f the lane lived a donkey. Harry and Dora knew him
well. They often met him going to town with a load of fruit, and they
saw him in the lane every day cropping the grass and thistles by the
hedge-side.

2. He knew them, too, for they would stop to pat his rough sides, or
give him an apple or a carrot.

3. They wondered how he could eat such prickly things as thistles. A
horse would never touch them.

4. One day his master took him into the garden while he was working. He
let Neddy go up and down the paths and crop the grass, which had grown
long on the little grass-plot.

5. The donkey did not once try to get at the pears and apples; he did
not even look at them.

6. His master was pleased, and said to his wife: 'It is quite safe to
leave the gate open, and let Neddy come into the garden when he likes. I
shall be away to-morrow, but you need not look after him. He will be all
right.'

7. Next day, Neddy walked into the garden, found that no one was there,
and began to eat the fruit. He had a good feast before his mistress saw
him from the window.

8. Then he was driven out, and the gate was shut. After that he always
had to find his dinner in the lane.

9. The children saw him one day feeding with a white horse that had
come down from the farm, and they stopped to talk to them.

10. Then Dora said to Harry:

'They are like each other, and yet not like! Neddy has a shaggy coat.'

'And his mane is short, and stands up.'

'His ears are very long.'

'His tail is not like Snowflake's tail; and, see, it has a little tuft
at the end of it!'

'And Snowflake is much taller.'

SHEEP.

chalk
wheth'-er
earth
hedge
tear'-ing
swal'-low
chew'-ing
though
re-mem'-ber
for-got'-ten
brought
mouth

1. The next time that Dora and Harry were out, they ran up to the place
where they had met Joe. They wished to see how the chalk was getting on,
and whether the earth was brown yet.

2. After that they went over a stile into a field where many sheep were
feeding. The sheep began to move away when they saw the boy and girl
coming.

3. Then said Harry: 'Let us try mother's plan of keeping quite still and
letting them see that we don't want to hurt them.'

4. So they sat down under a hedge and looked at the sheep for a long
time, and soon one and another began to come near, eating away at the
grass.

[Illustration]

5. 'I like that sound of tearing off t