A DANGEROUS SLIDE
Anxious as the Nodding Donkey was to help his friend the Stuffed
Elephant, nothing could be done. For the rope had suddenly been pulled
up, taking the Elephant with it. And there he swung, dangling to and
fro, the coil of the rope getting tighter and tighter around his neck,
choking the poor toy.
"Oh, I know all the stuffing will be squeezed out of me! I just know it
will!" sighed the Elephant. "Then I'll look like a balloon with all the
air out of it! Oh dear!"
"Can't you get yourself loose?" asked the Donkey. "I wish I could climb
up and help you, but I can't."
"And I'd help you, for I am a good climber, only I can't get off my
stick. I'm fastened on tight just now," chattered Herbert's Monkey.
"Well, something will have to be done, if I am to be saved!" called the
Elephant, of course not speaking loudly enough for the children, in
another part of the barn, to hear.
Archie and his friends were still having fun sliding down the slippery
hay, and they were making a great deal of noise. But you know how it is
yourself. You often get tired of playing one game and want to go to
another.
It was this way with Archie and his friends. They slid and slid and slid
on the hay until they had had enough of it. Then Elsie said:
"Let's go back and get our playthings. I want to see my Christmas
Dollie."
Back to where they had left the toys trooped the children, and Archie,
who ran ahead, was just in time to see his Stuffed Elephant swaying on
the rope that was choking him.
"Oh, look! Look at my Elephant!" cried Archie. "He's hung on a rope! Oh,
he'll be killed! Oh, dear!"
"Run and grab him down! Pull him down!" shouted Joe.
Archie ran, but by this time the rope was pulled up still farther and
the Elephant was so far above the barn floor that even Herbert, who was
taller than Archie, could not reach the plaything.
"Oh, stop!" cried Archie. "Stop hurting my nice Elephant, Rope!"
Archie's voice was loud and clear. Suddenly the rope which had been
winding up, around the big wheel, came to a stop, and a voice called:
"What's the matter down there? Are any of you children hurt?"
"Oh, that's Jake!" exclaimed Elsie. "It's our man Jake!"
"What's the trouble there, Archie?" Jake asked. He was somewhere in the
loft of the barn.
"It's my Elephant!" Archie answered, trying to keep from crying. "My
nice, Stuffed Christmas Elephant. He's hanging on a rope!"
"On a rope!" exclaimed Jake. "Do you mean this wheel rope that I use to
hoist up bags of oats to the bin here? Is it that rope?"
"I don't know--but it's some rope!" Archie answered. "Can't you save my
Elephant?"
"Of course I can!" called Jake. "Don't worry! Your Elephant isn't
alive--choking with a rope can't hurt him!"
"Yes, it can, too!" insisted Archie. "It can choke all the stuffing out
of him and make him flat like a pancake."
"Well, yes, that might happen," admitted Jake. "But I didn't know any of
your toys were tangled in the hoisting rope, or I would not have pulled
it. Wait a minute, now, and I'll turn the wheel the other way and let
your Elephant down to you."
Slowly the big wheel turned in the other direction, and the end of the
rope that was about the Elephant's neck dropped toward the barn floor.
The Elephant, also, began slowly to come down.
"Thank goodness!" said the toy to himself. "I could not have stood being
hanged much longer. I'm glad it's over!"
And it was over a moment later when Archie could reach up, take the loop
of rope from around his plaything's neck and set the Elephant down on
the barn floor.
"How did it happen?" asked Jake. He came down out of the loft, or place
where he stored the bags of oats. The oats were hauled to the lower
floor of the barn. There a rope was put about each bag and it was lifted
to the upper floor where it was stored in a bin. The lifting rope went
around a big wheel, acting like a dumbwaiter in some houses.
Jake had turned the wheel by pulling on a second rope upstairs in the
barn, and as the wheel turned it wound up the longer rope. It was the
end of this rope that had looped itself about the Elephant.
"How did it happen?" asked Jake again.
"I don't know," Archie replied. "I left my Elephant here when I went to
slide down the hay. When I came back he was on the rope."
"Some of you children must have left the Elephant too near the end of
the rope," said Jake. "When I wound it up the Elephant became tangled in
a loop, and of course he was lifted up."
"Nope! We didn't any of us leave the Elephant near the rope; did we?"
asked Archie of his little friends.
"Nope!" they all answered.
"Well, that's queer," said Jake. "That Elephant never got on the rope
by himself, I'm sure."
But that is just what the Elephant did, as we know.
"Anyhow I'm glad he's all right now," said Archie, as he looked
carefully at his new toy. "None of the stuffing came out."
But it might have, if the Elephant had been left hanging much longer on
the rope.
Finding that everything was all right and that none of the children was
in danger, Jake went back to the oat bin. There was a long chute, or
slide, from the upper bin to a box on the first floor of the barn. And
the oats came rushing down this slide when a door in the top bin was
opened. This door could be opened by pulling a rope near the horse
stalls, and sometimes Archie was allowed to pull the rope, open the door
of the large grain bin, and let the oats slide down the chute to the
smaller bin on the lower floor.
But this day Jake was putting a new supply of oats in the upper bin,
and Archie was not allowed to play near it. The little boy and his
friends soon began having more fun with their Christmas toys, giving the
Clown and smaller dolls rides on the back of the Stuffed Elephant.
Thus Christmas passed, New Year's came, and the Elephant lived and was
happy in Archie's home. The Elephant did not often think of Mr. Mugg and
his daughters Geraldine and Angelina. He liked it much better, did the
Elephant, in Archie's house than in the store. Of course the toy store
was a jolly place, but no boys or girls were permitted to play with the
toys. They were there for sale, and could only be played with after
being bought and taken home.
So the Elephant was glad he belonged to Archie, who was a boy that took
very good care of his playthings. Nearly every day Joe, Dick or Arnold
would come over to see Archie, bringing their playthings, and in this
way the Elephant met many friends whose adventures are related in the
other books of this series.
And at night, when Archie and Elsie were in bed, of course the Elephant,
and the other toys in the Dunn house, had their usual fun. They would
make believe come to life and talk and play about in the nursery or in
the closet--wherever they happened to be left at the close of the day.
It was still winter, though Archie and Elsie wished spring would come so
they might play oftener out of doors. And one rainy day, when it was too
cold and stormy to be out, Archie and Elsie went to the big, warm barn
to have fun. Archie carried his Elephant and Elsie had her Doll.
"Let's go upstairs to the grain bins," suggested Elsie, when they had
played about in the hay for a time.
"Maybe Jake will let us open the bin door from up there, and we can
watch the oats slide down the chute," said Archie. "I like to watch the
oats slide."
"So do I," Elsie admitted. The grain bin was so built that the door of
the chute could be opened from above or below.
Up to the upper floor of the barn went the two children, with the
Elephant and the Doll.
"Are you here, Jake?" called Archie, but there was no answer.
"I don't guess he's around," said Elsie.
"I don't guess so, either," replied Archie. "But I don't guess he'd care
if I let down some oats. I looked in the lower bin and there's hardly
any there. I'm going to let some down the chute."
"I'll watch you," offered Elsie, as she set her Doll on top of a big oat
box.
The cover to the box was open. Archie liked this because he could see
the smooth oats go down the wooden chute, or slide, like so much water.
"I'll let a lot of oats down," the little boy said to his sister. He
placed his Elephant on the edge of the bin, near the Doll. Then Archie
pulled on the handle that opened the door. It was hard work, for the
oats pressed against the door. Elsie came to help him, and at last the
children managed to get it open.
"There they go!" cried Archie, as the oats began to pour down the chute.
"Yes, and there goes your Elephant!" shouted Elsie. As she spoke, the
stuffed toy fell into the oat bin, and, a moment later, the poor chap
was sucked into the smooth chute, with the running grain, and the oats
closed over his head. Lost to the sight of the children, the Stuffed
Elephant was taking a dangerous slide.