The Story of a Stuffed Elephant
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_MAKE BELIEVE STORIES_
(Trademark Registered)
THE STORY OF A
STUFFED ELEPHANT
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF A SAWDUST DOLL," "THE STORY
OF A CHINA CAT," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES,"
"THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES," "THE SIX
LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
Copyright, 1922, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
The Story of a Stuffed Elephant
[Illustration: "Now Hold on Tightly," Said the Elephant.
_The Story of a Stuffed Elephant. Frontispiece_--(_Page_ 52)]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I THE ELEPHANT AND THE MOUSE 1
II THE MAN AND THE ELEPHANT 14
III UP IN THE ATTIC 28
IV CHRISTMAS FUN 41
V IN THE BARN 54
VI A DANGEROUS SLIDE 66
VII THE BIG DOG 77
VIII AN ELEPHANT JUDGE 87
IX OUT IN THE RAIN 102
X A VOYAGE HOME 110
THE STORY OF A
STUFFED ELEPHANT
CHAPTER I
THE ELEPHANT AND THE MOUSE
"Oh, how large he is!"
"Isn't he? And such wonderfully strong legs!"
"See his trunk, too! Isn't it cute! And he is well stuffed! This is
really one of the best toys that ever came into our shop, Geraldine;
don't you think so?"
"Yes, Angelina. I must call father to come and look at him. He will make
a lovely present for some boy or girl--I mean this Stuffed Elephant will
make a lovely present, not our father!" and Miss Angelina Mugg smiled at
her sister across the big packing box of Christmas toys they were
opening in their father's store.
"Oh, no! Of course we wouldn't want father to be given away as a toy!"
laughed Geraldine. "But this Stuffed Elephant--oh, I just love him!"
Miss Geraldine Mugg caught up the rather large toy animal and hugged it
tightly in her arms.
"Be careful!" called her sister. "You may break him!"
"Oh, he's just a Stuffed Elephant!" laughed Geraldine. "I mean he hasn't
any works inside him to wind up. He's just full of cotton! But I am
beginning to like him more than I care for some of the toys that do wind
up. I almost wish I were small again, so I could have this Elephant for
myself!"
"He is nice," admitted Angelina.
"Well, I'm glad they like me," thought the Stuffed Elephant to himself,
for just now he was not allowed to speak out loud or move around, as the
Make Believe toys could do at certain times. But these times were when
no eyes of boys, girls, men or women were looking.
It was mainly at night, after the store was closed for the day, that the
toys had their fun--talking to one another, moving about, doing tricks,
and the like of that. Now all that the Stuffed Elephant could do was to
stand on his four sturdy legs, with his tail on one end, and his trunk,
almost like a second tail, at the other end of his body.
He had two white tusks sticking out on either side of his trunk, and at
first you might have thought these tusks were toothpicks. But they were
not. An elephant's tusks are really teeth, grown extra long so he can
dig up the roots of trees and the plants on which he feeds.
But a Stuffed Elephant doesn't dig with his tusks, of course. He never
has to eat, being already stuffed, you know. And the Elephant in this
story was well stuffed with cotton.
"I am sure this Elephant is going to be one of our very nicest Christmas
toys," went on Miss Geraldine Mugg, as she lifted more playthings from
the big box that had come from the workshop of Santa Claus at the North
pole.
"Yes, I wish we had more like him," added Miss Angelina.
The two ladies helped their father, Mr. Horatio Mugg, in his toy store.
It was a delightful place for children, and many a boy and girl would
have been glad to stay all day in the "Mugg Toy Shop," as the big sign
out in front named the place.
"Well, here are some more of those China Cats," went on Miss Geraldine,
as she lifted some white pussies from the box.
"Oh, aren't they darling!" exclaimed her sister. "Do you remember the
first China Cat we had?"
"Indeed I do! It was bought for a little girl named Jennie. And she told
me, only the other day, that her China Cat had had ever so many
adventures!"
"The dear child! The children, I believe, really think their toys are
alive, and can move about!"
"Of course we can, only you don't know it, and you never see us!"
whispered the Stuffed Elephant to himself.
And then he winked one eye at a China Cat--an eye that neither Angelina
nor Geraldine saw blinking. Gracious! how surprised the two ladies would
have been to see a Stuffed Elephant winking one eye at a China Cat.
But stranger things than that are going to happen, I promise you!
"Be careful, Geraldine! Be careful!" suddenly cried Angelina, as her
sister arose from stooping over the box, and started toward the shelves
with an armful of toys.
"What's the matter?"
"Why, you nearly stepped on the Stuffed Elephant!"
"Oh, I'm glad that it didn't really happen! We have only one toy like
him, and it would never do to have him crushed all out of shape before
he is sold for Christmas. I forgot that we left him standing on the
floor. Gracious, but he's a big fellow!" she exclaimed.
"I'll lift him up on the shelf," Angelina said.
She picked up the Stuffed Elephant. Really he was one of the largest
toys that had ever come from the workshop of Santa Claus. And he was a
very finely made toy, only the best cotton and cloth having been used.
"Does he squeak?" asked Geraldine, as she saw her sister set the
creature with trunk and tusks on a broad shelf.
"Squeak? Goodness, of course not! What made you think that?"
"Well, some of the toy animals have a squeaker inside them, and make a
noise when you press it. I was thinking perhaps the elephant had a
squeaker."
"No. If he had anything he would have a sort of trumpet in him," said
Angelina. "Real elephants make a trumpeting noise through their trunks,
but of course a stuffed one can't!"
"Oh, ho! You just wait until it gets dark and this toy shop is closed!"
whispered the Stuffed Elephant to himself. "Then I'll show you whether I
can trumpet or not. Though I forgot. I can't show you nor let you hear,
it isn't allowed. But after the store is closed we'll have some fun!"
Toy after toy was taken from the big packing box. There were Sawdust
Dolls, Candy Rabbits, Tin Soldiers, Plush Bears and a Monkey on a
Stick--just like other toys of the same name who had had many
adventures, and about whom stories like this have been written.
As the toys were taken out of the box they were placed on the shelves in
Mr. Mugg's store. This was in a back room, for the toys had yet to be
sorted and looked over, to make sure each one was all right, before
they were put in the front part of the store to be sold.
Mr. Mugg had a larger and finer store than the one before the fire, when
the China Cat had so nearly been melted by the great heat. And, having a
larger store, Mr. Mugg bought larger Christmas playthings, such as the
Stuffed Elephant.
Finally all the new toys were taken from the box and placed around on
the shelves. While Angelina and Geraldine had been doing this, their
father was in the front part of the store, waiting on customers. After a
bit, when it grew dark outside, and the lights were lit inside the
store, Mr. Mugg locked the front door and came back into the rear room.
"I think we have worked enough for to-day," the toy man told his
daughters. "We will wait until to-morrow before looking over the new
things and marking prices on them. I am tired and want to go to bed."
"Good!" thought the Stuffed Elephant. "That is, I'm not glad Mr. Mugg is
tired," he went on, in his thoughts; "but I'm glad he is going to bed so
I can move about and talk to some of my toy friends. It's been no fun to
be shut up in that box ever since I came from the shop of Santa Claus."
A little later the store was in darkness, except for a small light
burning near the safe, so the passing policeman could look and see that
no burglars were breaking into it.
"Hello, everybody!" suddenly called the Stuffed Elephant, waving his
trunk around in the air. "How are you all?"
"Who is that speaking?" asked a Nodding Donkey, a toy whose head kept
moving all the while, as it was fastened on a pivot.
"A new chap--a Stuffed Elephant," answered a Jumping Jack, who wore a
blue and yellow cap.
"A Stuffed Elephant! Let me see him! I never heard of such a creature!"
brayed the Nodding Donkey, and he slid along the shelf to get a better
view.
For it was the mystic hour when the Make Believe toys could pretend to
be alive--when they could move about and talk.
"Here I am, right over here!" trumpeted the Stuffed Elephant, and if
Miss Geraldine and Miss Angelina, or even Mr. Mugg, could have heard him
they would have been very much surprised.
"Oh, you have two tails!" cried the Nodding Donkey.
"No, only one," said the Stuffed Elephant. "The other is my trunk. It
really is a long nose, but it is called a trunk."
"Is there anything inside it?" asked a Calico Clown.
"Nothing but air--I breathe through my trunk," the Stuffed Elephant
answered. "But I, myself, am filled with the very best cotton, lots and
lots of it! Have you cotton inside you?" he asked the Donkey.
"No, I'm wood clear through," was the reply. "But as long as you are a
new toy, let me welcome you among us. We are glad to see you. What is
the latest news from the land of Santa Claus?"
"Well, let me see. So many things happen up there that I hardly know
where to start to tell you about them," replied the Stuffed Elephant.
"In the first place----"
"I'm stuffed, too!" suddenly interrupted a high, squeaky voice. "Only
I'm stuffed with sawdust. Here I am, over here!"
"Yes, Miss Sawdust Doll, we see you," brayed the Nodding Donkey. "But
please don't interrupt the Stuffed Elephant. He is going to tell us
about Santa Claus, and I want to hear, as it is some time since I came
from the North Pole."
"Well, I can tell you as well as that Stuffed Elephant can," went on the
squeaky Sawdust Doll. "I came from Santa Claus's shop in the same box
with him."
"You're not the first Sawdust Doll, though. She was bought by a little
girl named Dorothy, I've heard said," remarked a rubber dog.
"Yes, that's right," said the Nodding Donkey. "And her brother Dick had
a White Rocking Horse. But as long as the Stuffed Elephant kindly
offered first to tell us the latest news from the North Pole, I think it
would be only polite to let him finish."
"Oh, of course--yes!" squeaked the new Sawdust Doll.
"Well," began the creature with the trunk and tusks, "I think I will
tell you----"
But just then there was a whirring noise at the end of the shelf, and a
little voice cried:
"Oh, save me, somebody! Please save me! I'm wound up too tight, and my
wheels are running away with me! I'll run to the edge of the shelf and
fall off! Save me, somebody, please!"
A Rolling Mouse, that could run across the room on wheels when wound up,
dashed along the toy shelf. As she had said, she was in danger of
falling off. Straight toward the Stuffed Elephant ran the Rolling Mouse,
squeaking in fright.
"I'll save you! I'll save you!" trumpeted the big toy. "Don't be afraid,
Miss Mouse! I'll save you!"
He uncoiled his long nose of a trunk, and stretched it out toward the
Rolling Mouse.
CHAPTER II
THE MAN AND THE ELEPHANT
"Catch me! Save me! Catch me before I fall off the shelf and break to
pieces!" squeaked the Rolling Mouse.
"Don't be afraid! I'm right here!" trumpeted the Stuffed Elephant.
On his sturdy legs, big and round and stuffed with cotton, the Elephant
stepped to the edge of the shelf. As quickly as the China Cat could
blink her eyes, the Elephant reached across with the tip of his trunk
and caught the Rolling Mouse just as she was going to slip over the edge
of the shelf.
Holding her very gently, so as not to squeeze the breath out of the
Mouse, the Elephant lifted the tiny creature up in the air, keeping her
there until her spring ran down. Then, in a spirit of fun, he reached
around and set the Mouse down on his broad back.
"There you are!" laughed the Stuffed Elephant in his hearty voice.
"There you are, Miss Mouse!"
"Yes, but where am I? Oh, so _high_ up as I am! Oh, where am I?"
squeaked the little mouse.
"You're up on my back," laughed the jolly Elephant toy. "Don't be
afraid. Stay there and I'll give you a ride to where you came from. On
what shelf do you belong?"
"Oh, put me down! Oh, I'm so afraid I'll fall off!" cried the tiny
mouse. "It is almost as high up here, on your back, as it would be to
fall to the floor from the shelf. Do please put me down, kind Mr.
Elephant!"
"Don't be silly, Miss Mouse!" brayed the Nodding Donkey. "The Elephant
is good and strong, and he is also careful. He will not let you fall."
"Are you sure?" asked the little Mouse, trembling.
"Of course I will not let you fall!" chuckled the Elephant. "Just stay
quietly on my back, and I'll take you where you came from."
"But maybe her wheels will go around again and make her roll off,"
remarked the Sawdust Doll.
"No, the spring unwound as I slid across the shelf," said the Rolling
Mouse. "I'm all right now. Mr. Mugg wound me up to-day to show me to a
little boy. But the boy wanted a pair of skates, and not a mouse like
me. So Mr. Mugg put me down on the shelf without letting my spring
unwind. He stuck me up against a Tin Soldier, and the Soldier kept me
from rolling around. But just now the Soldier came out to look at the
new Stuffed Elephant. That left nothing to hold me back, and away I
rolled."
"Oh, I'm sorry," said the Tin Soldier, touching his red cap in a salute
to Miss Mouse.
"I'll forgive you, as I know you didn't mean to do it," said the Mouse
toy, with a smile that made her whiskers wiggle. "But I do wish you'd
put me down, Mr. Elephant. I am nervous up on your back, broad and big
as it is."
"All right, Miss Rolling Mouse, I'll lift you down," trumpeted the
Elephant. "And here you are at your own place on the shelf."
The big toy, stuffed as he was with cotton, reached back with his trunk,
gently picked up the mouse in it, and set her down where she had started
to roll from. As she had said, the wheels no longer whizzed around, as
the spring which made them move had all uncoiled. It had "run down," as
it is called.
"There you are!" went on the Elephant, after he had gently put down the
Mouse toy. "Any time you are afraid of falling off the shelf, just call
for me and I'll save you with my trunk."
"You are very kind," said the Mouse. "And so big and strong!"
"Isn't he big, though!" giggled the Sawdust Doll. "I wonder if he is
strong enough to give me a ride on his back?"
"Of course he is!" brayed the Nodding Donkey.
"Do you want a ride on my back, Miss Sawdust Doll?" asked the
good-natured Elephant. "All right! Up you go!"
With a swing of his trunk he set the Doll on his back as he had done
with the Mouse. Then the Stuffed Elephant carefully walked around among
the other toys, taking care not to step on any of them.
"I'm glad the Elephant has come to stay with us," whispered a little
Celluloid Doll. "I'd love to ride on his back, but I don't like to ask
him."
"I'll ask for you if you're too bashful to do it," said the Calico
Clown, and he did.
"Why, of course I'll ride you, too, Miss Celluloid Doll," chuckled the
Elephant. "I'll ride all of you in turn--that is all but the very
largest toys. They might make my seams come open and the cotton stuffing
puff out."
For the Elephant was made of gray cloth, you know, and he was sewed
together, his tusks of wood being stuck in on either side of his trunk.
"I thought Elephants were always afraid of mice," said the Celluloid
Doll, when she was having her ride.
"Pooh! Me afraid of a little mouse!" laughed the big Elephant. "I guess
not! What made you think that?"
"It's in some of the story books," went on the tiny Celluloid Doll. "The
story says real, live elephants are afraid of mice because they fear the
tiny creatures will crawl up the nose holes in their trunks."
"That may be all right for real, live elephants," laughed the big,
stuffed toy. "But I am only make-believe, you know, like the rest of
you toys. The Rolling Mouse couldn't get up my nose."
"And if I could I wouldn't, because you have been so kind to me,"
squeaked the little mouse toy. "Next time I ride on your back I shall
not be so afraid."
"Would you like to ride now, Miss Mouse?" asked the Elephant, as he set
down with his trunk a Fuzzy Duck who had just been given a ride around
the shelf.
"Oh, no, thank you; not now," answered the Mouse. "And I think it will
soon be time for us to stop our make-believe fun. It will be morning in
a little while, and you know we can't talk or laugh or do anything in
daylight, when Mr. Mugg and his daughters or any customers are in the
store."
"I hope the Elephant will have time to tell us a little of what has
happened in North Pole Land since we came away," said a Rocking Horse,
who had been in the toy store a long time.
"Yes, do tell us!" begged the other playthings.
"I will," said the Elephant.
So the Elephant, swaying on his four big legs, in the same way that real
elephants do, told the latest news from the workshops of Santa Claus,
whence he had lately come with the box of other toys.
"Is Santa Claus as jolly as ever?" asked a Tin Horse.
"Just as jolly!" replied the Elephant. "More so, if anything. His
whiskers are a little longer, and his cheeks are a little redder, but
that is all. I heard him tell some of his workmen, as they packed me in
the box, that he hoped I'd like it down on Earth, among the boys and
girls."
"You're sure to like it," said the Nodding Donkey. "A brother of mine
used to be in this store, and he was given to a boy who took very good
care of him."
"And a sister of yours is owned by a little girl named Dorothy," a Cloth
Rabbit said to the Sawdust Doll. "She has lovely fun, your sister has."
"You'll very likely go to some boy. It seems to me you are too big a toy
for a little girl," said the Calico Clown to the Stuffed Elephant.
"What will happen then?" the Elephant asked.
But just then Mr. Mugg came in to open the shop for the day, and the
toys had to stop talking and pretend to be stiff and unable to move.
They always had to be this way when any one looked at them.
"Well," said Mr. Mugg, as he and his daughters began dusting the toys,
ready for the day's business, "Christmas is coming, and we shall soon be
losing some of our toys."
"You mean people will come in to buy them," smiled Geraldine.
"Yes," her father answered.
"Well, I hope this lovely, big Stuffed Elephant goes to some one who
will take good care of him," remarked Angelina, as she moved the big
toy farther front on the shelf. "Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "His back is
all dusty!"
"Dusty!" cried Geraldine. "Did you let him fall on the floor?"
"Indeed I did not! He hasn't been off this shelf or moved since he was
taken out of the box last night."
"Then I wonder how this dust got on his back."
"I haven't the least idea," answered Angelina. "But I'll take it off
with a brush." This she did.
Of course _you_ know how the dust got on the Elephant's back. It came
from the toys who rode him along the shelf. And, though neither of the
Mugg sisters knew it, the Elephant _had_ moved from his place on the
shelf. He had walked all about it.
People began to come into the store to look about for Christmas. As
Santa Claus is so busy nowadays he has to let some of the toy buying be
done by the grown folks, and a number of them came in to see what their
little boys and girls would like.
Among those who passed by the shelf on which the Stuffed Elephant stood,
was a jolly-looking man, wearing a big fur coat, for the day was cold
and it was snowing outside.
"Oh, ho!" exclaimed the man, as he saw the Stuffed Elephant. "This is
just what my son Archie wants--an Elephant! I'll get this for him, as he
wrote Santa Claus a letter saying he wanted a Stuffed Elephant more than
anything else."
"This Elephant is just from the shop of Santa Claus," said Angelina
Mugg, as she stepped up to wait on the man.
"Is he, indeed?"
"Yes, he was taken out of the box only last night. He is well made and
strong, and he has heaps and heaps of cotton stuffing inside him. Even
if he fell over on a little baby, this big Elephant would do no harm, as
he is so soft."
"He is, indeed," said the man, feeling the toy. "I suppose he doesn't
bite?" he added, looking at Miss Angelina and smiling.
"Oh, of course he doesn't bite!" laughed Miss Mugg. "Shall I have him
sent to your house so your son Archie will get him for Christmas?"
"Thank you, it is so near Christmas that I think I had better take the
Elephant with me," said Mr. Dunn. "I have my auto outside, and as it is
a closed car the Elephant will not take cold."
"I'm glad of that," said Miss Angelina. Very often she used to make
believe the toys were real, and alive, and could take cold, and become
ill. Of course she did not know that the toys really could move about
after dark, when no one saw them.
"Yes, I'll take the Elephant with me," went on Mr. Dunn. "I'll hide him
away in the attic until Christmas, and then let Santa Claus give him to
Archie. That boy of mine just loves animal toys!"
A little later the Stuffed Elephant was standing in among some other
packages in the back of the auto. On the front seat Mr. Dunn was guiding
the car through the storm, for it was now snowing hard.
"My! This reminds me of North Pole Land!" thought the Elephant, as he
looked out of the windows of the car and saw the white flakes swirling
about. "The ground is covered, too!"
It had been snowing some time before Mr. Dunn went to the toy store, and
now he was having hard work to make his machine plow through the drifts
on the way home.
"They took me away in such a hurry I had no time to say good-bye to any
of my toy friends," thought the Elephant, as he snuggled down in the
blanket in the rear of the auto. For elephants need to be kept warm, you
know--that is, real ones, and this Stuffed Elephant made believe he was
real.
"But of course I shouldn't have dared say anything while people were
around," thought the toy. "I hope I see some of them again, for it
wasn't very polite to come away as I did."
All at once, as the auto was rolling along quite fast, it came to a
sudden stop, with a bump and a jerk.
"Hello! We're stuck!" cried the man. "I must see if I can break through
the snowdrift."
He backed the car and started ahead again, with the motor going full
speed.
Bang! the car struck the snowdrift. There was a crash of glass.
"Oh, dear!" whispered the Elephant to himself, for he went toppling,
legs over head, out through a broken window of the car. Into a deep
snowdrift stuck the poor Stuffed Elephant.
[Illustration: The Stuffed Elephant Stuck in a Snowdrift.
_The Story of a Stuffed Elephant._ _Page_ 27]
"Oh, this is terrible!" sighed the toy. "Oh, I am freezing to death!"
CHAPTER III
UP IN THE ATTIC
Banging puffing, and grinding noises sounded all about the Stuffed
Elephant. Around him swirled the white flakes of snow, but he could
hardly see them, for part of his head, part of his trunk, and one eye
were stuck in the drift.
Mr. Dunn's automobile had lurched to one side as Archie's father tried
to send it through a big, white drift. And the noise was made by the
motor, or engine, of the car, working its best to force the car ahead.
The glass window of the automobile had broken as it tipped to one side,
a piece of ice flying through.
And it was through the broken window that the Stuffed Elephant had been
tossed, right out into a snowdrift!
"Oh, but it's so cold! So cold!" said the Elephant, shivering.
Of course it was cold up at the North Pole where Santa Claus has his
workshop, and there was more snow and ice than near Archie's home. But
up there the Elephant had been inside the warm shop, just as he had been
kept in the warm toy store, and, until a few minutes ago, in the warm
auto.
"Well, I guess I'll have to back up and go around another way," said Mr.
Dunn, after a while. "I can't make my machine go through that snowdrift.
No use trying! I'll upset if I do! Hello, one of the windows is broken,
too! I'm sorry about that, but I can go on with a broken window, which I
couldn't do if I had a broken wheel. And I guess the toys won't take
cold. Yes, I must back up and go home by another road."
Starting the car slowly, Mr. Dunn backed it out of the drift. The front
wheels and the radiator, where the water is, were covered with masses
of white flakes, but aside from the broken window no damage had been
done.
"I'd better hurry home, too," said Mr. Dunn, talking to himself, a way
some jolly men have. "It's snowing worse, and I don't want to be kept
out here all night. I want to get back with the Christmas presents.
Archie will surely like that Stuffed Elephant."