Teddy bear

“ Now a Teddy bear is the most inquisitive of all created creatures and is usually quite ready to risk his neck in order to find out something that has piqued his curiosity. During all their stay in the house there was one room the door of which they had never seen open, although it was directly opposite Sally’s and they had been filled with the most burning curiosity and speculation as to what it might contain. ”

“ I think I should like to call you Peter Pan; that is if you haven’t any other name,” she added quickly.
“The name on my tag was Teddy, but it really doesn’t matter, as I have never been christened,” returned the Teddy bear. “Really Peter Pan is a pretty name, and decidedly more appropriate for me. Only I think the latter part of it rather reminds one of cake. And, by the way, couldn’t you hunt up some names for my wife and the cubs? You see we were all named Teddy—Teddy bears. But it seems rather mixed up, don’t you know, especially when there are so many of us.” Sally nodded acquiescently. ”

“ Somehow the child found arguing with the Teddy bear rather difficult. And then he was so comical that in spite of his obstinacy it was impossible to be offended with him.
“No, thank fortune, we don’t grow any bigger,” retorted the Teddy bear, with some asperity. “Only live things, like yourself, for example, do that. Now supposing I were a real, live bear, what size would I be by this time? If you were a doll, you would not be obliged to grow up either. But as you are only a girl of course you will have to.” ”

“ The Teddy-bear is a fine child with perfect lungs, a benevolent smile, and an appetite. Her ruling passion at present is devotion to her food. She feels unjustly treated because we do not see our way to feed her lavishly at her own five meal-times and also at the meal-times of all the other babies in the nursery. ”

“ Indeed she had to pinch herself quite hard in order to convince herself that she was really wide awake and not sound asleep and dreaming.
“Do not be surprised,” said the Teddy bear, and Sally smiled involuntarily at the pomposity of his manner. “The scene that you have just witnessed is not at all an unusual one. In fact, I, myself, am rather astonished that after all the years you have been playing with toys you never discovered the fact that they always waken at night. ”

“ That angel child slept through it all on the far end of the big plush settee, fenced in with a teak bunk-board, one predatory hand clutching the throat of an enormous teddy bear whose eyes stared upward with the protruding fixity of strangulation, as though even in sleep she found it necessary to cause someone or something acute discomfort. ”

“ Teddy bears, with which you have played, are sometimes made of that color. Teddy bears of course are very nice, as they are toys; but I am sorry to say that the real grizzly bear is not nice; he is very fierce. In fact, he is the only kind of bear that is so fierce. Even grown-up men do not want to go near him.
The grizzly is found in many parts of North America, near the Rocky Mountains, from the United States right up to Alaska. He lives on berries and all kinds of fruits, and also on the soft roots of trees. But the grizzly bear eats meat also, if he can manage to catch deer or cattle. ”

“ Rough House was scarcely out of the puppy stage and the Teddy bear had often trembled for himself and his family, chiefly, I am afraid, for his own hide, as he watched the big fellow running off to his lair under the head of Sally’s bed and close up against the wall, an almost impregnable fastness where it was practically impossible to get at him, carrying in his mouth various belongings of Sally’s which he proceeded to tear and rend in a leisurely manner. ”

“ When the hamper was opened the most delightful little Teddy Bear imaginable bounded out and proceeded to introduce herself A mass of white fluffy down, with here and there a splash of lemon, eloquent dark eyes, and plump as the proverbial partridge. That was Pandore as we first knew her. Time only served to strengthen and crystallize the early impressions. With manners as charming and irreproachable as her looks, before many days had passed she had won all hearts, becoming an important member of the household. ”

“ Sally, who all the time had been wondering if he were red in the face under his fur, longed to remark that the crumbs must have gone the wrong way with a vengeance if they had gone up his nose. However, she rather feared provoking the Teddy bear, and remarked, by way of continuing the conversation:
“Oh, of course, you don’t grow any bigger. That is because you are just stuffed. There isn’t anything in you to grow.” ”

“ The baby, on the other hand, was momentarily expecting that the bear would come over and bite her. Why else, if not from some such sinister motive, had he come aboard her raft, when he had been traveling on a perfectly good tree? The tree looked so much more interesting than her bare raft, on which she had been voyaging for over an hour, and of which she was now heartily tired. To be sure, the bear was not much bigger than her own Teddy bear at home, which she was wont to carry around by one leg, or to slap without ceremony whenever she thought it needed discipline. ”

“ And Mike was on his way to the stables to hitch up, as he called it, when the amazing spectacle just described burst upon his astonished sight. At once he jumped to the conclusion that the goat was trying to make mince-meat of Sally’s beloved Teddy bear. And springing forward—he seized Dick by his horns, yanked him to his feet and drove him off to the stables. Then returning he picked up Bedelia, no longer pirouetting like a ballet girl, but suddenly grown mute and stiff, and carried her to the kitchen, where Mrs. Hale took her in charge. ”

“ Most cubs, and some older bears, would have relinquished the adventure at this point; for, as a rule, it takes a wise old bear to handle a bee-tree successfully. But Teddy Bear was no ordinary cub, let me tell you,—or we would never have called him ‘Teddy.’ He lay nursing his anger and his nose till he had made up his mind what to do. And then he set out to do it.
“Hauling himself up softly from branch to branch, he made no more noise than a shadow. As soon as he was right behind the bees’ hole, he reached around, dug his claws into the edge of it, and pulled with all his might. ”

“ Miss Palmer knew a great deal about the martyred president and so interested were the children that they could scarcely believe the journey was at an end when the conductor called out the name of the place that was their destination. A big three-seated wagon was in waiting and when they were all piled comfortably aboard, including Peter Pan and Bedelia, whom nurse had carried while the rest of the Teddy bear family journeyed in a trunk, the fine gray farm horses started off at a trot along the uneven and rutty country road. ”

“ A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at;
He gets what exercise he can
By falling off the ottoman,
But generally seems to lack
The energy to clamber back. ”

“ He never wanted to grow up and so he ran away and lived with the fairies. His name was Peter Pan. At least her name was.”
[25]
“Fairies! What are fairies?” exclaimed the bear. And then, before Sally had time to answer, demanded severely, “How can his name be her name?”
Now Sally was really a very sweet tempered little girl, but to be constantly contradicted and corrected by a stuffed Teddy bear was decidedly getting on her nerves. So she replied quite sharply, “Oh, you see it was a play, and the boy, Peter Pan, was really a girl. ”

“ He is the proud possessor of a Teddy bear. This long-suffering animal was a source of great pleasure until a short time ago when David started making a first-hand investigation to find out where the "squeak" came from—an investigation which ended disastrously for the bear, however it may have furthered the cause of science.
Last month I went to Nameless Cove to fetch to the Home a little boy of three, of whom I have already written you. Nameless Cove is about twelve miles west of St. Antoine. I have never seen such a wretched hovel—a one-roomed log hut, completely destitute of furniture. ”

“ Merrier and merrier grew the music and faster and faster waxed the dance, as all the toys immediately seized upon the nearest partners and whirled them off to trip the light fantastic.
A truly comical sight it was to see the baby bear waltzing with the French doll whose place in bed he had usurped, while the twins led off, one with a jolly round-eyed rag doll who had come all the way from London, as she proudly informed her partner, and the other with a wooden soldier, who had lost one leg and consequently hopped about in a most absurd manner ”

“ But Bob and Sally, accustomed as they were to the call of the wild in a modified scale, hastily dressed, being, I am afraid, none too particular concerning the arrangement of hooks and buttons.
Peter Pan, who was, as usual, ready for action, whispered to Sally not to waken Bedelia. “She will be no end of a nuisance,” quoth the Teddy bear. So she was left reposing among her cubs while the rest [148] of the party, escorted by Tim, crept cautiously downstairs and out at the front door, which they placed off the latch in order to insure their safe return. ”

“ Just about this time the swift patter of furry paws sounded on the kitchen floor and were heard rapidly approaching the cellar door. Immediately the frightened bears knew what had happened. Rough House had awakened, in a really very inconsiderate manner, and missing the bear family had hurried downstairs to do a little detective work on his own account.
Instantly Peter Pan blew out the candle and the whole family scurried away in the pitch black darkness, wading knee deep through the lake of cider, and finally taking refuge in the coal bin. ”

“ And soon the five chums were sitting on stools and enjoying the drinks.
“Where have you been? To a party?” asked Mrs. Traddle when she had rung up the sales on the cash register.
“We’ve been chasing a deer,” Teddy said.
“Oh, my goodness, a bear! I wouldn’t chase bears if I were you,” said the old lady. “I don’t think your folks would like that. Besides, it’s dangerous. Bear! My gracious!”
“Not a BEAR. A DEER,” said Teddy in a loud voice.
“Oh, a deer? That’s different. A deer is harmless, I guess, though I never chased one.”
“This one chased us,” said Margie. “And we ran.” ”

“ You may be sure it did not take the Teddy bears long to fall upon such an alluring feast, or rather to fall into it, which they did head first, scooping up the dainties with their paws and gorging themselves like little pigs, spoiling what they could not eat out of sheer wantonness, and finally finishing off with a quantity of luscious honey for which they really had not a sufficient capacity after the miscellaneous collection of sweets that they had already devoured. ”

“ This they did, and even Splash joined in. But though they slid all over the hay, and kept a sharp lookout for any more parts of Bunny's train, they found nothing.
"I wish I could find part of my Teddy bear," said Sue.
"If you did that your Sallie Malinda wouldn't be much good," said Bunny. "For you can take an electrical train apart and put it together again, and it isn't hurt. You can't do that way with a Teddy bear. If you pull off one of his legs or his head he's not much good any more." ”

“ Then turning to Teddy he said, “You eat meat, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Teddy, timidly.
“Then that’s all right,” said the Father Bear. “Here, you children, take this fairy off and let him play with you.”
Two of the little bears, Fatty (who was the one who had been sucking his paws) and Dumpy, were delighted to have a new playmate, and they told him he might come over and slide down their hill, but the third one, Sprawley, scowled and grumbled. “Another one to be eating up our meat,” he said. “Just as if there weren’t enough of us without.” ”

“ The Teddy Bears Arrive.
THE crate in which the Teddy bears had journeyed from their birthplace in the factory to the big department store to which they were consigned had at last arrived at its final destination and was being unpacked, much to the delight of its occupants. For, as everybody who has ever travelled much knows, it is uncomfortable enough to journey packed so tightly in tissue paper and excelsior that one cannot move even as much as a whisker. ”

“ MORE ABOUT THESE BEARS When in the autumn of 1905, I created the characters of TEDDY-B and TEDDY-G I builded better than I knew. I brought these bears out of their mountain den in Colorado and started them on their tour of the East to teach children that animals, even bears, may have some measure of human feeling; that the primary purpose of animals is not necessarily that of supplying sport for the hunter. That this lesson has been abundantly taught is proven by the overwhelming welcome given the Teddy Bears by the boys and girls of the United States ”

“ Clay followed the line of the pointing finger and laughed.
“Why, that’s a bear!” he shouted. “A swamp bear—one of the kind Teddy Roosevelt came down here to shoot when he was president! Let him alone and he’ll let us alone. They fight like devils when wounded or molested.”
The boys all agreed to let the bear alone, but Captain Joe and Teddy seemed to have notions of hospitality. The dog barked invitingly, and Teddy did a stunt of bear talk which brought the wanderer one tree nearer to the boat. He was now in the circle of light, and could get no nearer without swimming. ”