“How is my boy to-night?” asked Mr. Richmond, as he hugged Joe.

“Oh, I’m fine!” was the answer.  “And look what Mother bought me!”

Joe pointed to the Nodding Donkey on the mantel.

“Well, he is a fine fellow!” exclaimed Mr. Richmond.  “Where did he come from?”

“From the toy shop,” Joe answered, and then, even though supper 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.  “Tell us the latest news from North Pole Land, where Santa Claus lives.  It is a long time since we were there.”