the music,
there sounded--and this sound unmistakably came from the hotel
court-yard--the prodigious braying of an ass; and accompanying this came
the soft sound of bare feet hurrying away down the passage from near my
door.

I opened the door and looked out, but the passage was empty. The gallery
overlooked the court-yard, and stepping to the edge of the low stone
railing, I beheld a sight that I never recall without a feeling of warm
tenderness. Almost directly beneath me stood a small gray ass, a very
delicately shaped and perfect little animal, with a coat of most
extraordinary length and fuzziness, and with ears of a truly prodigious
size. His head was raised, and his great ears were pricked forward in a
fashion which indicated that he was most intently listening; and upon
his face was an expression of such benevolent sweetness, joined to such
thoughtfulness and meditative wisdom, that in my heart (which is very
open to affection for his gentle kind) there sprung up in a moment a
real love for him. Suddenly he lowered his head, and turned eagerly his
regard towards the corner of the court-yard where descended the
stair-way from the gallery on which I stood; and from this quarter came
towards him a smiling, pleasant-faced Indian lad of eighteen or twenty
years old, whose dress was a cotton shirt and cotton trousers, whose
feet were bare, and on whose head was a battered hat of straw. And as
the ass saw the boy, he strained at the cord that tethered him and gave
another mighty bray.

"Dost thou call me, Wise One?" said the boy, speaking in Spanish. "Truly
this Senor Americano is a lazy senor, that he rises so late, and keeps
us waiting for his coming so long. But patience, Wise One. The Padre
says that he is a good gentleman, in whose service we shall be treated
as though we were kings. No doubt I now can buy my rain-coat. And thou,
Wise One--thou shalt have beans!"

And being by this time come to the ass, the boy enfolded in his arms the
creature's fuzzy head and gently stroked its preternaturally long ears.
And the ass, for its part, responded to the caress by rubbing its head
against the boy's breast and by most energetically twitching its scrag
of a tail. Thus for a little time these friends manifested for each
other their affection; and then the boy seated himself on the pavement
beside the ass and drew forth from his pocket a large mouth-organ--on
which he went to work with such a will that all the court-ya