Page:The adventures of Pinocchio (Cramp 1904).djvu/195

 who had seen the pitiful sight. But the donkey could not be seen any more that night. The next morning the veterinary, that is, the doctor of beasts, when he saw the poor donkey, declared that he would be lame all through life. Then the master said to the stable boy: “What can we do with a lame donkey? To keep him would be feeding one more mouth for nothing. Take him to the square and sell him.”

When they arrived at the square they immediately found a buyer who asked the price.

“Four dollars,” replied the stable boy.

“I will give you twenty-five cents for him. Do not think that I buy him for hauling. Oh, no; I want him to skin. I see that his skin is very hard,—just the thing for a drum or a tambourine.”

Just imagine how Pinocchio felt when he heard that he was worth only twenty-five cents! Then, too, to be used as a drum to be beaten upon all the time!

The buyer had hardly paid for him when he led him to the top of a cliff on the shore of the sea, and, tying a heavy stone around his neck and binding his feet together with cords, threw him over the edge.

The donkey, with that heavy weight around his neck, sank to the bottom immediately. The buyer,