The Junior Classics, Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
Children's literature
Some horses in the county of Limerick, which were pastured in a
field, broke bounds like a band of unruly schoolboys, and
scrambling through a gap which they had made in a fence, found
themselves in a narrow lane. Along the quiet by-road they galloped
helter-skelter, at full speed, snorting and tossing their manes in
the full enjoyment of their freedom, but greatly to the terror of a
party of children who were playing in the lane. As the horses were
seen tearing wildly along, the children scrambled up the bank into
the hedge, and buried themselves in the bushes, regardless of
thorns,--with the exception of one poor little thing, who, too
small to run, fell down on its face, and lay crying loudly in the
middle of the narrow way.
On swept the horses; but when the leader of the troop saw the
little child lying in his path, he suddenly stopped, and so did the
others behind him. Then stooping his head, he seized the infant's
clothes with his teeth, and carefully lifted it to the side of the
road, laying it gently and quite unhurt on the tender grass.
He and his companions then resumed their gallop in the lane,
unconscious of having performed a remarkable act.
We have no less an authority than Dr. Franklin to prove that
donkeys enjoy music.
The mistress of a chateau in France where he visited had an
excellent voice, and every time she began to sing, a donkey
belonging to the establishment invariably came near the window, and
listened with the greatest attention. One day, during the
performance of a piece of music which apparently pleased it more
than any it had previously heard, the animal, quitting its usual
post outside the window, unceremoniously entered the room, and, to
exhibit its satisfaction, began to bray with all its might.
Donkeys sometimes exert their ingenuity to their own advantage. A
certain ass had his quarters in a shed, in front of which was a
small yard. On one side of the yard was a kitchen garden, separated
from it by a wall, in which was a door fastened by two bolts and a
latch. The owner of the premises one morning, in taking a turn
round his garden, observed the footprints of an ass on the walks
and beds. "Surely some one must have left the door open at night,"
thought the master. He accordingly took care to see that it was
closed.
Again, however, he found that the ass had visited the garden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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