The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Asses of Balaam, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: The Asses of Balaam

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Schoenherr

Release Date: December 2, 2009 [EBook #30583]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact Fiction October 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed.

THE

ASSES

OF

BALAAM

By DAVID GORDON

Illustrated by Schoenherr

* * * * *

_The remarkable characteristic of Balaam's ass was that it
was more perceptive than its master. Sometimes a child is
more perceptive--because more straightforward and
logical--than an adult...._

[Illustration]

_It is written in the Book of Numbers that Balaam, a wise
man of the Moabites, having been ordered by the King of Moab
to put a curse upon the invading Israelites, mounted himself
upon an ass and rode forth toward the camp of the Children
of Israel. On the road, he met an angel with drawn sword,
barring the way. Balaam, not seeing or recognizing the
angel, kept urging his ass forward, but the ass recognized
the angel and turned aside. Balaam smote the beast and
forced it to return to the path, and again the angel blocked
the way with drawn sword. And again the ass turned aside,
despite the beating from Balaam, who, in his blindness, was
unable to see the angel._

_When the ass stopped for the third time and lay down,
refusing to go further, Balaam waxed exceeding wrath and
smote again the animal with a stick._

_Then the ass spoke and said: "W