178 LETTERS TO MARCO xxvn 



These latter would sometimes dress her up in 

 their hats and shawls, and even take her 

 indoors, teaching her to drink coffee from a 

 cup, neatly, with her lips, as a human being 

 would : an art which she has never lost. I 

 now in cold weather always give her some 

 breakfast thus ; she never spills any, or at- 

 tempts to bite the cup in any way. When 

 she left West Quay for Wallingford she gave 

 great trouble at the railway station. I was 

 told that she had thirteen porters round her, 

 and objected so strongly to enter the horse- 

 box that at last she had to be lifted bodily in. 

 At the other end of her journey she came out 

 quite quietly, and very soon made herself at 

 home here. She has been most useful and 

 interesting to me since I have had her ; she 

 works the mowing-machine and takes the 

 children out in a little cart. Donkeys are 

 extremely clever animals, and I never could 

 understand why stupid people should have 

 been called after them. They are most dainty 

 feeders, and in a meadow with cows and 



