This seemed to
strike the ass as a repartee, so he brayed at me again by way of
rejoinder; and we went on for a while, braying and laughing, until I
began to grow aweary of it, and, shouting a derisive farewell, turned
to pursue my way. In so doing - it was like going suddenly into cold
water - I found myself face to face with a prim little old maid. She
was all in a flutter, the poor old dear! She had concluded beyond
question that this must be a lunatic who stood laughing aloud at a
white donkey in the placid beech-woods. I was sure, by her face,
that she had already recommended her spirit most religiously to
Heaven, and prepared herself for the worst. And so, to reassure her,
I uncovered and besought her, after a very staid fashion, to put me
on my way to Great Missenden. Her voice trembled a little, to be
sure, but I think her mind was set at rest; and she told me, very
explicitly, to follow the path until I came to the end of the wood,
and then I should see the village below me in the bottom of the
valley. And, with mutual courtesies, the little old maid and I went
on our respective ways.
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