Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/149

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

donkey at once, and pointing her long finger at his heels cried,

"Kick him, heels,
Until he feels
Ashamed to spy
At fairy reels,
  He-he-he!
He must kick
And run away,
And fill the air
With donkey bray,
Until he eats
A wisp of hay
Given by bat
Or by cat."

Well, Tabby was off to a stable before one shake of her own tail, and presently back she came with the wisp of hay. The little old woman gave it to the little donkey and held her breath to see what would happen, and so did Tabby and the lordly rooster and the hens and the little chicks. No sooner had the donkey swallowed it than he left off kicking and trying to run away!

So now, of course, everything came right. The lordly rooster led his wives and children back to the henyard, and the little old woman and the little donkey set off to market with the eggs that had not been smashed. Tabby stopped washing her face to