The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-07-25
AN ODD TRANSACTION.
The Humorous story ofa Long Island snsi
Or's Donkey

ors Donkey.
His namo was AL Foster, and he was
nm ampbibious sort of a creature, fish
ing most of the time, dredging for oys-
ters in the season, and in the winter
making a scanty livelihood by shooting
duck on the great South bay. A slow,
half-witted individual, with goodly
quantity of sly cunning, that stood him
in good stead in lieu of intelligence.
On dry land he was i'll at ease, and dis
| liked going afoot, wherefore he had
somehow become the owner of the
most unique equipage on the South
| Shore-a comical travesty of the fash.
ions of the Workers" II was buck
board constructed out of a long, un-
| planed deal board hung between four
high and ancient wheels, so spindly and
| queer looking that it was a marvel
where they could have been procured.
| The extraordinary vehicle was drawn
by quite the ugliest and biggest donkey
ever seen: from his size he might well
nave been taken for q mule, but his
| length of ears and powerful bray left
no doubt that he was a veritable and
unadultered ass. This animals hide
was as great a curiosity as was every
other detail of this wonderful turnout.
| His skin was covered with short, coarse
black hair, but ever and anon, like a
| patch of gorse on a common, would be
a clump of thick, reddish foliage-an
odd word maybe, in such connection,
but in truth the masses of hair
| looked more like clumps of bushes
than anything else. As Jehu of
this establishment Al himself was
not out of keeping. His own hair,
which was long and plentiful and
bleached to yellow whiteness by the
sun, escaped through the interstices of
an old straw nat in shaggy profusion,
while his nut brown face, blue eyes and
white teeth gave picturesque touch to
the whole, making "A subject which an
artist would have loved to paint One
summer, however when his finances
were low, Al sold his donkey to a fami-
| ly of children and perforce went afoot
A few weeks afterward, as the family
were sitting on the veranda in the even
ing, voice was heard from the road
singing with tipsy hilarity. 1t proved
to be AL trudging along and chanting in
a sort of refrain: 81 wish | had that
donkey now, | do, l do, l do; l wish |
had that donkey now, l do"-and so on,
until his voice died away in the distance
In the meanwhile '"Turnips," as the
children had christened their new ac-
QUESTION, showed that if the master
lacked intellect he had more than his
share of mute intelligence. He could
open door as eSsily as a man, and
nothing escaped that nose of his. After
his arrival the coachman noticed that
the oats disappeared with wonderful
rapidity from the bin in which they
were kept, and he soon discovered that
| Turnips had found out the trick of the
wooden bolt and had access to the cov-
eted dainty at pleasure. The garden
gate too was soon investigated and con-
quered. and the donkey passed delight
full morning among the tender growing
| plants.
"Begorra, and I'll fix yez." said the
| irate gardener, as he fetched a rope and
tied up the gate with series of skillful
| knots. Turnips watched the proceed
ings from afar with serious mein, and
when the man was satisfied that his
early corn was safe, and had gone away,
the animal came up to the gate, found
he could no longer lift the latch with
his nose, and stood there gravely con-
sidering the situation. After a few
minutes evident deliberation he with
| drew few paces and then began a
! sudden and violent rush and brought
his body sideways against the some
what ricllety fence, which succumbed
to the assault. Then stepping solemnly
over the ruins the victorious beast once
more resumed possession of the corn
field.
At the close of the season, as Mr.. A.
and his family were about returning to
New York, AL Foster the fisherman,
presented himself before the door.
| Its about the donkey, sir" he said
with an insinuating smile on his hand
some, foolish face. "I'll keep him for
you if you like for the winter and won't
charge you nothing" Glad to get rid
of troublesome charge. Mr.. A. con-
sented. Turnips welcomed his old master
with joyful bray and the two went off
together well pleased. The following
summer the family returned to their old
quarters and on the first day the chill
dren came back from the village in
great excitement. Papa, what do you
think" they all exclaimed as soon as
as they were within ear-shot, 'Al has
sold our donkey" They had found him
at the blacksmith's, in Il paddock
How came Turnips here?" they asked
The village vulcan. Naturally enough"
said the smith, ''scein' as | paid for
i'm" But he's ours" said the indig-
nant little ones wall, l guess not
meow any way" answered the imper-
turbable Long Islander, well knowing
that possession was nine-tenths of the
laws.
Let the matter CO." said Papa, the
lazy, the brute was perfect nuisance,
anyway but the children were mex
orable in their sense of justice, and the
next day when out on the bay in their
fathers boat they espied AIS old
patched sail in the distance they started
in pursuit. AIS conscience was evil
IDENTIFY guilty, for as soon as he saw
their intentions, he put about and
started off in an opposite direction.
And now commenced a most exciting
chase-Al was by far the best sailor,
and, moreover knew his ground, or
rather water; but his old boat was no
match for Mr. AS we'll built little craft,
which soon overhauled the old fishing
boat. Brought to bay, AL suddenly
changed his tactics. "Why, it's you
folks, is it, he called out, cordially. 81