“De table is all sot,” explained Liza Ann.  “An’ de meat an’ taters is all ready to hotten up.”

“Dass good,” sighed Mandy, for she was rather tired.  “I’ll jest leave these yeah clothes till after supper,” she went on, putting the basket down in a corner of the room.

“Dear me!  I wonder how much longer I shall have to stay here,” thought the Calico Clown, tucked away under the sheet and in the pile of handkerchiefs.  “Aren’t they ever going to let me out?  This is worse than being in jail!”

But at last Mandy’s supper was finished, and, with Liza Ann and Jim to help her sort the clothes, she filled a tub with water and began.  The big sheet was taken off the top of the basket, and then Liza Ann reached in and took up the bundle of handkerchiefs.

“You wants to be keerful o’ dem, honey,” said her mother.  “Dem’s de bestest an’ most special hankowitches o’ Mirabell’s pa, an’ he’s very ’tickler how dey is washed.  Better let me have dem, honey.”

Mandy reached over to take the handkerchiefs from Liza Ann, and at that moment the little colored girl saw something red and yellow among them.

“Oh, what a funny handkowitch!” she called, and the next moment they all saw the Calico Clown.  Mandy took him out of the bundle.

“Oh, Mammy!  I want him!” cried Jim.

“Nope!  He’s mine!  I saw him, fustest!” exclaimed Liza Ann, and she reached for the Calico Clown.

“Wait a minute, now, chilluns.  Wait a minute!” said Mandy, and she held the toy close to her breast.  “Dish yeah don’t belongs to us.”

“But it come in de basket of wash, Mammy!” said Jim.  “Why can’t we keep it?”

“‘Cause tain’t belongin’ to us,” answered his mother.  “I can jest guess how it come in.  Mirabell or Arnold, dey done drop it in dere Daddy’s pocket, an’ he didn’t know nothin’ about its bein’ in.  He took it out wif his hankowitches, and put it in mah basket of wash.  An’ I brung it home.  My!  My!  It suah is funny how it happened!”

She held the Calico Clown up and looked at him.

“Oh, ain’t he jest grand!” cried Jim, his eyes shining with delight.

“He suah is a gay fellow all right,” said Mandy.

Liza Ann reached up and pulled one of the Clown’s strings.  Quickly his legs jiggled and he cut some funny capers.

“Oh, my!  Dat suah is scrumptious!” laughed the little colored girl.

“Oh, Mammy, jest let us play with him a little while!” begged Jim.  “Den I’ll take him back to where he belongs.”

“All right,” agreed Mandy.  “But be mighty keerful of him!  If dat Calico Clown should get busted Mirabell or Arnold is gwine to feel mighty bad!”

You see she didn’t know the Clown belonged to Sidney, and not to either Mirabell or Arnold.

“Come on, we’ll have some fun wif him!” said Liza Ann to her brother.

And then, while their mother put the clothes to soak, the children played with the Calico Clown.  They were good and gentle children, and the gay toy did not in the least mind clanging his cymbals for them or doing his funny dance.  He jiggled and joggled his arms and legs, and went through such funny antics that Jim and Liza Ann laughed again and again.