Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy!
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Hello! Welcome to Stories Podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Weldon. Today's story is called Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, a classic story written for you by Johnny Gruelle and adapted for audio by Daniel Hines.

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Thanks! Enjoy the episode! Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Marcella, but everyone called her Marcy. She had a lot of toys, but her favorite was an old rag doll she had found in her grandma's things. She had little button eyes and a big yarn smile and seemed extra special because she was so soft and so old. Her name was Raggedy Ann.

Raggedy Ann was the leader of all Marcy's dolls and often led them on big adventures. Always when Marcy wasn't looking, of course. It's a rule among toys that they can only move around when people aren't looking. Otherwise, it would cause all kinds of confusion. Still, they love to play and they're always paying attention, even if they don't say anything.

One day, Marcy's daddy took Raggedy Ann down to his office and propped her up against some books on his desk. He wanted to have her where he could see her cheery smile all day. For, as you must surely know, smiles and happiness are truly catching.

Daddy wished to catch a whole lot of Raggedy Ann's cheeriness and happiness and put all this down on paper so that those who did not have Raggedy Ann dolls might see just how happy and smiling a rag doll can be. So Raggedy Ann stayed at Daddy's studio for three or four days. She was missed very, very much at home and Marcy really longed for her but knew that Daddy was borrowing some of Raggedy Ann's sunshine, so she did not complain.

Raggedy Ann did not complain either, for in addition to the sunny happy smile she always wore, it was painted on, Raggedy Ann had a candy heart. And of course no one, not even a rag doll, ever complains if they have such happiness about them. One evening, just as Daddy was finishing his day's work, a messenger boy came with a package. A nice, soft, lumpy package. Daddy opened the nice, soft, lumpy package and found a letter.

Grandma had told Daddy long before this that at the time Raggedy Ann was made, a neighbor lady had made a boy doll, Raggedy Andy, for her little girl, who always played with Grandma. And when Grandma told Daddy this, she wondered whatever had become of her little playmate and the boy doll, Raggedy Andy. After reading the letter, Daddy opened the other package, which had been inside the nice soft lumpy package, and found Raggedy Andy.

Raggedy Andy had been carefully folded up. His soft, loppy arms were folded up in front of him, and his soft, loppy legs were folded over his soft, loppy arms, and they were held this way by a rubber band. Raggedy Andy must have wondered why he was being done up this way, but it could not have caused him any worry, for in between where his feet came over his face, Daddy saw his cheery smile.

After slipping off the rubber band, Daddy smoothed out the wrinkles in Raggedy Ann's arms and legs. Then Daddy propped Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy up against books on his desk so that they sat facing each other. Raggedy Ann's shoe-button eyes looking straight into the shoe-button eyes of Raggedy Andy. They could not speak, not write out before a real person, so they just sat there and smiled at each other.

Daddy could not help reaching out his hands and feeling their throats. Yes, there was a lump in Raggedy Ann's throat, and there was a lump in Raggedy Andy's throat. A cotton lump, to be sure, but a lump nonetheless.

So, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, that is why you can't talk, isn't it? said Daddy. I will go away and let you have your visit to yourselves, although it is good to sit and share your happiness by watching you. Daddy then took the rubber band and placed it around one of Raggedy Ann's hands and around one of Raggedy Andy's hands, so that when he had it fixed properly, they sat and held each other's hands.

Daddy knew they would wish to tell each other all the wonderful things that had happened to them since they had parted more than 50 years before. So, locking his studio door, Daddy left the two old ragdolls looking into each other's eyes. The next morning, when Daddy unlocked the door and looked back at his desk, he saw that Raggedy Andy had fallen over, so that he lay with his head in the bend of Raggedy Ann's arm.

When Raggedy Andy was first brought to the nursery, he was very quiet. Raggedy Andy did not speak all day, but he smiled pleasantly at all the other dolls. There was Raggedy Ann, the French doll Babette, Joe, the soldier doll, and a few others. Some of the dolls were without arms and legs. One had a cracked head. She was a very nice doll, though, and the others all liked her very much. Raggedy Andy did not speak all day.

But there was really nothing strange about this fact, after all. None of the other dolls spoke all day, either. Marcy had played in the nursery all day, and of course, they did not speak in front of her. Marcy thought they did, though, and often had them saying things which they were really not even thinking of.

For instance, when Marcy served water with sugar in it and little oyster crackers for tea, Raggedy Andy was thinking of Raggedy Ann, and Babette was thinking of that one time when Fido was lost. Marcy took Babette's hand and passed a cup of tea to Raggedy Andy and said, Mr. Raggedy Andy, will you have another cup of tea? As if Babette was talking. And then Marcy answered for Raggedy Andy.

Oh, yes, thank you. It's so delicious. Neither Babette nor Raggedy Andy knew what was going on, for they were thinking really hard to themselves. Nor did they drink the tea when it was poured for them. Marcy drank it instead. Perhaps this was just as well, for most of the dolls were moist inside from the tea of the day before. Marcy did not always drink all of the tea. Often she poured a little down their mouths.

Sugar and water, if taken in small quantities, would not give the dolls colic, Marcy would tell them, but she did not know that it made their cotton or sawdust insides quite sticky. Quite often, too, Marcy would forget to wash their faces after a tea, and Fido would do it for them with his big, slobbery tongue when he came into the nursery and found the dolls with sweets upon their faces.

Really, Fido was quite a help in this way, but he often missed the corners of their eyes and the backs of their necks, where the tea would run and get sticky. But he did his best and saved his little mistress a lot of work. Now for a quick ad break. We'll be back with the rest of the story after this. If you'd like Stories Podcast and other favorite kid podcasts ad-free, subscribe to Wondery Plus Kids on Apple Podcasts.

Do you want to spend another summer stuck at home? Hey, Jim. How's your back? Uh, you know. I hear ya. Leave the small talk behind because Disney and Pixar invite you on an out-of-this-world adventure. Engaging hyperspeed. This is up! On June 20th. Welcome to the community. Prepare to be conquered! But I just got here! Follow me. What is this place? These are the lava tunnels. I am not alone. Disney and Pixar's Elio. In theaters June 20th. Tickets available now. Rated PG. Parental guidance suggested.

Thanks! And now back to the story!

No, Raggedy Andy did not speak. He merely thought a great deal. One can, you know, when one has been a rag doll as long as Raggedy Andy had. Years and years and years and years! Even Raggedy Ann, with all her wisdom, did not really know how long she and Raggedy Andy had been rag dolls. If Raggedy Ann had a pencil in her rag hand and Marcy guided it for her, Raggedy Ann could count up to ten, sometimes.

But why should one worry one's raghead about one's age when all one's life has been one happy experience after another, with each day filled with love and sunshine? Especially when you never got old and you were wrinkled to begin with.

Raggedy Andy did not know his age, but he remembered many things that had happened years and years and years ago when he and Raggedy Ann were quite young. It was all of these pleasant times Raggedy Andy was thinking all day, and this was the reason that he did not notice that Marcy was speaking for him.

Raggedy Andy could patiently wait until Marcy put all the dollies to bed and left them for the night, alone in the nursery. The day might have passed very slowly had it not been for the happy memories which filled Raggedy Andy's cotton-stuffed head, but he did not even fidget. Of course, he fell out of his chair once and his shoe-button eyes went click against the floor, but it wasn't his fault.

Raggedy Andy was so loppy he could hardly be placed in a chair so that he would stay, and Marcy jiggled the table. Marcy cried for Raggedy Andy, and picked him up and snuggled him and scolded Fido. "'Now you big dog, don't come in here knocking my dolls about!' Fido barked happily and spun out of the room. Through all this, Raggedy Andy kept right on thinking his pleasant thoughts, and really did not know he had fallen from the chair."

You see how easy it is to pass over the little bumps of life if we are happy inside. And so Raggedy Andy was quiet all day, and so the day finally passed. Raggedy Andy was given one of the bigger dolls' clean white nighties and a bed to share. Marcy kissed them all goodnight and left them to sleep until morning.

But as soon as she had left the room, all the dolls raised up in their beds. When their little mistress's footsteps passed out of hearing, all the dollies jumped out of their beds and gathered around Raggedy Andy. Raggedy Ann introduced them one by one, and Raggedy Andy shook hands with each. I am very happy to know you all, he said in a voice as kindly as Raggedy Ann's. And I hope we all like each other as much as Raggedy Ann and I have always liked each other.

Oh, indeed we shall, the dollies all answered. We love Raggedy Ann because she is so kindly and happy, and we know we shall like you too, for you talk like Raggedy Ann and have the same cheery smile.

Now that we know each other so well, what do you say to a game, Uncle? Raggedy Andy cried as he caught an old doll named Uncle Clem and danced about the floor. Hans, the Dutch doll, dragged the little square music box out into the center of the room and wound it up. Then all, catching hands, danced in a circle around it, laughing and shouting in their tiny doll voices.

That was lots of fun, Raggedy Andy said, when the music stopped and all the dolls had taken seats upon the floor facing him. You know, I have been shut up in a trunk in an attic for years and years and years. Very lonely in the trunk all that time, Susan asked in her strange little cracked voice. You see, her head had been cracked.

Oh, not at all, Raggedy Andy replied, for there was always a nest of mice down in the corner of the trunk. Cute little mama and daddy mice, and lots of little teeny weeny baby mice. And when mama and daddy mice were away, I used to cuddle the tiny little baby mice. No wonder you were never lonesome, said Uncle Clem, who was very kind and loved everybody and everything.

No, I was never lonesome in the old trunk in the attic, but it is far more pleasant to be out again and living here with all you nice friends, said Raggedy Andy. And all the dolls thought so too, for already they loved Raggedy Andy's happy smile and knew he would prove to be as kindly and lovable as Raggedy Ann. And they went on to have many more adventures, but I'll tell you about those another day. The End

Today's story, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, was a classic story written for you by Johnny Gruelle and adapted for audio by Daniel Hines. It was edited and produced for you by Andrew Martin and performed for you by me, Amanda Weldon.

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