pper was
almost ready, he had to show his father how the Donkey nodded his head.

"He surely is a jolly chap!" cried Daddy Richmond, when he had taken up
the Donkey and looked him all over. "And now how are your legs?" he
asked Joe.

"They hurt some; but I don't mind them so much when I have my Donkey,"
was the answer.

After supper Joe again played with his toy, and, noticing that their son
was not listening, Mr. and Mrs. Richmond talked about him in low voices.

"He doesn't really seem to be much better," said the father sadly.

"No," agreed the mother. "I am afraid we shall have to let the doctor
break that one leg and set it over again. That may make our boy well."

"I hope so," said Mr. Richmond, and both he and his wife were sad as
they thought of the lame one.

But Joe was happier than he had been in some time, for he had his
Nodding Donkey to play with. When the time came to go to bed, Joe put
the Donkey away in the closet with the Noah's Ark, his toy train of
cars, the ball he tossed when his legs did not pain him too much, and
his other playthings.

"Well, how do you like it here?" asked the toy Fireman of the toy train,
when the house was all quiet and still and the toys were allowed to do
as they pleased.

"I think I shall like it very much," was the Donkey's answer.

"I would give you a ride on this toy train," said the Engineer in the
cab across from the Fireman, "but you are too large to get in any of the
cars."

"But we aren't!" cried the Tiger. "Come on, Mr. Lion, let's go for a
ride while we have the chance!"

"All right!" agreed the Lion from the Noah's Ark.

So then, in the closet where they had been put away for the night, the
small animals rode up and down the floor in the toy train. The Fireman
made believe piles of coal under the boiler, and the Engineer turned on
the steam and made the cars go. The Fireman rang the bell, and the
Engineer tooted the whistle.

The Nodding Donkey, being rather large, could not fit in the train, but
the other toys were just right, and they had a fine time.

"Perhaps if you climbed up on top of the cars I might give you a ride,"
said the Engineer after he had taken all the Noah's Ark animals on short
trips around the closet floor.

"Oh, thank you; but I might fall off and get my head out of order so it
would not nod," answered the Donkey. "I think I'll just keep quiet this
evening."

"Perhaps you could tell us a story," suggested the Camel. "Tel