BACK TO THE STORE
The moment he had fallen into the barrel of sugar the Bold Tin
Soldier scrambled to his feet and wiggled around until he got his
head sticking up above the pile of sweet, white grains.
"If I don't do that, I may drown," he thought. "It would be strange
to drown in a barrel of sugar! I don't want to do that!"
So he wiggled around until he could stand upright, buried to his
neck in the sugar, but with his head out so he could look around
with his painted tin eyes and breathe through his tin nose.
Otherwise he would have smothered.
The barrel was not full of sugar. In fact, it was only about a foot
deep on the bottom, but that was enough to more than cover the Bold
Tin Soldier from sight if it should get over his head. And, being
low down in the barrel as he was, the sides of it hid him from the
sight of Arnold and the cook.
"These are good cookies, Susan," said Arnold, as he ate the last
crumbs of the dainty the cook had given him.
"I'm glad you like them," she said. "Would you care for another?"
"Thank you, yes," the boy answered. And just as Susan was giving him
one, and also passing another to Mirabell, Dick, the boy from next
door, cried:
"Come on out into the yard, Arnold. I have a new little kitten!"
"Oh, I want to see it!" shouted Mirabell.
"So do I," added Arnold. "And please, Susan, may I have a cookie for
Dick?"
"Yes," answered the good-natured cook.
So out to the yard rushed the children, Arnold forgetting all about
his Tin Captain. And as Susan was very busy, she gave no thought to
the Bold Tin Soldier. In fact, if she had thought of him at all, she
would have imagined that Arnold had taken his toy with him.
So while the children were out playing with Dick's new kitten, and
while the cook worked in the kitchen, the Captain stayed in the
barrel of sugar.
"Well, this is certainly an adventure," thought the Captain, "and,
though it is a sweet one, I can not say I altogether like it. I
wonder how I can get out of here? I must get back to my men, or they
will think I have deserted them. That would never do for a soldier!"
He looked up toward the open top of the barrel. It seemed far above
his head, but he thought if he could cut little steps in the wooden
sides of the barrel with his shiny tin sword he might be able to
climb out.
"But of course I'll have to wait until night, when everything is
still and quiet," thought the Captain to himself. "It would never do
for me to be seen cutting my way up out of a barrel of sugar. That
would give away the great secret of Toy-land--that we can move of
ourselves. Yes, I must wait until after dark."
So, buried up to his neck in sugar as he was, the Bold Tin Soldier
stood in the sweetness like a sentinel on guard. He was doing his
duty in the barrel, as he had done it when he cut down the Calico
Clown and saved that chap from burning at the gas jet.
"I should like to see the Clown now," thought the Captain. "It is
lonesome here. But if the Calico Clown saw me he would make up some
joke or riddle about me, very likely."
Then all of a sudden there was a loud, banging noise and it became
very dark.
"Hello! what's that?" said the Bold Tin Soldier to himself. "It's as
dark as night in here now, but I never knew evening to come as
suddenly as that."
Truly it was as dark as night in the sugar barrel now, but it was
not because night had come. It was because the cook had put the
cover on the barrel, for she had finished her baking for the day.
But the Captain thought it was night, and since he was sure no one
could see him now he drew his sword from the scabbard, or case, and
started to get ready to cut little steps in the sides of the barrel
to make a place where he might climb to the top.
While this was going on Arnold and Mirabell were out looking at
Dick's pet kitten. Truly it was a little fluffy one, and so soft
that the children loved to pet it. But after a while Arnold thought
of his Bold Tin Soldier.
"Oh, I left the Captain on the shelf in the kitchen," said the
little boy. "I must go get him and put him with the others."
Back to the kitchen he ran.
"What is it now?" asked Susan, who was getting ready to go out, for
it was her afternoon off. "Do you want more cookies, Arnold?"
"No, thank you. I want my Tin Captain," he answered. "I left him
here."
"Oh, you mean your Soldier," said the cook. "I haven't seen him. I
don't believe you left him here."
"Oh, yes I did!" declared Arnold.
But the Bold Tin Soldier was not in sight, of course, being down in
the barrel of sugar, as we know. And though Arnold and the cook
looked for him they could not find him.
"Oh dear!" sighed Arnold, when he could not find the commander of
his tin army, "where is he?"
"You must have taken him out into the yard and forgotten about it,"
said the cook.
"No I didn't," said the little boy.
"Then it is among your other playthings," the cook went on. "You had
better look."
So Arnold looked, and his mother and Mirabell and Dick helped him,
but the Bold Tin Soldier could not be found. He was not with the
others in their box, and, look as he did, Arnold could not find his
toy anywhere.
"I'll never get another like him," sighed the little boy. "He was so
nice, with his shiny medal-button!"
"And he was such a good Captain!" added Dick.
And all this while the Bold Tin Soldier was in the dark barrel of
sugar and was getting ready to climb up and out if he could!
No one was in the kitchen now. The cook had gone away and it was not
yet time for supper. So, all unseen as he was in the barrel, the Tin
Soldier could do as he pleased.
With his tin sword he began cutting little niches, or steps, in the
wooden sides of the barrel. But as the wood was quite hard, and as
the tin sword was not very sharp, it was not very easy work for the
Captain.
As the afternoon passed, the other Soldiers in their box on a shelf
in the playroom closet began to wonder what had become of their
Captain.
"Some of us ought to go in search of him," said the Sergeant.
"Yes, but we can't go until after dark, when no one will see us
moving about," answered the Corporal. "That's the worst of being a
toy--we can not do as we please."
"I hope the Captain has not deserted us," said a private soldier.
"Deserted! I should say not!" cried the Sergeant. "Our Captain would
never desert!"
Evening came. The cook came back and began to get supper. And by
this time the Captain, in the sugar barrel, had cut several little
niches in the sides of the barrel. He was working away so hard that
he never heard the cook come into the kitchen and start to get
supper.
Then, all of a sudden, the cook, as she went to the pantry to get
some flour, stopped near the barrel of sugar. She heard a queer
little sound coming from it.
"I declare!" exclaimed the cook, "a mouse is trying to gnaw into the
sugar barrel! The idea!"
The sound the cook heard was the Captain's tin sword as he cut steps
in the side of the barrel, so he might climb up. But this noise
sounded exactly like the gnawing of a mouse.
"Get away from there!" cried the cook, and she quickly lifted the
cover off the sugar barrel, letting in a flood of light, for it was
now night and the electric lights were glowing. "Get out!" cried the
cook, thinking to scare away the mouse, as she thought it was.
Now of course as soon as the sugar barrel was opened, and the moment
the cook looked in, the Captain had to stop work. Back into its
scabbard went his sword, and he settled down among the grains of
sugar again. He was now being looked at by human eyes, and it was
against the toy rule for him to move.
"Well I do declare!" cried the cook, as she glanced at the Bold Tin
Soldier lying in the sugar. "Here is Arnold's Captain he has been
looking for. He is in the kitchen, after all, but how did he get in
this barrel? And where is the mouse that was gnawing?"
Of course there was no mouse--it was the Captain's sword making the
noise. But the cook did not know that.
She leaned down and picked the Captain up in her fingers. So he got
out of the sugar barrel after all, you see, without having to cut a
ladder in the wood.
"Arnold! Arnold!" called Susan up the back stairs. "I have found
your Tin Captain!"
"Where was he?" asked the little boy, who was playing with the other
soldiers, and wishing he had their commander.
"He was in the barrel of sugar," was the answer. "You must have
dropped him in when you were eating cookies this afternoon."
"Maybe I did!" said the boy. "Oh, I am so glad to get you back!" he
went on, as he carried the Captain upstairs. "Thank you, Susan!"
Then the Bold Tin Soldier was placed at the head of his men on the
table, and they were together once more.
"What happened to you? Why were you away from us so long?" whispered
the Sergeant to the Captain, when Arnold went out of the room a
moment.
"I was in a barrel of sugar," was the answer. "I'll tell you about
it later."
And that night, when all was still and quiet in the house, the
Captain told his story.
"That was a wonderful adventure!" said the Corporal.
"Yes," agreed the Captain, "it was. I wish the toys back at the
store could hear it. I rather think it would surprise the Calico
Clown."
Arnold was playing with his tin toys one day when his mother called
to him.
"Arnold, get on your overcoat. I am going to take you and Mirabell
down to the toy store. I want to get a little Easter present for
your cousin Madeline."
"Oh, what fun!" cried Arnold, and before he thought what he was
doing he thrust the Tin Captain into his coat pocket and took him
with him when he went with his mother and sister to the store;
that's what Arnold did.
"Dear me! what is going to happen now?" thought the Bold Tin
Soldier, as he found himself in Arnold's pocket on his way back to
the store.