"Pooh!" said Frank. "Why should the donkey take the trouble to do anything of that sort? A runaway animal don't generally indulge in freaks of that kind. He generally goes it blind, and runs straight ahead along the road that happens to be before him."
"But perhaps he lives among the mountains," said David, "and, in that case, he would merely be running home."
"I don't believe that," said Frank. "I hold that it requires some thought for an ordinary donkey to quit the high road, and take one of those by-roads."
"Not if a by-road leads to his home."
"But how could his home be there," objected Frank, "when we found him away down there near Paestum?"
"Easily enough," said David. "I dare say they were going home at the very time we came up with them."
"I wish we could ask the boy about it," said Clive. "He could tell as just what we want to know."
"Yes," said Frank; "but, unfortunately, we couldn't understand all of it."
David heaved a sigh.
"How I wish," he exclaimed, "that I had studied Italian before I came! But from this time forth, I'm determined not to rest till I've learned the language."