Teddy Browning Goes Shopping

Teddy Browning Goes Shopping

 
One day Teddy Browning decided to make a cake. He went to the cupboard and opened it, but it was empty. Oh dear!
 
"I suppose I shall have to go shopping," he said to himself. So he put on his hat and coat, and he put on his mittens and shoes. And then he set off to the supermarket.
 
He couldn't reach the handle of the supermarket door and so he had to stand and wait until a human wanted to go in and then run in behind them.
 
Inside, Teddy Browning could hardly believe his eyes. He had never been to a supermarket before, and he had never imagined it would be so big. All the humans were pushing round big cages on wheels which they were filling with all sorts of nice things like sweets and biscuits. One of the humans almost ran Teddy Browning over with the big cage thing and he had to jump out of the way quickly.
 
He was a very small bear, and nobody noticed him standing all alone. He was very frightened and he decided to buy what he needed as quickly as possible so that he could leave.
 
He found a basket, but his arms were too short to pick it up and so he had to pull it behind him. "Flour, sugar, eggs, butter" he chanted to himself so that he didn't forget what he needed. "Flour, sugar, eggs, butter."
 
He found the flour straight away and put it in his basket. "Sugar, eggs, butter" he said to himself. "Sugar, eggs, butter. "
 
The sugar was all stacked up in a pyramid. Teddy Browning reached out a paw and took a bag of sugar. but because he was only a small bear, he could only reach the bags of sugar at the bottom of the pyramid - the ones all the other bags of sugar were balanced on.
 
When he pulled a bag of sugar from the bottom row all the other bags fell down as well - right on top of Teddy Browning. Lots of the bags split and the sugar spilled onto the floor. What a mess! Teddy Browning put his bag of sugar into his basket and scampered away before anybody noticed that what a mess he’d made.
 
In the next aisle were the eggs. Teddy Browning stretched up his arms, but the eggs were on the top shelf and he couldn’t reach them. He stood on tip toe and stretched and stretched but he still couldn’t reach them. There was only one thing for it.
 
He climbed onto the first shelf and then pulled the tins from the back of the shelf to the front so that he could stand on them to climb up to the second shelf. On the second shelf he again pulled the tins to the front and stood on them to climb up to the third shelf. And so on all the way up to the top.
 
He picked up a box of eggs, but then he realised that he needed his hands to climb back down again. He was stuck. Then he had an idea. He went to the edge of the shelf and dropped the box of eggs into his basket. Then he climbed back down again to the bottom.
 
Something was wrong. The box was sticky. Silly Teddy Browning didn't know that eggs break when you drop them on the floor from six shelves up!
 
He climbed up to the top shelf again and dropped another box down. When he got back down he noticed that the eggs in that basket were broken too. Bewildered he climbed up to the top shelf for a third time.
 
By now his little arms and legs were aching. Bears were not meant to climb up and down the shelves in supermarkets. This time he dropped several boxes, one of them at least must contain eggs that weren't broken he thought.
 
Back on the ground he inspected the damage. There were broken eggs everywhere. "Oh dear!" thought Teddy Browning. "First the sugar and now the eggs. The shop owner will be very cross.” And he ran away before anybody noticed that it was his fault.
 
Round the next corner was a sign that said "Caution. Wet floor." Teddy Browning had never been to school and he couldn't read so he didn’t know he had to be careful. He didn’t know that the floor was wet.
 
He ran round the comer and slipped on the wet floor. He fell over and slid all the way down the aisle on his bottom, crashing into another pyramid - this time of tins of soup. Like the pyramid of sugar, the pyramid of tins of soup came crashing down. The sign read, "Special offer. Soup only 80p a tin." Teddy Browning couldn’t read. He didn’t know the soup was on special offer. He did know that when the tins fell on him it hurt.
 
Poor Teddy Browning was covered in bruises. His head ached and his arms ached and his legs ached. He wanted to go home and make his cake, but first he needed to buy flour and sugar and eggs and butter.
 
He already had the flour and sugar, but he had no eggs and he still hadn’t found any butter.
 
Then he saw it - a fridge with milk, cheese and butter. Teddy Browning set his basket down at the side. He was too small to reach the butter so he jumped up, hung onto the edge of the fridge, pulled himself up and leaned over. He still couldn’t quite reach the butter so he leaned just a little further, just a little...
 
Suddenly a human walked past with a trolley and bumped Teddy Browning. He struggled for his balance, lost it, and fell into the fridge.
 
It was cold in the fridge and Teddy Browning began to shiver. Then he began to cry. He wanted to get out, but he was only a small bear and nobody saw him amongst the butter.
 
"Please help me!" he called out. But he only had a little voice and nobody heard him.
 
Rosemary's mother had sent her to buy some butter to put on their bread at teatime. She walked over to the fridge, leaned over and picked up some butter. She saw Teddy Browning crying to himself. "What are you doing there, you silly bear?" she asked. "Don't you know that bears don't live in fridges?"
 
"Oh please helped me!" sobbed Teddy Browning. “I fell into the fridge and now I can't get out, and I'm so cold."
 
Rosemary reached into the fridge but she couldn't quite reach Teddy Browning. "Don't worry,” she said. "I'll go and get some help. We'll soon have you out of there."
 
She fetched the store manager who looked sternly at Teddy Browning. "So you're the bear who has caused so much trouble in my shop."
 
"I'm sorry," said Teddy Browning. "I was trying to buy some flour, sugar, eggs and butter to make a cake. I didn’t mean to make a mess."
 
The store manager told Teddy Browning to leave the shop. Teddy Browning wanted to finish his shopping first, but the store manager was very cross and wouldn't listen.
 
Poor Teddy Browning walked sadly out of the shop. He was covered in bruises, he had nearly frozen to death and after all that he wasn't going to have any cake for his tea.
 
From out of the shop behind Teddy Browning ran a man in a big coat. He had stolen a lot of things from the supermarket.
 
"Stop thief!" shouted the store manager. But the thief didn’t stop. He ran away as fast as he could. He didn’t see Teddy Browning who was only small and he tripped over him and fell on the floor.
 
"Oh you clever bear!" shouted the store manager. "You stopped that thief'.
 
He shook Teddy Browning by the hand and as a reward he gave him a big chocolate cake.
 
That night Teddy Browning invited his friends for tea and as they munched big slices of chocolate cake he told them all about what a brave bear he had been.