The Story of a Plush Bear | Page 6

Santa Claus and his men had gone, the
Plush Bear and the other toys were having fun among themselves. As I

have told you, the Polar Bear was getting ready to turn somersaults to
amuse the other toys.
"Watch me now!" cried the Polar Bear, as he leaned over and got ready
to stand on his head.
"Say, why don't you turn some somersaults?" the Flannel Pig asked of
the Plush Bear.
"Maybe I will after he gets through," the Plush Bear answered.
The Eskimo boy was now at one of the windows of the shop--a window
which had for a pane a clear sheet of ice. The Eskimo boy blew his
warm breath on this window pane, close to the place where, inside,
there was a catch to hold the window shut.
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!" breathed the Eskimo boy on the glass. And his
breath was warm, just as yours is when you melt the frost on your
window glass at home. Very soon the fur-clad boy had melted a hole in
the ice pane. After that it was easy for him to slip his hand in and turn
back the window catch.
The Eskimo boy did not know it was wrong thus to take a toy from the
workshop of Santa Claus. He only knew that he wanted the Plush Bear,
and that this was the easiest way to get it.
Softly he raised the window, after he had turned back the catch. There,
in front of him on one of the tables, stood the Plush Bear and many
other Christmas toys. But the Eskimo boy had eyes only for the Plush
Bear.
"What fun I shall have with you!" whispered the Eskimo boy. He
reached forth his hand and took the wonderful plaything.
Just at this time the Polar Bear was turning a somersault, and the eyes
of all the other toys were looking at him.
If they had not been looking at the Polar Bear they would have seen the

Eskimo boy open the window. And had he once looked at the toys they
would have had to stop talking and moving. But, as it happened, none
of the toys saw him.
The Plush Bear had just been going to clap his paws together to
applaud the Polar Bear's trick of turning a somersault, when the Plush
Bear felt himself lifted up.
"Oh!" he said faintly, and then he saw that he must not move or speak,
for the Eskimo boy was looking straight at him.
"Ha, now I have you, Mr. Plush Bear," whispered the Eskimo boy, and
he quickly drew his arm back out of the open window, taking the
wonderful toy with him. He slipped the Plush Bear under his coat of fur,
and away he sped over the snow, sparkling in the Northern Lights.
Over the snow ran the Eskimo boy, taking to his igloo the Plush Bear.
"Oh, dear me," thought the Plush Bear, "this is a strange adventure,
indeed! I hoped I might go to Earth in the sleigh of Santa Claus, as the
Nodding Donkey did, but now, it seems, I must stay at the North Pole
in a snow and ice hut! Oh, dear! What is going to happen to me?"
CHAPTER III
OUT ALL NIGHT
"There! What do you think of that for a somersault?" cried the Polar
Bear, as he flopped over on his back. "Can you do as well as that, Mr.
Plush Bear?"
"Oh, what a wonderful fellow the Polar Bear is!" cried the Wax Doll,
who now had on her shoes so she could walk about on the broad
workshop bench. "Quite remarkable!"
"The Plush Bear can do as well!" squealed the Flannel Pig, making his
nose wrinkle up in a funny way. "Come on, Plush Bear!" he cried.
"Show them how you turn somersaults!"

This talk took place just after the Polar Bear had done his trick, and
right after the Eskimo boy had opened the window and taken away the
toy he so much wanted.
None of the toys, except the Plush Bear, had seen the Eskimo boy, and
the boy had not looked at any of the other toys, so they did not have to
stop what they were doing. And as the Eskimo boy popped his hand out
of the window, almost as soon as he had popped it in, the toys kept
right on with what they were doing.
"Come, let's see you turn a somersault, Plush Bear!" called the Polar
Bear to his friend.
"Yes! Yes!" cried the other playthings! "Let's have a somersault race!"
They turned toward that part of the work bench where they thought the
Plush Bear would be standing, but the Plush Bear was not there.
"Oh, he's gone!" squealed the Flannel Pig.
"Maybe he got