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“That’s a comfort,” answered the Plush Bear, laughing. “So you have had a fire here? I thought the place smelled rather smoky.”

“It’s just the way I smelled after I climbed up the string, too near the gas jet, and burned my trousers,” said a voice that seemed to come from one of the shelves in the repair room.

“Who is that?” whispered the Wax Doll.

“The Calico Clown,” answered the Jumping Jack. “He came here to have a new cap put on him.”

“That’s right,” said the Clown, and he made a polite bow to the Plush Bear and the Wax Doll. “Sidney, the boy who owns me, was playing circus with me. His brother, who owns the Monkey on a Stick, was trying to make me jump over the Monkey, when my cap caught on the stick and was ripped off. So they brought me here to have Mr. Mugg make me a new one. But did you hear about how I burned my trousers?” asked the Calico Clown.

“I never did, having just arrived here,” said the Plush Bear.

“Oh, you should hear that story!” cried the Clown. “It was quite funny in a way, though I did not think so at the time. In fact, there has been a book made about it, and about some of my other adventures. I must tell you of them.”

“I should be delighted to hear them,” said the Wax Doll, who seemed to have taken quite a liking to the Calico Clown.

“Baa! Baa!” suddenly called a voice from another shelf. “I have had adventures also. After you finish telling about how you burned your trousers, Mr. Clown, I’ll tell how I was once down in a coal hole.”

“Who is that?” asked the Plush Bear in a low tone of the Jumping Jack.

“That is a Lamb on Wheels,” was the answer. “How comes it that you are here, Miss Lamb?” the Jack answered. “I didn’t hear that you had had an accident.”

“Oh, yes; but not a very bad one,” bleated the Lamb. “One of my wheels came off when Mirabell, the little girl who owns me, let me fall. Her brother Arnold, who has a Bold Tin Soldier and his men, tried to fix me, but his father brought me here for Mr. Mugg to operate on. I shall be well again in a few days, and go back home. But who are the visitors?” asked the Lamb.

“Oh, excuse me,” said the Jumping Jack. “Let me introduce Mr. Plush Bear and Miss Wax Doll from North Pole Land,” and the Bear and Doll made polite bows, as did the Lamb on Wheels and the Calico Clown.

Then the toys talked together and had a good time among themselves until morning came, when they had to go back to their places and become quiet. As soon as the store was opened for business Mr. Mugg and his daughters began arranging the playthings. The Plush Bear was put in the show window, with the Wax Doll and some of the other new gifts. It was the first time in his life that he had been in such a place, and you may be sure the Plush Bear looked about him with eagerness.

He was gazing out into a busy street–a street where people were passing up and down all the while–a street in which there was a layer of newly-fallen snow, only not as much as at the North Pole.

“I wonder if Santa Claus is here?” thought the Plush Bear.

But he could not speak aloud because so many eyes–those of the passers-by in the street and the customers in the store–were watching. There was so much to see that the Plush Bear did not know at which to look first, but, all of a sudden, he heard a voice saying:

“Oh, I want that Plush Bear! I want that! Can he do any tricks?”

The Plush Bear felt himself being lifted out of the show window of the toy shop. The springs inside him were wound up by Mr. Mugg and when he was set down on a showcase near the window the Bear began to move his head and paws, and from his red mouth came a make-believe growl.