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 with a looking glass
on top. In this looking glass the Nodding Donkey caught sight of
himself.

"Not so bad!" he thought. "In fact, I'm quite stylish. I'm almost as gay
as some of the clowns." And his head bobbed slowly up and down, for it
was fastened so that the least jar or jiggle would move it.