ot in the rope, and went
head over heels among the thistles. The donkey gravely bent down, and
thrice smelt or sniffed its prostrate foe; then, having convinced itself
that it had nothing farther to apprehend for the present, and very willing
to make the best of the reprieve, according to the poetical admonition,
"Gather your rosebuds while you may," it cropped a thistle in full bloom,
close to the ear of the Squire; so close indeed, that the Parson thought
the ear was gone; and with the more probability, inasmuch as the Squire,
feeling the warm breath of the creature, bellowed out with all the force
of lungs accustomed to give a View-hallo!

"Bless me, is it gone?" said the Parson, thrusting his person between the
ass and the squire.

"Zounds and the devil!" cried the Squire, rubbing himself as he rose to
his feet.

"Hush," said the parson gently "What a horrible oath!"

"Horrible oath! If you had my nankeens on," said the Squire, still rubbing
himself, "and had fallen into a thicket of thistles with a donkey's teeth
within an inch of your ear!"

"It is not gone--then?" interrupted the Parson.

"No--that is, I think not," said the Squire dubiously; and he clapped his
hand to the organ in question. "No! it is not gone!"

"Thank Heaven!" said the good Clergyman kindly.

"Hum," growled the Squire, who was now once more engaged in rubbing
himself. "Thank Heaven indeed, when I am as full of thorns as a porcupine!
I should just like to know what use thistles are in the world."

"For donkeys to eat, if you will let them, Squire," answered the Parson.

"Ugh, you beast!" cried Mr. Hazeldean, all his wrath reawakened, whether
by the reference to the donkey species, or his inability to reply to the
Parson, or perhaps by some sudden prick too sharp for humanity--especially
humanity in nankeens--to endure without kicking; "Ugh, you beast!" he
exclaimed, shaking his cane at the donkey, who, at the interposition of
the Parson, had respectfully recoiled a few paces, and now stood switching
its thin tail, and trying vainly to lift one of its fore legs--for the
flies teased it.

"Poor thing!" said the Parson pityingly. "See, it has a raw place on the
shoulder, and the flies have found out the sore."

"I am devilish glad to hear it," said the Squire vindictively.

"Fie, fie!"

"It is very well to say 'Fie, fie.' It was not you who fell among the
thistles. What's the man about now, I wonder?"

The Parson had walked towar