e with the
toy.

"Hum! Yes, that is a bad break, but I think I can fix it," said the
jolly old gentleman.

"Let me see," begged Miss Angelina, peering over her father's shoulder,
with a dustbrush under her arm. She had been dusting the toys ready for
the day's business.

"The leg isn't broken all the way off," said Miss Geraldine, who was
washing the face of a China Doll, that, somehow or other, had fallen in
the dust.

"Yes, that is a good thing," observed Mr. Mugg. "I can glue the parts
together and the Donkey will be as strong as ever. Leave it here, Mr.
Richmond. I'll fix it."

"And may I have it back this week?" asked the other. "My boy is going to
the hospital to have his legs made strong, if possible, and I think he
would like to take the Donkey with him."

"You may have it day after to-morrow," promised the toy man.

The Nodding Donkey was still in such pain from his broken leg that he
did not pay much attention to the other toys in the store. But Mr. Mugg
lost no time in getting to work on the broken toy.

"Heat me the pot of glue, Geraldine," he called to his daughter, "and
get me some paint and varnish. When I mend the broken leg I'll paint
over the splintered place, so it will not show."

The Nodding Donkey was taken to a work bench. Mr. Mugg, wearing a long
apron and a cap, just like the workmen in the shop of Santa Claus, sat
down to begin.

With tiny pieces of wood, put in the broken leg to make it as strong as
the others that were not broken, with hot, sticky glue, and with strands
of silk thread, Mr. Mugg worked on the Nodding Donkey. The toy felt like
braying out as loudly as he could when he felt the hot glue on his leg,
but he was not permitted to do this, since Mr. Mugg was looking at him.
So he had to keep silent, and in the end he felt much better.

"There, I think you will do now," said Mr. Mugg, as he tightly bound
some bandages on the Donkey's leg. "When it gets dry I will paint it
over and it will look as good as new."

The mended Donkey was set aside on a shelf by himself, and not among the
toys that were for sale. All day and all night long he remained there.
He was feeling too upset and in too much pain to be lonesome. All he
wished for was to be better.

In the morning he was almost himself again. Mr. Mugg came, and, finding
the glue hard and dry, took off the bandages. Then with his knife he
scraped away little hard pieces of glue that had dried on the outside,
and the t