“So am I,” said the Candy Rabbit. “I am sure he wanted to see how I tasted.” “Well, I don’t know that you can blame him,” remarked the Calico Clown. “You surely are the sweetest thing here! Ha! Ha! Here we are again, boys and girls!” he cried. “Oh, what a joke!” exclaimed the Sawdust Doll. “That’s it! We must have fun!” laughed the Calico Clown. “Here is another joke! What kind of toes never wear any shoes?” he asked. “The idea!” said the Sawdust Doll. “There aren’t any kinds of toes but what have shoes to cover them. My toes are covered with kid shoes, and the Tin Soldier’s toes are covered with tin shoes, and the Monkey’s toes are covered with plush, and----” “I mean pota-toes!” laughed the Calico Clown. “Ha! Ha! Ha! Pota-toes never wear shoes!” and he doubled up in the middle, because he thought his joke was so funny. “Well, that isn’t such a bad one,” said the Rocking Horse. “You must have been in a circus, Mr. Clown.” “No, not yet, but I want to be,” was the answer. “I’m hoping some boy will buy me and put me in a sawdust ring. That’s where I belong as a Calico Clown. In a sawdust ring!” And the Calico Clown banged his cymbals together and felt so jolly that he sang a little song like this: “In a sawdust ring, In a sawdust ring, That’s where I belong. I’ll crack a joke, Some fun I’ll poke, And then I’ll song a sing.” “What’s that? What’s that?” asked the Bold Tin Soldier. “‘Song a sing’?” “It’s just the same as sing a song only I do it backwards by standing on my head,” answered the Calico Clown. “Don’t pay too much attention to him,” whispered the Sawdust Doll. “He’s cutting up to-night.” “I should say he was!” exclaimed the Tin Soldier. “Song a sing! The idea! Next we know he’ll be tuning a whistle instead of whistling a tune, and they aren’t the same thing at all--even backwards.” “Indeed not!” agreed the Sawdust Doll. “But I’m so glad you drove that rat away,” she added, and she looked kindly at the Bold Tin Soldier. “We never could have had any fun while he was here.” Then the good times began. They played tag and hide-and-go-seek and a new game they made up among themselves. They called it “Jump the Jack.” Each one had to take a turn jumping over the Jack-in-the-Box, and the Jack would reach up and try to tag them as they leaped over his head. If he touched any one of them, that toy had to stand on one foot and sing a song. And they had lots of fun when the Calico Clown was touched by the Jack-in-the-Box, for the Clown sang such a funny song, all backwards with the words mixed up like pickles.