FullReads

The Plush Bear was lifted off the bench by one of the workmen and put in a box, after being wrapped in tissue paper.

“I hope they don’t smother me!” thought the Bear, but he need not have been afraid. His last glimpse was of the Wax Doll. She, too, was well wrapped and placed in a box so her complexion would not be spoiled.

“I did hope I’d have a chance to bid farewell to the toys that are left,” thought the Plush Bear, as he was placed in the sleigh of Santa Claus. “But some of them are coming with me, that’s a comfort. We shall not have room to move around, though, and hardly a chance to talk on our trip to the Earth. However, I suppose it cannot be helped. This is part of our adventures in life.”

A little later there was a merry jingle of bells, and Santa Claus could be heard calling:

“Hi, Prancer! Steady there, Dashaway! Wait a minute, Comet!”

“Those are the reindeer,” whispered the Wax Doll, through the side of her box to the Plush Bear in his box.

“I supposed so,” was the answer. “I hope I am not made seasick on this voyage through the air.”

“Seasick! The idea! The sleigh of Santa Claus is not a boat!” squealed the Flannel Pig.

Then the sack of toys was lifted up and put in the sleigh. The reindeer shook their heads, making the bells jingle more merrily than ever. There came a jolly laugh from Santa Claus, and then he cried:

“Away we go! Over the ice! Over the snow! Down to the Earth below!”

And a moment later the Plush Bear and the other toys found themselves being swiftly carried through the cold air. But they were snug and warm in the sleigh of Santa Claus.

Of all the things that happened to the Plush Bear and the other toys on their trip from the shop of Santa Claus to Earth I have not room to tell you here. Enough to say that, unlike the Nodding Donkey, they suffered no accident. None of them was tossed out into a drift of snow. Then, finally, the big sack of toys was left at one of the many big buildings on Earth, whence they were to be divided among the toy shops.

And one day, after having been cooped up in his box for a long time, so, at least, it seemed to him, the Plush Bear’s eyes were suddenly dazzled by a flash of light.

“I wonder if I am back at the North Pole,” he thought. “Has that Eskimo boy caught me again, and is he taking me to his igloo? Are these Northern Lights that flash in front of me?”

But they were not, though they came from the same cause–electricity. The glare that dazzled the eyes of the Plush Bear came from the electric lights of a large store, where he was being unpacked, together with other toys. There was a rustle of paper as the Plush Bear was unwrapped, and then a voice cried:

“Oh, Father, see what a fine toy! And it’s the kind you wind up! Oh, I shall love this Plush Bear!”

“Do not squeeze him too tightly, Angelina,” said a white-haired and white-whiskered old man, who was helping two women lift the toys out of the big box in which they had come. “You may break some of the wheels or springs.”

“Oh, I shan’t hug him too tightly,” said Angelina, laughing. “But he is certainly a lovely Plush Bear.”

“Yes, he is very nice,” said the old gentleman. “What have you, Geraldine?” he asked his other daughter.

“An Elephant,” was the answer. “But he doesn’t wind up. However, he will look well in the window.”

“Yes,” said the old man, “to-morrow we will decorate the show windows for the Christmas trade. The Plush Bear must surely stand in the window. Some one will see him and buy him.”

“Well, at last I seem to have reached a toy shop–the very place I most wanted to come to,” thought the Plush Bear. “I wonder who the old gentleman is?”