dangling
rope.

And then, all of a sudden, something happened. The rope turned and
twisted like a snake, a loop of it wound around the Elephant's neck, and
a moment later he felt himself being lifted off the barn floor in the
hempen coils. Through the air, like the pendulum of a big clock, he
swayed, and as the rope pulled tighter and tighter the poor Elephant
cried:

"Oh, my dear friend Nodding Donkey! I am in a terrible state! The rope
is so tight it is squeezing all the cotton stuffing out of me! Oh, what
shall I do?"

CHAPTER VI

A DANGEROUS SLIDE

Anxious as the Nodding Donkey was to help his friend the Stuffed
Elephant, nothing could be done. For the rope had suddenly been pulled
up, taking the Elephant with it. And there he swung, dangling to and
fro, the coil of the rope getting tighter and tighter around his neck,
choking the poor toy.

"Oh, I know all the stuffing will be squeezed out of me! I just know it
will!" sighed the Elephant. "Then I'll look like a balloon with all the
air out of it! Oh dear!"

"Can't you get yourself loose?" asked the Donkey. "I wish I could climb
up and help you, but I can't."

"And I'd help you, for I am a good climber, only I can't get off my
stick. I'm fastened on tight just now," chattered Herbert's Monkey.

"Well, something will have to be done, if I am to be saved!" called the
Elephant, of course not speaking loudly enough for the children, in
another part of the barn, to hear.

Archie and his friends were still having fun sliding down the slippery
hay, and they were making a great deal of noise. But you know how it is
yourself. You often get tired of playing one game and want to go to
another.

It was this way with Archie and his friends. They slid and slid and slid
on the hay until they had had enough of it. Then Elsie said:

"Let's go back and get our playthings. I want to see my Christmas
Dollie."

Back to where they had left the toys trooped the children, and Archie,
who ran ahead, was just in time to see his Stuffed Elephant swaying on
the rope that was choking him.

"Oh, look! Look at my Elephant!" cried Archie. "He's hung on a rope! Oh,
he'll be killed! Oh, dear!"

"Run and grab him down! Pull him down!" shouted Joe.

Archie ran, but by this time the rope was pulled up still farther and
the Elephant was so far above the barn floor that even Herbert, who was
taller than Archie, could not reach the plaything.

"Oh, stop!" cried Archie. "S