“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.