The Teddy Robinson Storybook

by Joan G. Robinson

  Then Teddy Robinson moved up so that Deborah could share his chair.

  “I do think you’re a clever bear,” she said. “I always knew you could sing nicely, but I never thought I should find you singing with a proper band and with everyone clapping you!”

  And that is the end of the story about Teddy Robinson and the band.

  14

  Teddy Robinson and Toby

  One day Teddy Robinson and Deborah were just coming home from the shops when a lady called Mrs Peters came out of her house and gave Deborah a parcel.

  “This is a present for your favourite doll,” she said. “Open it when you get home.”

  “Oh, thank you,” said Deborah. “What is it?”

  “It’s a surprise,” said Mrs Peters. “I made it myself.”

  Deborah and Teddy Robinson ran home with the parcel.

  “It’s for you, Teddy Robinson,” said Deborah. “I know you’re not a doll, but you are my favourite, so it must be for you.”

  “I wonder what it is,” said Teddy Robinson.

  As soon as they got home Deborah undid the parcel. Inside the brown paper there was some white tissue paper, and inside the tissue paper lay a beautiful little ballet frock. It was white, with lots and lots of frills, and instead of sleeves it had shoulder straps with tiny pink roses sewn on them.

  “Oh!” said Deborah. “It’s just what I’ve always wanted – a dress with a skirt that really goes out. Oh, you are lucky!”

  “But I’m not at all sure it’s what I’ve always wanted,” said Teddy Robinson. “I was rather hoping it would be a pair of Wellington boots.”

  “But you can’t go to a party in Wellington boots,” said Deborah.

  “But I aren’t going to a party,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Yes, you are,” said Deborah. “At least, I am. I’m going to Caroline’s party this afternoon, and now you’ve got such a lovely dress you must come too.”

  “Was I invited?” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Not really,” said Deborah, “but that’s the best of being a teddy bear – you can go to parties without being asked.”

  They tried on the dress, and it fitted Teddy Robinson perfectly. As soon as he saw the frilly skirt standing out all round him he felt so dainty and fairy-like that he forgot to be sorry any more that his surprise hadn’t been a pair of Wellington boots.

  “I see what you mean about a skirt that goes out all round,” he said. “It does make you feel like dancing. Do you think if I practised I could learn to stand on one leg like a real ballet dancer?”

  “I think you might,” said Deborah. “Lean up against the window and see.”

  So Teddy Robinson stood on one leg, propped up against the window, and spent the rest of the morning thinking about how nice it was to be a ballet-dancing bear with roses on his braces. He rather hoped that people going by in the road outside might look up and see him.

  “Perhaps they will think I am a famous dancing bear already,” he said to himself, and he began making up a little song about it.

  “Look at that bear

  in the window up there

  with the roses all over his braces!

  You can see at a glance

  how well he can dance,

  and how charmingly pretty his face is!

  What a beautiful dress!

  I should say, at a guess,

  he has danced in a number of places.”

  “But they’re not braces,” said Deborah. “They’re shoulder straps, and anyway you can’t dance as well as all that, even if you are standing on one leg.”

  When it was time to get ready for Caroline’s party Teddy Robinson suddenly felt shy.

  “Perhaps I won’t go after all,” he said.

  “Why ever not?” said Deborah.

  “Well, I do feel a bit soppy,” said Teddy Robinson. “And I’m so afraid someone may ask me to dance. I haven’t really practised enough yet. I wouldn’t mind if I had some Wellington boots to wear as well. Nobody would expect me to dance then.”

  “But even if you had,” said Deborah, “you’d have to leave them in the bedroom with the hats and coats. Nobody ever wears Wellington boots with a ballet frock.”

  “Couldn’t I stay in the bedroom with the hats and coats?” said Teddy Robinson.

  “All right,” said Deborah, “you can if you want to.”

  So when they got to Caroline’s house they went upstairs to take off their things, then Deborah went downstairs to the party, and Teddy Robinson stayed sitting on the bed among all the hats and overcoats and mufflers. He recognized some of them and began to feel rather sorry to be missing the party.

  “That’s Mary-Anne’s blue coat with the velvet on the collar,” he said to himself. “I wonder if she’s brought Jacqueline with her.” (Jacqueline was Mary-Anne’s beautiful doll.) “And that’s Philip’s duffel coat. I shall be sorry not to see him. And that’s Andrew’s overcoat and yellow muffler. Oh, dear, I wish I’d come in my trousers and braces, or my purple dress.”

  Just then there was a scuffling noise outside the door, and Caroline’s little dog, whose name was Toby, came rushing into the room and scrambled under the bed.

  Teddy Robinson was very surprised. He didn’t like Toby much because he was rough and noisy and thought he was a lot cleverer than anyone else. Teddy Robinson wondered whether someone was chasing Toby and waited to see what would happen. But nothing happened. Nobody else came into the room, and Toby stayed under the bed without making a sound, so after a while Teddy Robinson forgot about him and began singing to himself quietly:

  “Parties are jolly and noisy

  for children and musical chairs,

  but bedrooms are quiet and cosy

  for overcoats, mufflers, and bears.”

  “Who’s that singing?” barked Toby, coming out from under the bed. “Oh, it’s you,” he said when he saw Teddy Robinson looking down at him. “Are you allowed up there?”

  “Yes, I think so,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “I suppose it’s because you’re a visitor,” said Toby. “I’m never allowed on the beds. But, then, you’re only a teddy bear. I’m glad I’m not a teddy bear. I don’t think much of them myself. Caroline has one, but she likes me much better.”

  “Yes, but hers is only knitted,” said Teddy Robinson. “I’m a real teddy bear.”

  “Are you?” said Toby. “I can’t see much difference. Why are you wearing that peculiar dress?”

  Teddy Robinson didn’t know what ‘peculiar’ meant, but he guessed it was something rude, so he said, “It’s not. It’s a ballet-dancer’s dress, and it’s very pretty.”

  “It’s pretty peculiar, you mean,” said Toby. “And why are you wearing a ballet-dancer’s dress if you’re not dancing?”

  “I’m resting just now,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Yes, I see you are,” said Toby. “But why aren’t you going to the party?”

  Teddy Robinson didn’t like to say “Mind your own business” in somebody else’s house, so he didn’t say anything. He thought Toby was very rude and wished he would go away. But Toby went on talking.

  “I think it’s silly,” he said, “to come to a party all dressed up, and then to stay upstairs on the bed.”

  “And I think it’s silly to leave a party and come upstairs to go under the bed,” said Teddy Robinson. “Why are you hiding?”

  “I shan’t tell you, unless you’ll tell me,” said Toby.

  “All right,” said Teddy Robinson. “You say first.”

  “They’re going to have crackers,” said Toby, “and I don’t like the noise.”

  “Oh, I love things that go off with a bang!” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Then why are you up here?” said Toby.

  “I was afraid they might ask me to dance,” said Teddy Robinson.

  Just then Deborah came running in, all excited.

  “Teddy Robinson, you must come down!” she said. “We’re having tea, and we’re going to have cra
ckers, and I’ve told everybody about your ballet frock, and they all want to see it.”

  “All right,” said Teddy Robinson, “but they won’t ask me to dance, will they?”

  “No,” said Deborah. “You can just sit beside me and watch the fun.”

  So Teddy Robinson went down with Deborah, and everybody admired his ballet frock and made a fuss of him, and as nobody asked him to dance he sat beside Deborah at the table and felt very happy and pleased to be there after all.

  When they pulled the crackers and they went bang! bang! bang! Teddy Robinson thought about Toby the dog hiding under Caroline’s bed, and felt rather sorry for him.

  But it serves him right, he thought. He was very rude to me, and, after all, I was a visitor, even if I wasn’t invited.

  One of Deborah’s crackers had a tiny little silver shoe inside it. She hung it on a piece of ribbon and tied it round Teddy Robinson’s neck. Then she gave him all the cracker papers and the little pictures off the outsides of the crackers, and Teddy Robinson sat on them to keep them safe. He had a lovely time.

  After tea, when the children got down to play games, Teddy Robinson was put to sit on top of the piano so that he could watch all the fun.

  They played Blind Man’s Buff, and Squeak, Piggy, Squeak; and then Caroline’s auntie sat down at the piano and said, “Now we’ll have Musical Bumps, and there’ll be a prize for the last person in.”

  This was very exciting. All the children shouted and laughed and jumped while Caroline’s auntie played the piano very loudly. Then she stopped suddenly, and all the children had to sit down very quickly on the floor. Whoever was the last to sit down was out of the game.

  The louder Caroline’s auntie played the more the piano shook, until Teddy Robinson, sitting on top of it, felt he was simply trembling with excitement. The children went jumpety-jump, and Auntie went thumpety-thump, and Teddy Robinson went bumpety-bump, until at last only Philip and Caroline were left in the game. All the other children were sitting on the floor watching.

  “This is the last go!” said Auntie, and she began playing Pop Goes the Weasel. When she got to the “Pop!” she went crash on the piano with both hands and stopped playing. At the same minute Teddy Robinson bumped so high off the piano that he fell right in the middle of the carpet.

  Philip was so surprised that he forgot to sit down at all. Everyone clapped their hands, and Auntie said, “Well done, Teddy Robinson! I really think you ought to have the prize. That was a wonderful jump, and you certainly sat down before Caroline did.”

  Caroline said, “Yes, Teddy Robinson ought to have the prize.” And everyone else said, “Yes! Yes! Teddy Robinson is the winner!”

  So Caroline’s auntie gave him the prize, which was a giant pencil, almost as tall as himself. Teddy Robinson was very pleased.

  After that the children all went off to a treasure hunt in the dining-room. Teddy Robinson sat in the big armchair and waited for them. He had a paper hat on his head, the silver-shoe necklace round his neck, his giant pencil on his lap, and the pile of cracker papers all round him. He was feeling very happy.

  In a minute the door opened a little way and Toby’s nose came round the corner, very close to the floor.

  “Have they finished the crackers yet?” he asked.

  “Yes,” said Teddy Robinson. “You can come in now. They’re having a treasure hunt in the dining-room.”

  “Oh, are they?” said Toby, and his nose disappeared again very quickly.

  “Well, now,” said Teddy Robinson, “I wonder why he rushed away like that. I told him it was quite safe to come in.”

  In less than two minutes Toby was back, but this time he didn’t just poke his nose round the door. He came trotting into the room, wagging his tail and holding a little flat parcel in his mouth.

  “What have you got there?” said Teddy Robinson.

  Toby dropped his parcel carefully on the floor.

  “I won it in the treasure hunt,” he said. “It’s chocolate. I’m a jolly clever chap. Those silly children were all looking and looking, but I didn’t even bother to look. I just walked in and sniffed my way up to it in a minute. Fancy not being able to smell a bar of chocolate! Don’t you wish you were as clever as me?”

  “I don’t think you’ve noticed what I’ve got up here in the chair,” said Teddy Robinson.

  Toby stood on his hind legs and looked into the chair.

  “My word!” he said. “Wherever did you get all those things?”

  “From the party, before you came down,” said Teddy Robinson. “These are from the crackers, and this is a little silver shoe, and this is the prize I won for Musical Bumps.”

  “Well, I never!” said Toby, looking at him with round eyes. “You seem to be a jolly clever chap too. I’m sorry I said what I did about teddy bears, and I’m sorry I was so rude about your dress.”

  “That’s all right,” said Teddy Robinson. “You were wrong about teddy bears, but, you know, I rather agree with you about the dress. It is a bit soppy. I didn’t want to hurt Deborah’s feelings by not wearing it, but I’m glad I did now or I shouldn’t have come to this lovely party. And now that I’ve won this very fine pencil I’m not going to bother to be a ballet dancer after all. I shall write a book instead.”

  And that is the end of the story about Teddy Robinson and Toby.

  15

  Teddy Robinson is Put in a Book

  One day Teddy Robinson sat in the bookshelf in Deborah’s room. He had his thinking face on and his head on one side, because he was thinking very hard.

  Deborah came running in to look for him.

  “Where are you, Teddy Robinson?” she said, looking under the bed.

  “I’m up here,” he said. “You can’t see me because I’m in the bookshelf, so I probably look like a book.”

  Deborah looked up and saw him. “You don’t look like anything but my dear, fat, funny old bear,” she said. “What are you doing up there?”

  “Writing a book,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “I don’t see you writing,” said Deborah.

  “No,” said Teddy Robinson. “You know I can’t write really. But I’m thinking, and it’s the thinking that counts.”

  “And what are you thinking?”

  “Well, I’m thinking that when I’ve finished thinking it would be nice if you would do the writing for me. You can use the giant pencil that I won at the party.”

  “Yes, I will,” said Deborah. “That’s a good idea. Tell me what the book is to be about.”

  “I don’t know yet,” said Teddy Robinson. “Come back later, when I’ve had time to think, and I’ll tell you.”

  So Deborah went away, and Teddy Robinson started thinking again. But he just couldn’t think what to put in his book. He thought of all the other people he had seen writing in books, and he began remembering the sort of things they mumbled to themselves while they were writing.

  Mummy had a little book that she always wrote in before she went shopping, and her mumbling went something like this:

  “A joint of bread,

  a loaf of lamb,

  a pound of eggs

  and some new-laid jam . . .”

  “Well, that doesn’t make much sense,” said Teddy Robinson to himself. Then he thought about the little book that Daddy sometimes wrote in when he came home at night. His mumbling went something like this:

  “One-and-six,

  and two to pay,

  add them up

  and take them away . . .”

  “And that doesn’t make sense either,” said Teddy Robinson.

  Then he remembered the little book that Auntie Sue used to write in when she was knitting. Her mumbling went like this:

  “Two for purl

  and two for plain,

  turn them round

  and start again.

  Slip the stitch

  and let it go,

  drop the lot

  and end the row . . .”

  “That’s n
o good either,” thought Teddy Robinson. “It must be because they’re grown-ups that they write such very dull books.”

  So then he thought about the books that Deborah liked to read to him. Their favourite was a book of nursery rhymes.

  “All right,” said Teddy Robinson to himself, “I’ll write a book of nursery rhymes. Now, shall I start with

  ‘Baa, baa, brown bear,

  Have you any wool?’

  or

  ‘Twinkle, twinkle, Teddy R.

  How I wonder what you are?’ ”

  Just then Deborah came back and said, “Are you ready yet?”

  “Listen,” said Teddy Robinson. “How do you like this?

  ‘My fur is brown, silly-silly.

  Your hair is green.

  When I am king, silly-silly,

  you shall be queen.’ ”

  “Who are you calling silly?” said Deborah. “And my hair isn’t green.”

  “What a pity,” said Teddy Robinson, “because I could go on like that for ever.”

  “What do you really want to write about?” said Deborah. “What are you most interested in?”

  “Me,” said Teddy Robinson.

  “Why, of course,” said Deborah. “What a good idea! I know what we’ll do. I’ll put you in a book!”

  “But would there be room for me between the pages? Shouldn’t I get rather squashed?”

  “No, I mean I’ll make pictures and stories about you and put them in a book: then everyone will know about you and think how lucky I am to have such a beautiful bear.”

  “Oh, yes,” said Teddy Robinson. “Will you have a picture of me being a pirate?”

  “Yes, and I’ll tell about how you wanted to go to a party in a ballet frock and Wellington boots.”

  Deborah found the giant pencil in the toy-cupboard; then she went off to ask Mummy for enough paper to make a whole book. Mummy gave her a roll of drawer-paper.