The Story of a Bold Tin Soldier Part 10

"Yes. And for a time, when I saw the White Rocking Horse bearing down on me, I thought all my adventures were over," replied the Bold Tin Soldier.

"I hope that careless boy never comes around where we are again,"

said the Lamb, and the Soldier hoped the same thing.

And now I must tell you another adventure that happened to the Bold Tin Soldier. It was about a week after the White Rocking Horse had run over him, and he was getting used to the shiny "medal," as Arnold called it, that one day when the boy was having a make-believe battle with his Tin Soldiers Mirabell called from the kitchen:

"Oh, Arnold, come on down! Susan has baked some lovely cookies!"

"I'm coming!" cried Arnold, and, as he happened to have the Bold Tin Soldier in his hand just then, he took the Captain along when he ran down to the kitchen.

"Where are the cookies?" asked Arnold, who was feeling hungry.

"Right here on the table," replied Susan. "Put your Soldier down, Arnold, and sit up and eat."

Now, as it happened, there was an open barrel of sugar in the kitchen. The cook had taken some sugar out to use in making the cookies, and had forgotten to put the cover back on. And Arnold, being in a hurry, put his Captain down on a little shelf just over this barrel.

How it happened no one seemed to know, but perhaps in eating his cookie Arnold struck the Captain with his elbow. Anyhow, down into the sugar barrel fell the Bold Tin Soldier.

"Oh my! Now I am a bunch of sweetness!" thought the Captain, as he felt the grains of sugar rolling all over him. "Oh this is certainly a strange adventure! What a sweet time I shall have!"

CHAPTER IX

BACK TO THE STORE

The moment he had fallen into the barrel of sugar the Bold Tin Soldier scrambled to his feet and wiggled around until he got his head sticking up above the pile of sweet, white grains.

"If I don't do that, I may drown," he thought. "It would be strange to drown in a barrel of sugar! I don't want to do that!"

So he wiggled around until he could stand upright, buried to his neck in the sugar, but with his head out so he could look around with his painted tin eyes and breathe through his tin nose.

Otherwise he would have smothered.

The barrel was not full of sugar. In fact, it was only about a foot deep on the bottom, but that was enough to more than cover the Bold Tin Soldier from sight if it should get over his head. And, being low down in the barrel as he was, the sides of it hid him from the sight of Arnold and the cook.

"These are good cookies, Susan," said Arnold, as he ate the last crumbs of the dainty the cook had given him.

"I'm glad you like them," she said. "Would you care for another?"

"Thank you, yes," the boy answered. And just as Susan was giving him one, and also pa.s.sing another to Mirabell, d.i.c.k, the boy from next door, cried:

"Come on out into the yard, Arnold. I have a new little kitten!"

"Oh, I want to see it!" shouted Mirabell.

"So do I," added Arnold. "And please, Susan, may I have a cookie for d.i.c.k?"

"Yes," answered the good-natured cook.

So out to the yard rushed the children, Arnold forgetting all about his Tin Captain. And as Susan was very busy, she gave no thought to the Bold Tin Soldier. In fact, if she had thought of him at all, she would have imagined that Arnold had taken his toy with him.

So while the children were out playing with d.i.c.k's new kitten, and while the cook worked in the kitchen, the Captain stayed in the barrel of sugar.

"Well, this is certainly an adventure," thought the Captain, "and, though it is a sweet one, I can not say I altogether like it. I wonder how I can get out of here? I must get back to my men, or they will think I have deserted them. That would never do for a soldier!"

He looked up toward the open top of the barrel. It seemed far above his head, but he thought if he could cut little steps in the wooden sides of the barrel with his shiny tin sword he might be able to climb out.

"But of course I'll have to wait until night, when everything is still and quiet," thought the Captain to himself. "It would never do for me to be seen cutting my way up out of a barrel of sugar. That would give away the great secret of Toy-land--that we can move of ourselves. Yes, I must wait until after dark."

So, buried up to his neck in sugar as he was, the Bold Tin Soldier stood in the sweetness like a sentinel on guard. He was doing his duty in the barrel, as he had done it when he cut down the Calico Clown and saved that chap from burning at the gas jet.

"I should like to see the Clown now," thought the Captain. "It is lonesome here. But if the Calico Clown saw me he would make up some joke or riddle about me, very likely."

Then all of a sudden there was a loud, banging noise and it became very dark.

"h.e.l.lo! what's that?" said the Bold Tin Soldier to himself. "It's as dark as night in here now, but I never knew evening to come as suddenly as that."

Truly it was as dark as night in the sugar barrel now, but it was not because night had come. It was because the cook had put the cover on the barrel, for she had finished her baking for the day.

But the Captain thought it was night, and since he was sure no one could see him now he drew his sword from the scabbard, or case, and started to get ready to cut little steps in the sides of the barrel to make a place where he might climb to the top.

While this was going on Arnold and Mirabell were out looking at d.i.c.k's pet kitten. Truly it was a little fluffy one, and so soft that the children loved to pet it. But after a while Arnold thought of his Bold Tin Soldier.

"Oh, I left the Captain on the shelf in the kitchen," said the little boy. "I must go get him and put him with the others."

Back to the kitchen he ran.

"What is it now?" asked Susan, who was getting ready to go out, for it was her afternoon off. "Do you want more cookies, Arnold?"

"No, thank you. I want my Tin Captain," he answered. "I left him here."

"Oh, you mean your Soldier," said the cook. "I haven't seen him. I don't believe you left him here."

"Oh, yes I did!" declared Arnold.

But the Bold Tin Soldier was not in sight, of course, being down in the barrel of sugar, as we know. And though Arnold and the cook looked for him they could not find him.

"Oh dear!" sighed Arnold, when he could not find the commander of his tin army, "where is he?"

"You must have taken him out into the yard and forgotten about it,"

said the cook.

"No I didn't," said the little boy.

"Then it is among your other playthings," the cook went on. "You had better look."

So Arnold looked, and his mother and Mirabell and d.i.c.k helped him, but the Bold Tin Soldier could not be found. He was not with the others in their box, and, look as he did, Arnold could not find his toy anywhere.