Part 11 (2/2)

”No, Joe is still in the hospital,” answered the lame boy's mother. ”He will be home in about three weeks, we hope. Here is his Nodding Donkey toy.”

”Oh, that's fine!” cried Herbert. ”Arnold told me about it, and I wanted to see it. My mother told me about Joe going to the hospital, and I came to see how he was.”

”It is very kind of you,” said Joe's mother. ”Now I'll leave you children to play with your toys awhile, until I call up the hospital on the telephone and see how Joe is to-day. I have not had a chance to visit him yet.”

Herbert and Mirabell had fun playing together, and with the Lamb on Wheels, the Monkey on a Stick, and the Nodding Donkey. After a while the children were given some bread and jam by Mrs. Richmond, who called them into another room to eat it.

”I heard from the hospital that Joe is much better to-day,” said Mrs.

Richmond, as she spread more bread and b.u.t.ter for her little visitors.

While they were left in the room by themselves, the toys spoke to one another.

”You are a new one, aren't you?” asked the Lamb of the Donkey.

”Yes,” was the answer. ”Joe got me only a little while before he was taken to the hospital, wherever that is. I guess I was in the hospital myself, when I had my broken leg mended.”

”Oh, tell us about it!” begged the Monkey, as he climbed to the top of his stick and slid down again.

So the Donkey told how Frisky had knocked him off the shelf, breaking his leg.

”And Joe had something the matter with his legs, too, so that's why he had to go to the hospital,” added the Donkey, as he finished his story.

”I do hope he comes back soon, for I am lonesome without him.”

The toys spent a happy half hour together, and then when Mirabell and Herbert came back into the room, having finished their bread and jam, the Donkey, the Lamb, and the Monkey had to become quiet.

”We'll come over again, when Joe gets home,” said Mirabell, as she and Herbert left.

”And we'll get the other boys and girls and give him a toy party,” added the owner of the Monkey.

”Oh, that will be lovely!” said Mrs. Richmond.

The Nodding Donkey was put back in the closet, where he told the Noah's Ark animals all about the visit of the Monkey and Lamb.

”I have heard of those toys,” said the Elephant. ”They know the Sawdust Doll, the White Rocking Horse, the Candy Rabbit, and the Bold Tin Soldier.”

”My, what a lot of jolly toys there are!” said the Donkey. And then he grew silent, thinking of poor little Joe in the hospital.

Joe did not have an easy time. He was very ill and in great pain, but the kind doctors and nurses looked well after him, and his father and mother went to see him almost every day. One afternoon, when Joe had been in the hospital for what seemed to him a whole year, his father and the doctor came into the room. There was also a nurse, and she began to put on Joe the clothes he wore in the street.

”What is going to happen?” asked the boy.

”I am going to take you home, and give your mother a joyful surprise,”

said his father.

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