an' git to bed!"

So to bed went Jeff and the other children. Their beds were down in the
basement, in a room just off the kitchen. It was not a very nice home,
but it was the best they could get.

Soon it began to grow dark, but there was a street lamp that shone in
one of the basement windows, so the China Cat, who could see pretty well
in the dark anyhow, managed to look about her.

On the same shelf where she sat, and not far away, was a little Cloth
Dog.

"Dear me!" said the China Cat, speaking out loud now, for there was no
one in the kitchen, all the family having gone to bed. "Dear me, I
didn't know you were here!"

"Oh, yes, I'm here!" barked the Cloth Dog. "That is, what's left of me."

He and the China Cat did not quarrel, though in real life very few dogs
and cats are friends. But it is much different with toys.

"Why, has anything happened to you?" asked the China Cat.

"Gracious, yes!" exclaimed the Cloth Dog. "Can't you see that my tail is
pulled off?"

The China Cat stretched her neck and looked at the Cloth Dog. Surely
enough, in the gleam from the street light she saw that he had no tail.

"Oh, how dreadful!" mewed the Cat. "How did it happen? It must pain
you?"

"Not so much as at first," said the Dog. "I'm used to it now. One of the
colored children pulled my tail off. I think it was the one they call
Arabella. She's always grabbing things away from the others."

"Yes, she grabbed me," said the China Cat. "But I'm glad she didn't pull
off my tail. I'm dirty and sticky, and I hardly know myself, but, thank
goodness, I'm _all_ here."

"That's more than I can say of myself," said the Cloth Dog sadly. "And
I'm afraid you will not be all there after a few days in this house.
It's a dreadful place, and the children are so rough!"

"How did you come to be here?" asked the China Cat. "Were you brought
here from the workshop of Santa Claus?"

"Bless your whiskers, no!" barked the Cloth Dog. "Of course I _once_
came from North Pole Land, but that was years ago. I was a good-looking
toy then, and I had a fine tail. But after a while the children with
whom I lived grew tired of me. I was tossed about, thrown into corners,
and at last put out in the ashes. There one of these colored children
found me, and brought me here. And the very first day there was a
scrabble and a fight over me, and my tail was pulled off."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that!" sighed the China Cat. "If you could
only be ta