“How did he get in again?” said the carter.
I was so delighted not to go to market, that I went prancing up to them. They were very glad to see me; they patted me, and said I was a good, clever donkey to have managed to escape from the thieves who had stolen me, till I felt quite ashamed of myself, for I knew that I didn’t deserve all this, and that I did deserve the stick. Then they left me to graze all day in the meadow, and I should have enjoyed myself very much, if my conscience hadn’t given me such a bad time of it.
The farmer was very much surprised to see me when he came home. The next day he went all round the meadow, and carefully stopped up every hole he could find in the hedge, until there wasn’t room for a cat to get through.
The week passed quietly away until market-day came again, and then I hid myself in the ditch as before. The people at the farm could not make it out, and thought that the thieves who stole me were unusually clever.
“This time,” said the farmer, “he must be really lost and gone for good,” and he harnessed one of the horses and went off to market as before. When everything was quiet I came out again, but this time I thought I had better not say “hee-haw!” to let them know I was there. When at last they found me, they didn’t stroke or pat me, and they said so little that I thought they must suspect something. But I didn’t care, and I said to myself,—
“Ah, yes, my good friends, you’ll think yourselves very clever if you find me out, but I don’t intend you shall,” and so when market-day came round, I made for my ditch for the third time.
But scarcely was I safely hidden among the thistles and blackberry bushes, when I heard the big watch-dog bark, and then the voice of the farmer say,—
“Here, Rover, Rover, good dog, then! go and look for him!” and in a moment Rover had pounced upon my hiding-place, and was growling and snapping at my heels in a most unpleasant manner. I made for the hedge, and tried to force a way through, but in vain.
“Good dog, good Rover, good dog!” shouted the farmer, and he threw a lasso at me, which caught me and stopped me short. Then he led me back and tied me up, and I heard that one of the farmer’s little boys had been watching the meadow from a place where I couldn’t see him, and that he had told where I was.