The Story of a Nodding Donkey | Page 7

Laura Lee Hope

different stores. The Nodding Donkey, the Jumping Jack and the others
felt themselves being lifted out of the bag and placed on the floor or on
shelves. But they could see nothing, for Santa Claus always comes to
Earth in the darkness, so no one sees him. And it was the Earth that the
toys had now reached.

"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.
But he soon noticed that this ride was not as smooth as had been the
one from North Pole Land to the Earth. Instead of riding in a sleigh
drawn by reindeer, the Nodding Donkey was riding on an automobile
truck, and as it went out in the street it bumped and rattled along.
There was so much noise and confusion, and it was so warm and cosy
in the box where he was packed, that, before he knew it, the Nodding
Donkey had fallen asleep. And, as he slept, the Nodding Donkey
dreamed.
He dreamed that he was back in the workshop of Santa Claus at the

North Pole and on a shelf with other toys. Suddenly a Wooden Soldier
began beating on the Donkey's back with the end of a gun.
"Rub-a-dub-dub!" drummed the Soldier, and the Donkey's head nodded
so hard that he feared it would be shaken off.
"Stop! Stop!" cried the Donkey in his dream, and then he suddenly
awakened. He heard a hammering, but it was not on his back. It was
outside the case in which he was packed,
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