“Suppose you decide!” cried both the Doctors in a breath.
“Hear! hear!” shrieked the excited Loon, and everybody leaned forward to watch the Donkey.
He seemed to feel the importance of his position. He put on a very thoughtful look, pursed up his lips and wrinkled his brows. You would hardly believe, Little One, that a donkey could look so wise.
“It seems to me,” he said at last, “that the question, Which came first, the bear or the grin? is very much the same as that other problem, Which came first, the hen or the egg?”
“That’s it! Which did?” cried the Doctors.
“That,” replied the Donkey, “is not to be answered offhand. No question in metaphysics can be. Truth, as you know, lies at the bottom of a well, and the deeper the question the deeper the well. Such a simple problem as why a rabbit wabbles his nose, or why hair does not grow on the inside of a skull instead of the outside, or why a fly rubs his forelegs together, lies on the surface of the Well of Truth, and may be skimmed off; but problems like the one we are now considering lie deep down, and a long rope and a stout bucket are needed to fetch up the answer.”
“Precisely!” exclaimed the Doctors, trembling with excitement.
“Which came first, the hen or the egg? Wise men and donkeys have debated the question for centuries, but, so far as I know, it never before has been settled.” The Donkey paused, and for a moment seemed lost in thought.
“So!” thought Buddie. “It’s going to be settled now; that’s certain.”
“At first glance,” went on the Donkey, “it would seem that the hen came first. Such is the opinion of my learned friend, Doctor Long-ears. For, he says, if there had been no hen to set on the eggs—”