Part 10 (1/2)

”Yes. And for a time, when I saw the White Rocking Horse bearing down on me, I thought all my adventures were over,” replied the Bold Tin Soldier.

”I hope that careless boy never comes around where we are again,”

said the Lamb, and the Soldier hoped the same thing.

And now I must tell you another adventure that happened to the Bold Tin Soldier. It was about a week after the White Rocking Horse had run over him, and he was getting used to the s.h.i.+ny ”medal,” as Arnold called it, that one day when the boy was having a make-believe battle with his Tin Soldiers Mirabell called from the kitchen:

”Oh, Arnold, come on down! Susan has baked some lovely cookies!”

”I'm coming!” cried Arnold, and, as he happened to have the Bold Tin Soldier in his hand just then, he took the Captain along when he ran down to the kitchen.

”Where are the cookies?” asked Arnold, who was feeling hungry.

”Right here on the table,” replied Susan. ”Put your Soldier down, Arnold, and sit up and eat.”

Now, as it happened, there was an open barrel of sugar in the kitchen. The cook had taken some sugar out to use in making the cookies, and had forgotten to put the cover back on. And Arnold, being in a hurry, put his Captain down on a little shelf just over this barrel.

How it happened no one seemed to know, but perhaps in eating his cookie Arnold struck the Captain with his elbow. Anyhow, down into the sugar barrel fell the Bold Tin Soldier.

”Oh my! Now I am a bunch of sweetness!” thought the Captain, as he felt the grains of sugar rolling all over him. ”Oh this is certainly a strange adventure! What a sweet time I shall have!”

CHAPTER IX

BACK TO THE STORE

The moment he had fallen into the barrel of sugar the Bold Tin Soldier scrambled to his feet and wiggled around until he got his head sticking up above the pile of sweet, white grains.

”If I don't do that, I may drown,” he thought. ”It would be strange to drown in a barrel of sugar! I don't want to do that!”

So he wiggled around until he could stand upright, buried to his neck in the sugar, but with his head out so he could look around with his painted tin eyes and breathe through his tin nose.

Otherwise he would have smothered.

The barrel was not full of sugar. In fact, it was only about a foot deep on the bottom, but that was enough to more than cover the Bold Tin Soldier from sight if it should get over his head. And, being low down in the barrel as he was, the sides of it hid him from the sight of Arnold and the cook.

”These are good cookies, Susan,” said Arnold, as he ate the last crumbs of the dainty the cook had given him.

”I'm glad you like them,” she said. ”Would you care for another?”

”Thank you, yes,” the boy answered. And just as Susan was giving him one, and also pa.s.sing another to Mirabell, d.i.c.k, the boy from next door, cried:

”Come on out into the yard, Arnold. I have a new little kitten!”

”Oh, I want to see it!” shouted Mirabell.

”So do I,” added Arnold. ”And please, Susan, may I have a cookie for d.i.c.k?”

”Yes,” answered the good-natured cook.

So out to the yard rushed the children, Arnold forgetting all about his Tin Captain. And as Susan was very busy, she gave no thought to the Bold Tin Soldier. In fact, if she had thought of him at all, she would have imagined that Arnold had taken his toy with him.