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“I wonder what this wheel and rope are for?” said the Elephant to the Nodding Donkey.

“I don’t know, I’m sure,” brayed the nodding toy.

Just then the wheel turned slowly, and the long, dangling rope swayed to and fro.

“I wonder what that is for!” went on the Elephant. Like most animals he was curious about something he did not understand, just as your cat or dog will try to find out what causes a strange noise.

“Why don’t you reach up with your trunk and feel it?” asked the Donkey. “I have heard you say your trunk was almost like a hand to you.”

“It is,” the Elephant answered. “I will feel the rope and wheel and see what it is like.”

As the children were in another part of the barn, having fun in the haymow, and as there were no prying eyes to watch, the Elephant could do as he pleased. He raised his trunk and stretched it toward the dangling rope.

And then, all of a sudden, something happened. The rope turned and twisted like a snake, a loop of it wound around the Elephant’s neck, and a moment later he felt himself being lifted off the barn floor in the hempen coils. Through the air, like the pendulum of a big clock, he swayed, and as the rope pulled tighter and tighter the poor Elephant cried:

“Oh, my dear friend Nodding Donkey! I am in a terrible state! The rope is so tight it is squeezing all the cotton stuffing out of me! Oh, what shall I do?”

CHAPTER VI

A DANGEROUS SLIDE

Anxious as the Nodding Donkey was to help his friend the Stuffed Elephant, nothing could be done. For the rope had suddenly been pulled up, taking the Elephant with it. And there he swung, dangling to and fro, the coil of the rope getting tighter and tighter around his neck, choking the poor toy.

“Oh, I know all the stuffing will be squeezed out of me! I just know it will!” sighed the Elephant. “Then I’ll look like a balloon with all the air out of it! Oh dear!”

“Can’t you get yourself loose?” asked the Donkey. “I wish I could climb up and help you, but I can’t.”

“And I’d help you, for I am a good climber, only I can’t get off my stick. I’m fastened on tight just now,” chattered Herbert’s Monkey.

“Well, something will have to be done, if I am to be saved!” called the Elephant, of course not speaking loudly enough for the children, in another part of the barn, to hear.

Archie and his friends were still having fun sliding down the slippery hay, and they were making a great deal of noise. But you know how it is yourself. You often get tired of playing one game and want to go to another.

It was this way with Archie and his friends. They slid and slid and slid on the hay until they had had enough of it. Then Elsie said:

“Let’s go back and get our playthings. I want to see my Christmas Dollie.”

Back to where they had left the toys trooped the children, and Archie, who ran ahead, was just in time to see his Stuffed Elephant swaying on the rope that was choking him.

“Oh, look! Look at my Elephant!” cried Archie. “He’s hung on a rope! Oh, he’ll be killed! Oh, dear!”

“Run and grab him down! Pull him down!” shouted Joe.

Archie ran, but by this time the rope was pulled up still farther and the Elephant was so far above the barn floor that even Herbert, who was taller than Archie, could not reach the plaything.

“Oh, stop!” cried Archie. “Stop hurting my nice Elephant, Rope!”

Archie’s voice was loud and clear. Suddenly the rope which had been winding up, around the big wheel, came to a stop, and a voice called:

“What’s the matter down there? Are any of you children hurt?”

“Oh, that’s Jake!” exclaimed Elsie. “It’s our man Jake!”