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“Oh, yes!” cried all the other toys. “A jumping race would be fine!”

“I’m ready!” said the Jack in the Box, waving to and fro on the end of his long, slender spring.

“So am I,” said the Monkey, as he climbed to the top of his stick.

“Well, I suppose I shall have to do my best,” said the Candy Rabbit. “Clear a place on the counter, and we’ll try some jumps.”

The Bold Tin Soldier and his men soon cleared a place on the toy counter so that the Jack, the Monkey and the Rabbit would have plenty of room. The building blocks, the checkers and the dominoes were moved out of the way, and then the Calico Clown took his place, ready to count “One! Two! Three!” so the three toys would know when it was time to jump.

“I’m allowed to come out of my box, am I not?” asked the Jack.

“Oh, of course,” said the Lamb on Wheels. “It would not be fair to have you jump and carry your box with you. You may come out.”

So the Jack jumped out of his box and took his place next to the Monkey, who also came down off his stick. I wish you could have seen how nimble they were, but, really, it is not allowed. The minute you looked at any of the toys they stopped moving at once.

“Are you all ready?” asked the Calico Clown, banging his cymbals together. “If so–go!”

Away jumped the Candy Rabbit! Away jumped the Monkey! Away leaped the Jack who lived in a Box. At the far end of the toy counter the Bold Tin Soldier and his men had placed some sofa cushions from the upholstery department. That was in case either of the three might stumble and fall.

“Look at the Jack jump!” exclaimed the Calico Clown.

“And see the Monkey sail through air,” remarked the Lamb on Wheels.

“But the Candy Rabbit is doing best of all,” said the Bold Tin Soldier.

And really the Rabbit was the best jumper of the three. In fact, he jumped so far that he sailed over the edge of the counter. And only that a sofa cushion fell, at the same time, to the floor, so that the Candy Rabbit landed on the soft, feathery thing, he might have hurt himself.

“The Candy Rabbit wins! The Candy Rabbit wins the jumping race!” cried the Calico Clown, banging together his cymbals.

“Yes, he is the best jumper,” agreed the Monkey and the Jack, who had jumped only to the end of the toy counter.

“Oh, I’m sure you two could do as well if you had only had more practice,” said the Candy Rabbit, who was a nice, modest sort of chap.

“Shall we try it again?” asked the Jack, who really thought he was a fine jumper.

“There will not be time,” said the Bold Tin Soldier. “I can see the sun coming up. Soon the store will begin to fill with clerks and shoppers, and we must lie as still and quiet as if we never had moved or talked. To-morrow night we shall have more fun.”

A little later the girls and young ladies who worked at the toy counters and shelves came in to get ready for customers.

Soon the people began coming in to look at the toys. The Lamb on Wheels stood on the floor just under the counter. She was rather a large lamb, over a foot high–that is, she was large for a toy lamb, though of course real ones are larger than that when they grow up.

“I wonder if I shall see that nice little girl to-day,” thought the Lamb, as she heard the hum and buzz of the shoppers. “I hope I may. And I hope I get as nice a home as the Sawdust Doll has.”

She stood up straight and stiff, on her legs, did the Lamb. Her feet were fast to a wooden platform, and under that were wheels, so the Lamb could be rolled along from place to place. At night, when no one was looking at her, the Lamb could move along on the wheels by herself. But now she was very still and quiet, staring straight ahead as the dolls stared.