366 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



but still it is worthy of remark that the donkey, the 

 innocent victim of our brutality, bears the cross on 

 its back. 



"The ass is temperate in both the quantity and 

 quality of its food. It is contented with the tough- 

 est and least palatable pasturage, which horses and 

 other animals disdain to touch. Along the roadside 

 it browses the prickly tops of thistles, branches of 

 willows, shoots of hawthorn. If afterward it can 

 roll on the grass a moment, it counts this as the very 

 summit of earthly happiness. But it is very dainty 

 about water : it will drink only the very clearest and 

 from streams that it knows. It drinks as temper- 

 ately as it eats, and does not plunge its nose into the 

 water, from fear, as they say, of the reflection of its 

 ears." 



' * That 's a funny sort of fear, ' ' said Jules. 



"Therefore I don't believe the saying is well 

 founded. The ass is not so silly as to be frightened 

 by the reflection of its ears. If it drinks merely with 

 its lips, without plunging its nose into the water, it 

 is because, like the cat, it fears getting wet. It does 

 not, like the horse, wallow in mire and water; it 

 shrinks from even wetting its feet, and will make a 

 detour to avoid mud. Hence its legs are always dry 

 and cleaner than a horse's. Its aversion to wet ex- 

 plains sufficiently its manner of drinking, without 

 attributing it to any silly fear of the reflection of the 

 animal's ears." 



"Why do people speak of that fear, then!" 



"Simply for the malicious pleasure of adding one 



