“Now, my merry men, it is time for you to go to bed.  Be up early in the morning to make more toys.  Good-night, everybody!”

With that he went out, buttoning his fur coat about him, and the workmen, after putting away their tools, followed.  Santa Claus and his men slept in snow castles not far from the workshop.

It was almost dark in the toy shop now.  Outside the Northern Lights glowed faintly, and inside only a little candle was left gleaming, its beams reflected in some shiny gold stars that were to go on the tops of Christmas trees later on.

[Illustration:  “Be Careful, Everybody!” Said the Plush Bear.

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“Hello, everybody!” softly called the voice of the Flannel Pig, as he peered out from the roof of a toy dog house, where he had been put by one of the workmen.  “Now we can have some more fun!”

“We must be sure every one is gone,” said the Plush Bear, as he began to swing his head from side to side.  For he had been wound up, and now the wheels and springs inside him were beginning to move.

“Oh, every one is gone,” said the Wax Doll.  “And this time they will stay away all night.  Now we can have our usual fun.”

“Is there any snow left?” asked the Polar Bear.  “I should like to wash the face of the Plush Bear.”

“And I’d wash yours, too!” laughed the Plush Bear.  “But the little men swept out all the snow and closed the windows.  There isn’t so much as an icicle left.”

“Too bad!” sighed the Polar Bear.  “Well, we’ll have fun some other way.  Let’s see, what shall we do?  Have any of you ever seen me turn somersaults?” he asked, after a moment’s pause.

“No.  Can you do it?” asked the Plush Bear.

“You should see me!” boasted the big white Bear.  “I don’t believe anywhere in North Pole Land you will find a better somersault turner than I. Watch me!”

The Plush Bear and the other toys leaned forward from the shelves and tables where they sat or stood to see what would happen.  If they had not been so eager to see what the Polar Bear was going to do some of them might have noticed a small, dark figure stealing up outside the workshop of Santa Claus, and stopping beneath one of the ice windows.

This little figure was that of an Eskimo boy—­the same little chap, all dressed in sealskin and fur, who had looked in and almost reached through the window to take out the Plush Bear when he had interrupted the toys in the midst of their snowball fight.

“Ah, now is my chance!” murmured the little Eskimo boy, as he stepped softly over the snow, coming nearer and nearer to the workshop of Santa Claus.  “If I can open a window I’ll take out that Plush Bear, cart him off to the igloo, and have a lot of fun.”

The Eskimo boy lived with his father and mother in a house made of blocks of snow and ice.  This house was called an “igloo,” and it takes its name from the house built by the seals in the far North.  The Eskimos build their houses the same shape as the houses made in the ice by the seals.  If you cut an orange or an apple in half, and put the flat side down on a table, you will see exactly how an Eskimo igloo is shaped.