Part 7 (1/2)
”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 fas.h.i.+on, 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 seash.o.r.e.”
”The seash.o.r.e? 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 seash.o.r.e 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 seash.o.r.e. 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!”