Laura Lee Hope - The Story of a Plush Bear
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Laura Lee Hope >> The Story of a Plush Bear
"He's all right," said Arthur.
"Thank goodness for that!" exclaimed the Plush Bear to himself. "One
never knows what may happen when one falls out of a car window and then
from a wheeled chair to the boardwalk. I might have got a lot of slivers
in me, or have loosened a wheel! I'm glad I'm all right."
After an hour spent on the boardwalk, seeing the many sights and looking
at the waves of the ocean rolling up on the sandy beach, Arthur and his
sister, with their father and mother, went back to their hotel. Evening
was coming on and it was time for supper, or dinner as it is called in
fashionable seaside hotels, for the principal meal is served in the
evening instead of at noon.
"I wish we could go down and play on the sand," said Nettie, as she and
her brother got out of the wheeled chair. "My Rag Doll wants to go
barefoot on the beach."
"And I think my Plush Bear would like it, too," said Arthur.
"You may go down and play in the sand all day to-morrow," promised their
mother.
"Oh, won't we have fun!" cried Nettie. "Maybe my Rag Doll can learn to
swim."
"Well, swimming won't hurt _her_," said Arthur; "but I'm not going to
let my Plush Bear get in the water. I'm going to make a sand cave for
him to live in."
"Well, it seems I am to have some fun," thought the toy, as he was taken
up in the elevator.
The Plush Bear did not like the elevator very much. It gave him a queer
feeling among his wheels and spring; and his grunter, by means of which
he growled, seemed to be turning over and over. But this did not last
long, and while Arthur and Nettie, with their parents, were at dinner in
the hotel, the Bear and the Doll had a chance to talk.
"How do you like it at this fashionable seaside hotel?" asked the Bear.
"Quite well," answered the Doll, lifting her eyebrows the way she had
seen some ladies doing in the hotel parlor as she was carried in. "I
wish Nettie would put a different dress on me, though," the Doll added.
"It is fashionable to dress here in the evening, but she has left my old
clothes on."
"Old clothes are best," growled the Bear. "You feel more comfortable in
them. I don't need any, I'm glad to say, not even at the cold North
Pole. But say, Rag Doll, now we're alone, let's do something."
"I know what we can do!" the Rag Doll exclaimed. "All my life I have
wanted to play with the glistening things in a hotel bathroom. I want to
work the shower, and turn the shiny handles. There are ever so many more
than we have at home. Come on into the bathroom, and let's turn every
handle we see!"
"All right," agreed the Plush Bear. "That'll be fun!"
And there is no telling what mischief he and the Rag Doll might have got
into, only, just then, in came Nettie and Arthur, having finished
dinner.
"I'm going to play with my Plush Bear!" cried the fat boy.
"And I'm going to get my Rag Doll to sleep," said Nettie. "It's time she
was in bed."
The Doll and the Bear could only look slyly at one another. There was
no chance now for them to have fun with the shiny handles in the
bathroom. But perhaps it was just as well.
That night, when Arthur and Nettie, as well as their father and mother
were asleep, the Bear and Doll had a chance to make believe come to
life, move about, and speak.
"But we won't turn the handles in the bathroom and splash the water
now," said the Doll. "It would make such a noise that they'd awaken and
we'd be caught. But what can we do?"
"Let's look out the windows," suggested the Plush Bear. So, climbing up
first on little stools, and then on chairs, the two toys looked from the
hotel windows. They saw many lights sparkling, and out to sea was a tall
lighthouse with a gleaming beacon which flickered like a giant lightning
bug.
In the morning Arthur and Nettie went down on the sand to play, the
little fat boy taking his Plush Bear and Nettie her Rag Doll.
"Oh, what a dandy Teddy Bear!" cried a small, red-haired chap as he ran
along the beach to play with Arthur.
"This isn't a Teddy Bear," explained Arthur. "He's a Plush Bear, and he
can move his head and his paws and he can growl."
"Let's hear him!" begged the red-haired boy.
So Arthur wound up the spring, and, surely enough, the toy did all those
things.
"Oh, he's a dandy!" cried the red-haired lad. "If you let me play with
him, I'll let you take my airship that flies."
"We'll take turns playing with them," said Arthur, and then began a
happy time for the children. Some little girls came over to play with
Nettie, and they had lots of fun on the sand.
After a while Arthur happened to think of what he had said he was going
to do--dig a sand cave for his Bear.
"We'll make a big one," he said to the red-haired lad. "We'll dig a big
hole."
"With clam shells!" cried the other lad, and, putting aside the Plush
Bear and the airship, the two little friends began to make a large hole
in the sand. When it was finished the Plush Bear was put down in it, and
some sticks were stuck up in front.
"We'll make believe the sticks are the bars of his cage," said Arthur.
"We'll pretend he's a circus Bear."
"Oh, yes," agreed the red-haired boy. "That's lots of fun."
So they played with the Plush Bear in the hole of the sand for some
time. Then other boys and girls came along, joining in the fun, and
pretty soon some children rode past on ponies.
"Oh, I'm going to ask mother if we can't ride on the ponies!" cried
Nettie.
"So'm I!" added her brother, and, forgetting all about the Plush Bear in
the hole, away they ran to tease for ponies to ride. Mrs. Rowe was
sitting on the sand not far from where the children had been playing.
"Yes, Arthur and Nettie, you may ride the ponies," she said. "I'll take
you down and tell the man to put you on."
And in the excitement of the pony ride Arthur forgot all about his Plush
Bear in the sand cave. The toy was left there all alone, and he did not
know what to think.
"I wonder if I dare knock down those sticks they call bars and climb
out?" thought the toy. "I don't believe any one is looking." He was just
going to do this when along the beach dashed one of the ponies with a
little girl on his back. The pony stepped close to the hole where the
Plush Bear was, and in another instant the sand caved in, covering Mr.
Bruin from sight!
CHAPTER IX
OUT TO SEA
Sand ran down into the eyes of the Plush Bear. Grains of sand tickled
his plush toes. Some even got in his plush mouth that he opened when he
gave his growls. Other grains of sand trickled between the joints of his
paws and his body.
"Oh, dear, this is terrible!" said Mr. Bruin, as he found himself in
darkness when the hole into which Arthur had placed him caved in from
the feet of the pony. "This is simply terrible!"
But though the Plush Bear, being by himself, was allowed to talk and
move about, pretending to come to life, he soon found that it was not
wise to open his mouth. The wider he opened it the more sand came in.
"What shall I do?" thought the Plush Bear to himself, not opening his
mouth to say anything this time. "How am I ever going to get out of
here?"
Well might he ask himself that, for the sand was so closely packed in
about him that he could hardly move. Even though the spring inside him
was wound up, the Plush Bear could not turn his head nor wave his paws.
As for growling, he knew better than to try that.
"Well, something must be done!" thought the Plush Bear. "If I stay in
this sand hole too long I'll smother! I wonder why Arthur doesn't come
and take me out? He always said he was fond of me!"
But Arthur, the fat boy, was just then having a glorious ride on a pony,
and Nettie, his sister, was also having a ride. For the time being the
children had forgotten about their toys. Nettie had left her Rag Doll
and Arthur his Plush Bear. But the Rag Doll was not buried in the sand.
Up and down along the sand rode the children on the backs of the beach
ponies. But at last Mrs. Rowe decided that Nettie and Arthur had had fun
enough, so she helped them out of the little saddles.
"Get your playthings and come to the hotel. We must dress for dinner,"
she said. "Where is your Rag Doll, Nettie? And your Plush Bear, Arthur?"
"I left my Rag Doll on the sand," answered Nettie. "I'll get her."
"And I left my Plush Bear--Oh, I left him in the sand circus cage, where
I was playing he was a wild Bear!" cried Arthur. "Oh, I forgot, I left
my nice Plush Bear in a hole!"
"You'd better get him out as soon as you can," said his mother.
The children remembered the spot where they had been playing on the sand
before they took the pony rides. Nettie ran back there, and soon found
her Rag Doll.
"But where's my Plush Bear?" asked Arthur anxiously, looking up and down
the beach. "I made a hole here, right by Nettie's Doll, and I put sticks
in the hole, like bars in a circus cage, and I left my Plush Bear in the
hole."
"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Mrs. Rowe, as she, too, looked
searchingly up and down the sand. She did not want Arthur to lose his
toy.
"It was right here," declared the fat boy.
"I don't see any hole," went on Mrs. Rowe. Of course she did not know
that the pony had scattered the sand, filling up the little cave Arthur
had made.
"Oh, where is my Plush Bear?" cried the little fat boy, and he was
almost ready to cry. His mother and Nettie helped him look. So did other
children, wandering up and down the beach, but there was no sign of the
toy. Then a coast guard, one of the men who march up and down the
sands, keeping watch for shipwrecks, came along the boardwalk.
"Have you lost something?" asked the guard, as he came down the steps
from the boardwalk to the beach.
"We lost a Bear," said Arthur.
"A bear?" cried the guard, in surprise. "A--a bear?"
"My little boy means a _Plush_ Bear," explained Mrs. Rowe, and then she
told what had happened.
"Oh, a toy, buried in the sand," said the guard, laughing. "Well, that's
too bad. Right around here, was it? Well, I happened to be passing this
afternoon, and I noticed just about the spot where the children were
sitting on the sand. I didn't see the Plush Bear, but I know the
children were digging, and it wasn't at this spot--it was nearer the
ocean. Over here it was," the guard went on, moving away from the place
where Arthur had been sure he had made the cave for the toy. "You see,
we coast guards get in the habit of noticing things and remembering
where they are," he added. "You were looking in the wrong place. I fancy
your Bear must have been covered up in some way. I'll dig here!"
With a stick the guard began digging, and in a little while he uncovered
the Plush Bear.
"Oh, there he is! There he is!" cried Arthur, as he saw his toy again.
"Oh, thank you for finding him for me!" and he took his plaything from
the hands of the coast guard.
"Yes, that's what I say--thanks a whole lot of times!" murmured the
Plush Bear to himself, as once more he was able to breathe. "This was
the most terrible adventure I ever had!"
But the Plush Bear was to have one even worse, as you shall soon hear.
"You must be more careful of your toys, Arthur," said his mother, as,
having thanked the man, she and her children went back to the hotel.
"I'll never put him in a sand hole again," promised the little fat boy.
That night, when Arthur and Nettie were snug in their beds, and the
Plush Bear and the Rag Doll were in a closet by themselves, the Doll
leaned over and said:
"Wasn't it terrible, Mr. Bear?"
"It certainly was," agreed the Plush Bear. "I'm full of grit as it is.
Sand is all over me, even though Arthur did brush me off with a little
broom. I seem to squeak instead of growling as I ought to."
"Oh, well, maybe you'll be better after a while," said the Rag Doll.
Then she and the Plush Bear talked together in the darkness, but the
Bear did not feel like playing. He was too much shocked by having been
buried in the sand.
"Now we're going to have some fun, Plush Bear!" cried Arthur the next
morning, as he took his toy from the closet. "We're going in swimming!"
"Swimming? Swimming?" repeated the Plush Bear to himself. "I wonder what
that means?"
If he had been a real bear he would have known, for real bears, that
live in the woods, are very fond of playing in the water. But, being
only a Santa Claus toy, the Plush Bear knew nothing of this.
A little later Arthur and Nettie were down on the sand in their bathing
suits. All along the beach were many other children and grown folk, too,
in their bathing suits. Nettie carried her Rag Doll and Arthur had his
Plush Bear.
"Oh, Arthur! you aren't going to take your toy into the _water_ with
you, are you?" asked his mother.
"No'm," the little fat boy answered. "I'm just going to play with him on
the sand till Daddy comes to teach me to swim. And I'm not going to put
my Bear in a hole, either!"
"I'm glad of that, anyhow," thought the Plush Bear, who heard all that
was said. "Once in a sand hole is enough for me."
Arthur's father was going to teach the little fat boy to swim, and while
waiting for Daddy, Arthur played about on the sand with the Plush Bear,
as Nettie played with her Rag Doll.
Now and then Arthur, with the Plush Bear in his arms, would wade out a
little way into the water, and he would laugh, and run back, as the
incoming tide would send a wave over his bare toes.
"Be careful, Sonny!" called his mother, as she watched him. "The waves
are getting higher and higher. I wish your father would come and give
you your swimming lesson."
"Oh, I'm having fun!" laughed the fat boy. "My Plush Bear likes me to
carry him out, but I won't let him fall in the ocean."
Once more the little fat boy started to wade down the beach. Nettie had
gone back to sit with her mother and, for a moment, Arthur was all by
himself. Except, of course, he had the Plush Bear with him.
"Look and see how big the ocean is, Mr. Bear," said Arthur, holding his
toy up above the waves. And just then a bigger wave than any that had
yet rolled up the beach broke right at Arthur's feet.
In an instant the big wave had knocked the little fellow down. Arthur
gave a scream, and his father, who had just arrived in his bathing suit,
ran to get his little boy. Arthur had let go the Plush Bear when the
wave knocked him down.
Into the water fell the toy, and, a moment later, when the wave washed
back into the ocean, it took Mr. Bruin with it. Right out to sea the
Plush Bear was washed, on the top of the big wave!
"Oh! Oh, dear! What is going to happen to me now?" thought the poor
Plush Bear.
CHAPTER X
SAVED AT LAST
When the big wave knocked Arthur down and the little fat boy dropped the
Plush Bear into the sea, that toy expected he would at once sink to the
bottom and be drowned. It was the first time he had ever fallen into the
water. At the North Pole, where he had been made in the workshop of
Santa Claus, it is so cold nearly all the time that all water is frozen
into ice, and there is very little into which one may fall.
"This is the last of me!" thought the poor Plush Bear, as he felt the
water closing over his head. Faintly he heard the screams of Arthur, as
the waves rolled the fat boy over and over on the beach. But Arthur's
father quickly sprang in and picked up his little fat son, saving him.
There was no one at hand just then to save the Plush Bear.
"Yes, this is the last of me!" thought Mr. Bruin. But, to his surprise,
he found that, after his first drop into the ocean when the waters
closed over his head, he bobbed up again and floated nicely like a piece
of wood.
Much of what was inside the Plush Bear was sawdust and cork, making him
very light, so that, though he did not know it, he was a better floater
than was Arthur.
The Plush Bear had been careful not to breathe when he fell into the
sea, so he did not sniff any water up his nose. And after the first
shock he did not feel bad. The water was warm, and by keeping his mouth
closed the Plush Bear did not taste any of the salt. There he was,
floating on his back, his big, yellow eyes staring up at the sun and
the blue sky. And now, as the tide had turned and was going out, the
Bear was carried out to sea with it.
Back on the beach there was much excitement when Arthur's father had
pulled the fat boy out of the sea. But it was soon found that Arthur was
all right, except that he had swallowed a little salt water.
"But where's my Plush Bear?" Arthur cried, when he had been dried and
comforted by his mother. "Where's my Plush Bear?"
Where, indeed? Well might Arthur ask that, for his Plush Bear was being
carried far, far out to sea on the waves.
"Oh, Arthur! did you drop Mr. Bruin when the wave knocked you down?"
asked Nettie.
"I guess--I guess I did!" answered her brother sadly.
"Then that's the last of your Plush Bear," said Arthur's father. "But
don't cry!" he told the little boy. "I'll get you another. Don't cry!
There is salt water enough around here without your adding to it by
your tears!" he laughed. But Arthur felt too unhappy to laugh.
And all this while Mr. Bruin was floating on the waves.
"This is certainly the strangest thing that ever happened to me,"
thought the Plush Bear. "I thought surely my end had come when Arthur
dropped me. But, though I am all wet outside, I seem to be dry inside."
On and on floated the Plush Bear; then, all of a sudden, he heard voices
talking. The voices were those of men and children, and not the voices
of toys.
"Don't you like it here, Joe?" asked a boy.
"Yes, I do, Herbert," was the answer. "And my Nodding Donkey likes it,
too."
"My Monkey on a Stick is having fun, and he isn't seasick a bit," said
the boy who had been called Herbert. "He loves to ride in a motor boat,
my Monkey does."
"What's this? What's this!" thought the Plush Bear. "Nodding Donkey?
Monkey on a Stick?"
He tried to raise himself in the water to look toward the place whence
came the voices, but the Plush Bear could see nothing. A moment later,
though, he heard one of the boys call:
"Oh, look! What's that floating in the water?"
"It's a fish!" said the other boy.
"That isn't a fish! It's some sort of floating toy," was the answer in a
man's voice. "Well, I declare, it's a Teddy Bear!"
"I'm not a Teddy Bear at all," said Mr. Bruin to himself; "but if you
rescue me from the water you may call me anything you wish."
[Illustration: The Plush Bear Meets Nodding Donkey and Monkey On a
Stick. _Page_ 117]
A moment later, after he had been afloat for some hours, the Plush Bear
felt himself being lifted from the sea, and in another second he was
placed in the bottom of a motor boat. In the boat were two men and
two boys, but when the water had run out of his eyes the Plush Bear was
more interested in looking at two other toys which were also in the
boat.
On one seat was a Nodding Donkey who seemed to be bowing in a most
pleasant and jolly fashion to the Plush Bear. And on the other seat,
beside a boy, was a Monkey on a Stick.
"Oh, I have heard of these toys," thought the Plush Bear. "They, too,
were once in the shop of Santa Claus! Oh, how glad I am! I'm saved at
last!"
"Where do you suppose this Plush Bear came from?" asked Joe, the boy who
had the Nodding Donkey.
"I think he must have fallen overboard out of some boat when some
children were being given a ride, just as you boys are having a ride,"
said the father of Herbert. Herbert, you know, owned the Monkey on a
Stick.
"I wish I could keep that Plush Bear," softly said Joe. "Now that I'm
not lame any more I could run around and have fun with him."
"It is a very nice Plush Bear," said Mr. Richmond, Joe's father, as he
examined the wet toy. "Some little boy or girl will be glad to get it
back. It doesn't seem to be much harmed." He wound up the spring and at
once the Plush Bear began to move his paws, wag his head, and growl. The
growl was a trifle rusty and a bit gritty from the sand still inside the
works, but that did not matter.
"We'll take the Plush Bear back to shore with us," said Joe's father.
"Perhaps some children stopping at one of the hotels, or even at our own
hotel, may claim this toy. We must find out. I'll put the Bear on his
back in the sun so he'll dry."
"And I'll put my Nodding Donkey back there, too, so Mr. Bruin won't be
lonesome," offered Joe.
"Put my Monkey there, too," said Herbert.
So the three toys were placed near each other on the back seat of the
boat, and then the two boys and their father gathered in the bow, or
front part, to look across the ocean. They were out for a pleasure ride.
"How did you come to be floating in the sea all by yourself?" asked the
Nodding Donkey in a whisper of the Plush Bear.
"A big wave knocked Arthur down and he dropped me," was the answer, in
the same low voice.
The Plush Bear was just going to tell more of his adventures when the
motor boat was run up alongside a dock, and the party got out.
"I'll carry the Plush Bear," said Joe's father. "He isn't quite dry yet.
We'll take him to our hotel, and I'll tell the clerk to post up a
notice, saying the toy was found at sea. Then whoever owns him may claim
him."
But matters were not going to turn out just that way. As it happened,
Joe and Herbert were stopping at the same hotel where Arthur and Nettie
were with their father and mother. Joe and Herbert had just arrived that
day, which was why Arthur and Nettie had not seen their little friends
before.
Coming back from their boat ride, on which they had rescued at sea the
Plush Bear, the two men and the two boys entered the hotel. As they
walked toward the desk, Mr. Richmond carrying the Plush Bear, there was
a cry of delight from a small boy who fairly leaped out of a big, easy
chair.
"There's my Plush Bear! There's my Plush Bear!" cried Arthur, for it was
he. "Oh, where did you get him?" he cried, as he looked at the damp toy
in Mr. Richmond's hand.
"Is this your toy?" asked Joe's father.
"Oh, yes, that's my Mr. Bruin!" cried Arthur. "I dropped him in the
ocean when a big wave knocked me down, and I thought he was drowned. Oh,
where'd you get him?"
"He was floating on a wave, and we saw him from our motor boat,"
explained Joe. And then Herbert, with his Monkey on a Stick, stepped
forward, and Nettie came out of her chair, and the children were soon
all together, laughing with each other in the hotel parlor.
Arthur wound up his toy, which seemed to work as well as ever, though it
was still damp.
"Now we can have lovely fun!" said Nettie, when the story of the rescue
of Mr. Bruin had been told by those who were in the boat. "I can play
with my Rag Doll, Herbert can make his Monkey do funny tricks, the
Donkey will nod his head and Arthur's Bear will growl."
And so the children played in the hotel with their toys, while their
fathers and mothers talked together.
"That Plush Bear has had many adventures," said Mrs. Rowe to Joe's
mother. "He fell out of a car window, he was buried in the sand, and he
was carried out to sea." Of course she knew nothing of the time he had
spent in the ice igloo of the little Eskimo boy.
"Yes," said Mrs. Richmond, "Joe's Donkey had many adventures, also."
"And so did Herbert's Monkey," said that little boy's mother.
"Adventures! I should say so!" exclaimed the Plush Bear to the Donkey
and Monkey, when they were alone for a moment. "But I never want to fall
into the ocean again!"
And he never did, I am glad to say. I wish I might tell you more of the
adventures of the Monkey, the Donkey, the China Cat and Plush Bear. But
this book is quite filled, as you may see. Though of course I may write
other books about other toys if you think you would like them. But now
we must say good-by to the Plush Bear.
THE END
HAPPY HOME SERIES
By HOWARD R. GARIS
Individual Colored Wrappers and Colored Illustrations by LANG CAMPBELL
Mr. Garis has written many stories for boys and girls, among them his
Uncle Wiggly volumes, but these books are something distinctly new,
surprising and entertaining.
ADVENTURES OF THE GALLOPING GAS STOVE
A tale of how Gassy mysteriously disappeared, and how he came riding
home on the back of an elephant. It is also related how he broke his
leg, and fed a hungry family in a cottage near a lake.
ADVENTURES of the RUNAWAY ROCKING CHAIR
Racky creaked and groaned when fat Grandma sat on him too hard. He felt
himself ill-treated, so he vanished. He did not intend to take Grandma's
glasses with him, but he did. And he rocked a bunny to sleep.
ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING TABLE
Tippy, the table, always wanted to travel and see the world, but he did
not know how to start. Until, all of a sudden, a diamond ring was hidden
in his leg and a balloon carried him off through the air.
ADVENTURES OF THE SLIDING FOOT STOOL
Just because he did not want to be used as a milking stool by the Maiden
All Forlorn, Skiddy slid away Christmas eve. With him went Jack the
Jumper, and they had a wonderful time in the top shop.
ADVENTURES OF THE SAILING SOFA
Skippy always wanted to be a sailor. When the high water came in the
spring, the sofa went sailing. He had a Rooster for a crew, while
Tatter, the rag doll with one shoe button eye, was Captain.