Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was an American artist, cartoonist and children's author. One day his daughter Marcella found a dusty, faceless rag doll in the attic. Gruelle drew a face on the doll and named her Raggedy Ann. Marcella played with the doll so much, Gruelle thought other children would like the doll too. He started a company making the Raggedy Ann dolls and wrote a series of popular books for children based on the adventures of Marcella and Raggedy Ann which became timeless classics for many generations.
Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was an American artist, cartoonist and children's author. One day his daughter Marcella found a dusty, faceless rag doll in the attic. Gruelle drew a face on the doll and named her Raggedy Ann. Marcella played with the doll so much, Gruelle thought other children would like the doll too. He started a company making the Raggedy Ann dolls and wrote a series of popular books for children based on the adventures of Marcella and Raggedy Ann which became timeless classics for many generations.
Raggedy Ann Stories
Narrated by Cathy Dobson
Johnny GruelleUnabridged — 1 hours, 44 minutes
Raggedy Ann Stories
Narrated by Cathy Dobson
Johnny GruelleUnabridged — 1 hours, 44 minutes
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Overview
Johnny Gruelle (1880-1938) was an American artist, cartoonist and children's author. One day his daughter Marcella found a dusty, faceless rag doll in the attic. Gruelle drew a face on the doll and named her Raggedy Ann. Marcella played with the doll so much, Gruelle thought other children would like the doll too. He started a company making the Raggedy Ann dolls and wrote a series of popular books for children based on the adventures of Marcella and Raggedy Ann which became timeless classics for many generations.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940171258238 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Red Door Consulting |
| Publication date: | 08/29/2020 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
| Age Range: | 5 - 8 Years |
Read an Excerpt
Raggedy Ann Stories
By Johnny Gruelle
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2015 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-80439-2
CHAPTER 1
RAGGEDY ANN LEARNS A LESSON
One day the dolls were left all to themselves.
Their little mistress had placed them all around the room and told them to be nice children while she was away.
And there they sat and never even so much as wiggled a finger, until their mistress had left the room.
Then the soldier dolly turned his head and solemnly winked at Raggedy Ann.
And when the front gate clicked and the dollies knew they were alone in the house, they all scrambled to their feet.
"Now let's have a good time!" cried the tin soldier. "Let's all go in search of something to eat!"
"Yes! Let's all go in search of something to eat!" cried all the other dollies.
"When Mistress had me out playing with me this morning," said Raggedy Ann, "she carried me by a door near the back of the house and I smelled something which smelled as if it would taste delicious!"
"Then you lead the way, Raggedy Ann!" cried the French dolly.
"I think it would be a good plan to elect Raggedy Ann as our leader on this expedition!" said the Indian doll.
At this all the other dolls clapped their hands together and shouted, "Hurrah! Raggedy Ann will be our leader."
So Raggeay Ann, very proud indeed to have the confidence and love of all the other dollies, said that she would be very glad to be their leader.
"Follow me!" she cried as her wobbly legs carried her across the floor at a lively pace.
The other dollies followed, racing about the house until they came to the pantry door. "This is the place!" cried Raggedy Ann, and sure enough, all the dollies smelled something which they knew must be very good to eat.
But none of the dollies was tall enough to open the door and, although they pushed and pulled with all their might, the door remained tightly closed.
The dollies were talking and pulling and pushing and every once in a while one would fall over and the others would step on her in their efforts to open the door. Finally Raggedy Ann drew away from the others and sat down on the floor.
When the other dollies discovered Raggedy Ann sitting there, running her rag hands through her yarn hair, they knew she was thinking.
"Sh! Sh!" they said to each other and quietly went over near Raggedy Ann and sat down in front of her.
"There must be a way to get inside." said Raggedy Ann.
"Raggedy says there must be a way to get inside!" cried all the dolls.
"I can't seem to think clearly to-day," said Raggedy Ann. "It feels as if my head were ripped."
At this the French doll ran to Raggedy Ann and took off her bonnet. "Yes, there is a rip in your head, Raggedy!" she said and she pulled a pin from her skirt and pinned up Raggedy's head. "It's not a very neat job, for I got some puckers in it!" she said.
"Oh that is ever so much better!" cried Raggedy Ann. "Now I can think quite clearly."
"Now Raggedy can think quite clearly!" cried all the dolls.
"My thoughts must have leaked out the rip before!" said Raggedy Ann.
"They must have leaked out before, dear Raggedy!" cried all the other dolls.
"Now that I can think so clearly," said Raggedy Ann "I think the door must be locked and to get in we must unlock it!"
"That will be easy!" said the Dutch doll who says "Mamma" when he is tipped backward and forward, "For we will have the brave tin soldier shoot the key out of the lock!"
"I can easily do that!" cried the tin soldier, as he raised his gun.
"Oh, Raggedy Ann!" cried the French dolly "Please do not let him shoot!"
"No!" said Raggedy Ann "We must think of a quieter way!"
After thinking quite hard for a moment, Raggedy Ann jumped up and said: "I have it"! And she caught up the Jumping Jack and held him up to the door: then Jack slid up his stick and unlocked the door.
Then the dollies all pushed and the door swung open.
My! Such a scramble! The dolls piled over one another in their desire to be the first at the goodies.
They swarmed upon the pantry shelves and in their eagerness spilled a pitcher of cream which ran all over the French dolly's dress.
The Indian doll found some corn bread and dipping it in the molasses he sat down for a good feast.
A jar of raspberry jam was overturned and the dollies ate of this until their faces were all purple.
The tin soldier fell from the shelf three times and bent one of his tin legs, but he scrambled right back up again.
Never had the dolls had so much fun and excitement, and they had all eaten their fill when they heard the click of the front gate.
They did not take time to climb from the shelves, but all rolled or jumped off to the floor and scrambled back to their room as fast as they could run, leaving a trail of bread crumbs and jam along the way.
Just as their mistress came into the room the dolls dropped in whatever positions they happened to be in.
"This is funny!" cried Mistress. "They were all left sitting in their places around the room! I wonder if Fido has been shaking them up!" Then she saw Raggedy Ann's face and picked her up. "Why Raggedy Ann, you are all sticky! I do believe you are covered with jam!" and Mistress tasted Raggedy Ann's hand. "Yes! It's JAM! Shame on you, Raggedy Ann! You've been in the pantry and all the others, too!" and with this the dolls' mistress dropped Raggedy Ann on the floor and left the room.
When she came back she had on an apron and her sleeves were rolled up.
She picked up all the sticky dolls and putting them in a basket she carried them out under the apple tree in the garden.
There she had placed her little tub and wringer and she took the dolls one at a time, and scrubbed them with a scrubbing brush and soused them up and down and this way and that in the soap suds until they were clean.
Then she hung them all out on the clothes-line in the sunshine to dry.
There the dolls hung all day, swinging and twisting about as the breeze swayed the clothes-line.
"I do believe she scrubbed my face so hard she wore off my smile!" said Raggedy Ann, after an hour of silence
"No, it is still there!" said the tin soldier, as the wind twisted him around so he could see Raggedy. "But I do believe my arms will never work without squeaking, they feel so rusted," he added.
Just then the wind twisted the little Dutch doll and loosened his clothespin, so that he fell to the grass below with a sawdusty bump and as he rolled over he said, "Mamma!" in a squeaky voice.
Late in the afternoon the back door opened and the little mistress came out with a table and chairs. After setting the table she took all the dolls from the line and placed them about the table.
They had lemonade with grape jelly in it, which made it a beautiful lavendar color, and little "Baby-teeny-weeny-cookies" with powdered sugar on them.
After this lovely dinner, the dollies were taken in the house, where they had their hair brushed and nice clean nighties put on.
Then they were placed in their beds and Mistress kissed each one good night and tiptoed from the room.
All the dolls lay as still as mice for a few minutes, then Raggedy Ann raised upon her cotton-stuffed elbows and said: "I have been thinking!"
"Sh!" said all the other dollies, "Raggedy has been thinking!"
"Yes" said Raggedy Ann, "1 have been thinking; our mistress gave us the nice dinner out under the trees to teach us a lesson. She wished us to know that we could have had all the goodies we wished, whenever we wished, if we had behaved ourselves. And our lessons was that we must never take without asking what we could always have for the asking! So let us all remember and try never again to do anything which might cause those who love us any un-happiness!"
"Let us all remember," chimed all the other dollies.
And Raggedy Ann, with a merry twinkle in her shoe-button eyes, lay back in her little bed, her cotton head filled with thoughts of love and happiness.
CHAPTER 2RAGGEDY ANN AND THE WASHING
"Why, Dinah! How could you!"
Mamma looked out of the window and saw Marcella run up to Dinah and take something out of her hand and then put her head in her arm and commence crying.
"What is the trouble, Dear?" Mamma asked, as she came out the door and knelt beside the little figure shaking with sobs.
Marcella held out Raggedy Ann. But such a comical looking Raggedy Ann!
Mamma had to smile in spite of her sympathy, for Raggedy Ann looked ridiculous!
Dinah's big eyes rolled about in a troubled manner, for Marcella had snatched Raggedy Ann from Dinah's hand as she cried, "Why, Dinah! How could you?"
Dinah could not quite understand and, as she dearly loved Marcella, she was troubled.
Raggedy Ann was not in the least downhearted and while she felt she must look very funny she continued to smile, but with a more expansive smile than ever before.
Raggedy Ann knew just how it all happened and her remaining shoe-button eye twinkled.
She remembered that morning when Marcella came to the nursery to take the nighties from the dolls and dress them she had been cross.
Raggedy Ann thought at the time "Perhaps she had climbed out of bed backwards!" For Marcella complained to each doll as she dressed them.
And when it came Raggedy's time to be dressed, Marcella was very cross for she had scratched her finger on a pin when dressing the French doll.
So, when Marcella heard the little girl next door calling to her, she ran out of the nursery and gave Raggedy Ann a toss from her as she ran.
Now it happened Raggedy lit in the clothes hamper and there she lay all doubled up in a knot
A few minutes afterwards Dinah came through the hall with an armful of clothes and piled them in the hamper on top of Raggedy Ann.
Then Dinah carried the hamper out in back of the house where she did the washing.
Dinah dumped all the clothes into the boiler and poured water on them.
The boiler was then placed upon the stove.
When the water began to get warm, Raggedy Ann wiggled around and climbed up amongst the clothes to the top of the boiler to peek out. There was too much steam and she could see nothing. For that matter, Dinah could not see Raggedy Ann, either, on account of the steam.
So Dinah, using an old broom handle, stirred the clothes in the boiler and the clothes and Raggedy Ann were stirred and whirled around until all were thoroughly boiled.
When Dinah took the clothes a piece at a time from the boiler and scrubbed them, she finally came upon Raggedy Ann.
Now Dinah did not know but that Marcella had placed Raggedy in the clothes hamper to be washed, so she soaped Raggedy well and scrubbed her up and down over the rough wash-board.
Two buttons from the back of Raggedy's dress came off and one of Raggedy Ann's shoe-button eyes was loosened as Dinah gave her face a final scrub.
Then Dinah put Raggedy Ann's feet in the wringer and turned the crank. It was hard work getting Raggedy through the wringer, but Dinah was very strong. And of course it happened! Raggedy Ann came through as flat as a pancake.
It was just then, that Marcella returned and saw Raggedy.
"Why, Dinah! How could you!" Marcella had sobbed as she snatched the flattened Raggedy Ann from the bewildered Dinah's hand.
Mamma patted Marcella's hand and soon coaxed her to quit sobbing.
When Dinah explained that the first she knew of Raggedy being in the wash was when she took her from the boiler, Marcella began crying again.
"It was all my fault, Mamma!" she cried, "I remember now that I threw dear old Raggedy Ann from me as I ran out the door and she must have fallen in the clothes hamper! Oh dear! Oh dear!" and she hugged Raggedy Ann tight.
Mamma did not tell Marcella that she had been cross and naughty for she knew Marcella felt very sorry. Instead Mamma put her arms around her and said,
"Just see how Raggedy Ann takes it! She doesn't seem to be unhappy!"
And when Marcella brushed her tears away and looked at Raggedy Ann, flat as a pancake and with a cheery smile upon her painted face, she had to laugh. And Mamma and Dinah had to laugh, too, for Raggedy Ann's smile was almost twice as broad as it had been before.
"Jess lemme hang Miss Raggedy on de line in de bright sunshine foh haff an hour," said Dinah, "an' you won't know her when she comes off!"
So Raggedy Ann was pinned to the clothes-line, out in the bright sunshine, where she swayed and twisted in the breeze and listened to the chatter of the robins in a nearby tree.
Every once in a while Dinah went out and rolled and patted Raggedy until her cotton stuffing was soft and dry and fluffy and her head and arms and legs were nice and round again.
Then she took Raggedy Ann into the house and showed Marcella and Mamma how clean and sweet she was.
Marcella took Raggedy Ann right up to the nursery and told all the dolls just what had happened and how sorry she was that she had been so cross and peevish when she dressed them. And while the dolls said never a word they looked at their little mistress with love in their eyes as she sat in the little red rocking chair and held Raggedy Ann tightly in her arms.
And Raggedy Ann's remaining shoe-button eye looked up at her little mistress in rather a saucy manner, but upon her face was the same old smile of happiness, good humor and love
CHAPTER 3RAGGEDY ANN AND THE KITE
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.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Raggedy Ann Stories by Johnny Gruelle. Copyright © 2015 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
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