down pelted more and more rain, harder and harder, until the back yard, where archie had been playing with the stuffed elephant, was almost a little lake of water. the puddle rose higher and higher around the stuffed elephant as he lay on his side, unable to move because he was so soaked with water—like a sponge.
inside the house where archie lived there was trouble, because the little boy was hurt worse in his fall than was at first supposed. they had to send for the doctor, and of course no one thought of the poor elephant.
"i'm glad i'm not out in this rain with my doll," said elsie, as she sat at the window after the doctor had gone.[pg 111]
"yes, it is a regular flood," said mother, sadly thinking of her little boy.
and still no one thought of the elephant out in all the storm.
if elsie remembered anything at all, she probably thought that archie had brought his elephant into the house. as for archie, the doctor had given him something to make him sleep, and the little boy was too ill even to dream of his christmas toy.
as for the elephant; well, he was in a sad state! the wet cotton stuffing inside him was cold and clammy. his trunk was like a wet piece of paper, and he feared his wooden tusks would come out, if the glue that held them in got too much soaked.
"oh, dear! what am i to do?" thought the poor toy.
now it happened that jeff, the colored boy who had once taken the china cat from mr. mugg's store after a fire, lived not far from archie's home. jeff and his folks had moved to the country from the [pg 112]city. and about this time jeff's mother sent him to the store.
"has ah done gotta go in all dis rain?" asked the little colored boy.
"yo' suah has, honey!" replied his mother. "yo' isn't salt or sugah, an' yo' won't melt. put on yo' ole coat an' go to de sto'!"
so jeff went. he took a "short cut" which led across the dunn's back yard, and jeff passed the place where the poor elephant lay in a puddle of water.
"oh, golly!" cried jeff, his white teeth glistening against his funny black face as he laughed. "ah'd done gone an' found annuder playtoy! only dis one ah done found in de rain, but de udder one was in a fiah! ah knows whut ah's gwine to do. i'll put dis leffelant on a board till ah comes back from de sto'. den ah'll take him home wif me!"
jeff looked around until he found a flat board, large enough to hold the elephant. putting the toy on this board, jeff laid [pg 113]it to one side, and ran on to the store. he did not want to take the elephant with him for fear some one would see it and ask him about it.
but jeff was not to have that elephant. while the colored boy was at the store the rain came down harder than ever, making so much water that the little brook in archie's back yard rose higher and higher.
so high did the brook rise that the water reached the board on which the limp and soaking elephant was lying on his side. and then the water lifted up the board, elephant and all, and floated them down stream.
"oh, my!" thought the poor stuffed elephant. "this is the last of me! i am going on a long voyage! i shall never see archie again!"
down the stream he floated on the board which was like a boat. once a fish poked his head out of the water and called:
"who are you and where are you going?"[pg 114]
before the elephant could answer the swift current had carried him farther downstream and away from the fish.
once the board with the elephant on it bumped against a big water rat.
"be careful who you're bumping!" snarled the rat.
"excuse me," replied the elephant. "i didn't mean to."
the rat tried to bite the elephant's trunk, but again the swift current carried the boat downstream.
finally the rain stopped, after a day or so, but by that time the elephant had been carried a long way down the brook, at last coming to a stop when the board was caught in the roots of an overhanging tree. by now the elephant was almost glued fast to the board, so wet and soaking was he.
the rain stopped, the brook went down, the sun came out, and the elephant dried. but he still lay on the board, on the bank of the stream, under the roots of the tree.[pg 115]
a man, who happened to be passing, saw the elephant, picked him off the board, and, seeing that he was an expensive toy, took the plaything to his home.
"what a fine elephant!" said the man's wife. "i'll put him on the mantel, over the stove, so he'll dry out more. some child lost this. we haven't any children small enough to want to keep it. i wish i could find out who owned this elephant."
"i wish so, myself," thought the elephant. "oh, shall i ever get back to archie?"
it was a day or so after the big storm that archie was able to be up and around, and the first thing he thought of, when he could go outdoors, was his elephant.
"oh, where is he?" cried the little boy. "i 'member i left him in the yard when we heard the hand-organ music and ran to see the monkey. and then it rained and i fell down and bumped my nose. oh, where is my elephant?"
"if you left him out here in the yard i [pg 116]fear the elephant has floated away," said mrs. dunn. "the brook rose very high—almost up to our back steps—and it probably carried your elephant away."
"oh, shall i ever get him back?" cried archie, feeling sad.
"i'm afraid not," his mother answered.
archie felt so bad about his toy that his father put an advertisement in the paper, asking whoever found the elephant to please bring him back and get a reward.
if jeff, the colored boy, had been able to read, he might have seen the advertisement and have told what he did with the toy.
but jeff never read the papers. and, besides, it rained so hard when the colored boy went back from the store, after putting the elephant on the board, that jeff had to go home another way, and he forgot all about the stuffed plaything he had set aside.
but the man who had taken the ele[pg 117]phant home read the paper, and he saw the advertisement mr. dunn put in.
"there!" called the man to his wife. "now i know where that elephant belongs. i'll take him back to the little boy."
"well, he's good and dry," said his wife. "i mean the elephant is good and dry. he's almost as good as new." and, in fact, the elephant was, for she had brushed off all the mud, and the heat had dried out the water.
carrying the stuffed elephant, the man who had found the toy took it to archie's house.
"oh, here he is! my christmas elephant! he's come back to me! oh, how glad i am!" cried archie, as he clasped the cotton creature in his arms. "oh, how glad i am!"
"and i'm glad, too!" thought the elephant. "i feared i would never see archie and elsie again! and i'm even glad to see nip!" for the dog came to the door, wagging his tail.[pg 118]
and so, after several adventures, the stuffed elephant was back home again, but many more things happened to him, though i have no room for them in this book. the elephant even acted again as judge in the dispute of the rake, the shovel and the pick, but who won the prize i cannot tell. i think each should have had a prize. don't you?
once again there was happiness in the dunn house, for the lost elephant was back, and elsie gave her brother a pink ribbon to tie on his toy's neck.
"it may look pretty, but it tickles me," thought the elephant, as archie pulled him about.
