e same shelf on
which stood the Nodding Donkey.

"I'll go up there to eat the nut," said Frisky to himself.

Up he scrambled, but he was such a lively little chap that in swinging
his tail from side to side he brushed it against the Nodding Donkey.

With a crash that toy fell to the floor near Joe's couch!

"Oh, Frisky! Look what you did!" cried Joe. But the squirrel was so busy
eating the nut that he paid no attention to the Donkey.

Joe picked up his plaything. One of the Donkey's varnished legs was
dangling by a few splinters.

"Oh! Oh, dear!" cried Joe. "My Donkey's leg is broken! Now he will have
to go on crutches as I do! Mother! Come quick!" cried Joe. "Something
terrible has happened to my Nodding Donkey!"

CHAPTER IX

A LONESOME DONKEY

"What is the matter, Joe? What has happened?" asked Mrs. Richmond,
hurrying downstairs, leaving her son's bed half made.

Mrs. Richmond, hurrying into the room where she had left Joe lying on
the couch, saw him sitting up and holding his Nodding Donkey in his
hands.

"Oh, look, Mother!" and Joe's voice sounded as if he might be going to
cry. "Look what Frisky did to my Donkey! Knocked him off the shelf, and
his left hind leg is broken."

"That is too bad," said Mrs. Richmond, but her face showed that she was
glad it was not Joe who was hurt. "Yes, the Donkey's leg is broken,"
she went on, as she took the toy from her son. "Frisky, you are a bad
squirrel to break Joe's Donkey!" and she shook her finger at the
chattering little animal, who, perched on the shelf, was eating the nut
the boy had given him.

"Oh, Mother! Frisky didn't mean to do it," said Joe. "It wasn't his
fault. I guess the Nodding Donkey was too close to the edge of the
shelf. But now his leg is broken, and I guess he'll have to go on
crutches, the same as I do; won't he, Mother?"

The Nodding Donkey did not hear any of this. The pain in his leg was so
great that he had fainted, though Joe and his mother did not know this.
But the Donkey really had fainted.

"No, Joe," said Mrs. Richmond, after a while, "your Donkey will not have
to go on crutches, and I hope the day will soon come when you can lay
them aside."

"What do you mean, Mother?" Joe asked eagerly. "Do you think I will
ever get better?"

"We hope so," she answered softly. "In a few days you are going to a
nice place, called a hospital, where you will go to sleep in a little
white bed. Then the doctors will come and, when yo