Chapter VI: The Hiding Place

I have already said that I was happy, but my happiness was soon to end. George’s father was a soldier and when he returned to his country, bringing the money his dying captain had left him, and the cross given him by his general, he bought a house at Mamers, to which he removed his old mother and little son, and sold me to a neighboring farmer. I was very sad at leaving my good, old mistress and my little master George; both had been kind to me and I had been faithful to them.

My new owner was not unkind, but he had a foolish fancy for making everything about him work, and myself among the number. He used to harness me to a little cart and make me haul earth, manure, apples, and wood. I commenced to grow lazy, I did not like to be harnessed, and market day I especially detested, not that they loaded me too heavily or beat me, but because I had to stand without eating from the morning, till three or four o’clock in the afternoon. When the heat was great, I nearly died of thirst, waiting till everything was sold, till my master had received his money and said good day to his friends, with whom he must also take a glass.

I was not very good in those days; I wanted fair treatment, if denied me I sought revenge. Here is one of my tricks, from which you will perceive not only that donkeys are not stupid, but also that I had become very bad.

On market day the family arose earlier than usual—the vegetables were to be gathered, the butter churned, the eggs collected. In summer, sleeping out-doors in a large meadow, I saw and heard these preparations, and knew that at ten o’clock, they would come to harness me to the little cart filled with all their marketable produce. I have already said how tiresome and trying this market was to me, so having noticed in the meadow a large ditch filled with briers and brambles, here I determined if possible, to conceal myself in such a manner that no one could find me at the moment of departure. Market day arrived; as soon as I saw the farm folks beginning to move about, I very gently descended into the ditch, and there buried myself so completely, that discovery was almost impossible. I had been there an hour hid away amongst the briers, when I heard the boy calling me, running in every direction to find me, and at last returning to the farm-house. Doubtless he had apprised the master of my disappearance, for in a few minutes I heard the farmer’s voice calling his wife and all the other farm folks to come help find me.

“He must have got through the hedge,” said one.

“How could he have got through, there is no break anywhere,” replied the other.

“Some one has left the gate open,” said the master. “Run into the fields boys, he cannot be far; go quick, and bring him, for time passes, and we shall be too late.”

Every one started off into the fields or the woods, running and calling me. I laughed to myself down in the hole, and took good care not to make my appearance. After the lapse of an hour, they all returned breathless and panting, from a fruitless search.

The master having sworn at me, and said no doubt I had been taken, put one of his horses to the cart, and drove off in a very bad humor. When I saw that all returned to their work, and no one could see me, lifting up my head very cautiously, I looked around. Finding myself alone, I suddenly emerged from the ditch, and running to the other end of the field, to mislead their suspicions as to where I had been, I began to bray with all my strength.

At this noise every one on the farm ran.

“Here he is come back,” cried the shepherd.

“Which way did he come?” said the mistress.

“Which way did he go?” replied the wagoner.

In my joy at having escaped the market, I ran to them. They were delighted to see me, caressed me, said I was a good creature to have escaped from the thieves, and paid me so many compliments that I was ashamed, knowing full well how much more deserving I was of the stick than caresses. They let me graze quietly, and I should have passed a charming day, had not my conscience reproached me for having deceived my poor master.

When the farmer came home and learned of my return, he was well pleased, but very much surprised. Next day he went all around the meadow, and carefully repaired even the slightest breach in the hedge.

“The donkey will be very smart to escape now,” said he, on finishing. I have stopped even the smallest holes with stakes and brambles; there is not room enough for a cat to get through.

The week passed quietly, my adventure was no longer thought of. But the next market day I repeated the wicked trick, and again concealed myself in the ditch, for so doing saved me so much fatigue and weariness. As before, they sought me everywhere; their astonishment was greater than ever, they were now fully convinced that a skillful thief had carried me off by letting me through the gate.

“This time,” said my master sadly, “he is certainly lost. He will not be able to escape again, and even if he should, he could not get into the meadow, for I have repaired the breaches in the hedge too carefully.”

He went off sighing, and one of the horses again took my place in the cart. As on the preceding occasion, I emerged from my hiding place when everybody had got out of the way, but I was prudent enough not to announce my appearance with a hi han! as before.

When they found me quietly eating grass in the field, and my master learned that I had returned a short time after his departure, I saw that they had suspected me of some trick, for no one paid me any compliments, everyone eyed me with distrust, and I fully perceived that they watched me more closely than before. I laughed in my sleeve at them and said to myself:

“Good friends, you will be very sharp if you discover the trick I have played on you; I am smarter than you, and I intend to keep the game up.”

So I concealed myself a third time, very well pleased with my cunning. But scarcely was I stowed away in the ditch, ere I heard the furious barking of the big watch dog, and the voice of my master, saying:

“Seize him Caesar, seize him; go down into the ditch, bite his legs, bring him! bravo my dog! seize him, seize him!”

Caesar indeed darted down, he bit my legs, my body, and he would have devoured me, had I not decided to leave that ditch. I was about to run towards the hedge, and try forcing a passage through, when the farmer who was waiting for me, threw a slip knot over my head and brought me to a stand. He was armed with a whip and he made me feel it most sensibly; the dog continued to bite, the master to beat me, and I repented bitterly of my idleness. At last the farmer called Caesar off, put up his whip, exchanged the slip knot around my neck for a halter, and led me all mortified and beaten unmercifully, to the little cart which was in readiness for me.

I learned afterwards that one of the children, who had been stationed near the gate, to open it if I returned, had perceived me coming out of the ditch, and had carried the news to his father. The little traitor!

For a long time after, until my troubles and sad experience had taught me better, I wished all manner of evil to him.

From that day I was treated more severely. They wished to keep me shut up, but I found means of opening all the fastenings with my teeth; if a latch, I lifted it; if a button, I turned it; if a bolt, I pushed it aside. I went just where I pleased. The farmer swore, scolded and beat me; he became harder on me, and I got to be worse and worse to manage. I felt that I had brought all this unhappiness on myself. I compared my present miserable life with that I had formerly led among the same people; but instead of reforming me, the reflexion made me only more headstrong and vicious. One day I went into the kitchen garden and eat all the salad; another day I knocked down the little boy who had betrayed me; another time, I drank a tub of cream they had placed out to be churned. I tramped on their chickens and young turkeys, I bit their pigs; in fine, I got so unmanageable that the mistress at last asked her husband to sell me at the fair at Mamers, which was to take place in fifteen days. I had become a very thin, miserable looking object, by reason of blows and poor nourishment. But now, wishing to put me in a good condition, (as the farmers say,) that I might sell to advantage, everyone on the farm was forbidden to maltreat me. I was released from work and was well fed. Very happy indeed was I during those fifteen days. My master, at the expiration of that time, took me to the fair and sold me for a hundred francs. I longed to give him a good bite at parting, but fearing such an act might make a bad impression on my new owner, I contented myself with turning my back upon him with a gesture of contempt.