48

VI A NEW HOME 60

VII THE FLOOD 72

VIII A BROKEN LEG 86

IX A LONESOME DONKEY 94

X JOE CAN RUN 109

[Illustration: The Nodding Donkey's First Appearance.
_Frontispiece_--(_Page 2_)]

THE STORY OF A

NODDING DONKEY

CHAPTER I

THE SANTA CLAUS SHOP

The Nodding Donkey dated his birth from the day he received the
beautiful coat of varnish in the workshop of Santa Claus at the North
Pole. Before that he was just some pieces of wood, glued together. His
head was not glued on, however, but was fastened in such a manner that
with the least motion the Donkey could nod it up and down, and also
sidewise.

It is not every wooden donkey who is able to nod his head in as many
ways as could the Donkey about whom I am going to tell you. This
Nodding Donkey was an especially fine toy, and, as has been said, his
first birthday was that on which he received such a bright, shiny coat
of varnish.

"Here, Santa Claus, look at this, if you please!" called one of the
jolly workmen in the shop of St. Nicholas. "Is this toy finished, now?"
and he held up the Nodding Donkey.

Santa Claus, who was watching another man put some blue eyes in a
golden-haired doll, came over to the bench where sat the man who had
made the Nodding Donkey out of some bits of wood, glue, and real hair
for his mane and tail.

"Hum! Yes! So you have finished the Nodding Donkey, have you?" asked
Santa Claus, as he stroked his long, white beard.

"I'll call him finished if _you_ say he is all right," answered the man,
smiling as he put the least tiny dab more of varnish on the Donkey's
back. "Shall I set him on the shelf to dry, so you may soon take him
down to Earth for some lucky boy or girl?"

"Yes, he is finished. Set him on the shelf with the other toys,"
answered dear old St. Nicholas, and then, having given a last look at
the Donkey, the workman placed him on a shelf, next to a wonderful Plush
Bear, of whom I shall tell you more in another book.

"Well, I'm glad he's finished," said Santa Claus' worker, as he took up
his tools to start making a Striped Tiger, with a red tongue. "That
Nodding Donkey took me quite a while to finish. I hope nothing happens
to him until his coat of varnish is hard and dry. My, but he certainly
shines!"

And the Nodding Donkey did shine most wonderfully! Not far away, on the
same shelf on which he stood, was a doll's bureau w