"It is very kind of you," said Joe's mother. "Now I'll leave you
children to play with your toys awhile, until I call up the hospital on
the telephone and see how Joe is to-day. I have not had a chance to
visit him yet."

Herbert and Mirabell had fun playing together, and with the Lamb on
Wheels, the Monkey on a Stick, and the Nodding Donkey. After a while the
children were given some bread and jam by Mrs. Richmond, who called
them into another room to eat it.

"I heard from the hospital that Joe is much better to-day," said Mrs.
Richmond, as she spread more bread and butter for her little visitors.

While they were left in the room by themselves, the toys spoke to one
another.

"You are a new one, aren't you?" asked the Lamb of the Donkey.

"Yes," was the answer. "Joe got me only a little while before he was
taken to the hospital, wherever that is. I guess I was in the hospital
myself, when I had my broken leg mended."

"Oh, tell us about it!" begged the Monkey, as he climbed to the top of
his stick and slid down again.

So the Donkey told how Frisky had knocked him off the shelf, breaking
his leg.

"And Joe had something the matter with his legs, too, so that's why he
had to go to the hospital," added the Donkey, as he finished his story.
"I do hope he comes back soon, for I am lonesome without him."

The toys spent a happy half hour together, and then when Mirabell and
Herbert came back into the room, having finished their bread and jam,
the Donkey, the Lamb, and the Monkey had to become quiet.

"We'll come over again, when Joe gets home," said Mirabell, as she and
Herbert left.

"And we'll get the other boys and girls and give him a toy party," added
the owner of the Monkey.

"Oh, that will be lovely!" said Mrs. Richmond.

The Nodding Donkey was put back in the closet, where he told the Noah's
Ark animals all about the visit of the Monkey and Lamb.

"I have heard of those toys," said the Elephant. "They know the Sawdust
Doll, the White Rocking Horse, the Candy Rabbit, and the Bold Tin
Soldier."

"My, what a lot of jolly toys there are!" said the Donkey. And then he
grew silent, thinking of poor little Joe in the hospital.

Joe did not have an easy time. He was very ill and in great pain, but
the kind doctors and nurses looked well after him, and his father and
mother went to see him almost every day. One afternoon, when Joe had
been in the hospital for what seemed to him a whole year, his fath