Holman dropped a log on the campfire and came back to sit beside the girl. "He'd probably be happier running around out here in the woods."
Nancy nodded slowly. "Probably."
The stairs out of the old ship rattled once off in the darkness. Holman looked away from the fire and toward the ship.
Coming across the grass toward them was a giant teddy bear.
Laughing, Nancy rose. "It's Shandy." She glanced at Holman. "Be nice to him."
Holman watched Shandy approach and didn't answer.
The teddy bear sat down, like a dropped rag doll, next to Nancy. He rubbed his fuzzy brown paws over his black nose and blinked his button eyes at her.
"Nice old Shandy," said Nancy, pulling one of Shandy's round ears. She smiled at Holman. "This is what he was being when dad and I first found him."
Holman, tilting forward, flipped a flat stone into the fire and scattered sparks. "That's a coincidence."
"I was just, you know, about ten," Nancy said, patting Shandy's head. "What had happened was I'd been playing in the woods. And, anyway, I left my own teddy bear out there. Lost it. And I told dad, because it was almost night when I remembered. Well, he found it and right beside it there was big old Shandy. Dad and I both decided after looking at him for awhile that his name should be Shandy."