“Well, you see I am back here again,” said the Nodding Donkey.

“Have you come to stay?” asked the China Cat.  “You can’t imagine how surprised I was when I saw you brought in!  But what has happened?”

Then the Donkey told of his accident, and how he had been mended.

“Your leg looks all right now,” said the China Cat, glancing at it in the light of the one lamp Mr. Mugg left burning when he closed his store.

“Yes, I am feeling quite myself again,” said the Donkey.  “But I am not here to stay.  I must go back to Joe, the lame boy.”

“At least we shall have a chance to talk over old times for a little while,” said the China Cat.  “I came near being sold yesterday.  A lady was going to buy me for her baby to cut his teeth on.  Just fancy!”

“I don’t believe you would have liked that,” said the Donkey.

“No, indeed!” mewed the China Cat.  Then she and the Donkey and the other toys talked for some hours, and told stories.  On account of his paint not being dry the Donkey did not walk around, jump or kick as he had used to do.

In the morning the toys had to stop their fun-making, for Mr. Mugg and his daughters came to open the store for the day.  And in the afternoon Mr. Richmond called to get the mended toy.

And you can imagine how glad Joe was to get his Donkey back again.

“I’ll never let Frisky break any more of your legs,” said Joe, as he hugged the Donkey to him.  “I’ll take you to bed with me to-night.”

But though Joe was allowed to take his Donkey to bed with him, it was thought best not to send the toy to the hospital with the little boy, when he went early the next week.

“Good-by, Nodding Donkey!” called Joe to his toy, as he was driven away; and when Mrs. Richmond put the mended Donkey away on the closet shelf, there were tears in her eyes.

The Nodding Donkey knew that something was wrong, but he did not understand all that was happening.  He had seen Joe taken away, and he saw himself put in the closet with the Noah’s Ark animals.

“What is the matter?” asked the Lion.  “Is Joe tired of playing with you, as he grew tired of us?”

“I hope not,” said the Nodding Donkey sadly.

But as that day passed, and the next, the Nodding Donkey grew very lonesome for Joe, for he had learned to love the little lame boy.

CHAPTER X

JOE CAN RUN

About a week after Joe had been taken to the hospital, where he had been put in a little white bed, with a rosy-cheeked nurse to look after him, there came a knock on the door of the house where Joe lived, and where the Nodding Donkey also had his home.

“Is Joe here?” asked a little girl named Mirabell, who carried in her arms a toy Lamb on Wheels.

“Joe?  No, dear, he isn’t here.  He is in the hospital having his lame legs fixed,” answered Mrs. Richmond.  “Didn’t you hear about his going away?”