guess I did!" answered her brother sadly.

"Then that's the last of your Plush Bear," said Arthur's father. "But
don't cry!" he told the little boy. "I'll get you another. Don't cry!
There is salt water enough around here without your adding to it by
your tears!" he laughed. But Arthur felt too unhappy to laugh.

And all this while Mr. Bruin was floating on the waves.

"This is certainly the strangest thing that ever happened to me,"
thought the Plush Bear. "I thought surely my end had come when Arthur
dropped me. But, though I am all wet outside, I seem to be dry inside."

On and on floated the Plush Bear; then, all of a sudden, he heard voices
talking. The voices were those of men and children, and not the voices
of toys.

"Don't you like it here, Joe?" asked a boy.

"Yes, I do, Herbert," was the answer. "And my Nodding Donkey likes it,
too."

"My Monkey on a Stick is having fun, and he isn't seasick a bit," said
the boy who had been called Herbert. "He loves to ride in a motor boat,
my Monkey does."

"What's this? What's this!" thought the Plush Bear. "Nodding Donkey?
Monkey on a Stick?"

He tried to raise himself in the water to look toward the place whence
came the voices, but the Plush Bear could see nothing. A moment later,
though, he heard one of the boys call:

"Oh, look! What's that floating in the water?"

"It's a fish!" said the other boy.

"That isn't a fish! It's some sort of floating toy," was the answer in a
man's voice. "Well, I declare, it's a Teddy Bear!"

"I'm not a Teddy Bear at all," said Mr. Bruin to himself; "but if you
rescue me from the water you may call me anything you wish."

[Illustration: The Plush Bear Meets Nodding Donkey and Monkey On a
Stick. _Page_ 117]

A moment later, after he had been afloat for some hours, the Plush Bear
felt himself being lifted from the sea, and in another second he was
placed in the bottom of a motor boat. In the boat were two men and
two boys, but when the water had run out of his eyes the Plush Bear was
more interested in looking at two other toys which were also in the
boat.

On one seat was a Nodding Donkey who seemed to be bowing in a most
pleasant and jolly fashion to the Plush Bear. And on the other seat,
beside a boy, was a Monkey on a Stick.

"Oh, I have heard of these toys," thought the Plush Bear. "They, too,
were once in the shop of Santa Claus! Oh, how glad I am! I'm saved at
last!"

"Where do you suppose this Plush Bear ca