SAVED AT LAST
When the big wave knocked Arthur down and the little fat boy dropped the
Plush Bear into the sea, that toy expected he would at once sink to the
bottom and be drowned. It was the first time he had ever fallen into the
water. At the North Pole, where he had been made in the workshop of
Santa Claus, it is so cold nearly all the time that all water is frozen
into ice, and there is very little into which one may fall.
"This is the last of me!" thought the poor Plush Bear, as he felt the
water closing over his head. Faintly he heard the screams of Arthur, as
the waves rolled the fat boy over and over on the beach. But Arthur's
father quickly sprang in and picked up his little fat son, saving him.
There was no one at hand just then to save the Plush Bear.
"Yes, this is the last of me!" thought Mr. Bruin. But, to his surprise,
he found that, after his first drop into the ocean when the waters
closed over his head, he bobbed up again and floated nicely like a piece
of wood.
Much of what was inside the Plush Bear was sawdust and cork, making him
very light, so that, though he did not know it, he was a better floater
than was Arthur.
The Plush Bear had been careful not to breathe when he fell into the
sea, so he did not sniff any water up his nose. And after the first
shock he did not feel bad. The water was warm, and by keeping his mouth
closed the Plush Bear did not taste any of the salt. There he was,
floating on his back, his big, yellow eyes staring up at the sun and
the blue sky. And now, as the tide had turned and was going out, the
Bear was carried out to sea with it.
Back on the beach there was much excitement when Arthur's father had
pulled the fat boy out of the sea. But it was soon found that Arthur was
all right, except that he had swallowed a little salt water.
"But where's my Plush Bear?" Arthur cried, when he had been dried and
comforted by his mother. "Where's my Plush Bear?"
Where, indeed? Well might Arthur ask that, for his Plush Bear was being
carried far, far out to sea on the waves.
"Oh, Arthur! did you drop Mr. Bruin when the wave knocked you down?"
asked Nettie.
"I guess--I guess I did!" answered her brother sadly.
"Then that's the last of your Plush Bear," said Arthur's father. "But
don't cry!" he told the little boy. "I'll get you another. Don't cry!
There is salt water enough around here without your adding to it by
your tears!" he laughed. But Arthur felt too unhappy to laugh.
And all this while Mr. Bruin was floating on the waves.
"This is certainly the strangest thing that ever happened to me,"
thought the Plush Bear. "I thought surely my end had come when Arthur
dropped me. But, though I am all wet outside, I seem to be dry inside."
On and on floated the Plush Bear; then, all of a sudden, he heard voices
talking. The voices were those of men and children, and not the voices
of toys.
"Don't you like it here, Joe?" asked a boy.
"Yes, I do, Herbert," was the answer. "And my Nodding Donkey likes it,
too."
"My Monkey on a Stick is having fun, and he isn't seasick a bit," said
the boy who had been called Herbert. "He loves to ride in a motor boat,
my Monkey does."
"What's this? What's this!" thought the Plush Bear. "Nodding Donkey?
Monkey on a Stick?"
He tried to raise himself in the water to look toward the place whence
came the voices, but the Plush Bear could see nothing. A moment later,
though, he heard one of the boys call:
"Oh, look! What's that floating in the water?"
"It's a fish!" said the other boy.
"That isn't a fish! It's some sort of floating toy," was the answer in a
man's voice. "Well, I declare, it's a Teddy Bear!"
"I'm not a Teddy Bear at all," said Mr. Bruin to himself; "but if you
rescue me from the water you may call me anything you wish."
[Illustration: The Plush Bear Meets Nodding Donkey and Monkey On a
Stick. _Page_ 117]
A moment later, after he had been afloat for some hours, the Plush Bear
felt himself being lifted from the sea, and in another second he was
placed in the bottom of a motor boat. In the boat were two men and
two boys, but when the water had run out of his eyes the Plush Bear was
more interested in looking at two other toys which were also in the
boat.
On one seat was a Nodding Donkey who seemed to be bowing in a most
pleasant and jolly fashion to the Plush Bear. And on the other seat,
beside a boy, was a Monkey on a Stick.
"Oh, I have heard of these toys," thought the Plush Bear. "They, too,
were once in the shop of Santa Claus! Oh, how glad I am! I'm saved at
last!"
"Where do you suppose this Plush Bear came from?" asked Joe, the boy who
had the Nodding Donkey.
"I think he must have fallen overboard out of some boat when some
children were being given a ride, just as you boys are having a ride,"
said the father of Herbert. Herbert, you know, owned the Monkey on a
Stick.
"I wish I could keep that Plush Bear," softly said Joe. "Now that I'm
not lame any more I could run around and have fun with him."
"It is a very nice Plush Bear," said Mr. Richmond, Joe's father, as he
examined the wet toy. "Some little boy or girl will be glad to get it
back. It doesn't seem to be much harmed." He wound up the spring and at
once the Plush Bear began to move his paws, wag his head, and growl. The
growl was a trifle rusty and a bit gritty from the sand still inside the
works, but that did not matter.
"We'll take the Plush Bear back to shore with us," said Joe's father.
"Perhaps some children stopping at one of the hotels, or even at our own
hotel, may claim this toy. We must find out. I'll put the Bear on his
back in the sun so he'll dry."
"And I'll put my Nodding Donkey back there, too, so Mr. Bruin won't be
lonesome," offered Joe.
"Put my Monkey there, too," said Herbert.
So the three toys were placed near each other on the back seat of the
boat, and then the two boys and their father gathered in the bow, or
front part, to look across the ocean. They were out for a pleasure ride.
"How did you come to be floating in the sea all by yourself?" asked the
Nodding Donkey in a whisper of the Plush Bear.
"A big wave knocked Arthur down and he dropped me," was the answer, in
the same low voice.
The Plush Bear was just going to tell more of his adventures when the
motor boat was run up alongside a dock, and the party got out.
"I'll carry the Plush Bear," said Joe's father. "He isn't quite dry yet.
We'll take him to our hotel, and I'll tell the clerk to post up a
notice, saying the toy was found at sea. Then whoever owns him may claim
him."
But matters were not going to turn out just that way. As it happened,
Joe and Herbert were stopping at the same hotel where Arthur and Nettie
were with their father and mother. Joe and Herbert had just arrived that
day, which was why Arthur and Nettie had not seen their little friends
before.
Coming back from their boat ride, on which they had rescued at sea the
Plush Bear, the two men and the two boys entered the hotel. As they
walked toward the desk, Mr. Richmond carrying the Plush Bear, there was
a cry of delight from a small boy who fairly leaped out of a big, easy
chair.
"There's my Plush Bear! There's my Plush Bear!" cried Arthur, for it was
he. "Oh, where did you get him?" he cried, as he looked at the damp toy
in Mr. Richmond's hand.
"Is this your toy?" asked Joe's father.
"Oh, yes, that's my Mr. Bruin!" cried Arthur. "I dropped him in the
ocean when a big wave knocked me down, and I thought he was drowned. Oh,
where'd you get him?"
"He was floating on a wave, and we saw him from our motor boat,"
explained Joe. And then Herbert, with his Monkey on a Stick, stepped
forward, and Nettie came out of her chair, and the children were soon
all together, laughing with each other in the hotel parlor.
Arthur wound up his toy, which seemed to work as well as ever, though it
was still damp.
"Now we can have lovely fun!" said Nettie, when the story of the rescue
of Mr. Bruin had been told by those who were in the boat. "I can play
with my Rag Doll, Herbert can make his Monkey do funny tricks, the
Donkey will nod his head and Arthur's Bear will growl."
And so the children played in the hotel with their toys, while their
fathers and mothers talked together.
"That Plush Bear has had many adventures," said Mrs. Rowe to Joe's
mother. "He fell out of a car window, he was buried in the sand, and he
was carried out to sea." Of course she knew nothing of the time he had
spent in the ice igloo of the little Eskimo boy.
"Yes," said Mrs. Richmond, "Joe's Donkey had many adventures, also."
"And so did Herbert's Monkey," said that little boy's mother.
"Adventures! I should say so!" exclaimed the Plush Bear to the Donkey
and Monkey, when they were alone for a moment. "But I never want to fall
into the ocean again!"
And he never did, I am glad to say. I wish I might tell you more of the
adventures of the Monkey, the Donkey, the China Cat and Plush Bear. But
this book is quite filled, as you may see. Though of course I may write
other books about other toys if you think you would like them. But now
we must say good-by to the Plush Bear.
THE END
HAPPY HOME SERIES
By HOWARD R. GARIS
Individual Colored Wrappers and Colored Illustrations by LANG CAMPBELL
Mr. Garis has written many stories for boys and girls, among them his
Uncle Wiggly volumes, but these books are something distinctly new,
surprising and entertaining.
ADVENTURES OF THE GALLOPING GAS STOVE
A tale of how Gassy mysteriously disappeared, and how he came riding
home on the back of an elephant. It is also related how he broke his
leg, and fed a hungry family in a cottage near a lake.
ADVENTURES of the RUNAWAY ROCKING CHAIR
Racky creaked and groaned when fat Grandma sat on him too hard. He felt
himself ill-treated, so he vanished. He did not intend to take Grandma's
glasses with him, but he did. And he rocked a bunny to sleep.
ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING TABLE
Tippy, the table, always wanted to travel and see the world, but he did
not know how to start. Until, all of a sudden, a diamond ring was hidden
in his leg and a balloon carried him off through the air.
ADVENTURES OF THE SLIDING FOOT STOOL
Just because he did not want to be used as a milking stool by the Maiden
All Forlorn, Skiddy slid away Christmas eve. With him went Jack the
Jumper, and they had a wonderful time in the top shop.
ADVENTURES OF THE SAILING SOFA
Skippy always wanted to be a sailor. When the high water came in the
spring, the sofa went sailing. He had a Rooster for a crew, while
Tatter, the rag doll with one shoe button eye, was Captain.
* * * * *
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
THE PUSS-IN-BOOTS, Jr. SERIES
By DAVID CORY
Author of "The Little Jack Rabbit Stories" and "Little Journeys to
Happyland"
* * * * *
Handsomely Bound. Colored Wrappers. Illustrated. Each Volume Complete
in Itself.
To know Puss Junior once is to love him forever. That's the way all the
little people feel about this young, adventurous cat, son of a very
famous father.
THE ADVENTURES OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR.
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR.
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR. IN FAIRYLAND
TRAVELS OF PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR.
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND OLD MOTHER GOOSE
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., IN NEW MOTHER GOOSE LAND
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND THE GOOD GRAY HORSE
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND TOM THUMB
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND ROBINSON CRUSOE
PUSS-IN-BOOTS, JR., AND THE MAN IN THE MOON
* * * * *
GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Table of Contents, XI changed to IX.
Page 21, "workship" changed to "workshop." (North Pole workshop)
Page 27, removed extraneous ending quotation mark. (squealed the
Flannel Pig.)