tree-stems in the bottom of the hollow; and from
farther up I heard from time to time an outburst of gross laughter, as
though clowns were making merry in the bush. There was something about
the atmosphere that brought all sights and sounds home to one with a
singular purity, so that I felt as if my senses had been washed with
water. After I had crossed the little zone of mist, the path began to
remount the hill; and just as I, mounting along with it, had got back
again, from the head downwards, into the thin golden sunshine, I saw in
front of me a donkey tied to a tree. Now, I have a certain liking for
donkeys, principally, I believe, because of the delightful things that
Sterne has written of them. But this was not after the pattern of the
ass at Lyons. He was of a white colour, that seemed to fit him rather
for rare festal occasions than for constant drudgery. Besides, he was
very small, and of the daintiest proportions you can imagine in a
donkey. And so, sure enough, you had only to look at him to see he had
never worked. There was something too roguish and wanton in his face, a
look too like that of a schoolboy or a street Arab, to have survived
much cudgelling. It was plain that these feet had kicked off sportive
children oftener than they had plodded with a freight through miry
lanes. He was altogether a fine-weather, holiday sort of donkey; and
though he was just then somewhat solemnised and rueful, he still gave
proof of the levity of his disposition by impudently wagging his ears at
me as I drew near. I say he was somewhat solemnised just then; for, with
the admirable instinct of all men and animals under restraint, he had so
wound and wound the halter about the tree that he could go neither back
nor forwards, nor so much as put down his head to browse. There he
stood, poor rogue, part puzzled, part angry, part, I believe, amused. He
had not given up hope, and dully revolved the problem in his head,
giving ever and again another jerk at the few inches of free rope that
still remained unwound. A humorous sort of sympathy for the creature
took hold upon me. I went up, and, not without some trouble on my part,
and much distrust and resistance on the part of Neddy, got him forced
backward until the whole length of the halter was set loose, and he was
once more as free a donkey as I dared to make him. I was pleased (as
people are) with this friendly action to a fellow-creature in
tribulation, and glanced back over m