The Donkey

The donkey [ˈdɒŋkɪ] was not unusual. Like many other donkeys it was indifferent to men. It stood with half-closed eyes at the entrance to a circus tent. That was the first circus that the city had seen for a year. The circus tent stood on a green place not far from the city. A lot of people came to the place: mothers and fathers with their children, in cars and on foot.

The circus tent was a large one. The bright posters told the people of the city that the tent was the biggest in the world and had seats for four thousand people. They gave three shows each Saturday. So twelve thousand people passed the donkey each day.

Three quarters of those twelve thousand people patted or touched him as they passed. It meant that nine thousand people gave a pat somewhere upon the donkey during the day. It was hard to count how many small blows fell upon the poor donkey during a week.