“I stayed in the clean big light room for two or three days and nights and watched my Sisters grow from pieces of cloth into rag dolls just like myself!”

“Your sisters!” the dolls all exclaimed in astonishment, “What do you mean, Raggedy?”

“I mean,” said Raggedy Ann, “that the Stranger Friend had borrowed me from Marcella so that he could have patterns made from me.  And before I left the big clean white room there where hundreds of rag dolls so like me you would not have been able to tell us apart.”

“We could have told you by your happy smile!” cried the French dolly.

“But all of my sister dolls have smiles just like mine!” replied Raggedy Ann.

“And shoe-button eyes?” the dolls all asked.

“Yes, shoe-button eyes!” Raggedy Ann replied.

“I would tell you from the others by your dress, Raggedy Ann,” said the French doll, “Your dress is fifty years old!  I could tell you by that!”

“But my new sister rag dolls have dresses just like mine, for the Stranger Friend had cloth made especially for them exactly like mine.”

“I know how we could tell you from the other rag dolls, even if you all look exactly alike!” said the Indian doll, who had been thinking for a long time.

“How?” asked Raggedy Ann with a laugh.

“By feeling your candy heart!  If the doll has a candy heart then it is you, Raggedy Ann!”

Raggedy Ann laughed, “I am so glad you all love me as you do, but I am sure you would not be able to tell me from my new sisters, except that I am more worn, for each new rag doll has a candy heart, and on it is written, ‘I love you’ just as is written on my own candy heart.”

“And there are hundreds and hundreds of the new rag dolls?” asked the little penny dolls.

“Hundreds and hundreds of them, all named Raggedy Ann,” replied Raggedy.

“Then,” said the penny dolls, “we are indeed happy and proud for you!  For wherever one of the new Raggedy Ann dolls goes there will go with it the love and happiness that you give to others.”

[Illustration]

[Transcriber’s Notes: 

There are a few variations in hyphenation between the introduction and the stories themselves.

“Today” and “downstairs” occur in the introduction, while “to-day” and “down-stairs” are in the stories.

Chicken coop is spelled once with and once without the hyphen.]