to the seashore.
"The train is going to stop at this station, and I can run back and pick
up Arthur's toy."

The fat boy felt better when he heard his father say this, but still he
was afraid lest perhaps his plaything might have been broken in the
tumble.

It was the sudden slowing of the train for the station stop that had
caused Arthur to drop his Plush Bear. With a grinding of the brakes the
cars came to a standstill, and Mr. Rowe, followed by Arthur, started
for the door. Nettie also got down out of her seat.

"No, dear, you had better stay with me," her mother said. "Daddy will
get the Plush Bear back if it can be found."

"Where you s'pose he is?" asked the little girl.

And now we must find that out ourselves.

Down! down! down! turning somersault after somersault, the Plush Bear
fell. Arthur had held the toy up to the window just as the train was
crossing a high bridge, beneath which ran a street. The railroad tracks
were on an embankment, and in the street below trees were growing. The
train ran over the bridge, or trestle, above the trees.

And it was into one of these trees, growing down in the street, that the
Plush Bear fell. Right down among the branches he plunged, but as it was
now Summer, and there were leaves on the trees, it was almost like
falling on a soft sofa cushion.

"I'm glad this tree was here!" thought the Plush Bear, as he landed on a
branch among the soft leaves. "If I had struck on the hard street or on
the sidewalk there is no telling what would have happened. I don't
believe I'm at all hurt now."

And indeed he was not. Aside from being shaken up and having his plush
ruffled, the Bear was not in the least harmed. But had he landed on the
road one of his springs inside or some of his wheels might have been
broken or twisted, and he never could have growled again or moved his
head or paws. That is, unless Mr. Mugg could have mended him.

As it was, the Plush Bear fell down into the tree, and there he stuck on
a branch not far from the ground. The Plush Bear sat astraddle the limb.

"Oh, I am not safe yet!" he thought. "Maybe I'll fall after all! I must
keep very still and quiet until I see what will happen next."

By this time the train had stopped and Arthur and his father were
alighting at the small station.

"This isn't where you get off," said the conductor to Mr. Rowe. "This
isn't the seashore."

"I know it," said Mr. Rowe. "But my little boy dropped his Plush Bear