Hello, welcome to Stories Podcast.
I'm your host, Amanda Weldon.
Today's story is called Raggedy Andy Gets Trapped, an original story written for you by Johnny Gruelle, adapted for audio by Daniel Hines.
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Raggedy Andy Gets Trapped.
Once upon a time there was a little girl named Marcella, but everyone called her Marcy.
She had a lot of toys, but her favorite was an old rag doll she had found in her grandma's things.
She had little button eyes and a big yarn smile and seemed extra special because she was so soft and so old.
Her name was Raggedy Ann.
Raggedy Ann was the leader of all of Marcy's dolls and often led them on big adventures.
Always when Marcy wasn't looking, of course.
It's a rule among toys that they can only move around when people aren't looking.
Otherwise, it would cause all kinds of confusion.
Still, they love to play and they're always paying attention, even if they don't say anything.
One Saturday people were out working on the eaves of the house and the dolls facing the window could see them.
The people made lots of noise with their hammers because they were putting new gutters around the eaves, and pounding on the tin makes a great deal of noise.
Marcy had not been playing with the dolls all that day, for she had gone visiting her friends.
So when the people were hammering and making a lot of noise, the dolls could talk to each other without fear of anyone hearing or knowing.
They could really talk to each other.
What are they doing now?
Raggedy Andy asked.
He was lying with his head beneath a little bed quilt, just as Marcy had propped him when she left the nursery, so he could not see what was going on.
We can only see the men's legs as they pass the window, answered Raggedy Ann.
But they are putting new shingles or something on the roof.
After everyone had left their work and gone home to supper and the house was quiet, Raggedy Andy cautiously moved his head out from under the little bed quilt and, seeing that the coast was clear, sat up.
This was a signal for all the dolls to sit up and smooth out the wrinkles in their clothes.
The nursery window was open, so Raggedy Andy lifted the little penny dolls to the sill and climbed up beside them.
Leaning out, he could look along the new shiny tin gutter the work people had put in place.
They had to see more, so they climbed out the window and onto the eave of the roof where the gutter hung.
Here's a grand place to have a lovely slide, Andy said as he gave one of the penny dolls a scoot down the shiny tin gutter.
Whee!
See her go!
Raggedy Ann cried.
All the other dolls climbed upon the windowsill beside him.
Scoot me too! cried the other little penny doll in her squeaky little voice.
And Raggedy Andy took her in his rag hand and gave her a great swing which sent her scooting down the shiny tin gutter.
Ker-swish!
Then Raggedy Andy climbed into the gutter himself and, taking a few steps, spread out his feet and went scooting down the outside of the shiny tin, since they were too big for the hole.
The other dolls followed his example and scooted along behind him.
When Raggedy Andy came to the place where he expected to find the penny dolls lying, they were nowhere about.
Perhaps you scooted them farther than you thought, Raggedy Ann said.
Perhaps I did, Raggedy Andy said.
We will look around the bend in the eave.
Oh dear, he exclaimed when he had peeped around the corner of the roof.
The gutter ends here, and there is nothing but a hole.
They must have scooted right into the hole, said Raggedy Ann.
Raggedy Andy lay flat upon the shiny tin and looked down into the hole.
Are you down there, Penny Dolls? he called.
There was no answer.
I hope their heads were not broken, Raggedy Ann said.
I'm so sorry I scooted them, Raggedy Andy cried as he brushed his hand over his shoe-button eyes.
Maybe, if you hold to my feet, I can reach down the hole and find them and pull them up again.
He added.
The soldier doll Joe and Henny, the Dutch doll, each caught hold of a foot of Raggedy Andy and let him slide down into the hole.
It was a rather tight fit, but Raggedy Andy wiggled and twisted until all the dolls could see of him were his two feet.
I can't find them, he said in muffled tones.
Let me down further and I think I'll be able to reach them.
Now Henny and Joe thought that Raggedy Andy meant for them to let go of his feet, and this they did.
Raggedy Andy kept wiggling and twisting until he came to a bend in the pipe and could go no further.
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I can't find them, he cried.
They have gone farther down the pipe.
Now you can pull me up.
We can't reach you, Raggedy Andy, Raggedy Ann called down the pipe.
Try to wriggle back up a piece and we'll catch your feet and pull you up.
Raggedy.
Andy tried to wiggle backward up the pipe, but his clothes caught upon a little piece of tin which stuck out from inside of the pipe, and there he stayed.
He could neither go down nor come back up.
What shall we do?
Raggedy Ann cried.
The folks will never find him down there.
We cannot tell them where he is and they will never guess it.
The dolls were all very sad.
They stayed out upon the shiny new tin gutter until it began raining and hoped, and hoped that Raggedy Andy could get back up to them.
Then they went inside the nursery and sat looking out the window until it was time for the folks to get up and the house to be awake for the day.
Then they went back to the position each had been in when Marcy had left them.
And although they were very quiet, each one was so sorry to lose Raggedy Andy and each felt that he would never be found again.
The rain must have soaked his cotton through and through, sighed Raggedy Ann.
All the waters from the house run down the shiny tin gutters and down the pipe into a rain barrel at the bottom.
Then Raggedy Ann remembered that there was an opening at the bottom of the pipe.
Tomorrow night, if we have a chance, we dolls must take a stick and see if we can reach Raggedy Andy from the bottom of the pipe and pull him down to us.
She thought.
Marcy came up to the nursery and played all day, watching the rain patter upon the new tin gutter.
She wondered where Raggedy Andy was, although she did not get worried about him until she had asked Mama where he might be.
"'He must be just where you left him,' Mama said.
"'I cannot remember where I left him,' Marcy said.
"'I thought he was with all the other dolls in the nursery, though.'
All day Sunday it rained, and all of Sunday night and Sunday morning when Daddy started to work it was still raining.
As Daddy walked out of the front gate, he turned to wave goodbye to Mama and Marcy, and then he saw something.
The rainwater was backing up from the gutters and spilling over the roof.
Dad came right back into the house and called up the workers who had put in the new shiny tin gutters.
The drain pipe is plugged up.
Some of you must have left shavings or something in the eaves and it is washed down into the pipe so that the water pours off the roof and sheets.
We'll send someone right up to fix it, the workers said.
So along about 10 o'clock that morning, one of the workers came to fix the pipe.
But although he punched a long pole down the pipe and punched and punched, he could not dislodge whatever it was which plugged the pipe and kept the water from running through it.
So then the man measured with his stick so that he knew just where the place was, and with a pair of tin shears he cut a section from the pipe and found Raggedy Andy.
Raggedy Andy was punched quite out of shape and all jammed together.
But when the man straightened out the funny little figure, Raggedy Andy looked up at him with his customary happy smile.
The man laughed and carried little water-soaked Raggedy Andy into the house.
I guess your little girl must have dropped this rag doll down into the drainpipe, the man said to Mama.
I'm so glad you found him, Mama said to the man.
We have hunted all over the house for him.
Marcy could not remember where she put him.
So when I get him nice and dry I'll hide him in a nice, easy place for her to find and she will not know.
He has been out in the rain all night.
So Mama put Raggedy Andy behind the radiator and there he sat all afternoon steaming and drying out.
And as he sat there, he smiled and smiled, even though there was no one to see him.
He felt very happy within, and he liked to smile anyway, because his smile was painted on.
And another reason Raggedy Andy smiled was because he was not lonesome.
Inside his waist were the two little penny dolls.
The man had punched Raggedy Andy farther down into the pipe and he had been able to reach the two little dolls and tuck them into a safe place.
Won't they all be surprised to see us back again?
Raggedy Andy whispered as he patted the two little penny dolls with his soft rag hands.
And the two little penny dolls nestled against Raggedy Andy's soft cotton-stuffed body and thought how nice it was to have such a happy sunny friend.
And there they stayed until the next morning, when they reunited with all their friends.
Today's story, Raggedy Andy Gets Trapped, was written for you by Johnny Gruel, adapted for audio by Daniel Hines, edited and produced by Ellie Hines, and performed for you by me, Amanda Weldon.
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