“Ha, now I have you, Mr. Plush Bear,” whispered the Eskimo boy, and he quickly drew his arm back out of the open window, taking the wonderful toy with him.  He slipped the Plush Bear under his coat of fur, and away he sped over the snow, sparkling in the Northern Lights.  Over the snow ran the Eskimo boy, taking to his igloo the Plush Bear.

“Oh, dear me,” thought the Plush Bear, “this is a strange adventure, indeed!  I hoped I might go to Earth in the sleigh of Santa Claus, as the Nodding Donkey did, but now, it seems, I must stay at the North Pole in a snow and ice hut!  Oh, dear!  What is going to happen to me?”

CHAPTER III

OUT ALL NIGHT

“There!  What do you think of that for a somersault?” cried the Polar Bear, as he flopped over on his back.  “Can you do as well as that, Mr. Plush Bear?”

“Oh, what a wonderful fellow the Polar Bear is!” cried the Wax Doll, who now had on her shoes so she could walk about on the broad workshop bench.  “Quite remarkable!”

“The Plush Bear can do as well!” squealed the Flannel Pig, making his nose wrinkle up in a funny way.  “Come on, Plush Bear!” he cried.  “Show them how you turn somersaults!”

This talk took place just after the Polar Bear had done his trick, and right after the Eskimo boy had opened the window and taken away the toy he so much wanted.

None of the toys, except the Plush Bear, had seen the Eskimo boy, and the boy had not looked at any of the other toys, so they did not have to stop what they were doing.  And as the Eskimo boy popped his hand out of the window, almost as soon as he had popped it in, the toys kept right on with what they were doing.

“Come, let’s see you turn a somersault, Plush Bear!” called the Polar Bear to his friend.

“Yes!  Yes!” cried the other playthings!  “Let’s have a somersault race!”

They turned toward that part of the work bench where they thought the Plush Bear would be standing, but the Plush Bear was not there.

“Oh, he’s gone!” squealed the Flannel Pig.

“Maybe he got down on the floor to practice a somersault, so he can beat me!  But he’ll have hard work!” growled the Polar Bear.  But he was not cross when he growled.  It was just his way of speaking, as it was also that of the Plush Bear.

“No, he isn’t on the floor!” said the Wax Doll, leaning over the edge of the table to look down.

“Oh, he has fallen out of the window!” suddenly cried the Flannel Pig.  “See, the window is open!  The Plush Bear must have fallen into the snow outside.”

“We must get him back!”

“Throw him a piece of a doll’s clothes-line and haul him up!”

“Get a ladder from one of the toy fire engines!”

“Let’s all go down after him!  Maybe he bumped his nose!”

These were only a few of the shouts and cries that came when it was discovered that the window was open and that the Plush Bear was gone.