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Once, on the way from the house to the barn, Archie, carrying the Elephant, stumbled and nearly fell.

“Oh!” cried the little boy, as he slipped along the snowy path. “Oh!”

The Elephant wanted to cry “Oh!” also, but he dared not. He felt shivery and frightened, though, as he saw the banks of snow on either side of him.

“I don’t want to be pitched into another drift, head first,” he thought to himself.

But Archie did not fall, and the Elephant did not get a second bath in the snow, for which he was very glad.

Into the warm barn trooped the children with their Christmas toys, some old and some new. Jake, the man who looked after the horses, giving them oats from a big bin, and hay from the loft, opened the doors for the children, and laughed to see how happy they were.

“We’re going to play here and have a lot of fun, Jake!” called Archie. “See my big Elephant! I just got him for Christmas!”

“He is a fine fellow,” Jake agreed. “Shall I put him in a stall as I do the horses?”

“No, we are going to keep him here to play with,” said Archie. “And I think I’ll get a little hay to make believe feed him.”

“Well, be careful,” warned Jake. “Don’t fall off the haymow.”

The haymow was a big place in the barn where the dried grass (which is what hay is, you know) was stored away. While the other children were having fun with their toys, Archie climbed to the mow to get some hay for his Elephant.

Now dried hay is slippery, as you know if you have ever tried to climb up a pile of it in a barn. And no sooner was Archie at the top of the mow than down he slid, on the hill of hay.

“Oh, I’m falling!” he cried, and his sister and the other children came running to see what would happen.

Archie slid down the haymow toward the floor of the barn. And it seemed as if he would get a hard bump. But, as it happened, a lot of the hay slid along with the little boy, and it was under him when he struck the barn floor. So he fell on the hay, which was like a cushion, and Archie wasn’t hurt in the least. In fact he rather liked it.

“Oh, this is fun!” he cried. “I’m going to slide down the haymow some more!”

Again he climbed to the top, and down he slid, sitting upright as though on a chair. Again he slipped over the edge of the mow and fell on the pile of hay on the barn floor.

“Hurray!” shouted Joe, who, being no longer lame, could play like other boys. “I’m going to try that!”

He did, as did the other boys and girls, and soon they had forgotten their Christmas toys for the time being, in the newer fun of sliding down the hay. Thus the Elephant, the Donkey, and the different make-believe animals were left to themselves in a distant part of the barn.

“This is our chance,” said the Donkey to the Elephant. “Let’s walk around. My legs are stiff, especially the one that was broken and which Mr. Mugg mended.”

“Yes, a little walk will do us good,” agreed the Elephant. “I am a bit stiff myself, and I want to swing my trunk.”

So the Donkey and Elephant, making believe come to life, walked about the barn floor, while the children were farther off, sliding down the haymow.

There were many strange things in the barn–at least strange to the Elephant and Donkey. There were garden tools of all sorts, rakes, hoes, shovels and picks. There were strange pieces of machinery for cutting hay, planting corn and potatoes, and the like.

In one corner was a big wheel, with a rope around it, and for a moment the Elephant thought his friend the Spinning Wheel had come out to the barn to play. But a second look showed that this wheel was larger, stronger and different in every way.