The idea of a Toy Party seemed to please the two boys, and Madeline was glad she had thought of it.  She lost no time in getting ready for it.

“I’ll go and put a new ribbon on the neck of my Candy Rabbit,” she said to her brothers.  “You get your Monkey and Clown all nice and clean, and then I’ll ask Mother if Cook can make a special cake.”

“My Monkey is clean enough,” said Herbert.  “Dirt doesn’t show on him, anyhow.  He’s colored brown.”

“And my Clown’s pretty good, even if he did fall in a dirt hole,” went on Sidney.  “A Clown has to be a little dirty, for he falls all over the circus ring, you know.”

“There isn’t going to be any circus ring at our Toy Party,” laughed Madeline.  “Now I’ll go and see about the cake.”

“And we’ll go and tell Dick, Arnold and the girls,” said Sidney.  “Here, Madeline, please keep my Calico Clown for me until I come back.”

Away he ran with his brother, who carried the Monkey on a Stick.  The Calico Clown rather hoped the long-tailed chap would be left to keep him company, but it was not to be just yet.

“But perhaps I can talk to the Candy Rabbit while Madeline is getting ready for the party,” thought the Clown.  “He and I are old friends.”

But even this was not to be.  Madeline probably did not think that the Clown would have liked to be with some of the other toys for a while.  She just kept hold of the gay red and yellow fellow after her brother had handed him to her, and took him with her to the kitchen, where she knew her mother was.

“Oh, Mother! may Cook bake us a cake for the Toy Party?” cried Madeline, and, not thinking what she was doing, she laid the Calico Clown down in a large basket of oranges which the fruit man had just set on the kitchen table.

“A cake for a Toy Party?” repeated Mother.  “Yes, I think so.  Tell me more about it.”

So Madeline told about the Toy Party that was going to be held, and how the Sawdust Doll, the White Rocking Horse, and all the other jolly creatures were to come.

“Course they won’t eat the cake—­only make believe,” explained Madeline.  “We’ll eat the cake—­we children.”

“Yes, I supposed you would,” said Mother, with a laugh as she looked at Cook.

“And, please, may I help?” asked Madeline.

“Yes,” promised Cook, and then, not thinking what she was doing and not seeing the Calico Clown, who had slipped away down in among the oranges, she took the basket of fruit from the table.

“I’ll just set the oranges in the ice box,” she said.  “They need to be well chilled for the orangeade, and it’s a hot day.”

And that is how it was that the Clown, a little later, found himself beginning to feel freezing cold.  He had not minded being laid for a time in with the golden, yellow fruit.  It smelled so nice that he shut his eyes and breathed deep of the perfume.  He even took a little sleep.  And then, the next thing he knew, he felt a breath of cold air after a door was slammed shut.