In the bright morning light, against the green background of the garden trees, the animated little scene had a charm which was not lost upon the King.
"If I had a donkey, what wouldn't go," Bill chanted.
"Wouldn't I wollop him? No! No! No!" Button carolled gleefully, abandoning Joshua's mouth, and converting the nursery rhyme into an action song of considerable vigour.
Suddenly, Joshua succumbed. Lowering his head before the storm, he moved forward.
Old Jevons, who had been waiting patiently for this capitulation, guided the machine.
"It's a hard world for donkeys!" the King moralized at the window. "But, once harnessed, I suppose—one has to pull the machine."
It was of himself that he was thinking!
Then Judith appeared in the garden, stepping down from the verandah, and sauntering across the lawn.
The King withdrew hastily, from the windows.
He hardly knew why.