RAGGIE (SIPSIK)

Author ENO RAUD

Drawings EDGAR VALTER

Publishing „Eesti Raamat“ 1969

MART, ANU AND RAGGIE

Mart and Anu are brother and sister.

One day Mart said to Grandmother: „Soon it will be Anu`s birthday.“

„Yes,“ said Grandmother. „Anu will soon be five.“

„Ishould like to make her something for a birthday present all by myself,“ said Mart. „I willmake her a
pretty doll.“

„Very well,“ said Grandmother.

„I shall make a real doll for Anu“, said Mart, „and not a paper thing only.“

Grandmother promised to shoe Mart how to make a real doll. She took a piece of cloth and some
cotton-wool from cupboard and her needle-work box from a drawer. In the box there were a pair on
scissors and several bobbins, and balls of thread, and a needlecase, and a thimble, too. And then
Grandmother taught Mart how to make real doll.

„Cut the doll out of the cloth and sew it together and stuff it with cotton-wool,“ Grandmother said.
„And then it is done, you paint the doll`s face and fasten shreds of yarn on his head for hair.“

Thus Mart made a doll for Anu as a birthday present.

On the first day he made the body. On second day he made the head. On the third day he made two
hands. On the fourth day he made two legs. All this was very difficult indeed, and Mart pricked his
fingers with the needle over and over again. This was quite painful, so that once Mart even cried. But
he felt sure that Anu would be very glad to get the doll for a birthday present.

And he fastened the head to the body and the arms and legs, too.

At last the doll was ready. But it was not at all pretty. „Don`t worry,“ Grandmother said. „The main
point is that you made it yourself.“ But Mart felt sad all the same. He took the doll to the next room.
„This is ro real doll at all,“ he said. „It is a queer ragged thing – sheer rags all over.“

Suddenly a thin voice peeped: „Don`t cry. Of course I`m not a beauty, but otherwise I am quite a
good sport.“

At first Mart did not make out where the thin voice came from. But at last he realised that it was the
doll he had made who was speaking.

„What?“ cried Mart in amazement. „You can speak?“

„Indeed, I can,“ said the doll.

„What is your name?“ asked Mart.

„Raggie,“ said the doll. „You called me so yourself.“

„But how is it that you can speak?“ Mart asked once more in astonishment.

“You wished to please Anu with all your heart and you made me with such great love that I have
become alive,“ said Raggie. „Isn`t it fun that I`ma living doll?“

„Of course it is!“ cried Mart. „Now Anu will certainly be very, very glad!“

And then Anu`s birthday actually came.

ANU`S BIRTHDAY

When Anu wentto bed in the evening she was four years old. But the next morning, on her
birthdayshe was already five. It was very funny that over-night she suddenly had become five years
old. But so in certainly was because on the table in the birthday cake five candles were burning, one
for each year. The presents were there, too – a game that was called a mosaic and a toy duck that
could be wound up, and a gold-haired doll and another queer-looking doll in striped trouses.
Then Mother and Father came and Grandmother and Mart, and everybody wished Anu a happy
birthday.

Mart whispered into Anu`s ear: „This yarn-haired doll is Raggie. He is a living doll.“

And suddenly a thin voice said: „I wish you many happy returns on the day!“

It was Raggie. Noe Anu realised that Raggie was really a living doll and she was very glad. She was
ever so much more delighted to have Raggie than to have the gold-haired doll although it had a fine
green dress on and Anu liked it quite a lot
ANU`S TV SET

Once Anu and Mart visited their uncle together with Father and Mother. It was very interesting there
because recently Uncle had bought a TV set and they watched teh TV programme for quite a long
time. Anu liked a puppet-picture best. The puppets made lots of funny tricks, and one puppet even
sang a song.

The next day Anu made up her mind to build a TV set for herself – it would be always at hand when
one wanted to look in.

Mart wasn`t in, but Anu was sure she could build the TV set all by herself.

She took her toys out of their box and placed the box sideways. On the open side she pasted a white
sheet of paper on wihch she had made a drawing of the puppets that were to play in the puppet-
picture. She even drew a dog, but this dog was a puppet, too, because in a puppet-picture everybody
is a puppet – people and dogs all alike. When everything was in order, Anu began to look at her
puppet-picture. But it was rather boring – the dog kept chasing teo boys but couldn`t catch them, run
as he might. Then Anu looked at the film from another angle. Now it was a little better – a lion was
pursuing two negroes, but he couldn`t catch them either.

Mart entered when Anu was just considering what kind of film she might see next. Mart took a
glance at Anu`s TV set and asked:

!What`s this?“

„It`s my TV set,“ Anu said.

„That`s not a TV set,“ Mart said disdainfullty.

„Why not?“ Anu asked.

„Because it is just an empty box,“ said Mart. „A TV set must have some apparatus in it – all kind of
wires, pipes and tubes. And it must have an aerial too, to catch the waves.“

„What waves?“ Anu asked in confusion.

„The waves that come from the top of the TV mast,“ Mart said. „You can`t see them with your eyes.
Well , you see, the aerial catches the waves and the TV set makes a picture out of them. But you are
a small girl and cannot understand all this!“

Anu became very sad because she didn`t understand all this and her TV set was no use. But Mart
said:

„Let`s build an aerial for your TV set, too!“

„Oh yes, let`s build one,“ cried Anu.

They took sone plasticine and made a disc. This was the sockle of the aerial. Then they stuck two
crayons upright into the disc and there theaetial was.
„But there is still nothing inside the TV set,“ Anu said.

Now Mart had got some string and he said that it could be used instead of the wire that must be
inside the TV set. From the anteroom Mart took the tube that was fixed to the vacuum cleaner and
said that it was just the right thing to make pictures out of the waves. They put the wire and the tube
into the box and now it was almoust like a real TV set. Suddenly somebody said from amongst Anu`s
toys:

„I should like to be on a TV programme.“

It was Raggie.

„What fun!“ cried Mart

„But how can he appear on the screen, he won`t be seen behind yhe paper,“ worried Anu.

„The screen must be rebuilt,“ said Mart. „And there must be some switches on the TV set, too.“

Mart removed the white paper from the open side of the box and drew the switches at its bottom.
And then he fetched a pair of scissors and cut a great square hole in the paper so that there was only
a frame left. When all this wasdone, he pasted the frame back in front of the open side of the box.

Now Anu`s TV set looked much more like a real one, only there was no picture to be seen because
Mart had cut it out and now there was a hole instead.

But it didn`t matter since Raggie wanted to be on the programme himself.

Anu and Mart helped him to get into the box and waited eagerly to see what he was going to do
there.

And then Raggie bowed and said:

„Here is the children`s programme. How do you do, my little friends? To-day you`ll hear a new song.
Raggie will sing it.“

And Raggie sang:

„My head is a stocking,

My body a sleeve,

Isn`t it topping –

There`s nothing to grieve.

I dance and play and hop –

I am a singing boy.

You needn`t wind me up –

I am a living toy.“

Raggie bowed again and the transmission was at an end. Anu and Mart, however, made up their
minds to write to the Television Committeee that they enjoyed Raggie`s song very mauch.