but after all the law may say that she is his lawful
purchase. I asked six pounds for her, and he gave me six pounds." "Six
flints, you mean," said I, "no, no, the law is not quite so bad as that
either; I know something about her, and am sure that she will never
sanction such a quibble. At all events, I'll ride after the fellow."
Thereupon turning my horse round, I put him to his very best trot; I rode
nearly a mile without obtaining a glimpse of the fellow, and was becoming
apprehensive that he had escaped me by turning down some by-path, two or
three of which I had passed. Suddenly, however, on the road making a
slight turning, I perceived him right before me, moving at a tolerably
swift pace, having by this time probably overcome the resistance of the
animal. Putting my horse to a full gallop, I shouted at the top of my
voice, "Get off that donkey, you rascal, and give her up to me, or I'll
ride you down." The fellow hearing the thunder of the horse's hoofs
behind him, drew up on one side of the road. "What do you want?" said
he, as I stopped my charger, now almost covered with sweat and foam close
beside him. "Do you want to rob me?" "To rob you?" said I. "No! but to
take from you that ass, of which you have just robbed its owner." "I
have robbed no man," said the fellow; "I just now purchased it fairly of
its master, and the law will give it to me; he asked six pounds for it,
and I gave him six pounds." "Six stones, you mean, you rascal," said I;
"get down, or my horse shall be upon you in a moment;" then with a motion
of my reins, I caused the horse to rear, pressing his sides with my heels
as if I intended to make him leap. "Stop," said the man, "I'll get down,
and then try if I can't serve you out." He then got down, and confronted
me with his cudgel; he was a horrible-looking fellow, and seemed prepared
for anything. Scarcely, however, had he dismounted, when the donkey
jerked the bridle out of his hand, and probably in revenge for the usage
she had received, gave him a pair of tremendous kicks on the hip with her
hinder legs, which overturned him, and then scampered down the road the
way she had come. "Pretty treatment this," said the fellow, getting up
without his cudgel, and holding his hand to his side, "I wish I may not
be lamed for life." "And if you be," said I, "it will merely serve you
right, you rascal, for trying to cheat a poor old man out of his property
by quibbling at words." "Ra