The Story of a Plush Bear | Page 6

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 down on the floor to practice a somersault, so he can beat me! But he'll have hard work!" growled the Polar Bear. But he was not cross when he growled. It was just his way of speaking, as it was also that of the Plush Bear.
"No, he isn't on the floor!" said the Wax Doll, leaning over the edge of the table to look down.
"Oh, he has fallen out of the window!" suddenly cried the Flannel Pig. "See, the window is open! The Plush Bear must have fallen into the snow outside."
"We must get him back!"
"Throw him a piece of a doll's clothes-line and haul him up!"
"Get a ladder from one of the toy fire engines!"
"Let's all go down after him! Maybe he bumped his nose!"
These were only a few of the shouts and cries that came when it was discovered that the window was open and that the Plush Bear was gone.
The Eskimo boy had not stopped to close the window