g one great ear round, and
then brought up the other with a sharp swing till they were both cocked
forward and he listened attentively.

A minute before, and he was a very statue of a donkey, but after a few
moments' attentive listening he suddenly became full of action, and
setting up his tail he trotted round the yard over the rotten peat and
ling that had been cut and tossed in, to be well trampled before mixing
with straw and ploughing into the ground. He changed his pace to a
gallop, and then, still growing more excited, he made straight for the
rough gate so as to escape.

But the gate was fastened, though not so securely but that it entered
into a donkey's brain that he might undo that fastening, as he had often
undone it before, and then deliberately walked off into the fen, where
succulent thistles grew.

This time, however, in spite of the earnest way in which he applied his
teeth, he could not get that fastening undone; and, after striking at it
viciously with his unshod hoof, he reared up, as if to leap over, but
contented himself with resting his fore-legs on the rough top rail, and
looking over at the free land he could not reach; and he was in this
attitude when the two lads came up.

"Hullo, Solomon!" cried Dick. "Poor old fellow, then! Did you know
we'd come for you?"

The donkey uttered a discordant bray which sounded like the blowing
badly of a trumpet of defiance, and backing away, he trotted to the far
end of the yard, and thrust his head into a corner.

"Where's the harness?" said Tom.

"In the stone barn," was the reply; and together the lads fetched the
rough harness of old leather and rope, with an extra piece for fastening
about the root.

"I say, Dick, he won't kick that root to pieces like he did the little
tumbril," said Tom, who for convenience had placed the collar over his
own head.

"Nor yet knock one side off like he did with the sled," replied Dick
with a very vivid recollection of one of Solomon's feats. "Now, then,
open the gate and let's pop the harness on. Stop a minute till I get a
stick."

"Get a thick one," said Tom.

"Pooh! he don't mind a thick stick; he rather likes it. Hicky says it
loosens his skin and makes him feel comfortable. Here, this will do.
Must have a long one because of his heels."

"Oh, I say, Dick, look at the old rascal; he's laughing at us!"

It really seemed as if this were the case, for as the lads entered the
yard Solomon lowered h