“Oh, now I can see things!” said the Donkey to himself, as he found he could look right out into the street.  It was a scene he had never observed before.  All his life had been spent in the workshop of Santa Claus or in the toy store.  He was most delighted to look out into the street.

It was snowing, and crowds were hurrying to and fro, doing their Christmas shopping.  After the show window in the store of Mr. Horatio Mugg had been newly decorated by Miss Geraldine, many boys and girls and grown folk, too, stopped to peer in.  They looked at the Nodding Donkey, at the Jumping Jacks, at the Dolls, the toy Fire Engines, at the Soldiers and at the Policeman.

Toward evening, when the lights had just been set aglow, the Nodding Donkey saw, coming toward the window, a little lame boy.  He had to walk on crutches, and with him was a lady who had hold of his arm.

“Oh, Mother, look at the new toys!” cried the lame boy.  “And see that Donkey!  Why, he’s shaking his head at me!  Look, he’s making his head go up and down!  I guess he thinks I asked you if you’d buy him for me, and he’s saying ‘yes’; isn’t he, Mother?”

“Perhaps,” answered the lady.  “Would you like that Nodding Donkey for Christmas, Joe?”

“Oh, I just would!” cried the lame boy.  “Let’s go in and look at him.  Maybe I can hold him in my hands!  Oh, I’d just love that Nodding Donkey!”

CHAPTER VI

A NEW HOME

For a minute or two longer the lame boy and his mother stood in front of the show window of the toy shop of Mr. Horatio Mugg and his two daughters.  The lame boy looked at the Nodding Donkey and the Nodding Donkey bobbed his head in such a funny fashion that the lame boy smiled.

“I’m glad I could make him do that,” thought the Donkey.  “He doesn’t look so sad when he smiles.  I wonder what is the matter with him that he walks in such a funny way?”

Of course the Nodding Donkey did not know what it meant to be lame.  His own wooden legs were straight and stiff, and he did not need crutches, as did the lame boy.

“Be sure it is the Nodding Donkey you want, and not some other toy,” said the boy’s mother, as they looked at the things in the window.

“Yes, Mother, I’d rather have him than anything else,” the boy answered, and into the store they went.  Mr. Mugg came out from behind the counter.

“Would you like to look at some toys?” asked the storekeeper.

“My little boy thinks he would like the Nodding Donkey in the window,” said the lady, whose name was Mrs. Richmond.

“Ah, yes, that is a very fine toy!” said Mr. Mugg, with a smile for the lame boy.  “It is one of the very latest from the shop of Santa Claus.  Geraldine, please show the boy the Nodding Donkey,” Mr. Mugg called, and as Joe, the lame boy, walked along with Miss Geraldine, Mr. Mugg said to Mrs. Richmond: