OF AN ASS 129 



attention. Except for these short excursions to 

 the fence he never stops eating. Now it is one 

 thing to have unlimited food, it is another to have 

 an unlimited appetite. I have heard the million- 

 aire pitied because, having the means to gratify 

 his taste for fine dishes to any extent, he is 

 physically incapable of eating more than one 

 dinner in the day. Therefore, it is argued, he 

 is really no better off than a much poorer man. 

 Jack is outside this kind of consideration alto- 

 gether. Truly, he eats but one dinner a day. 

 But it begins in early morning, and it only stops 

 when he is led reluctantly stablewards at night. 

 He is like the cigarette-smoker, whose pleasure 

 consists enormously in the smoke itself, but 

 infinitely more in the not being without it. So 

 long as Jack is permitted to chew, so long he 

 remains contented, easy-tempered, placid. But 

 remove him from his victuals and he rapidly 

 grows irritable. 



Until we came into the Valley such was the 

 ideal existence of this ass. Once a week, on 

 market day, Mrs. Bunting harnessed him to his 

 little cart and permitted him to trot into the town 

 with her and back. It was a jaunt that he en- 

 joyed. Every creature above the limpet feels 

 now and then the need of a little gentle exercise- 



This causes a quicker movement of the blood, 



K 



