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[101] <h2>CHAPTER XIV. The Teddy Bears at the Cleaner’s.</h2> <div> <ANTIMG class="drop-cap" src="images/drop-t.jpg" width-obs="157" height-obs="173" alt="T" /></div> THERE had been more than one reason for the detention of the Teddy bears so long at the cleaner’s. To be sure, they were very much soiled indeed, but something else fell out which protracted their stay during the second week. Peter Pan and his family did not at all enjoy the cleaning process, in which it seemed that they were literally handled without gloves, but from which they emerged in a spotless condition. They were then carried late one afternoon to a large store room, and set up on a shelf to await transportation home. As it was a very large establishment two night watchmen were employed, and from their elevated position the bears eyed hungrily the baskets in which they had brought their midnight lunch, and which they had placed on a small table near by. The night dragged slowly and the watchmen consumed a couple of hours in playing cribbage. After they had grown tired of the game, as it was still too early to eat, one of them proposed that they make the rounds of the building and then sit down together to their lunch. [102] As soon as they were out of sight and hearing, the bears scrambled down from their shelf and made haste to investigate the contents of the lunch baskets. They contained a rather slim meal for five, besides which some of the food was of a description that caused the pampered family to turn up their sharp noses. They afterward learned that it was called pork and sauerkraut, a mixture that the new made-in-Germany bears would no doubt have appreciated. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus107.jpg" width-obs="394" height-obs="260" alt="spilling out the picnic baskets" /></div> Peter Pan, however, dumped the contents of the basket out on the floor, upsetting and breaking a bottle of milk, that ran all over the floor and added a liquid element to the sour mess. He then opened the other basket, in which he discovered sandwiches, fried cakes and a triangle of pumpkin pie. Upon these viands they feasted until not a crumb remained and then turned their attention to the pack of cards with which the watchmen[103] had been playing cribbage. The board and little ivory pins also proved very amusing. Peter Pan had watched the game closely and it did not take him very long to learn it. So he now set about teaching it to Bedelia. However, they soon found the cards very awkward to handle, as they were far too large for Teddy bears in proportion; besides which the little pins were forever falling on the floor and getting lost. So the pair soon gave it up and handed the cards over to the little bears who seized upon them with the greatest avidity and examined them curiously. They then fell to building houses with the bits of pasteboard, which, as all houses of cards usually do, soon came tumbling down in confusion. As the little bears were not particularly gentle in handling their playthings they were soon torn and defaced and were thrown in a soiled heap on the floor, while the cubs ran after their parents, who had now started out on a voyage of discovery. On the floor above, level with the street, was the room in which all the cleansed articles were displayed in glass cases and in the large show window. Peter Pan was afraid of being seen from outside, so with some difficulty he managed to drag down the shades. He understood how to do that very well indeed. [104] So far their journey had been illuminated by the use of matches, which Peter Pan had brought with him along with the watchman’s pipe and a bag of Bull Durham. A trail of burned matches thrown down when they had burned out marked their passage from below stairs. Now that the coast seemed to be clear the electric light was brought into play and the bears proceeded to investigate everywhere, leaving ruin and devastation in their wake. Fine furs and delicate laces were mauled and trampled; dainty evening gowns were pulled about and covered with little sticky paw marks. Mrs. Peter Pan possessed herself of an exquisite pink feather boa in which she capered madly about, having wrapped the boa several times around her body while the long ends trailed upon the floor. Meanwhile the cubs were not losing any time, but were making merry among the kid gloves, pulling them up on their paws and soiling and splitting every pair that they touched. Peter Pan had been satisfied with a cursory survey of the pretty articles on exhibition, for he soon found that they did not interest him very much. So he soon turned his attention to the watchman’s pipe which he had all the time been carrying about with him. It was no difficult matter to fill and light it and the bear threw[105] himself luxuriously on a pile of filmy laces and proceeded to smoke to his heart’s content. Now Peter Pan had never heard anything concerning the effects of the first attempt at smoking. Therefore he was much surprised at the queer sensations which after a few moments he began to experience, without in the least comprehending the source from whence they came. For the pipe was about five times as large in proportion to Peter Pan as it was to its original owner. And of course its effects were in the same ratio. Peter Pan began to realize a fearsome sensation at the pit of his round stomach, the purport of which very soon became only too evident. The floor seemed to rock beneath him, and when he essayed to walk, it made as if to rise up and hit him on the head. It curved in billows and tipped itself up at a fearful angle, as if offering him a challenge. Who had ever before seen the floor of an ordinary shop, or indeed, any floor at all, behave in such an utterly absurd and unaccountable manner? Peter Pan would have wondered had he not been too ill to wonder at anything. His head was splitting and a flame of thirst devoured his parched tongue. In his misery, the cause of which he did not in the least[106] understand, he let fall the pipe, a spark from which fell upon the web-like lace and in a moment the whole pile was in a blaze. Now Peter Pan knew what a fire meant, for he had seen one once before, and although he was about as ill as a bear could well be, he took to his unsteady heels, calling loudly to his family to follow him, and together they plunged down the stairs, seeking safety in the lower regions. Hastily they climbed to their original shelf, and not a moment too soon, for the torpor which enveloped them all day was beginning to steal upon them, and mercifully to dull the pangs that gripped their mischievous ringleader. Now the watchmen, who had seen the light of the rapidly increasing blaze, came racing to the scene of action. The fluids used in cleansing fed the flames, that now were burning fiercely; an alarm was turned in and by the time the fire department arrived they found all that they could attend to. Nearly everything in the store was destroyed, and such articles as were saved were so soiled and begrimed by the water and smoke that it was found necessary to clean them over again, much to the disgust and dismay of the Teddy bears. And right glad they were when at last they were swathed in wrappings of[107] tissue paper, packed in a big box and expressed home to Papa Doctor’s house. Here Bedelia immediately set her wits to work to plan new mischief for the amusement of the nursery and her own delectation, the result of this scheming being a grand ball, which took place at no very late date. <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus112.jpg" width-obs="227" height-obs="105" alt="decoration" /></div> <hr class="chap" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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