“Dear me, this isn’t much fun!” complained the Nodding Donkey, as he stood on a shelf in the darkness.  Faint and far off he could hear the bells of Santa Claus’ reindeer jingling as jolly St. Nicholas drove back to North Pole Land.  “I thought the Earth was such a wonderful place,” went on the Nodding Donkey.  “But I don’t like it here at all.”

“Hush!” begged the Jumping Jack.  “It is night.  You have seen nothing yet.  Wait until morning.”

And, after a while, streaks of light began to come in through the windows of the warehouse where the toys had been left.  The sun was rising.  From a window near him the Nodding Donkey caught a glimpse of snow outside, but the land was very different from the North Pole where he had been made.

The Nodding Donkey was turning his head to speak to the Jumping Jack, and he was going to take a look and see what other toys were near him, when, all of a sudden, three or four men came into the room.  They had hammers, nails and boards in their hands.

“Hurry now!” cried one of the men.  “We must box up a lot of these toys and send them to the different stores.  It will be Christmas before we know it.”

Suddenly one of the men caught hold of the Nodding Donkey, and also of a large doll that had been on the same shelf.

“I’ll pack these in a box,” said the man.  “I just need them to fill one corner.  Then I’ll ship them off.”

The Nodding Donkey wished his friend the Jumping Jack might go in the same box with him, but it was not to be.  The Donkey gave one last look at his companion of the snowdrift, and a moment later he was being wrapped in tissue paper again, and was packed down in a corner of a large box.  The doll was treated the same way.

Then the board cover was put on the box, and nailed shut with a loud hammering noise.

“Dear me, in the dark again!” said the Nodding Donkey.  “I don’t seem to be having a good time at all.”

“Never mind!  It will not last long,” said the Doll, who was made of cloth, so it did not matter how much she was squeezed.  “We will soon be in the light again.”

The toys in the box could hear loud talking going on in the warehouse where they had been left by Santa Claus.  They could also hear men moving about and the bang and rattle of boxes, like theirs, as the cases were nailed up and taken away.

Finally the Nodding Donkey, the doll, and other toys who were packed together, felt their box being tilted up on one end.  By this time the Nodding Donkey was getting used to being stood on his head, or turned over on his back, and he did not mind it.

“Hurry up!  Load this box on a truck and take it to the Mugg store!” cried a voice.

“The Mugg store!  I wonder where that is!” thought the Nodding Donkey.

And then he felt the box in which he lay being lifted up and carried along.  There were bumps, thumps, turnings and twistings, and then the Nodding Donkey felt himself gliding along.