Hannibal and the Bears

Here is a new story about the Shoe Shop Bears, the toy animals whose life in a shoe shop was told by Margaret J. Baker in an earlier book, named for them. Now living in a real home, with the Trinket family, the bears- Boots, Slippers, and Socks- set out to rescue some discarded toy animals who have been sent to the rubbish dump. Among them is Hannibal a once- magnificent old elephant on wheels. The lonely, discarded creatures have made themselves a rough home at the dump, but when rain begins to fall heavily the place is flooded. With the help of the town cats, the Shoe Shop Bears take their new friends back to the Trinkets' house. Imagine trying to find hiding places for this influx of animals! The bears resolved that the Trinkets must never know that their home had been virtually invaded by toy dogs, rabbits, bears- and by Boston. (The bears were not sure whether Boston was meant to be a dog or a cat, for who ever had knitted him used up a dozen odd balls of wool.) Into bottom drawers, behind the bathtub, inside the piano, went the bears' friends. The trouble was, one never knew what mischief some of the younger animals would be up to. Even Mrs. Knightly, the old rabbit, could not always make them behave! By a most satisfying turn of events, the problem is solved and a permanent home found for everyone of the outcasts.