How I wish for Sterne's pen to do you some measure of justice or condolence under this heavy load of opprobrium that bends your back and makes your life so sunless and bitter! Come here, sir!--here is a biscuit for you, of the finest wheat; few of your race get such morsels; so, eat it and be thankful.

What ears! No wonder our friend Patrick called you "the father of all rabbits" at first sight.

No! don't turn away your head, as if I were going to strike you.
Most animals are best described from a certain point of _view_,--in a fixed and quiescent attitude.

But the donkey should be taken in the very act of this characteristic motion.

You put out your hand in the gentlest manner to pat any one of them you meet, and he will instinctively turn away his head for fear of a beating.
There is an interesting speculation now coming up among modern reveries in regard to the immortality of certain animals of great intelligence and domestic virtues.