Gainsville, Florida,January 8, 1919.
Johnny Gruelle,
Care of P. F. Volland Company.
Chicago, Ill.
Dear Johnny:
When I saw your Raggedy Ann books and dolls in a store near here, I went right in and bought one of each, and when I had read your introduction to "Raggedy Ann" I went right up to an old trunk in my own attic and brought down the doll I am sending you with this letter.
This doll belonged to my mother and she played with it when a little girl. She treasured it highly, I know, for she kept it until I came and then she gave it to me.
The fun that we two have had together I cannot begin to tell you, but often, like the little boy who went out into the garden to eat worms when all the world seemed blue and clouded, this doll and I went out under the arbor and had our little cry together. I can still feel it's soft rag arms (as I used to imagine) about me, and hear the words of comfort (also imaginary) that were whispered in my ear.
As you say in your Raggedy Ann book, "Fairyland must be filled with rag dolls, soft loppy rag dolls who go through all the beautiful adventures found there, nestling in the crook of a dimpled arm." I truly believe there is such a fairyland and that rag dolls were first made there, or how else could they bring so much sunshine into a child's life?
All the little girls of my acquaintance have your Raggedy Ann book and doll, and for the happiness you have brought to them let me give to you the doll of all my dolls, the doll I loved most dearly.
May it prove to you a gift from Fairyland, bringing with it all the "wish come true" that you may wish and, if possible, add to the sunshine in your life.
My mother called the doll Raggedy Andy and it was by this name that I have always known him. Is it any wonder that I was surprised when I saw the title of your book?
Introduce Raggedy Andy to Raggedy Ann, dear Johnny. Let him share in the happiness of your household.
Sincerely yours,Raggedy Andy's "Mama."
Wilton, Connecticut,January 12, 1919.
Dear John:
Your letter brings many pleasant memories to my mind and takes me back to my childhood.
Living next door to us, when I was about four years old, was a little girl named Bessie; I cannot recall her last name. When my mother made Raggedy Ann for me, Bessie's mother made a rag doll for her, for we two always played together; as I recall, there was no fence between our two houses.
Bessie's doll was made a day or so after Raggedy Ann, I think, though I am not quite certain which of the two dolls was made first. However, Bessie's doll was given the name of Raggedy Andy, and one of the two dolls was named after the other, so that their names would sound alike.
We children played with the two rag dolls most of the time until Bessie's family moved away—when I was eight or nine years old. They had faces just alike; the mother who made the first doll probably painted both doll faces. I do not remember just how Raggedy Andy was dressed, but I know he often wore dresses over his boy clothes when Bessie and I decided that he and Raggedy Ann should be sisters for the day.
You will remember I told you about Raggedy Andy long ago, John.
Isn't it strange that the two old rag dolls should come together after all these years? I wish Raggedy Andy's "Mama" had signed her name, for I should like to write to her. Perhaps there may be some way of finding her out.
Anyway, it seems to me you have the subject for another rag doll book, for Raggedy Andy must have had some wonderful adventures in his long life.
Yours lovingly,Mom.
HOW RAGGEDY ANDY CAME
One day Daddy took Raggedy Ann down to his office and propped her up against some books upon his desk; he wanted to have her where he could see her cheery smile all day, for, as you must surely know, smiles and happiness are truly catching.
Daddy wished to catch a whole lot of Raggedy Ann's cheeriness and happiness and put all this down on paper, so that those who did not have Raggedy Ann dolls might see just how happy and smiling a rag doll can be.
So Raggedy Ann stayed at Daddy's studio for three or four days.
She was missed very, very much at home and Marcella really longed for her, but knew that Daddy was borrowing some of Raggedy Ann's sunshine, so she did not complain.
Raggedy Ann did not complain either, for in addition to the sunny, happy smile she always wore (it was painted on), Raggedy Ann had a candy heart, and of course no one (not even a rag doll) ever complains if they have such happiness about them.
One evening, just as Daddy was finishing his day's work, a messenger boy came with a package; a nice, soft lumpy package.
Daddy opened the nice, soft lumpy package and found a letter.
Gran'ma had told Daddy, long before this, that at the time Raggedy Ann was made, a neighbor lady had made a boy doll, Raggedy Andy, for her little girl, who always played with Gran'ma.
And when Gran'ma told Daddy this she wondered whatever had become of her little playmate and the boy doll, Raggedy Andy.
After reading the letter, Daddy opened the other package which had been inside the nice, soft, lumpy package and found—Raggedy Andy.
Raggedy Andy had been carefully folded up.
His soft, loppy arms were folded up in front of him and his soft, loppy legs were folded over his soft, loppy arms, and they were held this way by a rubber band.
Raggedy Andy must have wondered why he was being "done up" this way, but it could not have caused him any worry, for in between where his feet came over his face Daddy saw his cheery smile.
After slipping off the rubber band, Daddy smoothed out the wrinkles in Raggedy Andy's arms and legs.
Then Daddy propped Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy up against books on his desk, so that they sat facing each other; Raggedy Ann's shoe button eyes looking straight into the shoe button eyes of Raggedy Andy.
They could not speak—not right out before a real person—so they just sat there and smiled at each other.
Daddy could not help reaching out his hands and feeling their throats.
Yes! There was a lump in Raggedy Ann's throat, and there was a lump in Raggedy Andy's throat. A cotton lump, to be sure, but a lump nevertheless.
"So, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, that is why you cannot talk, is it?" said Daddy.
"I will go away and let you have your visit to yourselves, although it is good to sit and share your happiness by watching you."
Daddy then took the rubber band and placed it around Raggedy Ann's right hand, and around Raggedy Andy's right hand, so that when he had it fixed properly they sat and held each other's hands.
Daddy knew they would wish to tell each other all the wonderful things that had happened to them since they had parted more than fifty years before.
So, locking his studio door, Daddy left the two old rag dolls looking into each other's eyes.
The next morning, when Daddy unlocked his door and looked at his desk, he saw that Raggedy Andy had fallen over so that he lay with his head in the bend of Raggedy Ann's arm.
THE NURSERY DANCE
When Raggedy Andy was first brought to the nursery he was very quiet.
Raggedy Andy did not speak all day, but he smiled pleasantly to all the other dolls. There was Raggedy Ann, the French doll, Henny, the little Dutch doll, Uncle Clem, and a few others.
Some of the dolls were without arms and legs.
One had a cracked head. She was a nice doll, though, and the others all liked her very much.
All of them had cried the night Susan (that was her name) fell off the toy box and cracked her china head.
Raggedy Andy did not speak all day.
But there was really nothing strange about this fact, after all.
None of the other dolls spoke all day, either.
Marcella had played in the nursery all day and of course they did not speak in front of her.
Marcella thought they did, though, and often had them saying things which they really were not even thinking of.
For instance, when Marcella served water with sugar in it and little oyster crackers for "tea," Raggedy Andy was thinking of Raggedy Ann, and the French doll was thinking of one time when Fido was lost.
Marcella took the French doll's hand, and passed a cup of "tea" to Raggedy Andy, and said, "Mr. Raggedy Andy, will you have another cup of tea?" as if the French doll was talking.
And then Marcella answered for Raggedy Andy, "Oh, yes, thank you! It is so delicious!"
Neither the French doll nor Raggedy Andy knew what was going on, for they were thinking real hard to themselves.
Nor did they drink the tea when it was poured for them. Marcella drank it instead.
Perhaps this was just as well, for, most of the dolls were moist inside from the "tea" of the day before.
Marcella did not always drink all of the tea, often she poured a little down their mouths.
Sugar and water, if taken in small quantities, would not give the dolls colic, Marcella would tell them, but she did not know that it made their cotton, or sawdust insides, quite sticky.
Quite often, too, Marcella forgot to wash their faces after a "tea," and Fido would do it for them when he came into the nursery and found the dolls with sweets upon their faces.
Really, Fido was quite a help in this way, but he often missed the corners of their eyes and the backs of their necks where the "tea" would run and get sticky. But he did his best and saved his little Mistress a lot of work.
No, Raggedy Andy did not speak; he merely thought a great deal.
One can, you know, when one has been a rag doll as long as Raggedy Andy had. Years and years and years and years!
Even Raggedy Ann, with all her wisdom, did not really know how long Raggedy Andy and she had been rag dolls.
If Raggedy Ann had a pencil in her rag hand and Marcella guided it for her, Raggedy Ann could count up to ten—sometimes. But why should one worry one's rag head about one's age when all one's life has been one happy experience after another, with each day filled with love and sunshine?
Raggedy Andy did not know his age, but he remembered many things that had happened years and years and years ago, when he and Raggedy Ann were quite young.
It was of these pleasant times Raggedy Andy was thinking all day, and this was the reason he did not notice that Marcella was speaking for him.
Raggedy Andy could patiently wait until Marcella put all the dollies to bed and left them for the night, alone in the nursery.
The day might have passed very slowly had it not been for the happy memories which filled Raggedy Andy's cotton-stuffed head.
But he did not even fidget.
Of course, he fell out of his chair once, and his shoe button eyes went "Click!" against the floor, but it wasn't his fault. Raggedy Andy was so loppy he could hardly be placed in a chair so that he would stay, and Marcella jiggled the table.
Marcella cried for Raggedy Andy, "AWAA! AWAA!" and picked him up and snuggled him and scolded Uncle Clem for jiggling the table.
Through all this Raggedy Andy kept right on thinking his pleasant thoughts, and really did not know he had fallen from the chair.
You see how easy it is to pass over the little bumps of life if we are happy inside.
And so Raggedy Andy was quiet all day, and so the day finally passed.
Raggedy Andy was given one of Uncle Clem's clean white nighties and shared Uncle Clem's bed. Marcella kissed them all good night and left them to sleep until morning.
But as soon as she had left the room all the dolls raised up in their beds. When their little mistress' footsteps passed out of hearing, all the dollies jumped out of their beds and gathered around Raggedy Andy.
Raggedy Ann introduced them one by one and Raggedy Andy shook hands with each.
"I am very happy to know you all!" he said, in a voice as kindly as Raggedy Ann's, "and I hope we will all like each other as much as Raggedy Ann and I have always liked each other!"
"Oh, indeed we shall!" the dollies all answered. "We love Raggedy Ann because she is so kindly and happy, and we know we shall like you too, for you talk like Raggedy Ann and have the same cheery smile!"
"Now that we know each other so well, what do you say to a game, Uncle Clem?" Raggedy Andy cried, as he caught Uncle Clem and danced about the floor.
Henny, the Dutch doll, dragged the little square music box out into the center of the room and wound it up. Then all, catching hands, danced in a circle around it, laughing and shouting in their tiny doll voices.
"That was lots of fun!" Raggedy Andy said, when the music stopped and all the dolls had taken seats upon the floor facing him. "You know I have been shut up in a trunk up in an attic for years and years and years."
"Wasn't it very lonesome in the trunk all that time?" Susan asked in her queer little cracked voice. You see, her head had been cracked.
"Oh, not at all," Raggedy Andy replied, "for there was always a nest of mice down in the corner of the trunk. Cute little Mama and Daddy mice, and lots of little teeny weeny baby mice. And when the mama and daddy mice were away, I used to cuddle the tiny little baby mice!"
"No wonder you were never lonesome!" said Uncle Clem, who was very kind and loved everybody and everything.
"No, I was never lonesome in the old trunk in the attic, but it is far more pleasant to be out again and living here with all you nice friends!" said Raggedy Andy.
And all the dolls thought so too, for already they loved Raggedy Andy's happy smile and knew he would prove to be as kindly and lovable as Raggedy Ann.
