Leaving him here, they then retired. The donkey was thus left alone to himself, and to a cold boiled turnip, which Bart had put under his nose. After a short season of bewilderment, he proceeded to regale himself on this. The “B. O. W. C.” all separated, and went to bed. The characters in this drama were left to take care of themselves. Now Pat, in his room at the end of the long garret, had heard the racket made by the donkey in coming up, and at first did not know what to make of it. At length, however, the noise ceased, and for about half an hour all was still. Suddenly there came a loud, wild shriek from afar through the long garret, followed by others in succession. But Pat did not quake, or shiver--not he. He waited for a few minutes with a pleasant smile of keen enjoyment on his face. Then he went to the window of his room, and pulled a string, which came in from the outside. And there followed a deep, solemn toll, that broke upon the stillness of the night with a gloomy and awful intonation, carrying terror to many poor little boys, who heard it and quaked with superstitious fear. The donkey had finished his turnip! He had begun to reflect on the peculiarity of his situation! All dark around. No pleasant pasture, no starlit sky--nothing but utter darkness. He felt uncomfortable. He stood fixed in one spot, and the very unusual situation told heavily upon his spirits. Had he been in some comfortable stall, or some sequestered pasture, he might have lain down and slept the sleep of the donkey. But he had been badgered and deceived, and such a getting up stairs he never had seen. And now, in the midst of these reflections, there came this uproar of shrieks and tolling bells. It was too much. It was not at all what he was accustomed to. So he proceeded to enter a protest against the whole business. The donkey raised his head! He elevated his tail! He spread his legs apart so as to gain a firmer attitude! Then he burst forth: He! haw! He! Haw! Heeeeee! Haaaaaaw! He! haw! He! haw! He haaaaaaaaaw! Heeeeeeeeeee! Haaaaaaaaaaaaw! Heeee! Haaaww! HE HAAAAW!!! The noise of that terrific bray, as it sounded out, burst forth close by Pat. He was on one side of the partition. The donkey was on the other. He was just about seizing the cord so as to give another pull to the tongue of the bell, when there arose this unexpected, this tremendous interruption. Whether Pat had ever heard the bray of a donkey before mattered not at that moment. He certainly had never before heard a donkey, and an injured donkey too, at midnight, in a garret, close beside him, pour forth, so suddenly, and so terribly, and so deafeningly, such accumulated woes. Had a cannon suddenly exploded close by Pat’s elbow, he could not have been more utterly overwhelmed.