Mr. Richmond, still leaving on the Donkey’s leg the rag Mrs. Richmond had wound around it, put the toy back on the shelf.  Then he carried Joe up to bed.

“When will the doctors operate on our boy, to make him better?” asked Mrs. Richmond of her husband, when Joe was asleep.

“In about a week,” was his answer.  “I stopped at the hospital to-day, and made all the plans.  Joe is to go there a week from to-day.”

“Will his Nodding Donkey be mended by that time?” asked Mrs. Richmond.  “I think Joe would like to take it to the hospital with him.”

“I’ll try to get Mr. Mugg to finish it so Joe may have it,” said Mr. Richmond.  “Poor boy!  He has had a hard time in life, but if this operation is a success he will be much happier.”

All night long the Nodding Donkey lay on the shelf, his broken leg wrapped in the cloth.  He did not nod now, for, lying down as he was, his head could not shake and wabble.  Besides, the toy felt too sad and was in too much pain to nod, even if he had stood on his feet.  But of course he couldn’t stand up with a broken leg.  Indeed not!

In the closet, where they were kept, the animals from Noah’s Ark talked among themselves that night.

“Where is the Nodding Donkey?” asked the Lion.  “Why is he not here with us?”

“I hope he hasn’t become too proud, because he is a new, shiny toy and we are old and battered,” said the Tiger sadly.

“Nonsense!” rumbled the Elephant.  “The Nodding Donkey is not that kind of toy.  He would be here if he could.  Some accident has happened, you may depend on it.”

“Well, I’m glad my train didn’t run over him,” said the Engineer of the toy locomotive.

“It was some kind of accident, I’m sure,” insisted the Elephant.  “I heard Joe cry out, and his mother came running downstairs.”

And it was an accident, as you know.  All night the Nodding Donkey lay on the shelf in the dining room.  He had no other toys to talk to, and perhaps it was just as well, for he did not feel like talking with his broken leg hurting him as it did.

Early the next morning Mr. Richmond was on his way to the office, taking the Nodding Donkey with him.

“Let me see him once more before you take him to the toy shop to be fixed!” begged Joe, who had been told what was to be done with his plaything.

Joe’s father put the Nodding Donkey into his son’s hands.

“Poor fellow!” murmured Joe, gently touching the broken leg.  “You are a cripple like me, now.  I hope they make you well again.”

Then, with another kind pat, Joe gave the Donkey back to his father, and, a little later, Mr. Richmond walked into Mr. Mugg’s store 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.