Teddy Bears

by Adah Louise Sutton

So the pair soon gave it up and handed the cards over to the little bears who seized upon them with the greatest avidity and examined them curiously. They then fell to building houses with the bits of pasteboard, which, as all houses of cards usually do, soon came tumbling down in confusion.

As the little bears were not particularly gentle in handling their playthings they were soon torn and defaced and were thrown in a soiled heap on the floor, while the cubs ran after their parents, who had now started out on a voyage of discovery.

On the floor above, level with the street, was the room in which all the cleansed articles were displayed in glass cases and in the large show window. Peter Pan was afraid of being seen from outside, so with some difficulty he managed to drag down the shades. He understood how to do that very well indeed.

So far their journey had been illuminated by the use of matches, which Peter Pan had brought with him along with the watchman’s pipe and a bag of Bull Durham. A trail of burned matches thrown down when they had burned out marked their passage from below stairs. Now that the coast seemed to be clear the electric light was brought into play and the bears proceeded to investigate everywhere, leaving ruin and devastation in their wake.

Fine furs and delicate laces were mauled and trampled; dainty evening gowns were pulled about and covered with little sticky paw marks. Mrs. Peter Pan possessed herself of an exquisite pink feather boa in which she capered madly about, having wrapped the boa several times around her body while the long ends trailed upon the floor.

Meanwhile the cubs were not losing any time, but were making merry among the kid gloves, pulling them up on their paws and soiling and splitting every pair that they touched.

Peter Pan had been satisfied with a cursory survey of the pretty articles on exhibition, for he soon found that they did not interest him very much. So he soon turned his attention to the watchman’s pipe which he had all the time been carrying about with him.

It was no difficult matter to fill and light it and the bear threw himself luxuriously on a pile of filmy laces and proceeded to smoke to his heart’s content.

Now Peter Pan had never heard anything concerning the effects of the first attempt at smoking. Therefore he was much surprised at the queer sensations which after a few moments he began to experience, without in the least comprehending the source from whence they came. For the pipe was about five times as large in proportion to Peter Pan as it was to its original owner. And of course its effects were in the same ratio.