OUT TO SEA
Sand ran down into the eyes of the Plush Bear. Grains of sand tickled
his plush toes. Some even got in his plush mouth that he opened when he
gave his growls. Other grains of sand trickled between the joints of his
paws and his body.
"Oh, dear, this is terrible!" said Mr. Bruin, as he found himself in
darkness when the hole into which Arthur had placed him caved in from
the feet of the pony. "This is simply terrible!"
But though the Plush Bear, being by himself, was allowed to talk and
move about, pretending to come to life, he soon found that it was not
wise to open his mouth. The wider he opened it the more sand came in.
"What shall I do?" thought the Plush Bear to himself, not opening his
mouth to say anything this time. "How am I ever going to get out of
here?"
Well might he ask himself that, for the sand was so closely packed in
about him that he could hardly move. Even though the spring inside him
was wound up, the Plush Bear could not turn his head nor wave his paws.
As for growling, he knew better than to try that.
"Well, something must be done!" thought the Plush Bear. "If I stay in
this sand hole too long I'll smother! I wonder why Arthur doesn't come
and take me out? He always said he was fond of me!"
But Arthur, the fat boy, was just then having a glorious ride on a pony,
and Nettie, his sister, was also having a ride. For the time being the
children had forgotten about their toys. Nettie had left her Rag Doll
and Arthur his Plush Bear. But the Rag Doll was not buried in the sand.
Up and down along the sand rode the children on the backs of the beach
ponies. But at last Mrs. Rowe decided that Nettie and Arthur had had fun
enough, so she helped them out of the little saddles.
"Get your playthings and come to the hotel. We must dress for dinner,"
she said. "Where is your Rag Doll, Nettie? And your Plush Bear, Arthur?"
"I left my Rag Doll on the sand," answered Nettie. "I'll get her."
"And I left my Plush Bear--Oh, I left him in the sand circus cage, where
I was playing he was a wild Bear!" cried Arthur. "Oh, I forgot, I left
my nice Plush Bear in a hole!"
"You'd better get him out as soon as you can," said his mother.
The children remembered the spot where they had been playing on the sand
before they took the pony rides. Nettie ran back there, and soon found
her Rag Doll.
"But where's my Plush Bear?" asked Arthur anxiously, looking up and down
the beach. "I made a hole here, right by Nettie's Doll, and I put sticks
in the hole, like bars in a circus cage, and I left my Plush Bear in the
hole."
"Are you sure this is the place?" asked Mrs. Rowe, as she, too, looked
searchingly up and down the sand. She did not want Arthur to lose his
toy.
"It was right here," declared the fat boy.
"I don't see any hole," went on Mrs. Rowe. Of course she did not know
that the pony had scattered the sand, filling up the little cave Arthur
had made.
"Oh, where is my Plush Bear?" cried the little fat boy, and he was
almost ready to cry. His mother and Nettie helped him look. So did other
children, wandering up and down the beach, but there was no sign of the
toy. Then a coast guard, one of the men who march up and down the
sands, keeping watch for shipwrecks, came along the boardwalk.
"Have you lost something?" asked the guard, as he came down the steps
from the boardwalk to the beach.
"We lost a Bear," said Arthur.
"A bear?" cried the guard, in surprise. "A--a bear?"
"My little boy means a _Plush_ Bear," explained Mrs. Rowe, and then she
told what had happened.
"Oh, a toy, buried in the sand," said the guard, laughing. "Well, that's
too bad. Right around here, was it? Well, I happened to be passing this
afternoon, and I noticed just about the spot where the children were
sitting on the sand. I didn't see the Plush Bear, but I know the
children were digging, and it wasn't at this spot--it was nearer the
ocean. Over here it was," the guard went on, moving away from the place
where Arthur had been sure he had made the cave for the toy. "You see,
we coast guards get in the habit of noticing things and remembering
where they are," he added. "You were looking in the wrong place. I fancy
your Bear must have been covered up in some way. I'll dig here!"
With a stick the guard began digging, and in a little while he uncovered
the Plush Bear.
"Oh, there he is! There he is!" cried Arthur, as he saw his toy again.
"Oh, thank you for finding him for me!" and he took his plaything from
the hands of the coast guard.
"Yes, that's what I say--thanks a whole lot of times!" murmured the
Plush Bear to himself, as once more he was able to breathe. "This was
the most terrible adventure I ever had!"
But the Plush Bear was to have one even worse, as you shall soon hear.
"You must be more careful of your toys, Arthur," said his mother, as,
having thanked the man, she and her children went back to the hotel.
"I'll never put him in a sand hole again," promised the little fat boy.
That night, when Arthur and Nettie were snug in their beds, and the
Plush Bear and the Rag Doll were in a closet by themselves, the Doll
leaned over and said:
"Wasn't it terrible, Mr. Bear?"
"It certainly was," agreed the Plush Bear. "I'm full of grit as it is.
Sand is all over me, even though Arthur did brush me off with a little
broom. I seem to squeak instead of growling as I ought to."
"Oh, well, maybe you'll be better after a while," said the Rag Doll.
Then she and the Plush Bear talked together in the darkness, but the
Bear did not feel like playing. He was too much shocked by having been
buried in the sand.
"Now we're going to have some fun, Plush Bear!" cried Arthur the next
morning, as he took his toy from the closet. "We're going in swimming!"
"Swimming? Swimming?" repeated the Plush Bear to himself. "I wonder what
that means?"
If he had been a real bear he would have known, for real bears, that
live in the woods, are very fond of playing in the water. But, being
only a Santa Claus toy, the Plush Bear knew nothing of this.
A little later Arthur and Nettie were down on the sand in their bathing
suits. All along the beach were many other children and grown folk, too,
in their bathing suits. Nettie carried her Rag Doll and Arthur had his
Plush Bear.
"Oh, Arthur! you aren't going to take your toy into the _water_ with
you, are you?" asked his mother.
"No'm," the little fat boy answered. "I'm just going to play with him on
the sand till Daddy comes to teach me to swim. And I'm not going to put
my Bear in a hole, either!"
"I'm glad of that, anyhow," thought the Plush Bear, who heard all that
was said. "Once in a sand hole is enough for me."
Arthur's father was going to teach the little fat boy to swim, and while
waiting for Daddy, Arthur played about on the sand with the Plush Bear,
as Nettie played with her Rag Doll.
Now and then Arthur, with the Plush Bear in his arms, would wade out a
little way into the water, and he would laugh, and run back, as the
incoming tide would send a wave over his bare toes.
"Be careful, Sonny!" called his mother, as she watched him. "The waves
are getting higher and higher. I wish your father would come and give
you your swimming lesson."
"Oh, I'm having fun!" laughed the fat boy. "My Plush Bear likes me to
carry him out, but I won't let him fall in the ocean."
Once more the little fat boy started to wade down the beach. Nettie had
gone back to sit with her mother and, for a moment, Arthur was all by
himself. Except, of course, he had the Plush Bear with him.
"Look and see how big the ocean is, Mr. Bear," said Arthur, holding his
toy up above the waves. And just then a bigger wave than any that had
yet rolled up the beach broke right at Arthur's feet.
In an instant the big wave had knocked the little fellow down. Arthur
gave a scream, and his father, who had just arrived in his bathing suit,
ran to get his little boy. Arthur had let go the Plush Bear when the
wave knocked him down.
Into the water fell the toy, and, a moment later, when the wave washed
back into the ocean, it took Mr. Bruin with it. Right out to sea the
Plush Bear was washed, on the top of the big wave!
"Oh! Oh, dear! What is going to happen to me now?" thought the poor
Plush Bear.