Peter Pan and Bedelia all this time had been busy investigating Bob’s big closet in which they had found a store of queer articles the like of which they had never seen among Sally’s possessions. There were skates and baseball bats, boxing gloves and fencing foils, and various other strange articles, dear to the soul of a small boy, but inexplicable mysteries to Teddy bears.
Peter Pan and his wife, however, were called from their interesting still-hunt by the yells of the baby cub and now hastened to his rescue, and having dragged him out, a miserable little bunch of draggled fur, Bedelia proceeded to rub him dry, using as a towel Bob’s white silk blouse, that she found folded carefully on a chair with the rest of his belongings, while Peter Pan, having soundly smacked the twins, returned to his congenial task of turning out Bob’s closet.
The next thing that he discovered was a bag of marbles, and these he emptied out on the floor, where they rolled about in every direction. These the Teddy bears found very amusing and the whole family played with them for some time, until by degrees they were all lost, rolling under the bureau or in dark corners where it was impossible to get at them.
In the closet they had found a great number of games, and these they now hauled out to the middle of the floor and proceeded to pull out of their respective boxes. And as they did not in the least know what to do with them left them all in a hopeless muddle, checkers, back-gammon, lotto and parcheesi, all mixed up in a condition that was a great deal more perplexing than a Chinese puzzle.
Having now pretty well exhausted the resources of Bob’s room, the Teddy bears resolved to carry their researches higher up, especially as it was growing rather late. They therefore departed, leaving confusion behind them, and climbed the two flights of stairs that led to the attic with as much caution as possible, for they were dreadfully afraid of being discovered by the servants. However, they passed all the doors of the bedrooms in safety and soon arrived at their destination, for once without any mishaps.
The attic was a fine large room, plastered and ceiled and occupying the entire upper floor. Here were arranged in fine order, for the attic was as well cared for as any part of the house, a number of trunks and chests, and any quantity of pieces of queer old furniture, long since fallen into disuse. Here was the cradle in which grandma had rocked Papa Doctor, as Sally and Bob lovingly called Dr. North, and into this Bedelia promptly plumped down the baby cub, for the poor little fellow was tired out, and he immediately fell fast asleep.