The Teddy Robinson Storybook

by Joan G. Robinson

  When the music stopped and the children paused for breath Teddy Robinson turned to her.

  “Aren’t you dancing?” he asked.

  “No,” said the doll; “I walk and talk, but I don’t dance. I’ve come to watch.”

  “I’ve come to watch too,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “I suppose you don’t dance either?” said the doll, looking at Teddy Robinson’s fat tummy.

  “No, I sing,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Ah, yes,” said the doll, “you have the figure for it.”

  The children began dancing again, and the lady at the piano played such hoppity-skippity music that Teddy Robinson couldn’t help joining in with a little song, very quietly to himself:

  “Hoppity-skippity, one-two-three,

  The bestest dancer belongs to me.

  Oh, what a fortunate bear I be!

  Hoppity-skippity, one-two-three.”

  The walkie-talkie doll turned to Teddy Robinson.

  “How beautifully she dances!” she said. “I’m not surprised so many people have come to watch her.”

  “Thank you,” said Teddy Robinson, bowing slightly, and feeling very proud. “Yes, she does dance well and this is her first lesson.”

  “Oh, no, it’s not,” said the doll. “I bring her every Saturday. She’s had quite a number of lessons already.”

  “I beg your pardon,” said Teddy Robinson. “Who are we talking about?”

  “My little girl, Mary, of course,” said the doll, “the one with the yellow curls.”

  “Oh,” said Teddy Robinson, “I thought we were talking about my little girl, Deborah, the one with the red ribbon.”

  The doll didn’t seem to hear. She was staring at the children with a fixed smile. Miss Silver was arranging them in two rows, the girls on one side, the boys on the other.

  Teddy Robinson and the walkie-talkie doll both kept their eyes fixed on the girls’ row.

  “She looks so pretty, doesn’t she?” said the doll. “I do admire her dress, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” said Teddy Robinson, looking at Deborah.

  “That pale blue suits her so well,” said the doll.

  “Thank you,” said Teddy Robinson, “I’m glad you like it; but it isn’t pale blue – it’s white.”

  “Oh no, it’s pale blue,” said the doll. “I helped her mother to choose it myself.”

  Teddy Robinson looked puzzled.

  “Are you talking about the little girl with the red hair-ribbon?” he asked.

  “No, of course not,” said the doll. “Why should I be? I’m talking about Mary.”

  “Whoever is Mary?” said Teddy Robinson.

  “The little girl we have all come to watch,” said the doll. “My little girl. We’ve been talking about her all the time.”

  “I haven’t,” said Teddy Robinson. “I’ve been talking about Deborah.”

  “Deborah?” said the doll. “Whoever is Deborah?”

  “What a silly creature this doll is!” said Teddy Robinson to himself. “She doesn’t seem able to keep her mind on the class at all.” And he decided not to bother about talking to her any more. Instead he listened to Miss Silver, who was teaching the boys and girls how to bow and curtsy to each other.

  “I must watch this carefully,” said Teddy Robinson to himself. “I should like to know how to bow properly – it might come in handy at any time. I might be asked to tea at Buckingham Palace or happen to meet the Queen out shopping one day, and I should look very silly if I didn’t know how to make my bow properly.”

  As the boys all bowed from the waist Teddy Robinson leaned forward on his chair.

  “Lower!” cried Miss Silver.

  The boys all bowed lower, and Teddy Robinson leaned forward as far as he could; but he went just a little too far, and a moment later he fell head over heels on to the floor. Luckily, no one knew he had been practising his bow, they just thought he had toppled off his chair by mistake, as anyone might – so they took no notice of him.

  Then it was the girls’ turn to curtsy. The line of little girls wobbled and wavered, and Deborah wobbled so much that she too fell on the floor. But after three tries she did manage to curtsy without falling over, and Teddy Robinson was very proud of her.

  “Never mind,” said Miss Silver, as she said goodbye to them at the end of the class. “You did very well for a first time. You can’t expect to learn to dance in one lesson. But you did enjoy it, didn’t you?”

  “Oh, yes!” said Deborah. “It was lovely.”

  “What did she mean?” said Teddy Robinson, as soon as they were outside. “I thought you danced better than anybody.”

  “Oh, no,” said Deborah. “I think I was doing it all wrong, but it was fun. I’m glad we’re going again next Saturday.”

  “Well I never!” said Teddy Robinson. “I quite thought you were the only one doing it right. Never mind. Did you see when I fell off the chair? That was me trying to bow. I don’t think I did it very well either.”

  “You did very well for a first time too,” said Deborah. “You can’t expect to learn to bow in one lesson. We must practise together at home, though. You can learn to bow to me while I practise doing my curtsy.”

  “That will be very nice,” said Teddy Robinson. “Then next time we shan’t both end up on the floor.”

  That night Teddy Robinson had a most Beautiful Dream. He dreamt he was in a very large theatre, with red velvet curtains, tied with large golden tassels, on each side of the stage.

  Every seat in the theatre was full; Teddy Robinson himself was sitting in the middle of the front row, and all the people were watching Deborah, who was dancing all alone on the stage in her new pink dancing-shoes. She was dressed like a princess, in a frilly white dress with a red sash, and she had a silver crown on her head.

  The orchestra was playing sweetly, and Deborah was dancing so beautifully that soon everyone was whispering and asking who she was.

  Teddy Robinson heard someone behind him saying, “She belongs to that handsome bear in the front row, the one in the velvet suit and lace collar.”

  Teddy Robinson looked round, but couldn’t see any bear in a velvet suit and lace collar. Then he looked down and saw that instead of his ordinary trousers he was wearing a suit of beautiful blue velvet, with a large lace collar fastened at the neck with a silver pin. And in his lap was a bunch of roses tied with silver ribbon.

  “Goodness gracious, they must have meant me!” he thought, and felt his fur tingling with pleasure and excitement.

  As the music finished and Deborah came to the front of the stage to curtsy, Teddy Robinson felt himself floating through the air with his bunch of roses, and a moment later he landed lightly on the stage beside her. A murmur went up from the audience, “Ah, here is Teddy Robinson himself !”

  Folding one paw neatly across his tummy, he bowed low to Deborah. Then, as she took the roses from him and they both bowed and curtsyed again, everyone in the theatre clapped so loudly that Teddy Robinson woke up and found he was in bed beside Deborah.

  At first he was so surprised that he could hardly believe he was really at home in bed, but just then Deborah woke up too. She rolled over, smiling, with her eyes shut, and said, “Oh, Teddy Robinson, I’ve just had such a Beautiful Dream! I must tell you all about it.”

  So she did. And the funny thing was that Deborah had dreamt exactly the same dream as Teddy Robinson. She remembered every bit of it.

  And that is the end of the story about how Teddy Robinson went to the dancing-class.

  6

  Teddy Robinson and the Teddy-Bear Brooch

  One day a letter came for Deborah and Teddy Robinson. It was from Auntie Sue, and it said:

  DEAR DEBORAH AND TEDDY ROBINSON,

  Please tell Mummy I shall be coming to tea with you all tomorrow. I hope you will like the little brooch.

  And pinned to a card inside the letter was a dear little teddy-bear brooch. It was pink with silver eyes, and Deborah thought it w
as very beautiful. She gave the letter to Mummy to read and pinned the brooch on the front of her dress.

  “Wasn’t there anything for me?” asked Teddy Robinson. Deborah looked inside the envelope again.

  “No,” she said, “there’s nothing else.”

  “Oh,” said Teddy Robinson. “Then can I have the envelope? It will make me a soldier’s hat.”

  So Deborah put the envelope on his head. Then Teddy Robinson said, “Fetch me the wooden horse, please. It’s time I went on duty. I’m going to guard the palace.”

  So Deborah fetched the wooden horse.

  “And I want a sentry-box, please,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “I haven’t got a sentry-box,” said Deborah. “Will the toy-box do?”

  “Yes, if you stand it up on end,” said Teddy Robinson.

  So Deborah emptied the toy-box and stood it up on end. Then she put the wooden horse inside, and Teddy Robinson sat on its back with the envelope on his head. He didn’t really feel like playing soldiers at all, but he wanted to sit somewhere quietly and not be talked to for a while.

  “Do you really like it in there?” asked Deborah, peeping in at him.

  “Yes, thank you,” said Teddy Robinson, “but you mustn’t talk to me. I’m on duty.”

  So Deborah went off to play by herself, and Teddy Robinson sat on the wooden horse and began thinking about why he was feeling so quiet. He knew it was something to do with the teddy-bear brooch.

  He began mumbling to himself in a gentle, grumbling growl:

  “Fancy her sending a brooch with a bear!

  It isn’t polite and it isn’t fair.

  There’s a bear here already

  who lives in the house.

  Why couldn’t she send her a brooch with a mouse?

  Or a brooch with a dog?

  Or a brooch with a cat?

  Nobody’d ever feel hurt at that.

  But a brooch with a bear

  isn’t fair

  on the bear

  who lives in the house,

  and who’s always been there.”

  Teddy Robinson went on mumbling to himself and getting more and more grumbly and growly. He was feeling very cross with Auntie Sue, so he said all the nasty things he could think of, for quite a long while. Then he ended up by saying:

  “When she gets a present I only hope

  that all she gets is an envelope.”

  After that he began to feel quite sorry for Auntie Sue, and much better himself.

  He heard Mummy come out into the garden and say to Deborah, “Hallo! Why ever have you emptied the toy-box and stood it up on end like that?”

  And he heard Deborah say, “Hush! Teddy Robinson’s inside. He says he’s guarding the palace, but I think he’s sad about something.”

  “Oh, well,” said Mummy, “bring him with you. I was going to ask if you would like to help make a fruit jelly for Auntie Sue tomorrow.”

  “Oh, yes,” said Deborah. “Teddy Robinson can sit on the kitchen table and watch. He always likes that.”

  She bent down and peeped inside the toy-box.

  “Have you finished guarding the palace yet, Teddy Robinson?”

  “Yes, I’m just coming off duty this minute,” said Teddy Robinson. “Help me down.”

  Deborah helped him down, and together they went into the kitchen. Mummy had poured some pink jelly into a bowl, and she gave Deborah some cherries and slices of banana on a plate.

  “Drop them into the jelly, one at a time,” said Mummy. “It’s still rather soft and runny, but tomorrow it will be set beautifully, with the fruit inside it.”

  So Deborah knelt on a chair and dropped the pieces of fruit carefully into the bowl, and Teddy Robinson sat on the kitchen table and said “Plop” every time she dropped a cherry in, and “Bang” every time she dropped a slice of banana in. He always liked helping when Deborah was working with Mummy in the kitchen.

  Every time Deborah leaned forward to look in the bowl, Teddy Robinson saw the teddy-bear brooch on her dress, its silver eyes shining and winking in the sunlight. He tried not to look, because he didn’t want to feel cross again; but it was so pretty it was difficult not to notice it.

  And then Teddy Robinson saw that the pin of the brooch had come undone, and every time Deborah moved it was sliding a little way farther out of her dress. He held his breath, waiting to see what would happen, and a moment later it slipped out and fell with a gentle plop right into the middle of the jelly-bowl!

  Deborah was saying something to Mummy at the minute, so she did not notice. Teddy Robinson wondered if he ought to tell her, but it seemed a pity to remind her about it.

  “After all, she’s still got me,” he said to himself. “She didn’t really need another teddy bear.”

  He looked down into the bowl, but there was no sign of the teddy-bear brooch. If it was there it was well hidden among all the cherries and banana slices. Teddy Robinson was glad to think it had gone.

  Deborah dropped the last slice of banana into the bowl.

  “There,” she said, “it’s all finished. You forgot to say ‘Bang’, Teddy Robinson.”

  “Bang,” said Teddy Robinson. “Do you feel as if you’d lost something?”

  “No,” said Deborah. “Do you?”

  “No,” said Teddy Robinson. “At least, if I have I’m glad I’ve lost it.”

  “You are a funny boy,” said Deborah. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Teddy Robinson began to feel very jolly now that the teddy-bear brooch had gone. He kept singing funny little songs, and asking Deborah silly riddles, and making her laugh, so that it wasn’t until after tea that she suddenly noticed she had lost it.

  “Oh dear! Wherever can it be?” she said. “It must have fallen off while we were playing. Help me look for it, Teddy Robinson.”

  So Teddy Robinson and Deborah looked under chairs and under tables and all through the toy-cupboard, but, of course, they couldn’t find it anywhere.

  Teddy Robinson began to sing:

  “Oh, where, oh, where

  is the Broochy Bear?

  First look here,

  and then look there.

  I can’t see him anywhere.

  He’s lost! He’s lost! The Broochy Bear!”

  “You sound as if you’re glad he’s lost,” said Deborah. “Why are you so jolly?”

  “Because I’m jolly sorry,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Oh, don’t be so silly,” said Deborah. “Let’s go and ask Mummy.”

  But Mummy hadn’t seen the teddy-bear brooch anywhere either. “He must be somewhere about,” she said. “You’ll just have to go on looking.”

  “But we’ve looked everywhere – haven’t we, Teddy Robinson?”

  “Well, we haven’t looked everywhere,” he said, “because we haven’t looked on top of the roof, or under the floor, or up the chimney, but we did look in quite a lot of places.”

  “But I haven’t been on top of the roof, or under the floor, or up the chimney,” said Deborah.

  “No,” said Teddy Robinson, “but you haven’t been in the jelly either.”

  “What are you talking about?” said Deborah. “And why are you so jolly? I don’t see anything to feel so happy about.”

  The next day Auntie Sue came at teatime, as she had promised. She was very pleased to see everybody, and because she was his friend as well, Teddy Robinson was allowed to sit up at the table. He had a chair with three cushions on it, so he was high enough to have quite a nice view of everything.

  There were sandwiches and cakes and chocolate biscuits, and in the middle of the table was the fruit jelly. It had set beautifully, and Mummy had turned it out on to a glass dish.

  Deborah pointed it out to Auntie Sue.

  “Teddy Robinson and I helped to make that,” she said.

  “Did you really?” said Auntie Sue. “How very clever of you both!”

  She turned to smile at them, and then she said:

  �
�Why isn’t Teddy Robinson wearing his brooch? Didn’t he like it?”

  “Oh!” said Deborah. “Was it for him? How dreadful! I thought it was for me, and I pinned it on the front of my dress, and now I’ve lost it. I can’t think where it is.”

  “It’s sure to turn up soon,” said Mummy. “We know it’s somewhere in the house.” Then she and Auntie Sue started talking together about grown-up things.

  “Never mind, Teddy Robinson,” whispered Deborah. “I’m sure we shall find him again soon.”

  “The trouble is he mayn’t be there any more to find,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Where?” asked Deborah.

  “Where he was yesterday when we couldn’t find him,” said Teddy Robinson. “I’m afraid he may have melted.”

  “What ever do you mean?” said Deborah. “Do you know where he is? If you do I wish you’d tell me.”

  “Well,” said Teddy Robinson, “think of something round and pink, with a lot of banana in it, that’s on the table, and when you’ve guessed what I mean I’ll tell you.”

  “Something round and pink with a lot of banana in it?” said Deborah. “Can you mean the jelly?”

  “Yes,” said Teddy Robinson. “Don’t look now, but I think the teddy-bear brooch is inside that.”

  “Good gracious!” said Deborah. “How ever did that happen?”

  “He fell out of your dress when you were dropping the fruit in it,” said Teddy Robinson. “I saw the pin was undone and I didn’t tell you, because I wanted you to lose him.”

  “But why?” asked Deborah.

  “Because you’d already got me, and I didn’t think you needed another bear,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Oh, you silly boy!” said Deborah. “How could you think I’d ever love a silly little teddy bear on a brooch as much as I love you?”

  Teddy Robinson was very pleased to hear Deborah say this.

  “But you mustn’t call him silly,” he said. “He’s mine now, and he’s really rather special. I do hope he hasn’t melted. Ask Mummy to start serving the jelly, then perhaps we’ll find him.”