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“Oh, my dear Calico Clown friend!” cried the Candy Rabbit, as soon as it was safe for the toys to speak, “how glad I am to see you again.”

“And I am glad to see you,” said the Clown. “I rather like it here with the Cat.”

“But why are you lying flat on your back?” asked the Candy Rabbit. “You used to be such a lively, jolly fellow. Come, get up and give us one of your old-time jigs or dances.”

“I’m very sorry, but I can’t,” answered the Clown. Then he told about his glued, broken leg, and how he would have to lie very stiff and straight and keep quiet.

“But maybe, toward morning, I’ll be well again, and then I can dance for you,” he promised.

“I hope so,” mewed the Cat. “I have never seen a Calico Clown do a dance.”

“You should see him–he is quite wonderful,” whispered the Candy Rabbit behind his paw.

“Well, if I can’t dance for you, I can ask a riddle,” said the Clown, after a bit. “What makes more noise than a pig under–“

“Oh, PLEASE don’t start that over again,” begged the Candy Rabbit. “You used to ask it in the store, and none of us could think of the answer. Don’t tell riddles! Let’s just talk!”

So the toys talked together and told one another their different adventures. The night passed. Madeline, Herbert and Sidney slept, and Sidney dreamed of the fun he would have with his Calico Clown when the broken leg was firmly glued together again.

And as the night passed the glue dried and set, and the Clown, feeling his leg growing better, grew happier.

“I say!” he called out just before morning to the Rabbit and the Cat. “Are you asleep?”

“I was, but I am awake now,” the sugar Bunny answered.

“And I am awake too,” added the Cat.

“Then I will dance for you,” went on the Clown. “My leg is better.”

He stood up and he cut such funny antics by clapping his cymbals together, standing first on one leg and then on the other, jiggling his hands and feet, that the Cat went into mews of laughter and the Rabbit chuckled until his pink nose seemed to wrinkle all up like an accordion.

CHAPTER IV

UP IN A TREE

Faster and faster danced the Calico Clown. No one needed to pull his strings now, for he could dance by himself, no eyes of children or grown folk being in the closet to watch him.

Up and down, first to this side and then to the other, now on his left foot and now on his right, tapping his cymbals softly together, and wagging his head, the Calico Clown amused the Match-Safe Cat and the sugar Bunny in the closet.

“Oh, don’t dance any more! Please stop!” begged the Candy Rabbit, holding one paw to his side.

“Don’t you like it?” asked the Calico Clown, rather surprised.

“Oh, yes!” was the answer. “But your dance is so funny that it makes me laugh so hard that my ears ache! Do please stop!”

“Yes, please do,” begged the Cat. “If you don’t, I’m afraid I’ll laugh so hard my head may come off and roll to the floor.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want THAT to happen!” exclaimed the Clown, as he brought his queer, jerky dance to an end. “If you’d rather, I could tell a riddle.”

“Not the one about what makes more noise than a pig under a gate!” exclaimed the Candy Rabbit. “Don’t ask that one!”

“Well, it’s the only one I know,” said the Clown. “I’ll try to think of another. But, anyhow, I’ll stop my dancing. However, I’m glad for one reason that I did it. It shows that my broken leg is almost as good as the other. A bit stiff, perhaps, but almost as good.”

“Yes, you danced as well as I ever saw you jig back in the toy store,” said the Rabbit. “You have made the night pass very pleasantly for us.”