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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.

“Dear me! what can have happened now?” said the Calico Clown, suddenly awakening. “Am I back again at the North Pole workshop of Santa Claus? It feels like it, but it doesn’t look like it. For his shop was nice and light, though it was sometimes cold. Here it is dark.”

“Well, I simply am freezing!” went on the Clown. “I’ve got to keep warm, somehow!”

So what did he do but stand up and begin to dance around among the oranges. Up and down, first to this side and then to the other danced the jolly fellow, jerking his arms and swinging his legs. He clapped his hands together to warm them, and his cymbals clanged in the cold, frosty air of the ice box.

After a while the Clown began to feel warmer. But as soon as he stopped jumping around he felt cold again.

“I’ve got to keep moving, that’s all there is to it!” he said to himself, and he had to dance again.

Really he must have looked funny, doing a jig on a basket of oranges, but it was not so funny for the poor Clown himself. He was beginning to get tired, and he was wondering how long he would have to keep up his exercise, when the ice-box door suddenly opened and Cook lifted out a bowl of cream.

“Oh, for the love of trading stamps!” she cried, as she saw the Clown in among the oranges. “How did you ever get there? You must be almost frozen!”

And the poor fellow would have been, if he had not danced.

“I certainly didn’t see you there when I put the fruit in the ice box,” went on the cook. “Madeline must have put you among the oranges.”

And, of course, this was just what had happened. Naturally you may say that the reason the cook saw the Clown the second time, after she opened the ice-box door, was because some of the oranges rolled to one side, allowing the Clown to be seen. But that isn’t how it happened at all. The Clown simply climbed out from among the fruit to dance and keep himself warm, and that’s how he happened to be seen.

“Oh, dear me! To think I should do a thing like that!” cried Madeline, when the cook handed her the Calico Clown. “Sidney might have thought his toy was lost again if you hadn’t found him. Now we’ll bake the cake, and I’ll put the Clown by the stove to get warm.”

After a while everything was ready for the party. The cake was baked and covered with icing. There were also some crullers and some cookies.

Herbert, Sidney and Mirabell put on their party clothes, and with the Monkey on a Stick nicely brushed, the Candy Rabbit with a new ribbon on his neck, and with the last specks of dirt shaken off the red and yellow trousers of the Clown, they all waited for the others to come.