Laura Lee Hope - The Story of a Plush Bear
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Story of a Plush Bear
"Oh, he has fallen out of the window!" suddenly cried the Flannel Pig.
"See, the window is open! The Plush Bear must have fallen into the snow
outside."
"We must get him back!"
"Throw him a piece of a doll's clothes-line and haul him up!"
"Get a ladder from one of the toy fire engines!"
"Let's all go down after him! Maybe he bumped his nose!"
These were only a few of the shouts and cries that came when it was
discovered that the window was open and that the Plush Bear was gone.
The Eskimo boy had not stopped to close the window after opening it to
take the toy he so much wanted. And now the toys, crowding on the sill,
which was close to the work bench, looked out in the snow under the
window. It was light enough for them to see quite well.
"Come on back here, Plush Bear!" called the Flannel Pig, who was quite
friendly with the big toy. "I want to see you turn a somersault."
"Yes, come on back, unless you're afraid that I can beat you!" growled
the Polar Bear.
"Maybe he is afraid, and ran away," suggested the Wax Doll, who seemed
more friendly to the Polar Bear.
"No, indeed!" squealed the Flannel Pig. "The Plush Bear is a brave
fellow, and he is very wise! He would not run away. The window must have
come open and he tumbled out."
"But he isn't down there in the snow," said a toy Fireman, looking
carefully below. "If he was down there I could fix a ladder for him so
he could climb up. But he isn't there."
"Where can he be?" asked the Flannel Pig. "He was standing near me one
minute, saying how he was going to turn a somersault, and when next I
looked he was gone."
"See! There are footprints in the snow under the window," said the Polar
Bear, who had come to the sill. "Maybe Santa Claus or some of his men
came along outside, and took the Plush Bear away."
"They would not do that," declared the Wax Doll. "Santa Claus would not
take just one of us toys. When he takes any, he takes a whole
sleigh-load to Earth for the children. No, there is something strange
about this!"
And indeed there was, as we know. The Eskimo boy had the Plush Bear, but
the toys knew nothing of this. However, there was nothing they could
do.
After calling softly to the Plush Bear to come back, but receiving no
answer, about a dozen of the Jumping Jacks, by climbing up and all
pulling together on the window, managed to close it to keep out the
cold, night air.
"Well, since there is no one else to turn somersaults with me, I'll do
it alone," said the Polar Bear. So he flipped and flopped over again,
and the other toys played games among themselves, but the nice Plush
Bear was not among them.
He was under the fur coat of the Eskimo boy, being carried across the
snow to the ice hut, or igloo. The door to this igloo was not like the
door to your home. It was just a hole, with some pieces of fur and skin
hung over it to keep out the cold wind. Ski, which was the name of the
Eskimo boy, pushed aside this curtain of fur as he crawled into the
igloo, with the Plush Bear beneath his warm jacket. The doorway, or
hole, was made small to keep out as much cold as possible, and Ski had
to stoop down and crawl on his hands and knees to get in.
Inside the igloo there were no tables and chairs, such as there are in
your house. There were just some slabs of ice set here and there, being
raised a little from the icy floor. On the floor were skins to make it
as warm as possible, and in the middle of the igloo was a sort of lamp,
or stove, made of stone, filled with oil in which floated a wick that
was burning. This lamp-stove was all the Eskimos had to heat and cook
with. But as they wore their fur clothes all winter long, never taking
them off, they did not catch cold.
"Look!" said Ski, the Eskimo boy, as he pulled the Plush Bear out from
under his fur coat and set the toy down on a shelf of ice in the igloo,
where the rays from the oil lamp fell upon it. "See what I have!" and
his father and mother and his brothers and sisters leaned forward to
look at the strange object.
There was not much room in the igloo, and the Eskimo family was rather
crowded. But they did not mind this, as it was much warmer than if they
had lived in a big room. In fact, except in the center, one could not
stand up in the igloo. The roof was too low.
"Where did you get that?" asked Ski's father, as he looked at the Plush
Bear.
"He was in the big igloo, far over the snow, near the big ice mountain,"
answered the Eskimo boy. "I saw him through a window, and I wanted him.
When all in the igloo were asleep I breathed on the ice pane, opened the
window, and took this Bear. Now he is mine!"
"Yes, I know that big igloo," said Ski's father. "There was none like it
where we came from. I do not know what it is."
Ski's family had just moved to North Pole Land, and they had never heard
of Santa Claus, though the other Eskimos of this country were well
acquainted with Saint Nicholas. To Ski and his family the workshop of
Santa Claus was just a big "igloo."
"Is not this Bear nice?" asked Ski, of his brothers and sisters.
"But he is not like the bears here," said Kiki, one of the Eskimo girls.
"He is brown, like the seals. The North Bears are white."
"There was a white Bear in the big igloo, but I would rather have this
one," said Ski. "I will always keep him."
During this time the Plush Bear, of course, had not dared to say a word
or move by himself. He was being watched too closely. But he could hear
what was said, and he wondered what was going to happen to him.
"I shall be dreadfully lonesome if I have to stay here," thought the
Plush Bear. "There is not another toy in the whole place!"
There was another toy, but the Plush Bear did not know it. This toy was
a rudely carved Wooden Doll, owned by Kiki. She had wrapped this Wooden
Doll in a bit of sealskin and put it in her bed to keep it warm. For to
Kiki the piece of wood, which looked something like a Doll, was as much
alive as your Doll is to you girls.
"That is a wonderful thing, Ski," said the Eskimo boy's father. "Never
have I seen such a thing in all my life!"
Ski's father leaned forward and touched the Plush Bear. And he happened
to touch the very spring that set the toy animal in motion. For the
Plush Bear was all wound up when Ski reached through the window and took
him, and all that was needed was a touch to send him off.
Immediately the Plush Bear began to move his head from side to side,
growls came out of his red mouth, and his paws waved to and fro. He
behaved almost like a small, live bear.
"Wow!" cried Ski, leaping back when he saw the Plush Bear beginning to
move.
"Wow!" cried Ski's father, mother and sisters and brothers, and they,
too, leaped back.
"Gurr-r-r-r! Gurr-r-r-r!" growled the Plush Bear, and he moved his paws
and head faster than ever. He was not doing this himself, you
understand. He was not making believe come to life. He was only doing as
all the other spring toys do--moving when the wheels within him moved.
"Wow!" cried Ski's father again. "This is magic! This bear is bewitched!
It will bring us bad luck! It must not stay in my igloo!"
"Oh, please let me keep it!" begged Ski, as his father caught up the
Plush Bear.
"No! No! It would be dangerous! It would bring us bad luck! There is a
witch in that bear!" murmured Ski's mother.
"Never have I seen such a thing!" went on Ski's father in awe and
wonder. "We must not keep it! If we allowed it to stay in this igloo we
should freeze, I should never catch any seals, and our blubber fat would
become so hard we could not eat it. I must take this magic bear that
moves back to the big igloo!"
So, though Ski begged his father to be allowed to keep the toy, the
Eskimo man thrust the bear under his fur coat and crawled out of the
igloo into the glow of the Northern Lights.
"I must take it back to the big igloo," murmured Ski's father. "Then
will the bad magic pass away."
You see he did not know, never having seen such a toy before, and never
having heard of machinery--Ski's father did not know what a delightful
toy the Plush Bear was. All he thought of was bad luck and magic.
Quickly Ski's father hitched his team of dogs to the long, low wooden
sled.
Crack! went the long whip over their heads, but the Eskimo man did not
let the lash fall on the animals.
Over the snow and ice they drew the sled, on which Ski's father sat well
wrapped in fur blankets. Nearer they came to the workshop of Santa
Claus--the "big igloo" as Ski had called it.
"I will leave the magic bear that moves beneath one of the windows,"
murmured Ski's father. "Then will the bad luck pass from us."
He guided his dog team up under the very window out of which Ski had
taken the bear, for the man could see Ski's footprints in the snow.
"There! Now I am done with you!" whispered Ski's father, as he dropped
the Plush Bear in the snow and turned his dog team around to go back to
his igloo.
As for the Plush Bear, his head moved, he growled, and his paws waved to
and fro as long as the spring was wound up. But when it ran down, as it
did in a little while, he was motionless. Except that now, as no one
could see him, he was allowed to make believe come to life and could do
as he pleased.
"Well, this is certainly a fine state of affairs!" said the Plush Bear
to himself, speaking out loud, as there were no human ears to hear.
"Taken away to an ice house, scaring an Eskimo family half to death, and
then to be brought back here and dumped in a snow bank! It's a good
thing I have on a warm plush coat, or I'd surely freeze! I wonder if I
can get back into the shop?"
But this the Bear could not do. The window had been pulled down and shut
by the Jumping Jacks, and the hole Ski had breathed in the icy pane was
too small for the Plush Bear to crawl through, even if he could have
reached it. He tried to call out, to make the toys inside hear him, so
they might rescue him, but they had gone to sleep after their evening of
fun.
So the Plush Bear had to stay out in the snow bank near the workshop of
Santa Claus all night. It was cold and dreary, but he made the best of
it.
"When morning comes they will take me in," he thought. "The night can
not last forever."
CHAPTER IV
IN THE TOY SHOP
Slowly the night passed. Well it was for the Plush Bear that he was
warmly clad in such a warm coat, or he might have been frozen stiff. As
it was, his wheels and springs had to be oiled several times after his
long night spent in a snowdrift.
In the morning Santa Claus and his men hurried into the workshop after
breakfast. There was a hum and a bustle, whistling and singing, and the
sound of many tools being used.
"Lively, my merry men, lively!" cried Santa Claus, with a laugh, as he
passed from bench to bench. "I will soon make a trip to Earth, and I
shall need many toys to take with me. I want a big bagful to load into
my sleigh. My reindeer are waiting. All I need is toys--more toys--all
the toys you can make!"
"You shall have them, Santa Claus! You shall have them!" cried the merry
little men, and they began to work as fast as they could.
At one of the benches Santa Claus observed a little man looking about as
though in search of something. The little man moved his tools to one
side, he shifted toys here and there, and then he looked under his
bench.
"What are you looking for?" asked Santa Claus, as he passed up and down
the aisles.
"Why, yesterday, I finished a fine Plush Bear," answered the workman. "I
set it over here, but now it is gone. You did not take it to Earth, did
you?"
"Oh, no," answered Santa Claus. "I have not been to Earth for some time.
But I am going soon again. Ha! I know what may have happened," he said
suddenly. "The windows were open yesterday. The Plush Bear may have
fallen out of the window!"
It did not take the workman more than an instant to raise the sash and
poke out his head. He looked down into the bank of snow under the
window.
"Here he is!" he cried. "Just as you thought, Santa Claus, the Plush
Bear fell out of the window! He isn't hurt a bit! I'll get him back
again. Ho! Ho! My Plush Bear fell out of the window!"
Of course this didn't happen at all, but it was the only way Santa Claus
and his men could think of the accident having happened. But we know
about the little Eskimo boy, and how his father left the Plush Bear in
the snow bank.
"There you are!" said the toy workman as he came in with the Plush Bear
and set him on the bench again. "I'm glad to get you back. Only for your
warm coat you might have frozen. I must see if you work all right."
But the cold had chilled the wheels and springs inside the Plush Bear,
and it was not until after some warm oil had been poured on them that
they worked properly again. Then, when the Plush Bear was wound up, he
could growl, wag his head, and wave his paws as well as ever.
"Once more you are ready to go down to Earth, as soon as Santa Claus is
ready to take you," said the workman, as he started to make a toy fire
engine that, some day, would gladden the heart of a lucky boy.
As for the other toys in Santa Claus' shop, they had been very much
surprised to see the Plush Bear brought back into their midst again. But
while Saint Nicholas and his helpers were around, nothing could be said,
no questions could be asked, and Plush Bear could tell none of his
adventures.
But when night came again, and the Northern Lights glowed, when the
janitor had mended the hole in the ice pane, breathed on by the Eskimo
boy, when all was still and quiet, the Flannel Pig leaned over toward
the Plush Bear and whispered:
"Where were you? What happened? Did you try to run away?"
"Indeed I did not run away! Some one ran away with me! An Eskimo boy,
and he took me to his igloo, but his father would not let him keep me
because he thought I was magic and would bring him bad luck," answered
the Plush Bear.
"My, what marvelous adventures!" exclaimed the Wax Doll, who was fond of
using big words. "Please tell us all about it."
"Yes, do," growled the Polar Bear. "And after that we can have a
somersault race. You missed it last night. We thought you had fallen out
of the window."
"I'll tell you of my adventures," said the Plush Bear, and he did, from
the time Ski took him away until the workman found him in the snow bank.
"I told you his adventures would be marvelous," said the Wax Doll.
"Nothing as strange will happen to you when you are taken to Earth, Mr.
Plush Bear."
But just wait and see. You never can tell what is going to happen, and
the Plush Bear may have even more strange adventures.
That night in the shop of Santa Claus passed all too soon for the Plush
Bear. When he had finished telling his story the Flannel Pig cried:
"Let's have a game of tag!"
"All right! I'll be it!" agreed a Jumping Jack, and he was such a lively
fellow that in less than a second he had tagged an Elephant. The
Elephant was so large and such a slow chap that he was it for a long
time. He could hardly tag any one, not even the Plush Bear and the Polar
Bear, who, also being large animal toys, had to move slowly. But they
were not as slow as the Elephant.
"Oh, this is no fun!" said the Elephant after a while. "I can't catch
any of you! Let's play hide and go seek! I'll have some chance in that
game!"
So they played that, and told stories and sang songs until it was almost
morning, and time for Santa Claus and his men to open the shop again.
Then the toys became quiet, as usual.
That day Saint Nicholas walked up and down among the benches and spoke
to his workmen.
"I will go to Earth to-morrow," said Santa Claus. "Get ready all the
toys you can, and I will fill my sleigh. I will load it to-night."
And the toys who heard this were very much excited, wondering who would
be taken and who would be left.
"I'll take this Plush Bear!" said Santa Claus that evening, as he began
selecting the toys he wanted for his sack to take to Earth. "And I'll
take the Wax Doll, the Flannel Pig, and the Elephant. I want a lot of
other dolls, plenty of drums, some Jumping Jacks, some Jacks in the Box,
some toy soldiers, some toy engines, trains of cars, toy guns and enough
more to fill my sack to running over. It is so near Christmas that I
need all the toys I can pile into my sleigh."
The Plush Bear was lifted off the bench by one of the workmen and put in
a box, after being wrapped in tissue paper.
"I hope they don't smother me!" thought the Bear, but he need not have
been afraid. His last glimpse was of the Wax Doll. She, too, was well
wrapped and placed in a box so her complexion would not be spoiled.
"I did hope I'd have a chance to bid farewell to the toys that are
left," thought the Plush Bear, as he was placed in the sleigh of Santa
Claus. "But some of them are coming with me, that's a comfort. We shall
not have room to move around, though, and hardly a chance to talk on
our trip to the Earth. However, I suppose it cannot be helped. This is
part of our adventures in life."
A little later there was a merry jingle of bells, and Santa Claus could
be heard calling:
"Hi, Prancer! Steady there, Dashaway! Wait a minute, Comet!"
"Those are the reindeer," whispered the Wax Doll, through the side of
her box to the Plush Bear in his box.
"I supposed so," was the answer. "I hope I am not made seasick on this
voyage through the air."
"Seasick! The idea! The sleigh of Santa Claus is not a boat!" squealed
the Flannel Pig.
Then the sack of toys was lifted up and put in the sleigh. The reindeer
shook their heads, making the bells jingle more merrily than ever. There
came a jolly laugh from Santa Claus, and then he cried:
"Away we go! Over the ice! Over the snow! Down to the Earth below!"
And a moment later the Plush Bear and the other toys found themselves
being swiftly carried through the cold air. But they were snug and warm
in the sleigh of Santa Claus.
Of all the things that happened to the Plush Bear and the other toys on
their trip from the shop of Santa Claus to Earth I have not room to tell
you here. Enough to say that, unlike the Nodding Donkey, they suffered
no accident. None of them was tossed out into a drift of snow. Then,
finally, the big sack of toys was left at one of the many big buildings
on Earth, whence they were to be divided among the toy shops.
And one day, after having been cooped up in his box for a long time, so,
at least, it seemed to him, the Plush Bear's eyes were suddenly dazzled
by a flash of light.
"I wonder if I am back at the North Pole," he thought. "Has that Eskimo
boy caught me again, and is he taking me to his igloo? Are these
Northern Lights that flash in front of me?"
But they were not, though they came from the same cause--electricity.
The glare that dazzled the eyes of the Plush Bear came from the electric
lights of a large store, where he was being unpacked, together with
other toys. There was a rustle of paper as the Plush Bear was unwrapped,
and then a voice cried:
"Oh, Father, see what a fine toy! And it's the kind you wind up! Oh, I
shall love this Plush Bear!"
"Do not squeeze him too tightly, Angelina," said a white-haired and
white-whiskered old man, who was helping two women lift the toys out of
the big box in which they had come. "You may break some of the wheels or
springs."
"Oh, I shan't hug him too tightly," said Angelina, laughing. "But he is
certainly a lovely Plush Bear."
"Yes, he is very nice," said the old gentleman. "What have you,
Geraldine?" he asked his other daughter.
"An Elephant," was the answer. "But he doesn't wind up. However, he will
look well in the window."
"Yes," said the old man, "to-morrow we will decorate the show windows
for the Christmas trade. The Plush Bear must surely stand in the window.
Some one will see him and buy him."
"Well, at last I seem to have reached a toy shop--the very place I most
wanted to come to," thought the Plush Bear. "I wonder who the old
gentleman is?"
Had the Plush Bear been able to read he would have seen in white letters
on one of the windows the name:
HORATIO MUGG
TOY DEALER
But the Plush Bear did not need this to tell him he was in the very
place he wished to be.
"Now some girl or boy will buy me, I hope, and I shall have more
adventures," thought the new toy.
The Plush Bear, who was taken from his box by Angelina, one of Mr.
Mugg's daughters, was placed safely on a shelf, and the unpacking of the
toys went on. It was evening, and the store was closed for the day. But
Mr. Mugg took this time to open his new shipment of Christmas goods.
Geraldine had just lifted out the Wax Doll, and the Plush Bear was
wondering when he would have a chance to talk to her and his other
friends from the shop of Santa Claus when, all of a sudden, from the
rear of the toy store, which was in darkness, came a strange sound.
There was a banging, slamming noise, then several bumps, and finally a
loud whistle.
"Goodness; what's that?" exclaimed Angelina.
"I hope that isn't a policeman whistling, to tell us there is another
fire!" said Geraldine.
"Or that burglars are trying to break in to take the new toys," added
her sister.
They looked at their father, who laid down a Noah's Ark he was just
looking at and started toward the back of the store. As he did so the
noise became louder; bumping, banging, crashing, and above it all
sounded the shrill toot-toot of whistles.
"Dear me, what is happening?" thought the Plush Bear.
CHAPTER V
THE FAT BOY
Horatio Mugg, owner of the toy store where the Plush Bear was now at
home, hurried to the back of the shop. It was here that the noise had
come from, and the sound was still keeping up as Mr. Mugg turned on an
electric light.
Then the Plush Bear, who was listening as closely as were Geraldine and
Angelina, heard Mr. Mugg laugh, and with that the rattling, banging and
tooting noise came to a stop.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed Mr. Mugg again.
"What is it?" asked Angelina. "It isn't a burglar, evidently."
"Nor a policeman nor a fire," Geraldine added.
"None of them," answered Mr. Mugg. "One of the toy trains of cars that I
wound up this evening just started off by itself. I guess some of the
toys must have wanted a ride, and the Engineer of the toy train tooted
his whistle to tell them to get aboard."
"Why, Father!" exclaimed Geraldine, "the toys couldn't want a ride. They
can't do anything like that."
"Well, I wouldn't be so sure," said Mr. Mugg, as his two daughters
entered the rear room to see what had caused all the racket. "Sometimes
I feel that these toys know more than we think they do," he went on.
"Take that new Plush Bear," he added, pointing to the other room where
Bruin was sitting on a shelf. "See how wise he looks? He seems about to
speak. And if he ever should come to life I think he would enjoy a ride
in a toy train."
"Oh, but he _can't_ come to life!" exclaimed Angelina.
"Ha! can't I, though?" whispered the Plush Bear to himself. "You just
ought to see us toys after dark! No, on second thought, it is just as
well you don't see us," he went on. "For if you looked at us we couldn't
say a word or move about. It is best that you do not know we can pretend
to be alive."
Angelina and Geraldine looked at the toy train which had caused the
excitement. It was a new engine and cars that had been unpacked that
evening by their father. Mr. Mugg had wound up the spring in the engine,
which was very much like a real one, with a bell, whistle, and even an
iron Engineer in the cab. The toy train, all wound up and ready to go,
had been left on the floor in a rear room. Then, when Mr. Mugg and his
daughters were unpacking the Plush Bear and other toys, the little
train, in some manner, had started off by itself, had run along the
floor, banging into the walls, bumping over other toys, and with the
whistle going:
Toot! Toot! Toot!
"What started it?" asked Angelina, when the train had been put in a safe
place.
"Oh, I think the spring began to unwind of itself," answered Mr. Mugg.
"Or our walking around may have jarred the engine, and started it off.
At any rate no harm is done, and now we must finish unpacking the toys."
The toy-dealer and his two daughters were soon busy over the large
packing box, and the Plush Bear and his friends from the workshop of
Santa Claus looked on, well pleased to be out of the box.
"This is ever so much a nicer place than the igloo of Ski, the Eskimo
boy," thought the Plush Bear. "I would not want to be up in that bleak
North Pole Land, unless I were with Santa Claus, and of course one
cannot stay long in his workshop. I think I shall have much more fun
here. There is so much light and happiness."
It was nearly midnight when Mr. Mugg and his daughters finished
unpacking the toys. All about the floor wrapping paper and the covers of
boxes were scattered. The toys, as they were taken out of the case, had
been set on shelves about the room.
"This will be enough for to-night," said the toy-dealer after a while.
"We will leave things as they are, now that we have all the toys
unpacked. To-morrow I will put some in the show window, and the boys and
girls will come to buy them."