Startled at the sight, the ass again stopped, hoping its master would treat his own beast more kindly and see what was the matter.
But angry men are nearly always blind, and sometimes half insane, or even wholly so. Gruntli once more drove his already bloody spurs into Gulick’s side.
At this, stung with pain, and fearing to rush against the angel, the beast dashed sideways against the rocky wall.
Maddened, almost to insanity, at this action, and smarting with a crushed ankle, Gruntli beat the ass with repeated and cruel blows.
In spite of such inhuman treatment, and even more awed by the apparition, than by the agony [[258]]it was suffering, the ass lay down flat under its rider, though without hurting him. It turned its head around and looked at him, as if in stern rebuke, at this treating an old friend, that had ever served faithfully.
Unmoved by the beseeching look in the eyes of what had been his pet, since childhood, Gruntli, in a fresh fury of rage, bellowed out:
“I just wish I had a sword to kill you,” and he rained blow upon blow on his faithful brute.
Then he jumped off the saddle, and, leaving Gulick in the rocky path, walked forward a few rods. All the time he was wondering what had so disturbed and checked the brute.
One look, as he turned away to the brow of the mountain, revealed to him a scene of frightful desolation. Rocks, gravel, ice, snow, and general débris, covered what had been his seven houses, and tenants and their cattle. Looking up, he noticed that the face of the mountain, whence the mass of earth had slipped down, was greatly changed in form.
Nevertheless, the landslide, for so it was, had opened a view, impossible before, of a rich pasture, where many kine were grazing. Looking intently at a cow that, having filled its stomach with grass, was about to lie down, Gruntli noticed that, before doing so, the dumb animal fell, first, on its front knees. [[259]]