Corduroy

In the toy department of a big store lived a small bear in green overalls. His name was Corduroy, and day after day he sat on a shelf, waiting with all the other dolls and animals for someone to come and take him home. Shoppers bustled by, their arms full of all sorts of things, but no one ever seemed to want a small bear with bright, curious eyes.

Then one morning, a little girl stopped and looked right at him. “Oh, Mommy!” she said. “Look! There's the very bear I've always wanted.” But her mother sighed, pointing out that she had spent too much already. “Besides,” she added, “he doesn't look new. He's lost the button to one of his shoulder straps.” Corduroy watched them sadly as they walked away. He hadn't even known he was missing a button. “Tonight,” he said to himself, “I'll go and see if I can find it.”

Late that evening, when the doors were shut and locked, Corduroy carefully climbed down from his shelf. The store was dark and quiet. He began searching everywhere on the floor, but his button was nowhere to be found. Suddenly, he felt the floor moving beneath his paws! He had accidentally stepped onto an escalator, and up he went, rising through the silent air. “Could this be a mountain?” he wondered with a thrill. “I think I've always wanted to climb a mountain.”

At the top, an amazing sight greeted him: tables and chairs, lamps and sofas, and rows upon rows of beds. “This must be a palace!” Corduroy gasped. He wandered through the grand furniture department until he found a very large, thick mattress. “This must be a bed,” he decided. “I've always wanted to sleep in a bed.” As he crawled onto it, he saw something small and round. “Why, here's my button!” he cried.

He tried to pick it up, but it was tied down tight, just like all the other buttons on the mattress. He yanked and pulled with both paws until - POP! Off came the button, and off the mattress Corduroy toppled, right into a tall floor lamp. It fell over with a tremendous crash that echoed through the empty store.

The sound brought the night watchman dashing down the escalator, his flashlight beam cutting through the darkness. “Now who in the world did that!” he exclaimed. He searched under sofas and behind chairs until his light fell upon two fuzzy brown ears sticking out from under a cover. “Hello!” he said, scooping the little bear up. “How did you get upstairs?” The watchman carried Corduroy back down the escalator and set him gently on his shelf in the toy department.

Corduroy was just waking up when the first customers arrived the next morning. And there, looking at him with a wide, warm smile, was the same little girl from the day before. “I'm Lisa,” she said, “and you're going to be my very own bear. Last night I counted what I've saved in my piggy bank and my mother said I could bring you home.” She refused a box, carrying Corduroy home in her arms.

She ran all the way up four flights of stairs and straight into her own room. Corduroy blinked. There was a chair, a chest of drawers, and a girl-sized bed. Next to it stood a little bed, just the right size for him. The room was small, nothing like the enormous palace in the store. “This must be home,” he said to himself. “I know I've always wanted a home!”

Lisa sat down with Corduroy on her lap and began to sew a new button onto his overalls. “I like you the way you are,” she said softly, “but you'll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened.”

Corduroy felt a happy warmth spread through him. “You must be a friend,” he said. “I've always wanted a friend.”

“Me too!” said Lisa, and gave him a big hug.