OF AN ASS 133 



incredible labour that he has to perform to get 

 it, but well, after all, marmalade between brown 

 bread and butter does not come along every day. 

 Yes, these excursions have their better side. 

 So by the time we are finally disposed in the rear 

 corners of the toy vehicle, he has very likely 

 brisked up, and on the principle that the sooner 

 the pill is swallowed the sooner the jam is got, he 

 generally sets off at a brisk pace. 



This he maintains for one hundred yards. 



Then he comes to the gate of his paddock, and, 

 throwing aside his virtues, makes one short but 

 determined effort to take us to tea on the other 

 side of our own party fence. 1 frustrate this 

 for I am an accomplished club (" club " as a 

 synonym for the ass-driver is better because more 

 true than " whip "), and I know his habits. All 

 this involves a certain amount of pulling on one 

 rein, which he regards as a signal to halt. This 

 he does. I speak softly to him we are in the 

 middle of the village, and my blood has not yet 

 begun to mount urging him forward. So he 

 walks at funeral pace past his dear gate, and 

 having buried his hope yet once again, takes the 

 next quarter-mile with a great deal of unnecessary 

 action. Fixing one's eyes steadily upon him and 

 ignoring all other things, one would suppose that 

 one was racing over the road. Glance at the 



