_The Teddy Bears at the Cleaner’s._
THERE had been more than one reason for the detention of the Teddy
bears so long at the cleaner’s. To be sure, they were very much soiled
indeed, but something else fell out which protracted their stay during
the second week.
Peter Pan and his family did not at all enjoy the cleaning process, in
which it seemed that they were literally handled without gloves, but
from which they emerged in a spotless condition. They were then carried
late one afternoon to a large store room, and set up on a shelf to
await transportation home.
As it was a very large establishment two night watchmen were employed,
and from their elevated position the bears eyed hungrily the baskets in
which they had brought their midnight lunch, and which they had placed
on a small table near by.
The night dragged slowly and the watchmen consumed a couple of hours
in playing cribbage. After they had grown tired of the game, as it was
still too early to eat, one of them proposed that they make the rounds
of the building and then sit down together to their lunch.
As soon as they were out of sight and hearing, the bears scrambled down
from their shelf and made haste to investigate the contents of the
lunch baskets.
They contained a rather slim meal for five, besides which some of the
food was of a description that caused the pampered family to turn up
their sharp noses. They afterward learned that it was called pork and
sauerkraut, a mixture that the new made-in-Germany bears would no doubt
have appreciated.
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Peter Pan, however, dumped the contents of the basket out on the floor,
upsetting and breaking a bottle of milk, that ran all over the floor
and added a liquid element to the sour mess. He then opened the other
basket, in which he discovered sandwiches, fried cakes and a triangle
of pumpkin pie.
Upon these viands they feasted until not a crumb remained and then
turned their attention to the pack of cards with which the watchmen
had been playing cribbage. The board and little ivory pins also proved
very amusing.
Peter Pan had watched the game closely and it did not take him very
long to learn it. So he now set about teaching it to Bedelia. However,
they soon found the cards very awkward to handle, as they were far too
large for Teddy bears in proportion; besides which the little pins were
forever falling on the floor and getting lost.
So the pair soon gave it up and handed the cards over to the little
bears who seized upon them with the greatest avidity and examined
them curiously. They then fell to building houses with the bits of
pasteboard, which, as all houses of cards usually do, soon came
tumbling down in confusion.
As the little bears were not particularly gentle in handling their
playthings they were soon torn and defaced and were thrown in a soiled
heap on the floor, while the cubs ran after their parents, who had now
started out on a voyage of discovery.
On the floor above, level with the street, was the room in which all
the cleansed articles were displayed in glass cases and in the large
show window. Peter Pan was afraid of being seen from outside, so with
some difficulty he managed to drag down the shades. He understood how
to do that very well indeed.
So far their journey had been illuminated by the use of matches, which
Peter Pan had brought with him along with the watchman’s pipe and a bag
of Bull Durham. A trail of burned matches thrown down when they had
burned out marked their passage from below stairs. Now that the coast
seemed to be clear the electric light was brought into play and the
bears proceeded to investigate everywhere, leaving ruin and devastation
in their wake.
Fine furs and delicate laces were mauled and trampled; dainty evening
gowns were pulled about and covered with little sticky paw marks. Mrs.
Peter Pan possessed herself of an exquisite pink feather boa in which
she capered madly about, having wrapped the boa several times around
her body while the long ends trailed upon the floor.
Meanwhile the cubs were not losing any time, but were making merry
among the kid gloves, pulling them up on their paws and soiling and
splitting every pair that they touched.
Peter Pan had been satisfied with a cursory survey of the pretty
articles on exhibition, for he soon found that they did not interest
him very much. So he soon turned his attention to the watchman’s pipe
which he had all the time been carrying about with him.
It was no difficult matter to fill and light it and the bear threw
himself luxuriously on a pile of filmy laces and proceeded to smoke to
his heart’s content.
Now Peter Pan had never heard anything concerning the effects of the
first attempt at smoking. Therefore he was much surprised at the queer
sensations which after a few moments he began to experience, without in
the least comprehending the source from whence they came. For the pipe
was about five times as large in proportion to Peter Pan as it was to
its original owner. And of course its effects were in the same ratio.
Peter Pan began to realize a fearsome sensation at the pit of his round
stomach, the purport of which very soon became only too evident. The
floor seemed to rock beneath him, and when he essayed to walk, it made
as if to rise up and hit him on the head. It curved in billows and
tipped itself up at a fearful angle, as if offering him a challenge.
Who had ever before seen the floor of an ordinary shop, or indeed, any
floor at all, behave in such an utterly absurd and unaccountable manner?
Peter Pan would have wondered had he not been too ill to wonder at
anything. His head was splitting and a flame of thirst devoured his
parched tongue.
In his misery, the cause of which he did not in the least understand,
he let fall the pipe, a spark from which fell upon the web-like lace
and in a moment the whole pile was in a blaze.
Now Peter Pan knew what a fire meant, for he had seen one once before,
and although he was about as ill as a bear could well be, he took to
his unsteady heels, calling loudly to his family to follow him, and
together they plunged down the stairs, seeking safety in the lower
regions.
Hastily they climbed to their original shelf, and not a moment too
soon, for the torpor which enveloped them all day was beginning to
steal upon them, and mercifully to dull the pangs that gripped their
mischievous ringleader.
Now the watchmen, who had seen the light of the rapidly increasing
blaze, came racing to the scene of action. The fluids used in cleansing
fed the flames, that now were burning fiercely; an alarm was turned in
and by the time the fire department arrived they found all that they
could attend to.
Nearly everything in the store was destroyed, and such articles as
were saved were so soiled and begrimed by the water and smoke that it
was found necessary to clean them over again, much to the disgust and
dismay of the Teddy bears. And right glad they were when at last they
were swathed in wrappings of tissue paper, packed in a big box and
expressed home to Papa Doctor’s house.
Here Bedelia immediately set her wits to work to plan new mischief for
the amusement of the nursery and her own delectation, the result of
this scheming being a grand ball, which took place at no very late date.
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