The Story of a Plush Bear | Page 5

to be blinking his eyes at the other Bear.
All through the great North Pole workshop of Santa Claus the little men
were busy, singing over their tasks. But they could not work all night
and all day as well, so at last there came an hour when Santa Claus rang
a bell and said:
"Now, my merry men, it is time for you to go to bed. Be up early in the
morning to make more toys. Good-night, everybody!"
With that he went out, buttoning his fur coat about him, and the
workmen, after putting away their tools, followed. Santa Claus and his
men slept in snow castles not far from the workshop.
It was almost dark in the toy shop now. Outside the Northern Lights
glowed faintly, and inside only a little candle was left gleaming, its

beams reflected in some shiny gold stars that were to go on the tops of
Christmas trees later on.
[Illustration: "Be Careful, Everybody!" Said the Plush Bear.
Page 12]
"Hello, everybody!" softly called the voice of the Flannel Pig, as he
peered out from the roof of a toy dog house, where he had been put by
one of the workmen. "Now we can have some more fun!"
"We must be sure every one is gone," said the Plush Bear, as he began
to swing his head from side to side. For he had been wound up, and
now the wheels and springs inside him were beginning to move.
"Oh, every one is gone," said the Wax Doll. "And this time they will
stay away all night. Now we can have our usual fun."
"Is there any snow left?" asked the Polar Bear. "I should like to wash
the face of the Plush Bear."
"And I'd wash yours, too!" laughed the Plush Bear. "But the little men
swept out all the snow and closed the windows. There isn't so much as
an icicle left."
"Too bad!" sighed the Polar Bear. "Well, we'll have fun some other
way. Let's see, what shall we do? Have any of you ever seen me turn
somersaults?" he asked, after a moment's pause.
"No. Can you do it?" asked the Plush Bear.
"You should see me!" boasted the big white Bear. "I don't believe
anywhere in North Pole Land you will find a better somersault turner
than I. Watch me!"
The Plush Bear and the other toys leaned forward from the shelves and
tables where they sat or stood to see what would happen. If they had
not been so eager to see what the Polar Bear was going to do some of
them might have noticed a small, dark figure stealing up outside the

workshop of Santa Claus, and stopping beneath one of the ice
windows.
This little figure was that of an Eskimo boy--the same little chap, all
dressed in sealskin and fur, who had looked in and almost reached
through the window to take out the Plush Bear when he had interrupted
the toys in the midst of their snowball fight.
"Ah, now is my chance!" murmured the little Eskimo boy, as he
stepped softly over the snow, coming nearer and nearer to the
workshop of Santa Claus. "If I can open a window I'll take out that
Plush Bear, cart him off to the igloo, and have a lot of fun."
The Eskimo boy lived with his father and mother in a house made of
blocks of snow and ice. This house was called an "igloo," and it takes
its name from the house built by the seals in the far North. The
Eskimos build their houses the same shape as the houses made in the
ice by the seals. If you cut an orange or an apple in half, and put the flat
side down on a table, you will see exactly how an Eskimo igloo is
shaped.
"Oh, if I can only get the Plush Bear!" thought the Eskimo boy, as he
stepped softly nearer and nearer to the workshop of Santa Claus.
It was not very dark in North Pole Land just then. Though the sun had
gone down, and the long winter had set in, still there were the Northern
Lights, which glowed and flickered in the sky and made enough of a
gleam for the Eskimo boy to see his way over the snow. The snow, too,
helped to make it less dark.
Ever since he had seen the Plush Bear through the window of Santa
Claus' workshop that day, the Eskimo boy had wanted the plaything. So
after his supper of seal fat and blubber, with a piece of tallow candle,
which was to him what candy is to you, the boy, well wrapped in fur,
started out from his igloo.
All this while, or at least after