Teddy in the Toy Shop

A very big shop with broad
glass show windows, carpets
on the floor and lovely flower
pots near the door is on a main
street of a city. It is a toy
shop, but not an ordinary one.
This shop had toys made in
India and also different parts
of the world. There were rows
and rows of exciting toys of
all kinds, sizes and shapes.
Things for little girls and things
for little boys. Things to give
to tiny tots. There were even
things which sometimes mum-
mies and daddies bought because
they were so wonderful. In the
large room behind the shop were
hundreds of crates with more
toys in them. They had on
them exciting lables of far off
countries. They were from
Burma and Bangkok, England
and Iceland, Africa and Austra-



lia, Thailand and Japan and
oh! every country in the world.

One day, a small, knobly
parcel arrived at this shop. The
manager of the shop was sur-
prised. He usually received
large boxes arid never so badly
parcelled. It was from a small
village in South India and not
from any foreign land. Curi-
ous to know what it contained
he decided to open it at once.
He called an assistant and
together they untied the parcel.
When he saw what was inside,
he nearly fell down. The
assistant had a fit of giggles,
for what was inside was the
strangest looking, funniest little
teddy bear. Well, you could
call it a teddy bear — sort of
a bear anyway, for it looked
teddy-bearish, but you couldn't
tell for sure. It was bright



yellow in colour. The tip of
its nose and eyes were black.
The inside of its paws and ears
were bright red. The funniest
tilings were the eyes. The left
eye was much larger and roun-
der than the right one. But
it was a chubby little bear and
somehow rather cute.

"Who on earth has sent this
funny creature," asked the atten-
dant, wiping his eyes, for he
had laughed until the tears had
come to his eyes. "It's really
strange," thought the manager,
as he unfolded the letter which
was laid in the parcel. Imagine
sending this sorry looking thing
tosuchafamous shop. Adjusting
his glasses and frowning thought-
fully the manager read the letter.
The assistant waited respectfully
for his master's orders. He had
no doubt that it would be thrown
away on to the pile of broken
toys. He thought he could
take it home and make his
little son laugh. To his surprise,
he saw that his master was
biting his finger nails. This was
a sure sign that he was very
upset. He finished reading the
letter and turning to the assis-
tant said seriously, "Do not
laugh at this little teddy bear.
It's a very special kind of a bear."
So saying he nicked up the



teddy bear and placed him all
by himself on a top shelf.

All the day the little teddy
sat with his arms stretched out
staring in front of him.
Surrounding her were rows and
rows .of mechanical toys. On
his right was a large model
railway. Busy little trains
shrieked and whistled and scutt-
led happily round and round.
The signals went up and down
and the engine-driver stood very
straight in his engine. There
were aeroplanes too, of all types
and sizes. The number of shin-
ing new cars that stood *!ine
upon line made Teddy quite
dizzy. Then there were dolls,
hundreds of them. Nearest
to the Teddy were a group




laughing. There was the engine-
driver talking to the clown.
The French ballet dancers see-
med to be getting ready for a
party. He overheard their con-
versation and gathered that the
party was given by the large
Rose-Bud doll at the other end
of the shop. Everyone was
invited except, of course, our
little Teddy. Being new he didn't
know what to do and nobody
took any notice of him. Soon
all the cars and buses were full
of dolls going to the party, for
it was a very big shop and
walking would have made them
dusty as well. Teddy's part of
the shop was soon empty.

Poor little Teddy was lonely.
Big tears rolled down his
yellow cheeks. He put his head
down between his paws and
wept his little heart out. He




of French ballet dancers. They
wore stiff starched little frocks
and stretched their arms out so
gracefully. They had fluffy
blond hair, like the finest silk
and were the most beautiful
dolls Teddy had ever seen. There
were also a large number of
teddy bears like himself. But
he knew they all looked much
better than himself.

When the shop was closed that
evening everything was dark
and silent. Teddy felt that he
should have never come here.
He imagined himself sitting on
the shelf for ever and started
crying. When suddenly he heard
some queer noises, he stopped
crying and looked around. To
his astonishment he saw that
the shop was closed. The
toys had all gathered into little
groups and were chattering and



thought of the little girl who
had made him. Now it seemed
to him that she was far, far
away. He imagined to be
with her, near her side, sitting
on the table.

She was a cripple and sat
all day near a window. How
she wished she could go out
and earn some money. Suddenly
one day she had an idea. She
started sewing and was at it for
days and days. When at last
she finished making the Teddy
Bear she called her father, mother
and her two little brothers to
admire him. How they had all
crowded around him. How
happy they had been. "Our
daughter may be a cripple, but
she is a very clever little girl,"
said her father. This made the
little girl break into joyful
tears. Later that night when



the rest of the family were
in bed, she was awake thinking
about the bear. Teddy was on
the chair near her bed. Slowly
she had put out her hand
and tucked him into bed with
her. " Listen, Teddy," she
said softly, "1 have a plan. 1
am going to send you to a
famous toy shop and ask if I
can send any more like you.
If they accept you, Teddy,
then I can make a lot to
follow you. Daddy and Mummy
need not work so hard
then and I can be of some
use." Teddy agreed with
every word she said, but he did
not say so. He just lay there
in her arms and was the
happiest little bear. " It
depends on you little bear,"
said the girl after some time.
"You will be alone



there will be hundreds of other
toys and you must never feel
lonely or unhappy."

Teddy was determined to try
his very best.

So, there he was feeling
definitely lonely and certainly
not brave. He cried a little,
although he tried hard to con-
tain. He could hear the happy
party at the other end of the
store. "I will not even look',' he
told himself and closed his eyes.
Soon he was fast asleep being
tiresome.

He woke up when it was day-
light. The manager was already
at his desk and the salesmen
were busy arranging and dust-
ing. All through the day
people came either in groups
or in pairs and always there were



children excitedly pointing to
other toys but never to our
poor little Teddy.

Night came and once again
the toys were getting ready.
This time it was the clown who
was putting on a show. How
they all laughed at his tricks
and antics. Teddy watched this
from his perch and thought the
clown was the cleverest person
he had ever seen. When the
show was over, Teddy was sur-
prised to see the clown coming
towards him. "Hey, you up
there." shouted the clown.
" Aren't you ever going to come
down from there. I missed you
at my performance tonight."

Teddy could hardly believe
his ears. He had actually been
noticed and missed. He jumped



down from his shelf. "I wasn't
invitedi' he said. "Wasn't in-
vited ?" asked the clown
surprised.

"Nobody invites anybody
here. Toys come and go. Some
of us stay here a long time.
Some of us go out again in a
few days. But while we are
here, we are all together like
one large happy family,"
said the clown. "Wonderful,"
said Teddy. "I hadn't thought
it would be quite like thi s ,
Besides," he said pausing and
looking down at himself rue-
fully, "I am not very handsome,
I know. 1 thought -everyone
would laugh at me." Then he
told the clown his story and
how he came to be in the
shop. "Well," said the clown,
"you are a very important bear
and the little girl depends on
you. As for your being not
handsome, shall we say, you
are as any other teddy, yet you
are unique." So saying the
clown took Teddy around the
shop. Soon everyone was talking
to him and he was part of the
huge family of toys, as the
clown had said.

So our Teddy was happy in
his new home. He made many
friends. His evenings were no
longer lonely. He went to all



the parties and functions in the
shop. But during the day, he
sat stiff and erect on his shelf
and no one even looked up at
him. He saw many of his
friends leave the shop. Then
one day, it was the clown's turn.
He was bought by a lady for
her little son's birthday. There
was a lump in Teddy's throat
as he watched the lady going
out of the shop. Did the clown
wink at him just before he
was put in the box, or was it
Teddy's imagination?

Days went by. Still Teddy
sat. Sometimes he was happy,
sometimes sad and sometimes
desperate. "What will become
of me," he thought. "What
is the little girl doing now."
But his new friends were kind
to him and encouraged him.
But it was very very difficult to
be brave and wait patiently.

It was now October and
Dasara was in air. Most of
the toys which were in the shop
when he came had gone away.
There were hundreds of new
ones and the shop was crowded
more and more every day.

One day there was lots of
excitement in the shop. There
was a lot of cleaning and poli-
shing and buntings and gay
Dasara decorations were put



up. In the evening, there was
an expectant hush in the shop.

At last a little girl entefed the
shop. She was dressed all in
white and was very pretty. With
her came her granny and an
important looking man who
was the bodyguard. She was
the daughter of a very impor-
tant man. They went all over
the shop, looking and examin-
ing. But the little girl did not
seem to be happy at all. Her
granny showed her one,
then another and another and
another until almost all the
toys had been seen. The shop-
keeper wrung his hands in des-
pair. Not a single toy in this
whole shop could please the
little girl. "She has every one
of these toys in her play-room"
explained her granny. "Can't
you show her something diffe-
rent?" "But she has seen all that
I have" wailed the manager.
"There is nothing left to show
her except, of course, the
teddy bear," he thought to
himself, "1 dare not show that
to her."

The little girl was very
disappointed indeed. "1 have to
get only a doll or another
toy which I already have," she
sighed. Just then she saw per-
ched right on top far away from



the other toys, a lonely looking,
funny little teddy bear. She
looked at it for a long time.
Yes, it was a teddy bear and if
you kept looking at it, it wasn't
all that funny. It was cute and
and so different from all the
teddy bears she had ever seen.
"I will take that one," she said,
pointing excitedly. "I have
never seen one so" cute and so
funny at the same time."

So Teddy was brought down
and dusted and examined and
passed from hand to hand. The
shopkeeper cleared his throat.
Ahem! and told them Teddy's
story. How he was the
sample sent by a little cripple
girl. When the little girl heard
the story she hugged the little
teddy bear. "You wonderful
little bear," she said. "I will
try my best to help the girl who
made you." So saying, she
marched out of the shop with
Teddy tucked securely under her
arm. She was very happy and
so was her granny and the shop
keeper too. But the happiest,
of course, was our little Teddy.