with the Wax Doll and some of the other new gifts. It was the
first time in his life that he had been in such a place, and you may be
sure the Plush Bear looked about him with eagerness.

He was gazing out into a busy street--a street where people were passing
up and down all the while--a street in which there was a layer of
newly-fallen snow, only not as much as at the North Pole.

"I wonder if Santa Claus is here?" thought the Plush Bear.

But he could not speak aloud because so many eyes--those of the
passers-by in the street and the customers in the store--were watching.
There was so much to see that the Plush Bear did not know at which to
look first, but, all of a sudden, he heard a voice saying:

"Oh, I want that Plush Bear! I want that! Can he do any tricks?"

The Plush Bear felt himself being lifted out of the show window of the
toy shop. The springs inside him were wound up by Mr. Mugg and when he
was set down on a showcase near the window the Bear began to move his
head and paws, and from his red mouth came a make-believe growl.

"Oh, I want him! I want him!" the eager voice went on, and the Plush
Bear was caught up by a fat boy--the very fattest and jolliest boy that
the toy had ever seen. "I want this Plush Bear for my very own!" cried
the fat boy. "He's the best toy I ever saw!"

CHAPTER VI

OUT OF THE WINDOW

"Don't squeeze the Bear so hard, Arthur," said a lady who was with the
fat boy. "You may break the toy before I have paid for him."

"The Plush Bear is strong and well-made, Mrs. Rowe," said Mr. Mugg. "He
is one of the newest of the Christmas toys, and I only put him in the
show window this morning."

"And I saw him when I was walking along!" exclaimed Arthur Rowe, the
jolly fat boy. "As soon as I saw him I knew I'd like him! Oh, Mother,
hear him growl! And see him wave his paws!"

Indeed the Plush Bear was doing all his tricks, for he had been wound
up by Mr. Mugg for that very purpose. There he sat on the top of the
glass showcase, growling away (make believe of course) and waving his
paws like a real bear.

Other persons in the toy store crowded up to the showcase to watch the
Plush Bear do his tricks, and Arthur, the jolly fat boy, laughed loud
and long as his plaything amused the throng. For the Plush Bear was to
belong to Arthur. Passing down the street early that Winter morning, he
had seen the toy in Mr. Mugg's window, and had begged his mother to stop
and go in and inq