yway?" asked the Talking Doll.

"I tell you it isn't a horn--it's a trumpet, and I am blowing it," said
a voice in the front part of the toy store. "I came in only to-day, but
I thought perhaps you other toys would like a little music, so I tuned
up my trumpet. But please don't call it a horn. I am not a fish man!"

With that there came walking along the shelf, from the front part of the
store, a little man wearing a blue coat, dark red trousers, and a hat
with a long, sweeping plume. I say he was a little man, but I mean he
was a toy, dressed up like a man such as you see in fairy stories. In
his hand he carried a little golden trumpet.

As he walked along the shelf, where the other toys stood, the Trumpeter,
for such he was, blew another blast on his golden instrument.

And the blast was such a jolly one that every toy in the store felt like
dancing or singing. The Jumping Jack worked his arms and legs faster
than they had ever jerked about before. The Talking Doll swayed on her
feet as though waltzing, and even the China Cat beat time with her
tail.

"That certainly was very nice," said the Talking Doll, when the
Trumpeter had finished the tune. "Did you say you just came here to be
one of us?"

"Just to-day," was the answer. "I came in a large box, straight from the
workshop of Santa Claus, at the North Pole, and I--"

"Oh! The North Pole!" suddenly mewed the China Cat.

"What's the matter? Does it make you chilly to hear about the North
Pole, where I came from?" asked the Trumpeter.

"No," answered the Cat. "I was just thinking of a friend of mine who
once lived there. You remember him," she added, turning to the Jumping
Jack. "I mean the Nodding Donkey."

"Of course I remember him!" said the Jumping Jack. "I should say I did!
A most jolly chap, always bowing to you in the most friendly way. He
isn't here any more."

"No, he was bought for a little lame boy who had to go on crutches,"
said the Talking Doll. "I remember the Nodding Donkey very well. I say
he was bought for a little lame boy. But the truth of the matter is that
the lame boy got well, and now is just like other boys. Once the Nodding
Donkey's leg was broken and he was brought back here for Mr. Mugg to
fix."

"Who is Mr. Mugg?" asked the Trumpeter, as he rubbed his horn to make it
more shiny. "Excuse me for asking, but I have not been here very long,
you know," he added.

"Mr. Horatio Mugg is the man who keeps this toy store," explained