Teddy Bears

by Adah Louise Sutton

His mental processes were slow ones, but he was beginning to comprehend the fact that his nightly revels must, in the future, be conducted on a somewhat more orderly basis.

There was no telling what might be the result of a rigid investigation by the police.

Acting on this idea, he cautiously slid from bed and proceeded to divest the twins of their ill-gotten finery, in which they had serenely gone to sleep. This he rolled up and poked into the grate behind the wood and kindlings that were laid ready for lighting. This accomplished, he crept back into bed and was soon slumbering placidly, his cold black nose thrust into the rosy palm of his little mistress.

Next morning the house was filled with detectives from the Central Station, but the most careful investigations resulted in nothing whatever. And the officers were obliged to give up the case as another of the unsolved mysteries, and departed, leaving as a final bit of advice that all the doors in the house be locked when the family retired.

Peter Pan, who all this time had been perched jauntily on the edge of the ruined library table, was not at all disconcerted by this edict. Being the very largest size of Teddy bear, it was quite possible for him to reach the locks of the doors without any trouble whatever.

However, he concluded that it would be best to lie low for awhile until the affair had blown over, with the result that the North family enjoyed a hard earned peace for some time.

Bedelia, however, was secretly furious, and being the more crafty of the two, resolved that she would not be governed, but would start an expedition of her own as soon as a favorable opportunity presented itself. This, however, was long in coming, as Peter Pan somehow scented danger in the wind. His suspicions had at first been aroused by Bedelia’s behavior when she discovered the loss of the pretty garments with which she had decked the twins. Indeed, upon his refusal to tell what he had done with them, her conduct had been far from wifely, in that she smartly boxed his ears and had then promptly fallen into a fit of hysterics, to calm which had required the united efforts of all the toys in the nursery.

Following this she relapsed into a fit of the sulks, which made life unbearable for every one concerned; all the time revolving in her stubborn head the propriety of making another raid upon the chests in the attic.