Chapter SEVEN

Raggedy Andy soon reached the large gate in front of the Magician’s castle. There stood the two soldiers; one with a real long sword and the other with a real long gun and they held up their hands and cried, “Stop!”

“Did you see a Dragon come by this way?” Raggedy Andy asked the two soldiers.

“Yes!” the soldiers replied. “The Dragon frightened us so we ran and hid and the Dragon climbed right up to the window and wiggled in the castle. Maybe by this time the Dragon has eaten the Magician.”

“I shall go inside and see!” Raggedy Andy replied.

But the two soldiers said, “We will not let you go inside the castle and be eaten by the Dragon!”

But Raggedy Andy looked back and saw that Mr. Doodle was running after him as hard as he could come, so Raggedy Andy just whispered to the magic wooden sword and the magic wooden sword carried Raggedy Andy right over the two soldiers’ heads and over the gate, just as Mr. Doodle came running up.

“Catch him!” Mr. Doodle cried, but of course he was too late. The wooden sword carried Raggedy Andy right to the castle door, but the door was locked and Raggedy Andy could not get in.

Mr. Doodle kicked so much, the two soldiers could not hold him so just as Mr. Doodle came running up, Raggedy Andy cried to the wooden sword, “Get up, wooden sword, fly up through the window in the castle!”

Once inside the Magician’s castle, Raggedy Andy went down stairs to the room where the Magician usually sat upon his throne. But everything was topsy turvy. The chairs were turned over and the Magician’s throne was upside down.

“Dear me!” Raggedy Andy exclaimed as he ran his rag hand up through his red yarn hair, “I wonder what could have happened?” So Raggedy Andy went all through the castle until he found the Dragon.

“Well!” said Raggedy Andy, “I’m glad that I found you. I had a hard time escaping from Mr. Doodle. He dragged me home and made me start building his chicken coop, but while he was eating his dinner, I sawed the string with which he had tied me and escaped.”

The Dragon only looked at Raggedy Andy in a funny way, but did not say anything.

“Have you seen the Magician and Raggedy Ann and Marggy and her Mama?” Raggedy Andy asked the Dragon.

“Mumble, mumble, mumble,” was all the Dragon replied, for he was trying to talk without opening his mouth.

“Now!” Raggedy Andy said as he pointed his rag thumb at the Dragon. “Tell me! Did you swallow the Magician?”

The Dragon nodded his head up and down and Raggedy Andy knew then that the Dragon had swallowed them.

“Open your mouth!” Raggedy Andy told the Dragon. So the Dragon opened his mouth and the Magician and Raggedy Ann and Marggy and her Mama came walking out.

“You must leave my castle right away!” the Magician cried. “I won’t have a Dragon around here swallowing people like this Dragon did.”

“But he is only a paper Dragon, Mr. Magician!”

“I know he is now!” the Magician replied. “But how was I to know he was made out of paper when he came wiggling through the window and swallowed all of us?”

“Why did you swallow them?” Raggedy Andy asked the Dragon.

“I did not know what to do until you came,” the Dragon replied. “So I just swallowed everybody and waited until you came.”

“And now you must take the Dragon and leave!” the Magician cried and pushed them all outside.

“Oh, dear!” Raggedy Andy cried. “Now that the Dragon has made the Magician so peevish, he will never tell us where Marggy’s Daddy is and we shall never find him. And, besides, Mr. Doodle is out here fighting with the two soldiers and if he wins the fight, he will capture the Dragon and we will have to rescue the Dragon all over again!”

“Let us hurry away while Mr. Doodle and the two soldiers are still fighting,” Raggedy Ann suggested. “Perhaps Mr. Doodle will not see us!” So they all started to run. But Mr. Doodle, just as soon as he caught sight of the Dragon and Raggedy Ann and Andy trying to escape, quit fighting with the two soldiers and ran after our friends, and because Marggy and her Mama could not run very fast Mr. Doodle soon caught the Dragon’s tail and stopped him. Mr. Doodle started to drag the Dragon towards his house, but Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama caught hold of the Dragon’s head and pulled the other way.

Mr. Doodle pulled and pulled and our friends pulled and pulled until they all pulled so hard, the paper Dragon tore right in two. And Mr. Doodle was pulling so hard and our friends were pulling so hard, when the paper Dragon was torn in two, they all fell over backwards.

“Now then you have done it, Mr. Doodle,” Raggedy Ann cried as she jumped to her feet and ran back to Mr. Doodle. “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“No I am not!” Mr. Doodle replied. “If you had not pulled upon the Dragon’s head, he would not have torn in two!”

Raggedy Andy took the Dragon’s tail away from Mr. Doodle. “I have a good mind to box your ears, Mr. Doodle!” Raggedy Andy said.

“Ha! Ha! Ha!” Mr. Doodle laughed. “Your hands are made of cloth and stuffed with cotton, so it wouldn’t hurt if you did!”

“Then I shall try mine!” Marggy’s Mama cried. And if Raggedy Ann had not stopped her, Marggy’s Mama would have given Mr. Doodle a box on the ear which he would have remembered for a long time.

The paper Dragon looked very sad, for he could not wiggle at all with his tail torn off and he wished to go with our friends on their journey in search of Marggy’s Daddy. And then, too, when the paper Dragon was torn in two, that let the air whistle right through his paper body each time he opened his mouth. Marggy’s Mama would have liked to paddywhack Mr. Doodle, but she knew that would do no good. “We must fix the paper Dragon together some way,” she said.

Raggedy Ann had mended a hole in the paper Dragon’s side once before with the cream from a cream puff and a pretty colored Sunday newspaper, but now they only had chocolate cake, doughnuts and cookies left, for they had eaten all the cream puffs. Raggedy Andy suggested that by using little sticks as pins, they might pin the Dragon’s tail together. “Of course he will still be torn!” Raggedy Andy said, “but if we can fix him together so that he can travel with us, maybe along the way, we will find a way to glue him together!”

So they all gathered little twigs and with these they pinned the Dragon’s tail to the front part of his body. Even Mr. Doodle helped. Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy did not care to have Mr. Doodle go with them in search of Marggy’s Daddy, nor did they wish him to take the Dragon back home for a chicken coop, but they were too polite to tell him so.

“It is too bad Mr. Doodle tore the tail from the paper Dragon,” Raggedy Ann said, “’cause now the paper Dragon can not wiggle along very fast.”

“I’m glad he can’t wiggle along very fast,” Mr. Doodle laughed. “For I will follow you and just as soon as you find someone to mend the Dragon, I will take him away from you and use him for a chicken coop.”

Raggedy Andy did not reply to Mr. Doodle but he thought, “When we have the nice paper Dragon mended, I will not let you take him away from us!”

So the Dragon wiggled along very slowly so as not to unfasten his tail and Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy and Marggy and her Mama walked beside him. Although they did not want him with them, Mr. Doodle went along. After a while they came to a funny little house. There was only one room down stairs and all the other rooms were built right on top of each other.