ce
your bill, for short reckonings make long friends.'

When Antonio had paid his account he went to the stables and took out
his donkey, as he thought, and fastening a sack of gravel, which the
landlord had substituted for his precious stones, on the creature's
back, he set out for his home.

No sooner had he arrived there than he called out: 'Mother, come
quickly, and bring table-cloths and sheets with you, and spread them
out on the ground, and you will soon see what wonderful treasures I have
brought you.'

His mother hurried into the house, and opening the linen-chest where
she kept her daughters' wedding outfits, she took out table-cloths and
sheets made of the finest linen, and spread them flat and smooth on the
ground. Antonio placed the donkey on them, and called out 'Bricklebrit.'
But this time he met with no success, for the donkey took no more notice
of the magic word than he would have done if a lyre had been twanged in
his ear. Two, three, and four times did Antonio pronounce 'Bricklebrit,'
but all in vain, and he might as well have spoken to the wind.

Disgusted and furious with the poor creature, he seized a thick stick
and began to beat it so hard that he nearly broke every bone in its
body. The miserable donkey was so distracted at such treatment that, far
from pouring out precious stones, it only tore and dirtied all the fine
linen.

When poor Masella saw her table-cloths and sheets being destroyed, and
that instead of becoming rich she had only been made a fool of, she
seized another stick and belaboured Antonio so unmercifully with it,
that he fled before her, and never stopped till he reached the ogre's
cave.

When his master saw the lad returning in such a sorry plight, he
understood at once what had happened to him, and making no bones about
the matter, he told Antonio what a fool he had been to allow himself
to be so imposed upon by the landlord, and to let a worthless animal be
palmed off on him instead of his magic donkey.

Antonio listened humbly to the ogre's words, and vowed solemnly that he
would never act so foolishly again. And so a year passed, and once more
Antonio was overcome by a fit of home-sickness, and felt a great longing
to see his own people again.

Now the ogre, although he was so hideous to look upon, had a very kind
heart, and when he saw how restless and unhappy Antonio was, he at once
gave him leave to go home on a visit. At parting he gave him a beautiful
tabl