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.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

“We’ll get her for you!” some of the boys said when they saw Marcella’s troubled face, and they started running in the direction Raggedy Ann had fallen.  Marcella and the other girls ran with them.  They ran, and they ran, and they ran, and at last they found the kite upon the ground with one of the sticks broken, but they could not find Raggedy Ann anywhere.

“She must have fallen almost in your yard!” a boy said to Marcella, “for the kite was directly over here when the doll fell!”

Marcella was heartbroken.  She went in the house and lay on the bed.  Mamma went out with the children and tried to find Raggedy Ann, but Raggedy Ann was nowhere to be seen.

When Daddy came home in the evening he tried to find Raggedy, but met with no success.  Marcella had eaten hardly any dinner, nor could she be comforted by Mamma or Daddy.  The other dolls in the nursery lay forgotten and were not put to bed that night, for Marcella lay and sobbed and tossed about her bed.

Finally she said a little prayer for Raggedy Ann, and went to sleep.  And as she slept Marcella dreamed that the fairies came and took Raggedy Ann with them to fairyland for a visit, and then sent Raggedy Ann home to her.  She awakened with a cry.  Of course Mamma came to her bed right away and said that Daddy would offer a reward in the morning for the return of Raggedy.

“It was all my fault, Mamma!” Marcella said.  “I should not have offered the boys dear old Raggedy Ann to tie on the tail of the kite!  But I just know the fairies will send her back.”

Mamma took her in her arms and soothed her with cheering words, although she felt indeed that Raggedy Ann was truly lost and would never be found again.