THE DONKEY. 129 



underlings, creeping and dodging about in the 

 hope of escaping his lordship's terrible jaws. 

 Does it not seem probable that the donkey's 

 reluctance to enter the water is based upon some 

 such natural legend, even if he has no conscious 

 dread of the crocodile ? He has never been told 

 that the brooks of Europe and of the northern 

 part of the United States contain no such vermin. 

 Let some one of the rising oreneration of natural- 

 ists think this theory out ; and when he has got 

 at all the available facts — but not until then — let 

 him write a monograph upon the subject. I, for 

 one, will promise to buy it. 



