Marcella liked to play up in the attic at Grandma's quaint old house,
'way out in the country, for there were so many old forgotten things to
find up there.
One day when Marcella was up in the attic and had played with the old
spinning wheel until she had grown tired of it, she curled up on an old
horse-hair sofa to rest.
"I wonder what is in that barrel, 'way back in the corner?" she thought,
as she jumped from the sofa and climbed over two dusty trunks to the
barrel standing back under the eaves.
It was quite dark back there, so when Marcella had pulled a large bundle
of things from the barrel she took them over to the dormer window where
she could see better. There was a funny little bonnet with long white
ribbons. Marcella put it on.
In an old leather bag she found a number of tin-types of queer looking
men and women in old-fashioned clothes. And there was one picture of a
very pretty little girl with long curls tied tightly back from her
forehead and wearing a long dress and queer pantaloons which reached to
her shoe-tops. And then out of the heap she pulled an old rag doll with
only one shoe-button eye and a painted nose and a smiling mouth. Her
dress was of soft material, blue with pretty little flowers and dots all
over it.
Forgetting everything else in the happiness of her find, Marcella caught
up the rag doll and ran downstairs to show it to Grandma.
"Well! Well! Where did you find it?" Grandma cried. "It's old Raggedy
Ann!" she went on as she hugged the doll to her breast. "I had
forgotten her. She has been in the attic for fifty years, I guess! Well!
Well! Dear old Raggedy Ann! I will sew another button on her right
away!" and Grandma went to the machine drawer and got her needle and
thread.
Marcella watched the sewing while Grandma told how she had played with
Raggedy Ann when she was a little girl.
"Now!" Grandma laughed, "Raggedy Ann, you have two fine shoe-button eyes
and with them you can see the changes that have taken place in the world
while you have been shut up so long in the attic! For, Raggedy Ann, you
have a new playmate and mistress now, and I hope you both will have as
much happiness together as you and I used to have!"
Then Grandma gave Raggedy Ann to Marcella, saying very seriously,
"Marcella, let me introduce my very dear friend, Raggedy Ann. Raggedy,
this is my grand-daughter, Marcella!" And Grandma gave the doll a twitch
with her fingers in such a way that the rag doll nodded her head to
Marcella.
"Oh, Grandma! Thank you ever and ever so much!" Marcella cried as she
gave Grandma a hug and kiss. "Raggedy Ann and I will have just loads of
fun."
And this is how Raggedy Ann joined the doll family at Marcella's house,
where she began the adventures of Raggedy Ann, told in the following
stories.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]