which looked something like a Doll, was as much
alive as your Doll is to you girls.

"That is a wonderful thing, Ski," said the Eskimo boy's father. "Never
have I seen such a thing in all my life!"

Ski's father leaned forward and touched the Plush Bear. And he happened
to touch the very spring that set the toy animal in motion. For the
Plush Bear was all wound up when Ski reached through the window and took
him, and all that was needed was a touch to send him off.

Immediately the Plush Bear began to move his head from side to side,
growls came out of his red mouth, and his paws waved to and fro. He
behaved almost like a small, live bear.

"Wow!" cried Ski, leaping back when he saw the Plush Bear beginning to
move.

"Wow!" cried Ski's father, mother and sisters and brothers, and they,
too, leaped back.

"Gurr-r-r-r! Gurr-r-r-r!" growled the Plush Bear, and he moved his paws
and head faster than ever. He was not doing this himself, you
understand. He was not making believe come to life. He was only doing as
all the other spring toys do--moving when the wheels within him moved.

"Wow!" cried Ski's father again. "This is magic! This bear is bewitched!
It will bring us bad luck! It must not stay in my igloo!"

"Oh, please let me keep it!" begged Ski, as his father caught up the
Plush Bear.

"No! No! It would be dangerous! It would bring us bad luck! There is a
witch in that bear!" murmured Ski's mother.

"Never have I seen such a thing!" went on Ski's father in awe and
wonder. "We must not keep it! If we allowed it to stay in this igloo we
should freeze, I should never catch any seals, and our blubber fat would
become so hard we could not eat it. I must take this magic bear that
moves back to the big igloo!"

So, though Ski begged his father to be allowed to keep the toy, the
Eskimo man thrust the bear under his fur coat and crawled out of the
igloo into the glow of the Northern Lights.

"I must take it back to the big igloo," murmured Ski's father. "Then
will the bad magic pass away."

You see he did not know, never having seen such a toy before, and never
having heard of machinery--Ski's father did not know what a delightful
toy the Plush Bear was. All he thought of was bad luck and magic.

Quickly Ski's father hitched his team of dogs to the long, low wooden
sled.

Crack! went the long whip over their heads, but the Eskimo man did not
let the lash fall on the animals.

Over the snow and ice they dr