t.

His mother saw him tearing this hole as they sat in the street car
riding home, and as she looked down at him sitting beside her she smiled
and asked:

"Aren't you afraid your Nodding Donkey will take cold?"

"Oh, no, Mother," Joe answered. "It is nice and warm in this car. But
I'll hold my hand over the hole if you want me to, and that will keep
out the wind when we walk along the street."

Soon Joe and his mother left the car, to walk toward their home, which
was not far from the corner. The weather was getting colder now, and
even inside the wrapping paper the Nodding Donkey could feel it, though
the lame boy did hold his hand over the hole.

"I wonder what sort of place I am coming into?" thought the Nodding
Donkey, as he felt himself being carried inside a house. Wrapped up as
he was, of course he could see nothing. But he could feel that the house
was warm, for being out in the cold air was almost like the time he had
been tossed from the sleigh of Santa Claus into the snowdrift.

"Now I'll have some fun!" cried Joe, as he took the paper off his toy.
"Will you please get me my Noah's Ark, Mother? I'll take the animals and
have a circus."

Joe sat down to a table and placed the Nodding Donkey in front of him.
Up and down and sidewise bobbed the loose head of the toy. And, as he
nodded, the Donkey had a chance to look about him. His new home was
quite different from the gay toy store he had been taken from. Here was
only a plain house, though it was neat and clean and pretty.

"I think I shall like it here," said the Donkey to himself. "I believe
Joe will be good and kind to me. I am going to be lonesome at first, but
that cannot be helped."

However, the Nodding Donkey was not lonesome now, for Joe's mother set
on the table in front of the boy a rather battered old Noah's Ark. From
this Joe took out an elephant, a tiger, a lion, a camel and many other
animals. They were not as large or as fine as the Nodding Donkey, and
they looked at him in a rather queer way, did these animals from the
Noah's Ark. Of course they did not dare say or do anything as long as
Joe was looking at them.

"Now I will pretend that this table is the circus ring," said Joe,
talking to himself, as he often did. "I will put the Nodding Donkey in
the middle and all the other animals around him. Then I'll be the
Ringmaster and make believe they are doing tricks."

So Joe put the Nodding Donkey in the very center of the table, wh