happened. There had been a busy time in the North
Pole workshop of Santa Claus that day, for it was getting near to
Christmas. The little men, like elves, who built the Noah's Arks, the
toy animals, the dolls, and the other playthings, had been as busy as
bees.

Then, in the afternoon, just before dark, jolly old Santa Claus himself
entered his shop, the windows of which were made from crystal-clear
sheets of ice.

"What ho, my merry men!" cried Santa Claus, "you have been working very
hard. Stop now, and have lunch, for we must work overtime to-night so
that we may finish a lot of toys to be taken down to Earth. But now I
will give you a little rest, though it is not five o'clock, when we
usually stop."

"Hurray!" cried the merry little men.

They gladly laid down their tools and put aside the half-finished toys
on which they had been working. Half-finished Dolls, Jumping Jacks that
could not yet leap, Jacks in Boxes that could not yet spring out, trains
of cars that could not yet run--all these were laid aside, together with
toys completely made, so that the little men might rest themselves.

"Come to the lunch room and get some hot chocolate and some frosted
cake," said Santa Claus, and away trooped the jolly little men. Just who
had left some of the windows open no one knew. But they were open, and
when the big storm came, in blew the snowflakes.

"I call this real jolly," said the big Plush Bear, who had given the Wax
Doll the bed quilt to keep her feet warm. "I'd like to be out in this
storm. But this is the next best thing. Hi there!" he called to the
Flannel Pig, "look out where you're throwing snowballs! You nearly hit
the Wax Doll."

"Oh, if he did that my complexion would be spoiled!" cried the beautiful
toy, who was not, as yet, quite finished.

"I'll be careful," promised the Flannel Pig. "Don't you want to have fun
in the snowball fight, Mr. Teddy Bear?"

"I am not a Teddy Bear!" roared the big plush creature. "Many people
take me for one; but I am not, though I do look like a Teddy. But I am a
real Plush Bear, and when I am wound up I can move my head and my paws
and I can growl. Listen! I am wound up now!"

There was a whirring sound inside the Plush Bear as the clock work
wheels began to turn, and soon his head moved slowly from side to side,
he raised his paws and lowered them, and out of his red mouth came a
growling voice saying:

"To be sure, I'll join the snowball fight!"

"Hurray!