Laura Lee Hope - The Story of a Plush Bear
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Make Believe Stories
(Trademark Registered)
THE STORY OF A PLUSH BEAR
by
LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of "The Story of a Sawdust Doll," "The
Story of a Nodding Donkey," "The Story of a China
Cat," "Bobbsey Twins Series," "Bunny Brown
Series," "Six Little Bunkers Series," Etc.
Illustrated by Harry L. Smith
New York
Grosset & Dunlap Publishers
Made in the United States of America
Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York
Copyright, 1921, by Grosset & Dunlap
BOOKS
By LAURA LEE HOPE
Durably Bound. Illustrated.
MAKE BELIEVE STORIES
THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL
THE STORY OF A WHITE ROCKING HORSE
THE STORY OF A LAMB ON WHEELS
THE STORY OF A BOLD TIN SOLDIER
THE STORY OF A CANDY RABBIT
THE STORY OF A MONKEY ON A STICK
THE STORY OF A CALICO CLOWN
THE STORY OF A NODDING DONKEY
THE STORY OF A CHINA CAT
THE STORY OF A PLUSH BEAR
* * * * *
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES
THE BOBBSEY TWINS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN WASHINGTON
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT CEDAR CAMP
* * * * *
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
* * * * *
THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
* * * * *
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
* * * * *
The Story of a Plush Bear
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A SNOWBALL FIGHT 1
II THE LITTLE ESKIMO 14
III OUT ALL NIGHT 26
IV IN THE TOY SHOP 41
V THE FAT BOY 55
VI OUT OF THE WINDOW 68
VII ON THE BOARDWALK 78
VIII IN THE SAND 89
IX OUT TO SEA 100
X SAVED AT LAST 110
THE STORY OF A PLUSH BEAR
CHAPTER I
A SNOWBALL FIGHT
Down swirled the white flakes, blowing this way and that. It was snowing
furiously in North Pole Land, and even the immense workshop of Santa
Claus was almost buried in white. How the wind howled! It whistled down
the chimneys, and blew the sparks about.
"Whew, how cold it is!" cried a Wax Doll, who did not have any shoes on,
for she was not yet quite finished. "What makes such a breeze in here?"
and she shivered as she pulled up over her legs a blanket of plush
cloth from which Santa Claus and his men made Teddy Bears.
"It is cold," said a Celluloid Doll, who was lying on the work bench
next to the wax toy. "Some one must have left a window open."
"Left a window open? There are three or four windows open!" gleefully
shouted a fuzzy, Woolen Boy Doll. "Look at the snow blowing in! Hurray!
Now we can have a snowball fight without going outside. Come on!" cried
the Woolen Boy Doll to a little Flannel Pig who had just been stuffed
with cotton. "Come on, have a snowball fight!"
"All right!" squealed the Flannel Pig. "I'll wash your face!"
"Oh, how cold it is! How cold it is!" sighed the Wax Doll. "Give me more
covers, please, somebody! My feet are freezing! Who left the windows
open?"
"Here, take this," called a big Plush Bear, tossing toward the Wax Doll
a quilt he took from a bed in a playhouse that stood next to him on the
work table. "This will keep you warm. I guess some of the men who work
for Santa Claus must have gone off and forgotten to close the windows."
This is just what had happened. There had been a busy time in the North
Pole workshop of Santa Claus that day, for it was getting near to
Christmas. The little men, like elves, who built the Noah's Arks, the
toy animals, the dolls, and the other playthings, had been as busy as
bees.
Then, in the afternoon, just before dark, jolly old Santa Claus himself
entered his shop, the windows of which were made from crystal-clear
sheets of ice.
"What ho, my merry men!" cried Santa Claus, "you have been working very
hard. Stop now, and have lunch, for we must work overtime to-night so
that we may finish a lot of toys to be taken down to Earth. But now I
will give you a little rest, though it is not five o'clock, when we
usually stop."
"Hurray!" cried the merry little men.
They gladly laid down their tools and put aside the half-finished toys
on which they had been working. Half-finished Dolls, Jumping Jacks that
could not yet leap, Jacks in Boxes that could not yet spring out, trains
of cars that could not yet run--all these were laid aside, together with
toys completely made, so that the little men might rest themselves.
"Come to the lunch room and get some hot chocolate and some frosted
cake," said Santa Claus, and away trooped the jolly little men. Just who
had left some of the windows open no one knew. But they were open, and
when the big storm came, in blew the snowflakes.
"I call this real jolly," said the big Plush Bear, who had given the Wax
Doll the bed quilt to keep her feet warm. "I'd like to be out in this
storm. But this is the next best thing. Hi there!" he called to the
Flannel Pig, "look out where you're throwing snowballs! You nearly hit
the Wax Doll."
"Oh, if he did that my complexion would be spoiled!" cried the beautiful
toy, who was not, as yet, quite finished.
"I'll be careful," promised the Flannel Pig. "Don't you want to have fun
in the snowball fight, Mr. Teddy Bear?"
"I am not a Teddy Bear!" roared the big plush creature. "Many people
take me for one; but I am not, though I do look like a Teddy. But I am a
real Plush Bear, and when I am wound up I can move my head and my paws
and I can growl. Listen! I am wound up now!"
There was a whirring sound inside the Plush Bear as the clock work
wheels began to turn, and soon his head moved slowly from side to side,
he raised his paws and lowered them, and out of his red mouth came a
growling voice saying:
"To be sure, I'll join the snowball fight!"
"Hurray!" cried the Woolen Boy Doll. "Now for some fun!" For though the
Plush Bear had spoken with a growl he was not at all cross. That was
just his way. He was really most jolly, though he had a very wise look
on his plush face, as though always thinking of hard examples to solve
and hard words to spell. But though he was wise, and growled when he
talked, the Plush Bear was most delightful.
"Come on! We'll move over to one side where we shall not get any snow on
the toys who don't like it," said the Plush Bear. With his warm coat,
almost like fur, he loved to roll in the snow. So did the Flannel Pig
and the Woolen Boy Doll. But the Wax Doll, who, as yet, had no shoes,
the Celluloid Doll, who was only partly dressed, and some of the others
did not like the cold.
Faster and faster the snow came down, and more and more white flakes
blew in through the open windows of the shop of Santa Claus at the
North Pole. The Plush Bear caught up a paw full of the white crystals
from the bench, made them into a ball, and tossed them at the Flannel
Pig. The Flannel Pig turned quickly and chased after the Woolen Boy
Doll, crying:
"I'll wash your face! I'll wash your face!"
Then such fun as there was! The Wax Doll, covered up now so that her
feet were no longer cold, and in a safe corner where no balls could hit
her, watched the sport.
"I'm glad Santa Claus and his men took a little resting spell," said the
Plush Bear, as he quickly stooped down to get out of the way of a
snowball thrown by a Teddy Bear, almost like himself.
"Yes, if they were here we could have no fun," said the Flannel Pig.
And this was very true.
As I shall explain to you in this book, and as I have told you in other
books of these "Make Believe Stories," the toys could pretend to come to
life, move about, and have fun when no one was looking at them. They
could talk, tell jokes and stories, as well as riddles, play games, have
races and even snowball fights, as they were having one now. But the
moment any one looked at them, or came into the room where they were
playing, the toys settled back straight and stiff and still. They could
listen to what was said, but they dared not speak, and they could take
no part in life.
So it was that the toys were glad Santa Claus and his men had, for a
little while, gone out of the big workshop. It was a wonderful
place--this workshop of Santa Claus. There many of the toys in the world
were made for the boys and girls of the Earth. And as fast as he had
several boxes of toys ready, Santa Claus would hitch his eight reindeer
to his sleigh, and down to Earth he would go. He would leave boxes and
bags of toys at the different shops and warehouses, whence they were
sent to other places where boys and girls could see them, and tell
their fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, uncles, aunts or cousins what
they wanted for Christmas.
Biff! a big snowball went sailing across the room.
Bang! it struck the Plush Bear on his nose.
"Wuff! Wuff!" growled the Plush Bear, but he was not at all cross, and,
an instant later, he sent another ball sailing toward the Flannel Pig.
"Oh, I didn't throw that! I didn't hit you!" squealed the Flannel Pig,
as he tried to dodge out of the way of the mass of snow tossed by the
Plush Bear.
"Never mind," growled Mr. Bruin, as the Bear was sometimes called. "It's
all in fun!"
And fun it was! At other times, when they were left alone, the toys in
the workshop of Santa Claus had fun, but never before, at least in a
long while, had windows been left open so that the snow blew in.
"It's almost as much fun as being out doors," said the Plush Bear again,
as he moved his paws and shook his head from side to side. "I only wish
the Nodding Donkey could be here to enjoy it," he went on.
"Who is the Nodding Donkey?" asked the Wax Doll, as the Flannel Pig and
the others stopped snowballing for a moment.
"He was a toy who was born here, and who lived here for some time,
before he was taken down to Earth," answered the Plush Bear. "He could
nod his head, and he did not have to be wound up with a key as I have to
be. I liked the Nodding Donkey very much. But he and the China Cat have
both gone away.
"However, I suppose that is the way of things up here. We are made to
give happiness to boys and girls, and the only way in which we can do
that is to allow ourselves to be taken to Earth by Santa Claus. Yes, I
suppose I shall be taken down some day," and once more he moved his
head from side to side, and looked very wise indeed, did the Plush Bear.
As I have said, he was not a Teddy Bear, though sometimes he looked like
one. He was made entirely of soft, brown, silky plush. This plush
covered from view the clock wheels and springs inside the Bear, which
when wound up, caused him to move and growl. But the wheels did not give
the Bear his wise look. That was put on his face by one of the workmen
of Santa Claus.
"Oh, I know what we can do!" suddenly cried a Polar Bear, who had just
shuffled along to join the fun. The Polar Bear was like the Plush Bear
only a different color, the Plush Bear being brown, and the Polar Bear
white.
"What shall we do?" asked the Flannel Pig, as he wiped some snow water
out of one of his eyes.
"Let's build a big snow house, such as the Eskimos all about the North
Pole build," went on the Polar Bear. "There is enough snow being blown
in through the open windows to make a lot of houses. And we can make a
hill, and slide down that, too!"
"Yes, let's do it," said the Woolen Doll Boy. But just then the Plush
Bear shook his head and growled out:
"Be careful, everybody! I think some one is coming! We must not be seen
in motion, or be heard talking. Keep quiet, every one!"
Each of the toys became as still as a little chocolate mouse.
Then one of the open windows was darkened as a strange creature looked
in. It seemed to be a boy, but he was covered with skins and fur, almost
like an animal. Only his face could be seen. His hands, as he rested
them on the sill of the window, were covered with big, fur mittens.
"Oh, ho! Nobody is here! I can take one of the toys!" said the
fur-dressed Eskimo boy, for such he was. "Now is my chance! I'll take
that big bear!"
The Eskimo boy, one of a strange, unknown race that live at the North
Pole, was just climbing in through the open window, when suddenly, at
the far end of the shop, a voice cried:
"Oh, my goodness! Look what has happened! Some one left the windows open
and a lot of snow has blown in! Quick, my merry men! Close the windows
and start work to finish the toys! I hope none is spoiled!"
And with that Santa Claus himself hurried into the shop.
CHAPTER II
THE LITTLE ESKIMO
Following Santa Claus, his little men hurried into the North Pole shop.
They were dancing and capering about, for they felt very lively after
their rest, and they were ready to start again making toys, or finishing
those half completed.
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Such a lot of trouble!" cried Santa Claus, but even this
trouble could not keep the laughter out of his jolly voice. "Snow! Snow!
Snow all over everything!" went on Saint Nicholas. "Who left the windows
open so that all the flakes blew in?" he asked.
"I--I guess I did, Santa Claus," replied one of the little men who wore
a red cap. "I wanted some fresh air, for I was working over the paint
pots, putting blue eyes in wax dolls, and the paint smell almost choked
me. So I opened some windows."
"I guess no great harm is done," said Santa Claus, looking about. "It is
so cold the snow hasn't melted, and it is only melted snow that spoils
toys. But I don't see how the snow got all over the floor, as well as on
the benches," he added.
Ah, if Santa Claus had only seen the toys at play, throwing snowballs
all about, and washing the faces of one another, he would have known how
it happened. But even Santa Claus was not allowed to see the toys come
to life and play.
"Get brooms, sweep up the snow, and close the windows," called Saint
Nicholas. "Get the shop ready to work in again, for we are going to be
very busy. The Earth children want many toys this year, and we have not
made nearly enough. Clean out the snow!"
With brooms, shovels, and brushes, the merry little men fell to work,
and soon the shop of Santa Claus was as it should be, and as it had been
before the storm. The windows, made of sheets of ice, were pulled down,
and soon there was the hum of songs all through the shop, for the men of
Santa Claus sang as they worked.
One of the men, as he pulled down the window near his bench, where he
was making a lot of little animals for a Noah's Ark, looked out through
the pane of ice glass.
"What do you see?" asked the workman next him.
"Oh, one of those odd Eskimo children, all dressed in fur, was right
under this window," answered the other little man. "He must have been
here when the windows were open. Maybe he wanted to see us making toys.
Well, he won't see any better toy than the Plush Bear I just finished,"
said the little man proudly.
"No, indeed!" agreed the second little man. "But does Santa Claus know
about these little Eskimo children coming around his workshop?" he
asked.
"Oh, they never bother us," was the answer. "Now we mustn't talk any
more, for we have many toys to make for the Earth children."
So the little men became very busy--too busy to talk, though the Plush
Bear heard them singing as they made toy after toy. The Plush Bear and
the other playthings could hear what was said, though they could take no
part in the talk while Santa Claus, or any of his men, were in the shop.
And Santa Claus was there now, seeing that each one of his tiny elves
made as many toys as possible.
"Well, we certainly had a good time for a while!" thought the Plush Bear
to himself. "What fun that snowball fight was! I'd like another. I
didn't feel a bit cold!"
And no wonder. His coat of silk plush was as warm as the fur coat of a
real bear. The Plush toy was looking straight at the Polar Bear and the
big, white fellow seemed to be blinking his eyes at the other Bear.
All through the great North Pole workshop of Santa Claus the little men
were busy, singing over their tasks. But they could not work all night
and all day as well, so at last there came an hour when Santa Claus rang
a bell and said:
"Now, my merry men, it is time for you to go to bed. Be up early in the
morning to make more toys. Good-night, everybody!"
With that he went out, buttoning his fur coat about him, and the
workmen, after putting away their tools, followed. Santa Claus and his
men slept in snow castles not far from the workshop.
It was almost dark in the toy shop now. Outside the Northern Lights
glowed faintly, and inside only a little candle was left gleaming, its
beams reflected in some shiny gold stars that were to go on the tops of
Christmas trees later on.
[Illustration: "Be Careful, Everybody!" Said the Plush Bear.
_Page_ 12]
"Hello, everybody!" softly called the voice of the Flannel Pig, as he
peered out from the roof of a toy dog house, where he had been put by
one of the workmen. "Now we can have some more fun!"
"We must be sure every one is gone," said the Plush Bear, as he began to
swing his head from side to side. For he had been wound up, and now the
wheels and springs inside him were beginning to move.
"Oh, every one is gone," said the Wax Doll. "And this time they will
stay away all night. Now we can have our usual fun."
"Is there any snow left?" asked the Polar Bear. "I should like to wash
the face of the Plush Bear."
"And I'd wash yours, too!" laughed the Plush Bear. "But the little men
swept out all the snow and closed the windows. There isn't so much as an
icicle left."
"Too bad!" sighed the Polar Bear. "Well, we'll have fun some other way.
Let's see, what shall we do? Have any of you ever seen me turn
somersaults?" he asked, after a moment's pause.
"No. Can you do it?" asked the Plush Bear.
"You should see me!" boasted the big white Bear. "I don't believe
anywhere in North Pole Land you will find a better somersault turner
than I. Watch me!"
The Plush Bear and the other toys leaned forward from the shelves and
tables where they sat or stood to see what would happen. If they had not
been so eager to see what the Polar Bear was going to do some of them
might have noticed a small, dark figure stealing up outside the workshop
of Santa Claus, and stopping beneath one of the ice windows.
This little figure was that of an Eskimo boy--the same little chap, all
dressed in sealskin and fur, who had looked in and almost reached
through the window to take out the Plush Bear when he had interrupted
the toys in the midst of their snowball fight.
"Ah, now is my chance!" murmured the little Eskimo boy, as he stepped
softly over the snow, coming nearer and nearer to the workshop of Santa
Claus. "If I can open a window I'll take out that Plush Bear, cart him
off to the igloo, and have a lot of fun."
The Eskimo boy lived with his father and mother in a house made of
blocks of snow and ice. This house was called an "igloo," and it takes
its name from the house built by the seals in the far North. The Eskimos
build their houses the same shape as the houses made in the ice by the
seals. If you cut an orange or an apple in half, and put the flat side
down on a table, you will see exactly how an Eskimo igloo is shaped.
"Oh, if I can only get the Plush Bear!" thought the Eskimo boy, as he
stepped softly nearer and nearer to the workshop of Santa Claus.
It was not very dark in North Pole Land just then. Though the sun had
gone down, and the long winter had set in, still there were the
Northern Lights, which glowed and flickered in the sky and made enough
of a gleam for the Eskimo boy to see his way over the snow. The snow,
too, helped to make it less dark.
Ever since he had seen the Plush Bear through the window of Santa Claus'
workshop that day, the Eskimo boy had wanted the plaything. So after his
supper of seal fat and blubber, with a piece of tallow candle, which was
to him what candy is to you, the boy, well wrapped in fur, started out
from his igloo.
All this while, or at least after Santa Claus and his men had gone, the
Plush Bear and the other toys were having fun among themselves. As I
have told you, the Polar Bear was getting ready to turn somersaults to
amuse the other toys.
"Watch me now!" cried the Polar Bear, as he leaned over and got ready to
stand on his head.
"Say, why don't you turn some somersaults?" the Flannel Pig asked of
the Plush Bear.
"Maybe I will after he gets through," the Plush Bear answered.
The Eskimo boy was now at one of the windows of the shop--a window which
had for a pane a clear sheet of ice. The Eskimo boy blew his warm breath
on this window pane, close to the place where, inside, there was a catch
to hold the window shut.
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!" breathed the Eskimo boy on the glass. And his breath
was warm, just as yours is when you melt the frost on your window glass
at home. Very soon the fur-clad boy had melted a hole in the ice pane.
After that it was easy for him to slip his hand in and turn back the
window catch.
The Eskimo boy did not know it was wrong thus to take a toy from the
workshop of Santa Claus. He only knew that he wanted the Plush Bear, and
that this was the easiest way to get it.
Softly he raised the window, after he had turned back the catch. There,
in front of him on one of the tables, stood the Plush Bear and many
other Christmas toys. But the Eskimo boy had eyes only for the Plush
Bear.
"What fun I shall have with you!" whispered the Eskimo boy. He reached
forth his hand and took the wonderful plaything.
Just at this time the Polar Bear was turning a somersault, and the eyes
of all the other toys were looking at him.
If they had not been looking at the Polar Bear they would have seen the
Eskimo boy open the window. And had he once looked at the toys they
would have had to stop talking and moving. But, as it happened, none of
the toys saw him.
The Plush Bear had just been going to clap his paws together to applaud
the Polar Bear's trick of turning a somersault, when the Plush Bear felt
himself lifted up.
"Oh!" he said faintly, and then he saw that he must not move or speak,
for the Eskimo boy was looking straight at him.
"Ha, now I have you, Mr. Plush Bear," whispered the Eskimo boy, and he
quickly drew his arm back out of the open window, taking the wonderful
toy with him. He slipped the Plush Bear under his coat of fur, and away
he sped over the snow, sparkling in the Northern Lights. Over the snow
ran the Eskimo boy, taking to his igloo the Plush Bear.
"Oh, dear me," thought the Plush Bear, "this is a strange adventure,
indeed! I hoped I might go to Earth in the sleigh of Santa Claus, as the
Nodding Donkey did, but now, it seems, I must stay at the North Pole in
a snow and ice hut! Oh, dear! What is going to happen to me?"
CHAPTER III
OUT ALL NIGHT
"There! What do you think of that for a somersault?" cried the Polar
Bear, as he flopped over on his back. "Can you do as well as that, Mr.
Plush Bear?"
"Oh, what a wonderful fellow the Polar Bear is!" cried the Wax Doll, who
now had on her shoes so she could walk about on the broad workshop
bench. "Quite remarkable!"
"The Plush Bear can do as well!" squealed the Flannel Pig, making his
nose wrinkle up in a funny way. "Come on, Plush Bear!" he cried. "Show
them how you turn somersaults!"
This talk took place just after the Polar Bear had done his trick, and
right after the Eskimo boy had opened the window and taken away the toy
he so much wanted.
None of the toys, except the Plush Bear, had seen the Eskimo boy, and
the boy had not looked at any of the other toys, so they did not have to
stop what they were doing. And as the Eskimo boy popped his hand out of
the window, almost as soon as he had popped it in, the toys kept right
on with what they were doing.
"Come, let's see you turn a somersault, Plush Bear!" called the Polar
Bear to his friend.
"Yes! Yes!" cried the other playthings! "Let's have a somersault race!"
They turned toward that part of the work bench where they thought the
Plush Bear would be standing, but the Plush Bear was not there.
"Oh, he's gone!" squealed the Flannel Pig.
"Maybe he got down on the floor to practice a somersault, so he can beat
me! But he'll have hard work!" growled the Polar Bear. But he was not
cross when he growled. It was just his way of speaking, as it was also
that of the Plush Bear.
"No, he isn't on the floor!" said the Wax Doll, leaning over the edge of
the table to look down.
