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 after opening it to
take the toy he so much wanted. And now the toys, crowding on the sill,
which was close to the work bench, looked out in the snow under the
window. It was light enough for them to see quite well.
"Come on back here, Plush Bear!" called the Flannel Pig, who was quite
friendly with the big toy. "I want to see you turn a somersault."
"Yes, come on back, unless you're afraid that I can beat you!" growled
the Polar Bear.
"Maybe he is afraid, and ran away," suggested the Wax Doll, who seemed
more friendly to the Polar Bear.
"No, indeed!" squealed the Flannel Pig. "The Plush Bear is a brave
fellow, and he is very wise! He would not run away. The window must have
come open and he tumbled out."
"But he isn't down there in the snow," said a toy Fireman, looking
carefully below. "If he was down there I could fix a ladder for him so
he could climb up. But he isn't there."
"Where can he be?" asked the Flannel Pig. "He was standing near me one
minute, saying how he was going to turn a somersault, and when next I
looked he was gone."
"See! There are footprints in the snow under the window," said the Polar
Bear, who had come to the sill. "Maybe Santa Claus or some of his men
came along outside, and took the Plush Bear away."
"They would not do that," declared the Wax Doll. "Santa Claus would not
take just one of us toys. When he takes any, he takes a whole
sleigh-load to Earth for the children. No, there is something strange
about this!"
And indeed there was, as we know. The Eskimo boy had the Plush Bear, but
the toys knew nothing of this. However, there was nothing they could
do.
After calling softly to the Plush Bear to come back, but receiving no
answer, about a dozen of the Jumping Jacks, by climbing up and all
pulling together on the window, managed to close it to keep out the
cold, night air.
"Well, since there is no one else to turn somersaults with me, I'll do
it alone," said the Polar Bear. So he flipped and flopped over again,
and the other toys played games among themselves, but the nice Plush
Bear was not among them.
He was under the fur coat of the Eskimo boy, being carried across the
snow to the ice hut, or igloo. The door to this igloo was not like the
door to your home. It was just a hole, with some pieces of fur and skin
hung over it to keep out the cold wind. Ski, which was the name of the
Eskimo boy, pushed aside this curtain of fur as he crawled into the
igloo, with the Plush Bear beneath his warm jacket. The doorway, or
hole, was made small to keep out as much cold as possible, and Ski had
to stoop down and crawl on his hands and knees to get in.
Inside the igloo there were no tables and chairs, such as there are in
your house. There were just some slabs of ice set here and there, being
raised a little from the icy floor. On the floor were skins to make it
as warm as possible, and in the middle of the igloo was a sort of lamp,
or stove, made of stone, filled with oil in which floated a wick that
was burning. This lamp-stove was all the Eskimos had to heat and cook
with. But as they wore their fur clothes all winter long, never taking
them off, they did not catch cold.
"Look!" said Ski, the Eskimo boy, as he pulled the Plush Bear out from
under his fur coat and set the toy down on a shelf of ice in the igloo,
where the rays from the oil lamp fell upon it. "See what I have!" and
his father and mother and his brothers and sisters leaned forward to
look at the strange object.
There was not much room in the igloo, and the Eskimo family was rather
crowded. But they did not mind this, as it was much warmer than if they
had lived in a big room. In fact, except in the center, one could not
stand up in the igloo. The roof was too low.
"Where did you get that?" asked Ski's father, as he looked at the Plush
Bear.
"He was in the big igloo, far over the snow, near the big ice mountain,"
answered the Eskimo boy. "I saw him through a window, and I wanted him.
When all in the igloo were asleep I breathed on the ice pane, opened the
window, and took this Bear. Now he is mine!"
"Yes, I know that big igloo," said Ski's father. "There was none like it
where we came from. I do not know what it is."
Ski's family had just moved to North Pole Land, and they had never heard
of Santa Claus, though the other Eskimos of this country were well
acquainted with Saint Nicholas. To Ski and his family the workshop of
Santa Claus was just a big "igloo."
"Is not this Bear nice?" asked Ski, of his brothers and sisters.
"But he is not like the bears here," said Kiki, one of the Eskimo girls.
"He is brown, like the seals. The North Bears are white."
"There was a white Bear in the big igloo, but I would rather have this
one," said Ski. "I will always keep him."
During this time the Plush Bear, of course, had not dared to say a word
or move by himself. He was being watched too closely. But he could hear
what was said, and he wondered what was going to happen to him.
"I shall be dreadfully lonesome if I have to stay here," thought the
Plush Bear. "There is not another toy in the whole place!"
There was another toy, but the Plush Bear did not know it. This toy was
a rudely carved Wooden Doll, owned by Kiki. She had wrapped this Wooden
Doll in a bit of sealskin and put it in her bed to keep it warm. For to
Kiki the piece of wood, which looked something like a Doll, was as much
alive as your Doll is to you girls.
"That is a wonderful thing, Ski," said the Eskimo boy's father. "Never
have I seen such a thing in all my life!"
Ski's father leaned forward and touched the Plush Bear. And he happened
to touch the very spring that set the toy animal in motion. For the
Plush Bear was all wound up when Ski reached through the window and took
him, and all that was needed was a touch to send him off.
Immediately the Plush Bear began to move his head from side to side,
growls came out of his red mouth, and his paws waved to and fro. He
behaved almost like a small, live bear.
"Wow!" cried Ski, leaping back when he saw the Plush Bear beginning to
move.
"Wow!" cried Ski's father, mother and sisters and brothers, and they,
too, leaped back.
"Gurr-r-r-r! Gurr-r-r-r!" growled the Plush Bear, and he moved his paws
and head faster than ever. He was not doing this himself, you
understand. He was not making believe come to life. He was only doing as
all the other spring toys do--moving when the wheels within him moved.
"Wow!" cried Ski's father again. "This is magic! This bear is bewitched!
It will bring us bad luck! It must not stay in my igloo!"
"Oh, please let me keep it!" begged Ski, as his father caught up the
Plush Bear.
"No! No! It would be dangerous! It would bring us bad luck! There is a
witch in that bear!" murmured Ski's mother.
"Never have I seen such a thing!" went on Ski's father in awe and
wonder. "We must not keep it! If we allowed it to stay in this igloo we
should freeze, I should never catch any seals, and our blubber fat would
become so hard we could not eat it. I must take this magic bear that
moves back to the big igloo!"
So, though Ski begged his father to be allowed to keep the toy, the
Eskimo man thrust the bear under his fur coat and crawled out of the
igloo into the glow of the Northern Lights.
"I must take it back to the big igloo," murmured Ski's father. "Then
will the bad magic pass away."
You see he did not know, never having seen such a toy before, and never
having heard of machinery--Ski's father did not know what a delightful
toy the Plush Bear was. All he thought of was bad luck and magic.
Quickly Ski's father hitched his team of dogs to the long, low wooden
sled.
Crack! went the long whip over their heads, but the Eskimo man did not
let the lash fall on the animals.
Over the snow and ice they drew the sled, on which Ski's father sat well
wrapped in fur blankets. Nearer they came to the workshop of Santa
Claus--the "big igloo" as Ski had called it.
"I will leave the magic bear that moves beneath one of the windows,"
murmured Ski's father. "Then will the bad luck pass from us."
He guided his dog team up under the very window out of which Ski had
taken the bear, for the man could see Ski's footprints in the snow.
"There! Now I am done with you!" whispered Ski's father, as he dropped
the Plush Bear in the snow and turned his dog team around to go back to
his igloo.
As for the Plush Bear, his head moved, he growled, and his paws waved to
and fro as long as the spring was wound up. But when it ran down, as it
did in a little while, he was motionless. Except that now, as no one
could see him, he was allowed to make believe come to life and could do
as he pleased.
"Well, this is certainly a fine state of affairs!" said the Plush Bear
to himself, speaking out loud, as there were no human ears to hear.
"Taken away to an ice house, scaring an Eskimo family half to death, and
then to be brought back here and dumped in a snow bank! It's a good
thing I have on a warm plush coat, or I'd surely freeze! I wonder if I
can get back into the shop?"
But this the Bear could not do. The window had been pulled down and shut
by the Jumping Jacks, and the hole Ski had breathed in the icy pane was
too small for the Plush Bear to crawl through, even if he could have
reached it. He tried to call out, to make the toys inside hear him, so
they might rescue him, but they had gone to sleep after their evening of
fun.
So the Plush Bear had to stay out in the snow bank near the workshop of
Santa Claus all night. It was cold and dreary, but he made the best of
it.
"When morning comes they will take me in," he thought. "The night can
not last forever."