NEDDY, AND THE RIFLE DONKEY.
Our next pet was a very different creature. One of our aunts had sentus some money as a present; and I and my sister had many consultationsas to what we should do with it. At last we hit upon an idea thatcharmed us both, and we ran to our Mamma. "Oh Mamma, we cried, do youthink our money will buy a donkey? We saw the other day, a little boyand girl both riding upon a donkey, it trotted along so nicely withthem, and the little boy at the other side of the square has a donkey,and we should like it so very much." Then Mamma said that a donkeywould be of no use unless we could also buy a saddle and bridle; andbesides that, she must enquire where he could graze, or whether therewas any spare stall in which he could live. These things had notoccurred to us; but we went to Papa, and begged him to find out whereour donkey could live in case we had one.
Now there was a large sort of waste field adjoining the Barrack Square;a few sheep and some old worn-out horses were kept in it, but I believeit was not used for anything else. We sometimes ran and played there,and there was a pond in it, into which we were very fond of flinginglarge cobble stones. Papa found that he could easily obtain leave forour donkey to graze there, and it was of such extent, that it couldfind there quite sufficient food; so that difficulty was done awaywith.
Then we made enquiry about the price of donkeys. We talked one day tothe nurse of the little boy and girl who rode together. She did notknow what their donkey cost, but told us that she knew a little boy whobought a young donkey, when it was scarcely able to stand, and sosmall, that he had it in his nursery, where it lay on the rug beforethe fire, and was quite a playfellow to him.
We thought we should like a tiny donkey to play with in the house; butMamma persuaded us that it would be much pleasanter to have one that wecould ride. Papa heard of a donkey we could buy for one pound, it cameto be looked at, and we liked its appearance much; it was in very goodcondition, its coat thick and smooth, and not rubbed in any place. Ourother pound supplied us with a sort of soft padded saddle and bridle;the pommels took off, so that either of us could use the saddle, andhappy indeed was the morning, when Neddy was brought to the door forus.
I had the first ride, and, owing to a peculiarity in Neddy's manners, Isoon had my first tumble. We proceeded across the square very nicely,and were about to cross a large gutter, along which a good deal ofwater was rushing. I had no idea that Neddy would not quietly step overit; but he had an aversion to water, and coming close to the gutter, hemade a great spring and leapt over it; the sudden jerk tossed me offhis back, and Papa catching me by the collar of my dress, justprevented me from going headlong into the water. And we found thatNeddy always jumped over a puddle, or any appearance of water;sometimes a damp swampy place in the road, was enough to set himspringing. But when we knew that this was his custom, we were preparedfor it, and had no more falls; we rode in turns, and sometimes I got onbehind my sister, and many nice long rides we had all about the fieldsand lanes. When we returned home, we took off the saddle and bridle atthe door, and gave Neddy a pat; away he scampered through the opengateway into the field, flinging up his heels with pleasure. We couldsee all over the field and the square from our windows, and soon foundit extremely amusing to watch the proceedings of our Neddy and anotherdonkey.
This donkey belonged to a little boy, who also lived in the square; hedid not often ride upon it, but it followed him about more in themanner of a large dog. It had learned how to open the latches of thedoors, and could go up and down stairs quite well.
Our Mamma went one day to see the little boy's Mamma, and when sheopened the door of their house she was much surprised to find thedonkey's face close to her's, and she was obliged to give him a goodpush to get past him. When we heard this, we used to watch for thedonkey going in and out, and soon we saw him go into the field and makefriends with Neddy. They held their heads near together and seemed tobe whispering; then they would trot about a little while, then whisperagain. We supposed that the strange donkey was telling Neddy what funhe had in going into the different houses and getting bits to eat fromthe inhabitants, and instructing him how to bray under such and suchwindows when cooking was going on. For Neddy soon began to follow hisfriend about, and to imitate everything that he did. We did not knowthe name of the other donkey, so we called him the Rifle donkey,because his little master's Papa belonged to a rifle regiment. Neddywas an apt pupil, for soon after the conversations between the twodonkeys had begun, we were seated one evening at tea, when we heard anextraordinary clattering upon the staircase, we listened and wondered,as it became louder. The staircase came up to the end of a longpassage, which led to our doors, and when the clattering reached thepassage I exclaimed, "I do believe it is the donkey coming up stairs."
We rushed to the door, and looked out. Yes, indeed, the Rifle donkeyand Neddy were quietly pacing along the passage. We were thoroughlycharmed at Neddy's cleverness in mounting two long flights of stairs,and when we had given them each a piece of bread, and patted and coaxedthem, they turned away to go down again, the Rifle donkey leading theway. He managed very well indeed, but Neddy made rather awkward workwith his hind legs; however, he managed to reach the bottom withoutthrowing himself down. Next they went under the windows of theadjoining house, and the Rifle donkey began to bray loudly, Neddycopied him in his most sonorous tones, and presently a window wasopened and a variety of little bits of food were thrown out, which theyran to pick up. They came every morning to this window, and the officerwho lived there always answered their call, by throwing something outto them. When he shut his window, they quietly went away, and about themiddle of the day, when luncheons and dinners were going on, they wouldgo to other windows about the square, and bray for food. Neddy alwayswalked behind the other, and did not bray till he began. Sometimesthere were clothes laid out to dry by the washer-women on a piece ofgrass, behind the houses. This supplied great amusement to the donkeys,for as soon as the women went away they would run to the grass, take upthe clothes in their mouths, fling them up in the air, tread upon them,tear them, and even used to eat some of the smallest things, such asfrills and pocket-handkerchiefs. But this was really too mischievous,as the poor women suffered for their fun.
No one would believe them, when they said that such a missinghandkerchief had been eaten by donkeys, or that such a piece of lace ora collar had been bitten and torn by the same tiresome creatures. Iwell remember some of our shirts coming home half eaten, and our Mammathen advised the washer-women to have a boy, with a good thick stick,to watch the drying ground, and to desire him to belabour them well ifthey attempted to touch any of the clothes. This advice was followed,so that piece of fun was in future denied to the donkeys. But, I and mysister highly disapproved of this system; we thought that we would muchrather have our shirts eaten, or indeed all our clothes torn than allowNeddy to be beaten with a stick, to say nothing of the great amusementit gave us, to see the two queer animals rushing about among the wetthings, entangling their feet in them, and sometimes trotting off intothe square with a night-cap or a stocking sticking on their noses.However, we still took great interest in their proceedings even withoutthe poor washerwomen's clothes; for being deprived of that game, theybegan to plague the soldiers at the guard room. It had a sort ofcolonnade in front, supported by pillars, and the Rifle donkey foundthat it was very diverting to rush head first at the men who werestanding under the colonnade. If they tried to strike him, he used tododge round a pillar, and then rush at them again from the other side.Often he singled out one man for his attacks, and then Neddy assistedhis friend, by biting at the same man from behind, but he was notnearly so active in evading punishment as the Rifle donkey, andreceived many a buffet and kick during these encounters. Sometimes thesoldiers punished them by getting on their backs. This, however, wasnot to be borne, and cling as tightly as they could, the donkeys neverfailed to fling them off, when they would return to the charge withrenewed vigour.
These games of bo-peep, and so forth, apparently amused the men quiteas much a
s ourselves, and many a half-hour have we sat in ourstair-case window-seat, watching the antics of the donkeys and thesoldiers. Their play usually ended by the Rifle donkey receiving aharder rap on the nose than he deemed pleasant, then he would fling uphis heels, and with a most unearthly yell, gallop off to the field,closely followed by the sympathising Neddy, who imitated in his bestfashion both the yell and the fling of his heels.
NEDDY, AND THE RIFLE DONKEY. _Page 25._]
We were going to leave the barracks, and move to another part ofIreland; and just before we went, the two donkeys got into a terriblescrape. Indeed, it was very well that we did go away; for they werebecoming so extremely mischievous and so cunning, that they would soonhave become too tiresome; and although we were charmed with every trickthey played, almost all the grown-up people thought them a greattorment; and the Rifle-donkey had become a great deal more active andmonkey-like, since Neddy had followed and copied him. I suppose he feltproud of being able to lead the other wherever he chose.
It was extremely hot weather, and all doors and windows were generallyleft standing open. Not that it would have made much difference to theRifle-donkey had they been shut; for there was not a door in the placethat he could not open. But very likely they were tempted to this workof destruction by the sight of the open door. Whilst the officers weredining, the two donkeys walked into the ante-room. The table there wascovered with newspapers, magazines, and books; and perhaps the donkeysthought that these papers were some of their old friends the clothes,from the drying-green; so they pulled them off the table; tore thenewspapers into little bits; munched the backs of some bound books;scattered the magazines about the room; upset an ink-bottle that stoodon the table; dabbled their noses in the pond of ink, and having donetheir best to destroy and spoil everything there, our Neddy, I suppose,was so delighted at the mischief they had done, that he could notrefrain from setting up a loud and prolonged bray of pleasure andexultation.
This brought in some of the officers, and there they found theRifle-donkey trampling a heap of torn papers and books, with theremains of a blotted "Punch" in his mouth, and Neddy was looking on andexpressing his admiration.
So they were ignominiously turned out with kicks and blows; and some ofthe officers were very angry, and said that both of the donkeys oughtto be shot immediately; and the others said that, at any rate, theyshould be shut up, and not allowed to run at large about the barracks.But, luckily for Neddy, we went away in a day or two, and we neverheard how they managed to keep the Rifle-donkey in order. Perhaps hewas not so mischievous when he had lost his companion, having then noone to admire his proceedings. We only heard that when his regimentleft, some months later, the donkey marched out with them just in frontof the band.
As soon as we arrived at our new abode, our first thought was to find afield for Neddy. The fort in which we were to live was quite small;there was a street on one side, and the river close up to the wall onthe other; the square, or rather the small space within the wall, wasgravelled: no where could we see a blade of grass for our poor donkey,and there appeared to be nothing but brown bog anywhere round. PoorNeddy was put in a stall at the inn for the night; he must have beenmuch surprised at the hay, and the luxurious bed of straw; for a barefield had hitherto been his only resting-place, and green grass thevery best thing he had had to eat.
But the stall could not be continued; and as soon as our Papa hadleisure, he looked about for a suitable place for Neddy.
There was another small fort about half-a-mile down the river: itconsisted of a moat, and a low wall with a few guns. There was onelittle cottage inside for the gunner in charge; and the whole spaceinside the wall, consisting of a flat terrace, with sloping banks, anda good space in the middle, was covered with beautiful thick greengrass. This was just the place for Neddy; he would not be able to getout, and there was nothing inside that he could hurt; for, of course,the gunner would soon teach him that he was not to poke his nose insidehis neat little cottage; and there was plenty of space for him to runabout, and fresh moist grass to eat, which I should think he would likebetter than dry hay in a hot stall. So Papa asked, and obtained leave,to keep our donkey there; and we rode upon him from the inn, and puthim in possession of the little fort. He pricked up his ears, andseemed not quite to like the clatter of his hoofs, as he crossed theplanks which formed a rude bridge over the moat. We thought nothing ofthis at the time, but we had to think a great deal of it the next day,when we came to take our ride--in happy ignorance that this would bethe very last ride we should ever take on Neddy's back. We kept oursaddle and bridle in our kitchen, and had to carry it with us to thefort; so I put it on my head and the bridle round my waist, and mysister drove me, and pretended I was a donkey. So we came very merrilyto the fort, and having saddled and bridled Master Neddy, I wasmounted, and we proceeded towards the plank bridge. But just at theedge, Neddy stopped short, laid back his ears, tried to turn round,and, in fact, refused to cross. In vain we patted and coaxed, tried totempt him across with a biscuit, then tied a pocket handkerchief overhis eyes, and attempted to cheat him into crossing without his seeingwhere he stepped.
In no way could we induce him to put his foot upon the plank. Thegunner came to our aid; and we all worried ourselves to no purpose.There was no other way out of the fort, and we were ready to cry withvexation. At last, Nurse suggested that it would be best to returnhome, and ask Papa what we could do; and being at our wit's end, wetook her advice and scampered back to the other fort. Papa, havingheard our story, sent four of the men with us, telling them they wereto bring Neddy out in the best way they could; but, that, come out, he_must_. When we returned, there stood Neddy, just where we had lefthim, staring stupidly at the bridge. At first, they wanted to whip him,only leaving open to him the way to the bridge; but we declared heshould not be beaten; and the gunner agreed with us, that blows wouldonly make him still more obstinate.
"Well, then," they said, "as he is to come out at all hazards, the onlything we can do is to carry him, one to each leg."
So they began to hoist up poor Neddy, who did not in the least approveof this mode of conveyance. He tried to bite and kick, and twistedhimself about in all directions. How we did laugh to be sure! For whentwo of them had got his fore legs over their shoulders, he made dartsat their hair and their faces with his mouth, so that they had to holdhis nose with one hand and his leg with the other. Then getting up hishind-legs was worse still; for he jerked and kicked so, as almost tothrow down the men; and we quite expected to see the whole four and thedonkey roll into the moat together. At last, he was raised entirely ontheir shoulders, and they ran across the bridge and set him down on theother side.
"Are we to have this piece of fun every morning, Sir?" asked one of thesoldiers, as they stood panting and laughing.
"I hope not," I said, "I dare say he will be glad to go in to the grasswhen we come back from our ride; and if he once crosses it, perhaps hewill not be afraid tomorrow."
So we took our ride; Neddy behaved quite as well as usual; his frightdid not appear at all to have disturbed his placidity; and in about twohours we again stood before the terrible bridge. The gunner came out tosee how we should manage. We took off the saddle and bridle, andinvited Neddy to enter. There was the nice fresh grass, and banks toroll upon, and to run up and down, looking very tempting through thegate; and on the other side of the road, there was nothing but heaps ofstones and a great brown bog, stretching away as far as we could see,with nothing at all to eat upon it. But for all that, Neddy looked atthe bridge; smelt it; and, resolutely turning his back to it, stareddismally at the bog, as if he were thinking,
"I don't see anything that I can eat there."
However, it was evident that although the fear of starvation was beforehim, he could not make up his mind to cross the ditch; and, in fact,had absolutely determined not to do so.
We were in despair; but feeling sure that it would not do to have himcarried in and out every day; we disconsolately led him back to ourhome
, and told our troubles to Papa, who ordered him back to the stallat the inn for the night.
Next day, we tried in all directions to find a field where Neddy couldgraze; but no such place could be found. So we had a grand consultationas to what must be done for him; and Papa said that he could not keephim in a stall, feeding with hay, for, perhaps, half-a-year or more, ashe expected to remain where we were for a long time. So we made up ourminds to part with our donkey; and we did not regret it quite so muchat this time of year, as winter would soon come on, when, probably, weshould not be able to ride much.
We sent Neddy to the nearest town, about ten miles off; and a littleboy there became his master. And we kept his saddle and bridle, inhopes of supplying his place some day.