“Out across the road from Gran’ma’s home, ’way out in the country, there is a lovely pond,” Raggedy Andy explained.  “In the summer time pretty flowers grow about the edge, the little green frogs sit upon the pond lilies and beat upon their tiny drums all through the night, and the twinkling stars wink at their reflections in the smooth water.  But when Marcella and I went out to Gran’ma’s, last week, Gran’ma met us with a sleigh, for the ground was covered with starry snow.  The pretty pond was covered with ice, too, and upon the ice was a soft blanket of the white, white snow.  It was beautiful!” said Raggedy Andy.

[Illustration:  Marcella and Raggedy Andy in the snow]

[Illustration:  Marcella on a sled]

“Gran’ma had a lovely new sled for Marcella, a red one with shiny runners.

“And after we had visited Gran’ma a while, we went to the pond for a slide.

“It was heaps of fun, for there was a little hill at one end of the pond so that when we coasted down, we went scooting across the pond like an arrow.

“Marcella would turn the sled sideways, just for fun, and she and I would fall off and go sliding across the ice upon our backs, leaving a clean path of ice, where we pushed aside the snow as we slid.  Then Marcella showed me how to make ‘angels’ in the soft snow!”

“Oh, tell us how, Raggedy Andy!” shouted all the dollies.

“It’s very easy!” said Raggedy Andy.  “Marcella would lie down upon her back in the snow and put her hands back up over her head, then she would bring her hands in a circle down to her sides, like this.”  And Raggedy Andy lay upon the floor of the nursery and showed the dollies just how it was done.  “Then,” he added, “when she stood up it would leave the print of her body and legs in the white, white snow, and where she had swooped her arms there were the ‘angel’s wings!’”

“It must have looked just like an angel!” said Uncle Clem.

“Indeed it was very pretty!” Raggedy Andy answered.  “Then Marcella made a lot of ‘angels’ by placing me in the snow and working my arms; so you see, what with falling off the sled so much and making so many ‘angels,’ we both were wet, but I was completely soaked through.  My cotton just became soppy and I was ever so much heavier!  Then Gran’ma, just as we were having a most delightful time, came to the door and ‘Ooh-hooed’ to Marcella to come and get a nice new doughnut.  So Marcella, thinking to return in a minute, left me lying upon the sled and ran through the snow to Gran’ma’s.  And there I stayed and stayed until I began to feel stiff and could hear the cotton inside me go, ‘Tic!  Tic!’ as it began to freeze.

[Illustration:  Raggedy Andy on a sled at night]

“I lay upon the sled until after the sun went down.  Two little Chicadees came and sat upon the sled and talked to me in their cute little bird language, and I watched the sky in the west get golden red, then turn into a deep crimson purple and finally a deep blue, as the sun went farther down around the bend of the earth.  After it had been dark for some time, I heard someone coming through the snow and could see the yellow light of a lantern.  It was Gran’ma.