CHAPTER IX

BACK TO THE STORE


The moment he had fallen into the barrel of sugar the Bold Tin
Soldier scrambled to his feet and wiggled around until he got his
head sticking up above the pile of sweet, white grains.

"If I don't do that, I may drown," he thought. "It would be strange
to drown in a barrel of sugar! I don't want to do that!"

So he wiggled around until he could stand upright, buried to his
neck in the sugar, but with his head out so he could look around
with his painted tin eyes and breathe through his tin nose.
Otherwise he would have smothered.

The barrel was not full of sugar. In fact, it was only about a foot
deep on the bottom, but that was enough to more than cover the Bold
Tin Soldier from sight if it should get over his head. And, being
low down in the barrel as he was, the sides of it hid him from the
sight of Arnold and the cook.

"These are good cookies, Susan," said Arnold, as he ate the last
crumbs of the dainty the cook had given him.

"I'm glad you like them," she said. "Would you care for another?"