ed into
the house. Going up the steps Archie fell and bumped his head, making
his nose bleed, and there was so much excitement for a time that the
Elephant was forgotten. He was left out in the storm, and the rain came
down harder and harder, making little puddles and tiny brooks in the
yard; brooks that flowed into the large one.

"Oh, this is dreadful!" thought the poor Elephant, as the rain pelted
down on him. "Of course if I was real I wouldn't mind the rain, for real
Elephants like water. But I'm getting soaking wet! It's beginning to
come through my stuffing. I'm feeling like a sponge!

"Oh, why doesn't Archie come and get me, or at least give me an
umbrella! I think I'll try to walk under a toadstool to keep out of the
wet. If I can only find one large enough."

As no one was watching him, the Elephant had a chance to move about and
make believe come to life. But he had waited too long. The rain had
soaked into his cotton stuffing making him so heavy that now he could
not move.

"Oh, what is going to happen?" he thought.

He tried to lift first one leg, then another, but it was hard work. The
water was beginning to rise about him. His feet were in mud puddles. He
struggled hard to pull them out, and then, all at once, he lurched to
one side, and fell over flat--right into a pool of water!

CHAPTER X

A VOYAGE HOME

Down pelted more and more rain, harder and harder, until the back yard,
where Archie had been playing with the Stuffed Elephant, was almost a
little lake of water. The puddle rose higher and higher around the
Stuffed Elephant as he lay on his side, unable to move because he was so
soaked with water--like a sponge.

Inside the house where Archie lived there was trouble, because the
little boy was hurt worse in his fall than was at first supposed. They
had to send for the doctor, and of course no one thought of the poor
Elephant.

"I'm glad I'm not out in this rain with my Doll," said Elsie, as she sat
at the window after the doctor had gone.

"Yes, it is a regular flood," said Mother, sadly thinking of her little
boy.

And still no one thought of the Elephant out in all the storm.

If Elsie remembered anything at all, she probably thought that Archie
had brought his Elephant into the house. As for Archie, the doctor had
given him something to make him sleep, and the little boy was too ill
even to dream of his Christmas toy.

As for the Elephant; well, he was in a sad state! Th