The Teddy Robinson Storybook

by Joan G. Robinson

  In the morning when the children all woke up Deborah and Betty didn’t know wherever Teddy Robinson could be. They looked everywhere in both their beds, but of course they couldn’t find him. So as soon as she was dressed Deborah began going round the ward looking at all the children’s beds and peeping into all the babies’ cots. And when she came to the cot where he was she could hardly believe it!

  The baby was fast asleep at last, but there was poor Teddy Robinson peeping through the bars with one ear hanging right down over his eye.

  “You poor old boy,” she said. “What are you doing in there? You look as if you’re in a cage. Wait a minute and I’ll get you out.”

  She had to ask a nurse to lift him out of the cot, and then she hugged him and kissed him and carried him back to her own bed.

  “Oh, Teddy Robinson,” she said, “how did you get there? And what has happened to your poor ear? It’s only hanging on by one little piece of cotton.”

  “I think you’d better pull it off,” said Teddy Robinson bravely, “otherwise I might lose it.”

  “All right,” said Deborah, “and I’ll keep it for you till we get home; then we’ll ask Mummy to mend it.”

  Then she gave the ear a sharp little tug and off it came.

  “You’re a dear brave boy,” said Deborah, and she kissed the place where it had been, and put the ear carefully away in her shoulder-bag.

  When the night-nurse came round that evening and saw Teddy Robinson sitting on the pillow with only one ear she remembered what had happened the night before, and she told Deborah all about it; how she had nearly fallen over him and had given him to the baby to stop him crying.

  “But I am sorry about his ear,” she said.

  “It’s all right,” said Deborah. “I’ve got it safely in my shoulder-bag, and we’re going home tomorrow, so Mummy will mend it.”

  “I’m so glad,” said the nurse. “I was wondering if he would like it bandaged.”

  Deborah knew that Teddy Robinson would simply love that, so she said, “Oh, yes, please!” And the nurse bandaged Teddy Robinson’s head round and round with a piece of real hospital bandage. He didn’t mind a bit that one eye got covered up at the same time, and when it was finished both Deborah and the nurse said he looked lovely.

  Early next morning Teddy Robinson was dressed in his vest and trousers again, and his nightie was packed away with his ear in Deborah’s shoulder-bag. Mummy came to fetch them, and they said goodbye to everybody, even the fish in the aquarium.

  They were both very pleased to be going home again, and Teddy Robinson was specially pleased because he was going out with a real bandage on. He couldn’t help hoping that everyone would notice it, because then they would all know that he had been in a real hospital!

  And that is the end of the story about how Teddy Robinson went to hospital.

  10

  Teddy Robinson’s Concert Party

  One day Teddy Robinson was lying on his back in front of the fire with Deborah’s cousin Philip. Suddenly Philip tickled him in the tummy and said, “I say, Teddy R! Let’s make a surprise. I feel like doing something funny.”

  “Oh, so do I!” said Teddy Robinson. “Where’s Deborah?”

  “She’s gone to ask Andrew and Mary-Anne to tea today,” said Philip. “Let’s think of something to do when they come.”

  “I suppose I couldn’t have another birthday party?” said Teddy Robinson.

  “No,” said Philip. “We must think of something new. Couldn’t we do some tricks?”

  “I know!” said Teddy Robinson. “Ask them to sit down to listen to a story, and then when they’re all waiting you just fly out of the window. That would be a jolly good trick!”

  “But I can’t fly.” said Philip.

  “Oh, no. Bother! We can’t do that then.”

  “Think of something else,” said Philip.

  “Make faces at them,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “That wouldn’t be funny enough to make them laugh.”

  “The face you’re making now would make anyone laugh,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “I’m not making a face. This is my ordinary one.”

  “Well, it’s different from usual,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “That’s because I’m thinking. Don’t be silly.”

  “Well, then,” said Teddy Robinson, “don’t let’s try to be funny. Let’s do something Sweet and Beautiful and a little bit Sad, like the Babes in the Wood.”

  “No,” said Philip. “Let’s have something jolly, even if we can’t be funny. Think again.”

  “I know!” said Teddy Robinson. “I’ll have a concert party!”

  Philip thought this was a fine idea. When Deborah came back he and Teddy Robinson told her all about it.

  “I’m going to sing songs,” said Teddy Robinson, “and say pieces of poetry, and we’ll have some refreshments, and then I’ll do conjuring tricks.”

  “But what’s Philip going to do?” asked Deborah.

  “Help me,” said Teddy Robinson. “It’s my concert party.”

  “And are you going to make the refreshments too?”

  “No,” he said, “you know I can’t do that; but you’re going to be very kind, like you always are, and ask Mummy.”

  Mummy said, yes, she would make the refreshments. They could have raisins (six each) and chocolate biscuits (cut in halves) and dolly mixture (handed round in a bowl).

  Philip began making the programme, and Teddy Robinson sat beside him and told him what to write. Deborah brought the dolls out of the toy-cupboard and tidied them up.

  “You can be the audience,” she said.

  The stage was a great trouble, until Mummy had a good idea.

  “Why not turn the kitchen table on its side?” she said. “You can have it in here, just for the afternoon.” She gave them some old curtains and a bunch of chrysanthemums.

  “The flowers aren’t very fresh,” she said, “but you might use them for decoration. And you can hang the curtains on a string and tie the ends to the table-legs.”

  While Philip and Deborah got the stage ready Teddy Robinson sat thinking hard about all the things he was going to do.

  “Are you sure you don’t want anyone else to do anything?” asked Deborah. “It’s rather a lot for one.”

  “No, thank you,” said Teddy Robinson; “but I might have Jacqueline in one scene. Is Mary-Anne bringing her?”

  (Jacqueline was Mary-Anne’s beautiful doll.)

  “Yes,” said Deborah, “and Andrew is bringing his toy dog, Spotty. You might use him too?”

  “No,” said Teddy Robinson. “He argues too much.”

  When Mary-Anne and Andrew arrived, with Jacqueline and the spotted dog, they found the stage all set up ready. The curtains were hung on a string across the front, and the bunch of flowers hung from the middle, just where the curtains met. (You will see in the picture how it looked.)

  In front of the stage all the dolls were sitting in tidy rows, staring at the curtains, and waiting for the show to begin. A large notice was pinned to the door. It said:

  TEDDY ROBINSON’S CONCERT PARTY

  Programme

  RECITATION, by Teddy Robinson

  A SEEN FROM SLEEPING BEAUTY, by Teddy Robinson and Jacqueline (thought of by Teddy Robinson)

  SONG, by Teddy Robinson

  REFRESHMENTS, thought of by Teddy Robinson, handed round by Deborah, made by Mummy

  CONJURING TRICKS, by the FAMOUS WIZARD

  T. NOSNIBOR (helped by Philip)

  Audience arranged by Deborah

  No smoking or shouting

  Jacqueline was very surprised when Mary-Anne told her that she was going to be on the stage. She hadn’t been able to read the programme herself, because her eyes were shut.

  “I’m afraid they’re stuck again,” whispered Mary-Anne to Deborah. “Will it matter?”

  “Not a bit,” said Deborah. “She’s going to be the Sleeping Beauty.”

  Jacqueline was hustl
ed behind the stage to where Philip and Teddy Robinson were waiting.

  “You’re on next,” Teddy Robinson told her. “I’m first.”

  “We’re ready to begin now,” said Philip.

  “About time, too,” said the spotted dog, who was rather cross at not being asked to go on the stage as well.

  “Hush!” said all the dolls. “They’re going to begin.”

  Teddy Robinson came to the front of the curtain. He bowed low to the audience, then he said:

  “Welcome.

  Ladies and gentlemen,

  what a sight

  to see you sitting here tonight!

  I’m pleased to see you

  every one,

  so clap your hardest when I’ve done—”

  This wasn’t really the end of the poem, but as everyone started clapping their hardest straight away Teddy Robinson leaned back against the curtain and waited for them to finish. But he had forgotten there was nothing behind the curtain, so a moment later he fell through and disappeared out of sight.

  The audience didn’t know this was a mistake. Everyone clapped harder than ever, so nobody heard Teddy Robinson saying, in a rather cross voice, “But I haven’t finished yet! There’s another verse.”

  “Never mind,” said Philip. “Let’s do the next scene.”

  Teddy Robinson’s head came out from between the curtains.

  “The next scene is Sleeping Beauty,” he said, “and please don’t clap till the end.”

  After a little waiting Deborah pulled the curtains aside. This was the first time the audence had seen the whole stage, and everyone said, “Oo-oh, isn’t it pretty!”

  On a pink cushion lay Jacqueline, fast asleep and looking very beautiful. There were two or three ferns in pots, arranged to look like trees, and some leaves from the garden were sprinkled about on the ground. On the other side stood the wooden horse, and on his back, looking very proud and princely, sat Teddy Robinson. He was wearing the dolls’ Red-Riding-Hood cloak (with the hood tucked inside), and a beret with a long curly feather (from one of Mummy’s old hats) on his head. He also had a sword (cut out of cardboard) and socks rolled down to look like boots.

  “How handsome he is!” said all the dolls.

  “Huh!” said the spotted dog. “I think he looks soppy.”

  The horse began to move slowly across the stage towards Jacqueline. Philip was pulling it on a string from the other side; but the string hardly showed at all, so it looked very real. The dolls all wanted to clap, but they remembered just in time and didn’t. The horse, with Teddy Robinson on its back, moved slowly forward until its front wheels came up against the edge of the pink cushion. Then it gave a jerk, and Teddy Robinson fell headlong over its neck and landed beside Jacqueline, with his nose buried in the cushion.

  Everyone waited to see what was going to happen next, but nothing happened. They went on waiting. At last Teddy Robinson said, in a muffled, squeaky voice, “It’s the end. For goodness sake, clap! I’m suffocating.”

  Deborah pulled the curtains quickly, and the audience clapped hard.

  After a good deal of whispering behind the stage Teddy Robinson’s head came out again from between the curtains.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, “as you never seem to know when it’s the end of anything I’ll tell you when to clap next time. The next scene is The Bear in the Wood.”

  His head disappeared, but shot out again a moment later.

  “You can clap now while you’re waiting,” he said.

  When the curtains parted once more Jacqueline and the cushion had gone, but the leaves and ferns were still there. Teddy Robinson sat under the largest fern. He began singing:

  “I’m a poor teddy bear,

  growing thinner and thinner.

  I haven’t any Deborah

  to give me any dinner.”

  The audience loved this. They laughed loudly, because Teddy Robinson looked so very fat and cosy that they thought he was trying to be funny. But Teddy Robinson had meant it to be a sad song. He went on:

  “I’m lost in a wood

  where the trees are thick and high.

  If someone doesn’t find me

  I might lie down and die.”

  “Oh dear!” said one of the dolls. “Let me find him! I think he means it.”

  Teddy Robinson turned to the audience and said:

  “I hope you won’t get worried

  at this sad, sad song.

  I’m lying down to die now,

  but I shan’t stay dead for long.”

  He then lay down in the middle of the stage, and Philip emptied a basketful of leaves over him. Teddy Robinson sang the last verse:

  “With only leaves to cover me

  and grass beneath my head,

  that is the end of the Bear in the Wood,

  and now I’m really dead. You can clap now.”

  The audience clapped and cheered. Some of them thought it was sad, and some of them thought it was funny, but they all loved it. After that it was time for the refreshments.

  Philip and Teddy Robinson, behind the curtains, were busy clearing away the leaves and ferns.

  “How is it going?” whispered Teddy Robinson.

  Philip peeped through the curtain.

  “I think it’s going jolly well,” he said. “They seem to be enjoying the refreshments like anything.”

  When all was ready, and the last raisin had been eaten, Deborah drew the curtains for the Famous Wizard Nosnibor.

  Teddy Robinson was sitting in the middle of the stage. He had a tall white paper hat on his head, and another hat (one of Daddy’s) lay on a little table beside him.

  “Why is he wearing a dunce’s hat?” asked the spotted dog in a loud voice.

  “He isn’t,” whispered Deborah. “It’s a wizard’s hat.”

  “Hush!” said all the dolls. “He’s going to begin.”

  Philip handed him a stick covered with silver paper.

  “This is my magic wand,” said Teddy Robinson in a deep voice, “and I am the famous Wizard Nosnibor.”

  Then he waved the wand over the hat on the table, and said:

  “Abracadabra,

  titfer-tat.

  You’ll find a rabbit

  inside the hat!”

  Philip lifted up the hat, and there, underneath it, sat Deborah’s stuffed rabbit. All the dolls clapped and said:

  “What a wonderful trick!”

  But the spotted dog said, “I know how he did that one. He put the rabbit there before we started.”

  “Hush!” said the dolls. “He’s going to do another trick!”

  Philip put two little bowls on the ground in front of Teddy Robinson. One was red and the other was white. He turned them both upside down, then he put a marble under the red bowl.

  “Which bowl is the marble under?” said Teddy Robinson.

  “The red one,” everybody shouted.

  Teddy Robinson waved his magic wand over the two bowls and said:

  “Roll, little marble,

  roll, roll, roll.

  Choose for yourself

  your favourite bowl.”

  “Oh, I know that trick!” shouted the spotted dog. “I saw a man do it at a party. The marble’s gone under the other bowl, the white one. That’s not a new trick!”

  Teddy Robinson waited, looking mysterious and important. Philip lifted up the white bowl. There was nothing there. Then he lifted up the red bowl. There was the marble!

  “You see,” said Teddy Robinson, “it is a new trick.”

  The dolls clapped even harder and cried, “Oh, isn’t he clever!”

  But the spotted dog kept saying, over and over again, “It wasn’t a new trick. Look here, listen to me—”

  “Andrew,” said Deborah, “if you can’t keep Spotty quiet I think you’d better take him away.”

  “Oh, all right,” said Andrew. “I’ll keep him quiet.”

  “Now,” said Teddy Robinson, “if you’ve all finished
clapping I’ll show you my next trick.”

  “I wasn’t clapping,” said the spotted dog.

  “This trick,” said Teddy Robinson, “is called The Magic Flowers.”

  Philip laid a small bunch of flowers on the left-hand side of the stage. Teddy Robinson waved his magic wand and said:

  “Snip-snap-snorum, fiddle-de-dee,

  hokum-pokum, one-two-three.

  Magic Flowers on the floor,

  come to Wizard Nosnibor!”

  The bunch of flowers began moving slowly across the floor all by itself. The audience clapped and cheered.

  Teddy Robinson waved his magic wand once more, and then the biggest and best surprise of all happened. The bunch of chrysanthemums hanging above his head suddenly fell straight down into his lap, and at the same minute the curtains fell down on top of him, covering everything except his nose and one eye. The audience cheered louder than ever.

  Teddy Robinson said, “THE END,” very slowly and loudly, and bowed beneath the curtains.

  There was a great deal of noise after this. The audience was still clapping and cheering, and Philip was shouting, “Hooray for the Famous Wizard!” And Mary-Anne was telling everybody it was the nicest concert party she had ever seen. Only Spotty was still arguing.

  “I don’t believe there is such a person as the Wizard Nosnibor,” he said.

  “If some people could read other people’s names backwards,” said Teddy Robinson, “they wouldn’t think they were quite so clever.”

  Much later on, when it was all over, Deborah said, “Teddy Robinson, that was a lovely concert party!”

  “Yes, wasn’t it?” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Do tell me how you did The Magic Flowers,” said Deborah.

  “A piece of black cotton was tied on them,” said Teddy Robinson. “Philip pulled it.”

  “But how did you get the other flowers and the curtains to fall down at exactly the right minute?”

  “I’ll tell you a secret,” said Teddy Robinson. “I didn’t. I think the string broke. You couldn’t have been more surprised than I was. Don’t tell anyone, will you?”