“No, no!” said Merrimeg. “I don’t like the sack. I won’t!”
“Not very polite to-day, brother Nibby,” said Malkin. “I think she ought to do what the gentleman says.”
“You’re right, brother, you’re always right,” said Nibby.
“Well,” said Merrimeg, “if you say I ought to do it, I will. But I don’t want to.”
She stepped into the bag, and at that moment a voice sounded from the back door. “No, no! Don’t go away!”
It was little Rags, in her nightgown. She ran to Merrimeg and threw her arms around her and clung to her tight.
“Don’t go, don’t go!” cried little Rags. “Don’t leave me! Stay and play with me! Oh please, oh please!”
“She’s coming back,” said her father. “I’ll bring her back as soon as I get the handkerchief. She’d run away if I left her here. She’ll be back.”
Merrimeg put her arm around little Rags and kissed her.
“Good-by,” said she. “Don’t cry. I’ve got to go now. Don’t cry. Good-by.”
The Rag-Bone Man pulled the sack up over Merrimeg and hoisted it up on his back.
“Don’t go, don’t go!” said little Rags, and put her head down on her arm.
The door closed behind the Rag-Bone Man and his sack, and the two gnomes; and little Rags in her nightgown stood all alone in the room, weeping.
The Rag-Bone Man walked so far and so long that Merrimeg fell asleep in the sack. When she woke up she was standing on the mossy roof of the gnomes’ house, rubbing her eyes; and in a moment they were all four going down the ladder into the gnomes’ kitchen.
Nibby ran to the ice box under the sink, and put his hand in.
“It’s no use, brother, it isn’t here,” said Nibby.
“Then we’d better look somewhere else, brother,” said Malkin.
They looked in the coffeepot, and the bread box, and in the oven, and everywhere; but they couldn’t find the handkerchief.
“Oh, dear!” said the Rag-Bone Man. “It’s enough to make a person cry his eyes out, that’s what it is. Oh, what a day I’ve had! What are you going to do now?”
“_I’ll_ tell you,” said Merrimeg. “I left a lot of them in the apple orchard at home, and they’re all dry by now. Let’s go there!”
“Do you think they’re dry?” said the Rag-Bone Man.
“Of course they are!” said Merrimeg. “Come along! Hurry!”
She led them up the ladder, and when they were outside she got into the sack again. The Rag-Bone Man swung her onto his back, and before very long she was dropped to the ground with a bump, and she got out of the sack. They were standing in the apple orchard behind her house, and there on the ground were the handkerchiefs, where the Rag-Bone Man had thrown them.