Up and down and sidewise bobbed the loose head of the toy. And, as he
nodded, the Donkey had a chance to look about him. His new home was
quite different from the gay toy store he had been taken from. Here was
only a plain house, though it was neat and clean and pretty.
"I think I shall like it here," said the Donkey to himself. "I believe
Joe will be good and kind to me. I am going to be lonesome at first, but
that cannot be helped."
However, the Nodding Donkey was not lonesome now, for Joe's mother set
on the table in front of the boy a rather battered old Noah's Ark. From
this Joe took out an elephant, a tiger, a lion, a camel and many other
animals. They were not as large or as fine as the Nodding Donkey, and
they looked at him in a rather queer way, did these animals from the
Noah's Ark. Of course they did not dare say or do anything as long as
Joe was looking at them.
"Now I will pretend that this table is the circus ring," said Joe,
talking to himself, as he often did. "I will put the Nodding Donkey in
the middle and all the other animals around him. Then I'll be the
Ringmaster and make believe they are doing tricks."
So Joe put the Nodding Donkey in the very center of the table, where the
new toy bobbed his head up and down and sidewise, just as he had done in
the store of Mr.
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