.

And Mamma and Daddy came out and saw Raggedy smiling at them, and Daddy
got the clothes prop and climbed out of the attic window and poked
Raggedy Ann out of the tree and she fell right into Marcella's arms
where she was hugged in a tight embrace.

"You'll never go up on a kite again, Raggedy Ann!" said Marcella, "for I
felt so lost without you. I will never let you leave me again."

So Raggedy Ann went into the house and had breakfast with her little
mistress and Mamma and Daddy smiled at each other when they peeped
through the door into the breakfast room, for Raggedy Ann's smile was
wide and very yellow. Marcella, her heart full of happiness, was feeding
Raggedy Ann part of her egg.

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