Laura Lee Hope - The Story of a Plush Bear
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Story of a Plush Bear
"Be sure and put the Plush Bear in the window," said Angelina. "I know
he'll be one of the first to go, he is so cute and he can do so many
things when he is wound up. He shakes his head and moves his paws."
"He is a good toy," said Mr. Mugg. And a little later the toy shop was
in darkness, except for one light that was left burning all night.
"Oh, ho!" thought the Plush Bear, when he saw Mr. Mugg and his daughters
leave. "Now is our chance! Now we can come to life!"
He turned his head to one side, and spoke to the Wax Doll.
"How do you like it here?" asked the Plush Bear.
"Oh, very much," the Doll answered. "As soon as we get to know the other
toys I'm sure we shall like it."
"We are glad to welcome you here," said a Jumping Jack, who had been in
Mr. Mugg's store for a long time. "Make yourselves at home. After a bit
we shall have some fun. You just came from North Pole Land, didn't you?"
"Yes," answered the Plush Bear. "But we like it here very much. Come,
Miss Wax Doll," he went on, "allow me the pleasure of taking you for a
walk through the shop."
The Wax Doll and the Plush Bear got down off the shelf where they had
been put, and began to move about. Some of the other new toys did the
same, while about them crowded the playthings that had been on the
shelves and the counters for some days.
"Take a look through the store," suggested the older Jumping Jack to the
Plush Bear, "and then come back and we'll have some fun."
The Plush Bear and the Wax Doll, who took hold of his paw, moved along
through the different rooms of the toy store. Everywhere they went they
were made welcome by the playthings that had been in stock for some
time. The old toys were glad to welcome the new ones.
Suddenly the Plush Bear and the Wax Doll found themselves in a strange
place. All about were shining tools, pots of glue, pieces of wood,
strips of cloth, glass eyes, wooden arms and legs, odd ears, noses,
tails and heads.
"Oh, what a queer place!" cried the Wax Doll. "I don't like it here!
What is it?"
"I hardly know," answered the Plush Bear.
"This is the repair department," said the Jumping Jack, who had followed
the two new toys. "It is here that Mr. Mugg mends the toys that get
broken in the store, or toys that get broken when the boys and girls
play with them. We had a fire here, not long ago, and the place is
rather upset, but don't mind that. It is almost in order again, but
there are always things scattered about in this repair department. If
ever you lose an eye or an ear, Mr. Plush Bear, just come in here and
Mr. Mugg will make you a new one," said the Jumping Jack.
"That's a comfort," answered the Plush Bear, laughing. "So you have had
a fire here? I thought the place smelled rather smoky."
"It's just the way I smelled after I climbed up the string, too near
the gas jet, and burned my trousers," said a voice that seemed to come
from one of the shelves in the repair room.
"Who is that?" whispered the Wax Doll.
"The Calico Clown," answered the Jumping Jack. "He came here to have a
new cap put on him."
"That's right," said the Clown, and he made a polite bow to the Plush
Bear and the Wax Doll. "Sidney, the boy who owns me, was playing circus
with me. His brother, who owns the Monkey on a Stick, was trying to make
me jump over the Monkey, when my cap caught on the stick and was ripped
off. So they brought me here to have Mr. Mugg make me a new one. But did
you hear about how I burned my trousers?" asked the Calico Clown.
"I never did, having just arrived here," said the Plush Bear.
"Oh, you should hear that story!" cried the Clown. "It was quite funny
in a way, though I did not think so at the time. In fact, there has been
a book made about it, and about some of my other adventures. I must tell
you of them."
"I should be delighted to hear them," said the Wax Doll, who seemed to
have taken quite a liking to the Calico Clown.
"Baa! Baa!" suddenly called a voice from another shelf. "I have had
adventures also. After you finish telling about how you burned your
trousers, Mr. Clown, I'll tell how I was once down in a coal hole."
"Who is that?" asked the Plush Bear in a low tone of the Jumping Jack.
"That is a Lamb on Wheels," was the answer. "How comes it that you are
here, Miss Lamb?" the Jack answered. "I didn't hear that you had had an
accident."
"Oh, yes; but not a very bad one," bleated the Lamb. "One of my wheels
came off when Mirabell, the little girl who owns me, let me fall. Her
brother Arnold, who has a Bold Tin Soldier and his men, tried to fix me,
but his father brought me here for Mr. Mugg to operate on. I shall be
well again in a few days, and go back home. But who are the visitors?"
asked the Lamb.
"Oh, excuse me," said the Jumping Jack. "Let me introduce Mr. Plush Bear
and Miss Wax Doll from North Pole Land," and the Bear and Doll made
polite bows, as did the Lamb on Wheels and the Calico Clown.
Then the toys talked together and had a good time among themselves until
morning came, when they had to go back to their places and become quiet.
As soon as the store was opened for business Mr. Mugg and his daughters
began arranging the playthings. The Plush Bear was put in the show
window, with the Wax Doll and some of the other new gifts. It was the
first time in his life that he had been in such a place, and you may be
sure the Plush Bear looked about him with eagerness.
He was gazing out into a busy street--a street where people were passing
up and down all the while--a street in which there was a layer of
newly-fallen snow, only not as much as at the North Pole.
"I wonder if Santa Claus is here?" thought the Plush Bear.
But he could not speak aloud because so many eyes--those of the
passers-by in the street and the customers in the store--were watching.
There was so much to see that the Plush Bear did not know at which to
look first, but, all of a sudden, he heard a voice saying:
"Oh, I want that Plush Bear! I want that! Can he do any tricks?"
The Plush Bear felt himself being lifted out of the show window of the
toy shop. The springs inside him were wound up by Mr. Mugg and when he
was set down on a showcase near the window the Bear began to move his
head and paws, and from his red mouth came a make-believe growl.
"Oh, I want him! I want him!" the eager voice went on, and the Plush
Bear was caught up by a fat boy--the very fattest and jolliest boy that
the toy had ever seen. "I want this Plush Bear for my very own!" cried
the fat boy. "He's the best toy I ever saw!"
CHAPTER VI
OUT OF THE WINDOW
"Don't squeeze the Bear so hard, Arthur," said a lady who was with the
fat boy. "You may break the toy before I have paid for him."
"The Plush Bear is strong and well-made, Mrs. Rowe," said Mr. Mugg. "He
is one of the newest of the Christmas toys, and I only put him in the
show window this morning."
"And I saw him when I was walking along!" exclaimed Arthur Rowe, the
jolly fat boy. "As soon as I saw him I knew I'd like him! Oh, Mother,
hear him growl! And see him wave his paws!"
Indeed the Plush Bear was doing all his tricks, for he had been wound
up by Mr. Mugg for that very purpose. There he sat on the top of the
glass showcase, growling away (make believe of course) and waving his
paws like a real bear.
Other persons in the toy store crowded up to the showcase to watch the
Plush Bear do his tricks, and Arthur, the jolly fat boy, laughed loud
and long as his plaything amused the throng. For the Plush Bear was to
belong to Arthur. Passing down the street early that Winter morning, he
had seen the toy in Mr. Mugg's window, and had begged his mother to stop
and go in and inquire about him.
"Wrap him up, Mr. Mugg, please," said Arthur, when the spring was all
unwound and the wheels inside the Plush Bear no longer moved his paws
and head and caused him to growl. "Wrap him up, and I'll take him home.
I guess Dick and Arnold and Herbert and Sidney will wish they had a toy
like this!"
The Plush Bear again felt himself being lifted up by Mr. Mugg, who put
him in tissue paper and then in the same box in which the Bear had
traveled to Earth from the shop of Santa Claus.
"Good-by, Wax Doll! Good-by, Jumping Jack, Elephant and all my friends,"
said the Plush Bear to himself as the tissue paper covered his eyes and
shut out the sight of the other toys in the store. "Good-by! I don't
know when I shall see you again!"
Of course the Plush Bear dared not say this out loud, for he was being
watched. And he dared not move of his own accord for the same reason. He
felt a little sad at leaving all his toy friends, but he liked the looks
of the fat boy, and Arthur seemed like one who would make a kind master.
"Oh, what fun I'll have with my Plush Bear!" said the fat boy, as he
walked out of the toy store with his mother. "I'll invite Dick over with
his White Rocking Horse, Arnold with his Bold Tin Soldiers, Herbert
with his Monkey on a Stick, and Sidney with his Calico Clown. We'll have
a lot of fun!"
"I thought you said Sidney's Calico Clown was broken," remarked Mrs.
Rowe as she and Arthur got into their automobile.
"Only the Clown's cap was torn off when they were playing circus the
other day," said Arthur. "Mirabell's Lamb on Wheels was broken, too, and
I guess they're both in Mr. Mugg's toy shop being fixed."
"Indeed they are there," thought the Plush Bear, who could hear all that
was said through the tissue paper and his box. "I was talking to the
Lamb and the Clown only last night. Well, it will not be so bad if I can
see them once in a while. I should also like to meet the Wax Doll again,
and the Elephant. I hope nice fat boys get them for presents."
Though it was cold outside of Mr. Mugg's store, the Plush Bear did not
feel it. In the first place, he had on his own warm coat, which was
almost like fur. Then he was wrapped in paper, and he was in a box, and
he was inside the nice automobile. So he was even more comfortable than
he had been at the North Pole, and ever so much more cozy than when he
was in the igloo of Ski, the Eskimo boy.
"Look, Nettie! Look what I have!" cried Arthur, the fat boy, as he ran
into the house as soon as the auto stopped. "I have a Bear that growls!"
Nettie, his little sister, who was running to meet her brother, carrying
in her arms a Rag Doll, stopped when Arthur began to open the bundle he
had carried from Mr. Mugg's store.
"I don't like growly bears!" she exclaimed.
"Oh, this bear is nice! He's a Plush Bear," Arthur said. "He wobbles his
head and he jiggles his paws, and he growls, but it's only a
make-believe growl. Look at my new Bear, Nettie!"
Arthur quickly took the wrappings from the Plush Bear and wound up the
spring as Mr. Mugg had shown him. Then, when the Bear was set down on
the floor, the toy began to wave his paws, to shake his head from side
to side, and from his red mouth came several growls.
"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Nettie, who had knelt down beside her brother to
look at the Bear. "I don't like him when he growls!"
"Oh, he won't hurt you, Nettie!" laughed the fat boy Arthur. "See, he's
waving his paw to you, and he only growls like your rubber doll squeaks.
My Plush Bear is nice, Nettie."
And when the little girl found that the Bear did no harm, but only
growled in a make-believe, jolly fashion, she decided to make friends
with him. She sat down on the floor close beside him, and when the
clockwork inside the toy had run down, and the Bear was still, Nettie
took him up in her arms and loved him.
"Isn't he nice?" asked Arthur.
"Yes, pretty nice," agreed Nettie. "But he isn't as nice as my Rag
Doll."
"Well, girls like dolls and boys like Plush Bears. That's the best way,
I guess," said Arthur.
Then he and his sister played some more with the Plush Bear, winding him
up, listening to his pretended growls, and watching him wave his paws
and shake his head.
That night after the children had gone to bed and the Plush Bear was in
the closet of the playroom with the Rag Doll, the Bear leaned over and
whispered to the Doll:
"What sort of place is it here?"
"Oh, very nice!" the Rag Doll answered. "Two better children than Nettie
and Arthur you could not wish for! And every Summer they go to the
seashore."
"The seashore? Where is that?" asked the Plush Bear. "Is it near the
North Pole?"
"Oh, my, no!" answered the Rag Doll. "It is so long since I was at the
North Pole, where I once lived in the shop of Santa Claus, that I have
almost forgotten about it. But the seashore is quite different. I have
been there with Nettie for two summers. And, now that you belong to
Arthur, I suppose he will take you there. It is very jolly down on the
warm sand near the sparkling waves."
"I should very much like to see it," said the Plush Bear.
There were other toys in the closet, and they talked and had a good time
together that night when Arthur and Nettie were fast asleep.
And then began a happy life for the Plush Bear. The Christmas season
came and went, and Nettie and Arthur received other toys, but none that
they cared for any more than they did for the Rag Doll and the Plush
Bear. During the Winter days and evenings other boys and girls came over
to play with Arthur and Nettie, bringing their toys. In this way the
Plush Bear again met the Lamb on Wheels and the Calico Clown, each of
whom had been made as good as new by Mr. Mugg.
At last the warm days of Summer came, and the Rowe family started in a
train for the seashore. Nettie had her Rag Doll, and Arthur carried his
Plush Bear. The children had seats near the window in the train, and
Arthur held his Bear up to look out. It was a warm day and the window
was open.
"Be careful, Arthur!" called his mother. "Don't put your head out!"
"I won't," the fat boy promised. But he did hold his Plush Bear part way
out of the window. "I want to let him see things," said Arthur.
Suddenly the train slowed up, and so quickly that the Plush Bear was
jerked from the fat boy's hand. Out of the car window fell the Plush
Bear!
CHAPTER VII
ON THE BOARDWALK
Down, down, down out of the window of the moving train fell the Plush
Bear! He heard Arthur cry as his toy was jerked from his hands, and the
toy had a strange feeling inside him as he turned over and over in his
plunge.
"Talk about somersaults!" thought Mr. Bruin as he sailed downward. "The
Polar Bear should see me now! I wonder what is going to happen to me! I
have turned more somersaults in a minute than he turned in a whole
evening at the North Pole!"
"Arthur! Arthur! what is the matter?" called the fat boy's mother, when
she heard him cry.
"Oh, Mother! my Plush Bear has fallen out of the window!" Arthur
answered. "I was showing him the sights, and the train jiggled him out
of my hand!"
"And my Rag Doll almost went out of my window, but I held on to her,"
added Nettie.
"Oh, you have lost your nice new Plush Bear!" exclaimed Mrs. Rowe. "I
wonder if we can get him back?"
"I fancy so," said Mr. Rowe, who was taking his family to the seashore.
"The train is going to stop at this station, and I can run back and pick
up Arthur's toy."
The fat boy felt better when he heard his father say this, but still he
was afraid lest perhaps his plaything might have been broken in the
tumble.
It was the sudden slowing of the train for the station stop that had
caused Arthur to drop his Plush Bear. With a grinding of the brakes the
cars came to a standstill, and Mr. Rowe, followed by Arthur, started
for the door. Nettie also got down out of her seat.
"No, dear, you had better stay with me," her mother said. "Daddy will
get the Plush Bear back if it can be found."
"Where you s'pose he is?" asked the little girl.
And now we must find that out ourselves.
Down! down! down! turning somersault after somersault, the Plush Bear
fell. Arthur had held the toy up to the window just as the train was
crossing a high bridge, beneath which ran a street. The railroad tracks
were on an embankment, and in the street below trees were growing. The
train ran over the bridge, or trestle, above the trees.
And it was into one of these trees, growing down in the street, that the
Plush Bear fell. Right down among the branches he plunged, but as it was
now Summer, and there were leaves on the trees, it was almost like
falling on a soft sofa cushion.
"I'm glad this tree was here!" thought the Plush Bear, as he landed on a
branch among the soft leaves. "If I had struck on the hard street or on
the sidewalk there is no telling what would have happened. I don't
believe I'm at all hurt now."
And indeed he was not. Aside from being shaken up and having his plush
ruffled, the Bear was not in the least harmed. But had he landed on the
road one of his springs inside or some of his wheels might have been
broken or twisted, and he never could have growled again or moved his
head or paws. That is, unless Mr. Mugg could have mended him.
As it was, the Plush Bear fell down into the tree, and there he stuck on
a branch not far from the ground. The Plush Bear sat astraddle the limb.
"Oh, I am not safe yet!" he thought. "Maybe I'll fall after all! I must
keep very still and quiet until I see what will happen next."
By this time the train had stopped and Arthur and his father were
alighting at the small station.
"This isn't where you get off," said the conductor to Mr. Rowe. "This
isn't the seashore."
"I know it," said Mr. Rowe. "But my little boy dropped his Plush Bear
out of the window, and we're going back to see if we can get it. Have we
time?"
"Yes," answered the conductor. "The train has to wait here five minutes
to have some trunks taken off. But don't be too long. I hope you may
find the little boy's toy."
Arthur hoped so himself, as he hurried down to the street level.
"Where do you think my Bear is, Daddy?" he asked.
"It must be somewhere near the bridge," was the answer. "I heard you
call out as the train rumbled over it."
Along the street which ran near the railroad walked Arthur and his
father. As they walked they looked carefully on the ground for sight of
the Plush Bear, but he was not to be found.
"I'm sure you must have dropped him about here," said Mr. Rowe, as he
and the fat boy stood beneath the railroad bridge. "But he isn't in
sight. Perhaps some one picked him up."
"Oh, is my nice Plush Bear gone?" sighed Arthur.
He looked all around, but Mr. Bruin, as the Bear was sometimes called,
was not in sight. Then a ragged little boy, who had been flying a kite,
came running along the street.
"What's the matter?" asked the ragged lad. "Did you lose your ball?"
"No; it's my Plush Bear," answered Arthur. "I dropped him out of the car
window, but I don't see him now."
The ragged boy looked up into the tree under which he and the fat boy
and Mr. Rowe were standing. There, right over their heads, stretched
out on a limb to which he seemed to be clinging with all four paws, was
the Plush Bear. The toy had been looking down at Arthur and his father,
and he had been wishing he might call and tell them where he was, but of
course this was not allowed.
"I see him! I'll get him for you!" cried the ragged boy.
In another moment he was climbing the tree, and a little later he tossed
down the Plush Bear, Mr. Rowe catching the toy in his hands.
"Now I have him back again! Oh, I'm so glad! Now I have my Plush Bear!"
cried Arthur. "I'll never let you fall out of a window again!"
"I should hope not!" said Mr. Rowe, as he gave his fat son the toy. "And
here is twenty-five cents for you, little man," he added to the ragged
boy.
"Oh, thanks!" cried the barefoot lad, as he ran away down the street,
the shining silver quarter held tightly in his hand. Then Arthur and his
father went back to their train, the fat boy holding the Plush Bear in
his arms.
"Oh, you found him! I'm so glad!" said Mrs. Rowe, as her husband and son
took their seats and the train started. "You must be careful after this,
Arthur."
"I will," promised the little boy.
"And I'm going to be careful of my Rag Doll," said Nettie, as she held
her plaything on her lap.
There were no more accidents during the trip to the seashore, which was
reached in the afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Rowe went to the hotel with their
son and daughter, and of course the Plush Bear and the Rag Doll went
also.
"Where is this ocean you talked about?" asked the Plush Bear of the Rag
Doll when they had a moment alone together.
"Oh, it is outside. Did you think they kept the ocean in the hotel?"
asked the Doll, with a laugh.
"I didn't know," the Bear remarked. "Is this a hotel?"
"Yes; it's a great big house where the family lives while at the
seashore," the Doll said. "You'll like it here. This is my third summer,
and I--"
But just then the door opened and Arthur and Nettie came running into
the room. Of course the toys could no longer talk to each other.
"We're going down on the boardwalk in wheeled chairs!" cried Nettie.
"I'm going to take my Rag Doll."
"And I'll take my Plush Bear," said Arthur. "To-morrow I'll play with
him on the sand."
"I wonder what all this means--wheeled chairs--sand--boardwalk?" thought
the Plush Bear. "So many things are happening I cannot keep track of
them!"
Suddenly he found himself shut up with the two children and the Rag Doll
in a sort of iron cage. And, all of a sudden, it began to go down.
"Goodness! am I falling again?" thought the Plush Bear.
He looked at the Rag Doll, but she did not seem to be startled. And then
he heard Nettie say:
"Don't you like to go down in the elevator, Arthur?"
"Yes, it's lots of fun," answered the fat boy.
"Oh, it seems I am in an elevator," thought the Plush Bear. "Something
else new!"
He soon grew used to the motion, and a little later he and Arthur, with
Nettie and her Doll, were seated in a big chair on Wheels, and were
being pushed along a broad wooden walk by a colored man.
"Isn't there a big crowd on the boardwalk?" said Arthur to his sister,
as they were being wheeled along.
"Yes, but not as large as this time last year," replied the little girl.
"Look out, Arthur!" she suddenly cried. "Your Bear is slipping! If he
falls under the wheels he'll be run over!"
Arthur made a grab for his toy, which had been resting in his lap, but
he was not quick enough. Down out of the wheeled chair slipped the Plush
Bear! Down to the boardwalk, and right toward him rumbled another big
double chair, in which sat a fat man and a large woman.
"I guess this is the last of me!" thought the Plush Bear.
CHAPTER VIII
IN THE SAND
Sometimes things occur very luckily in this world. If it had not
happened that the colored man, who was pushing the big, double, wheeled
chair, looked down at the boardwalk and saw the Plush Bear just in time,
Mr. Bruin would have been crushed. His spring that made him move his
head and paws and the growler inside him would have been broken to bits.
But, as it happened, the colored chair-pusher saw the Plush Bear fall
from the lap of Arthur Rowe, who sat beside his sister Nettie in a chair
on the boardwalk at the seaside city.
"Hi! My land! Wait a minute!" shouted the colored man.
"Maybe he is going to save me!" thought the Plush Bear, who had seen the
rubber-tired wheels coming nearer and nearer.
"What's the matter, Sam?" asked the man in the big rolling chair.
At the same time Arthur leaned forward with a cry of alarm, for he saw
his Plush Bear had slipped, as it had slipped from him and out of the
car window the day before.
"Li'l boy done drop his play-toy!" answered Sam, the colored man. "I
come nigh onto runnin' ober it. Heah it is, li'l man," went on the
chair-pusher as he picked up the Plush Bear and handed him back to
Arthur.
"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed Arthur, while Nettie, who had seen what
almost had happened, held her Rag Doll tighter in her arms.
"I'm not going to drop Polinda, not ever!" declared Nettie. Polinda was
the name of her doll. When Nettie first received the toy she had wanted
to call the doll Polly, but the little girl next door said Lucinda would
be a better name. So Nettie mixed up both names and called her doll
Polinda, which is a very good name, I think.
With his Plush Bear safe in his arms once more, Arthur leaned back in
his rolling chair. He and Nettie smiled at the lady and gentleman in the
chair that had almost run over Mr. Bruin, and then the two chairs were
pushed on by the men rolling them. Just behind Arthur and his sister, in
another chair, were Mr. and Mrs. Rowe, but they had been so busy,
looking at the sights along the boardwalk, they had not seen how nearly
there was an accident.
"Is your Bear all right?" asked Nettie of her brother, as they were
wheeled along. "I mean will his head nod?"
"His head doesn't exactly nod," replied Arthur. "I guess you're
thinking of Joe's Nodding Donkey. But my Bear wags his head."
"Maybe he won't now, after all that happened," suggested Nettie.
"Oh, I guess he will," said Arthur. "But I'll wind him up and see."
He turned the key that wound up the spring, and as soon as it was tight
enough the Plush Bear began to move his paws, shake his head from side
to side and growl in a gentle voice, just as Santa Claus had intended he
should do.