an animal (be in what hurry I may) I cannot bear to strike;
there is a patient endurance of suffering wrote so unaffectedly in his
looks and carriage which pleads so mightily for him, that it always
disarms me, and to that degree that I do not like to speak unkindly to
him: on the contrary, meet him where I will, whether in town or country,
in cart or under panniers, whether in liberty or bondage, I have ever
something civil to say to him on my part; and, as one word begets another
(if he has as little to do as I), I generally fall into conversation with
him; and surely never is my imagination so busy as in framing responses
from the etchings of his countenance; and where those carry me not deep
enough, in flying from my own heart into his, and seeing what is natural
for an ass to think--as well as a man, upon the occasion. In truth, it is
the only creature of all the classes of beings below me with whom I can do
this.... With an ass I can commune for ever.

" 'Come, Honesty,' said I, seeing it was impracticable to pass betwixt him
and the gate, 'art thou for coming in or going out?'

"The ass twisted his head round to look up the street.

" 'Well!' replied I, 'we'll wait a minute for thy driver.'

"He turned his head thoughtful about, and looked wistfully the opposite
way.

" 'I understand thee perfectly,' answered I: 'if thou takest a wrong step
in this affair, he will cudgel thee to death. Well! a minute is but a
minute; and if it saves a fellow creature a drubbing, it shall not be set
down as ill spent.'

"He was eating the stem of an artichoke as this discourse went on, and, in
the little peevish contentions between hunger and unsavouriness, had
dropped it out of his mouth half a dozen times, and had picked it up
again. 'God help thee, Jack!' said I, 'thou hast a bitter breakfast
on't--and many a bitter day's labour, and many a bitter blow, I fear, for
its wages! 'Tis all, all bitterness to thee--whatever life is to others!
And now thy mouth, if one knew the truth of it, is as bitter. I dare say,
as soot' (for he had cast aside the stem), 'and thou hast not a friend
perhaps in all this world that will give thee a macaroon.' In saying this,
I pulled out a paper of 'em, which I had just bought, and gave him
one;--and, at this moment that I am telling it, my heart smites me that
there was more of pleasantry in the conceit of seeing _how_ an ass would
eat a macaroon than of benevolence in giving him one, which pr