There was another jolly jingle of bells, and the toys felt themselves being whisked away over the snow.  There was a little hole in the bag near the Nodding Donkey, and also a hole in the paper in which he was wrapped.  He could look out, and on every side he saw big piles of snow.  Snow was also falling from the clouds.

On and on rushed the sleigh of Santa Claus, drawn by the eight reindeer.  Over the clouds and drifts of snow, and through the white flakes they rushed, the sleigh-bells playing a merry tune.

“Oh, this is a wonderful voyage!” thought the Nodding Donkey.  “I wonder when I shall reach the Earth?”

Suddenly there was a hard shock.  The sleigh stopped as Santa Claus shouted, and then, all at once, the Nodding Donkey felt himself shooting out of the hole in the bag.  Into a deep snowdrift he fell, and there he stuck, head down and feet up in the air!

CHAPTER III

THE JOLLY STORE

“Dear me,” thought the Nodding Donkey to himself, as he felt the cold, chilly snow all about him, “this is most dreadful!  I hope Santa Claus has not become angry with me and sent me back to the North Pole.  I did so much want to go down to Earth and be in a big store for Christmas.  I hope I’m not back at the North Pole.”

The Nodding Donkey said this aloud, and, as he spoke, he wobbled his head from side to side and tried to turn over so he could stand on his feet.

“Here!  Don’t do that!” suddenly whispered a voice in one of the Donkey’s large ears.  “Don’t you know it isn’t allowed for you to move when any one is looking at you?”

“I didn’t know any one was looking at me,” the Nodding Donkey answered.  “I thought Santa Claus had tossed me back to the North Pole.”

“Hush!  No!  Nothing like that has happened,” the voice went on, and, by turning his loose head to one side, the Nodding Donkey saw that a large Jumping Jack was whispering to him.

“There has been an accident,” went on the Jumping Jack.  “The sleigh of Santa Claus banged into a hard, frozen snow cloud, and we were thrown out into a snowdrift.  I am not hurt, and I hope you are not.  But we must not talk or move much more, for I see Santa Claus coming this way, and even he is not allowed to see us pretend to be alive, so that we move and talk.  He is coming to pick us up, I guess.”

And then both toys had to keep quiet, for Santa Claus came stalking along in his big leather boots.  St. Nicholas was wiping some snowflakes out of his eyes, his breath made clouds of steam in the frosty air and his cheeks were as red as the reddest apple you ever saw.

“Oh, ho!  Here are some of my toys!” cried the jolly old gentleman as he saw the Nodding Donkey and the Jumping Jack.  “I was afraid I had lost you.  We nearly had a bad accident,” he went on, speaking to himself, but loudly enough for the Nodding Donkey to hear.  “My reindeer got off the road and ran into a snow cloud and the sleigh was upset.”